Sugar Sammy

Early Life and Family

Samir Khullar was born in Montreal and raised in the multi-ethnic and multicultural neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges. He is the son of Indian immigrants who arrived in Canada in the 1970s and settled in Quebec. Khullar is fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, French and English. He has two younger siblings, a brother and sister. He has described himself as a “child of Bill 101.” He was part of the first generation of the children of immigrants in Quebec who were forced to go to school entirely in French. (See Bill 101; Bill 101 Case.) As a child, Khullar spoke Hindi and Punjabi at home with his parents, French at school and English on the street.

Khullar’s father sold juice out of the back of a truck for a while before opening a convenience store. He ultimately owned several, and Khullar and his brother worked there in the summers during their teen years. Khullar’s mother worked in the textile trade for several years before deciding to stay home to raise her sons. For many years, the close-knit family lived in a modest basement apartment.

Khullar attended École secondaire La Voie, well-known in Montreal for its long history as one of the city’s most diverse public schools. Khullar established himself as a class clown. His friends came from a wide variety of backgrounds: Haitian, Chinese, Central American, Moroccan, etc. He has described finding a VHS copy of Eddie Murphy’s 1983 comedy special Delirious in a South Asian Indian video store — the only English-language title available — as his primary inspiration to become a comedian. He credits his parents’ strong work ethic for his success, as well as their support for his chosen career.

Khullar has cited the 1995 Quebec Referendum as a pivotal moment in his life. The losing leadership of the Yes (pro-sovereignty) campaign lashed out at Quebec’s minorities for the loss of the referendum. Khullar has recalled that as a child and teenager he had made every effort to integrate into Quebec society, but he felt that the angry reaction from separatists (including then-premier Jacques Parizeau infamously blaming the loss on “money and the ethnic vote”) was directed at people like him. Khullar has indicated that it made him feel as though he would never be accepted as truly Québécois in the eyes of many sovereigntists. This experience laid the foundation for much of his future success. Khullar has described himself as an ardent Canadian federalist who believes Quebec should remain a part of Canada.

Early Career

Khullar attended Marianopolis College in his late teens. He began his comedy career in earnest there, starting out with open mic nights at Montreal’s handful of English comedy clubs and unpaid gigs at student fundraisers. He then went to McGill University, where he majored in cultural studies and also took marketing classes. While he continued to perform in comedy clubs, it took him nearly a decade to hone his act — one that features quick-witted crowd work and provocative, boundary-pushing one-liners about race, culture and politics. During this time, he worked as a club promoter, which allowed him to make a decent living while he established himself as a comedian. It also earned him the nickname Sugar Sammy (similar to sugar daddy) because he allowed women into his parties and events for free.

Career Highlights

Sugar Sammy’s big break came in 2004 when he was invited to perform at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. He had auditioned for the festival for several years but was repeatedly rejected. He has said that this encouraged him to work on his act, fine-tune his delivery and ultimately craft a better performance. He then performed at the annual festival seven years in a row, becoming the first comedian to perform in the festival’s French, English and Hindi Toronto editions.

Shortly after his breakout performance in Montreal, Sammy found himself touring Canada and then the world. He estimated that between 2004 and 2008 he performed on every continent and over 1,500 times in total. One show in South Africa sold 10,000 tickets in a month. By 2009, the constant touring was paying off. At that year’s Just for Laughs, Sammy won the prestigious Discovery of the Festival award. He was also named one of “Ten Comics to Watch” by the Hollywood Reporter.

In 2011, Sammy proposed a radical idea: a comedy show in Montreal in both French and English. He was dissuaded by industry veterans who assured him it wouldn’t work, since it had been tried before and failed, notably as a feature of the Just for Laughs festival. Unable to get any funding to support his effort, Khullar produced the show — initially conceived as a one-night-only event — by himself.

Sugar Sammy: You’re Gonna Rire – Le Show Franglais debuted in February 2012. It became the most successful solo comedy show in Montreal history. It ran for a total of 420 performances, sold more than 371,000 tickets and grossed over $17 million. The final performance, before a crowd exceeding 115,000 at Montreal’s Place des Festivals, was the largest live comedy performance in both the festival and the city’s history.

Sammy’s 2013 show, a French-only version of You’re gonna rire called En français SVP! was equally successful. It was named Show of the Year at the Gala les Olivier, Quebec’s comedy awards. Sammy was also named Comedian of the Year (Olivier of the Year) in both 2013 and 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, he also wrote and starred in the popular Quebec sitcom Ces gars-là, an odd-couple buddy comedy co-starring Simon Olivier Fecteau.

Sammy began touring with his new show, You’re gonna rire 2, in May 2023.

Career in France

In 2016, after concluding the run of You’re Gonna Rire, Sugar Sammy relocated to France and quickly established himself there. He toured France, Belgium and Switzerland and maintained a home in Paris. In December 2017, GQ France published a feature profile of Sammy that declared, “The funniest man in France is a Quebecker!” In 2018, the French daily newspaper Le Parisien named Sammy Comedian of the Year. Also that year, he became a judge on the hit show La France a un incroyable talent, the French version of America’s Got Talent.

Awards

• Best Comedian, Canadian Organization for College Activities (COCA) (2009, 2010)
• Discovery of the Festival, Just for Laughs (2009)
• Prix québécois de la citoyenneté, Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelles (2010)
• Best Comedian, Montreal Mirror (2010)
• Best Montreal Comedian, Montreal Mirror (2011)
• Show of the Year (En français SVP!), Gala les Olivier (2013)
• Olivier of the Year, Gala les Olivier (2013, 2014)
• Campagne de proximité, Prix Créa (2019)