This week, HC Cardiff has the privilege of featuring resident funny-man Sam Lloyd as our first ever Campus Celebrity. As well as studying for his degree like the rest of us, Sam also juggles managing a student radio station and a promising stand-up comedy career; we knew this was going to be a fun interview…
At a glance, Sam appears to be your average Cardiff Uni student: he’s 20 years old and in his second year of a Sociology degree, but after five minutes with Sam you know he’s the kind of person anyone would want to hang out with; perhaps this is what has made him a successful stand-up comedian.
‘I’ve been doing stand-up since I was 17, and for a long time I was awful’ says Sam, modestly. ‘Since then though, I’ve done a one-man comedy show for the brilliant Cardiff Comedy Show and been a semi-finalist twice in the Welsh Unsigned Stand-Up Award – maybe three time’s a charm?!’
As someone who has experienced Sam’s stand-up routines more than once, it’s unsurprising he has received the recognition he has. Not stopping there, Sam is also an influential part of Cardiff Uni’s award-winning Xpress Radio Station. He presents his own show, ‘Sam-thing For the Weekend’, every Saturday, and this year was made deputy manager of the station. In addition, with the help from some other team members at Xpress, 2013 saw Sam combining his passions for writing and producing, and successfully presenting two original comedy panel shows for the radio station.
Clearly keeping extremely busy alongside his studies, I ask jokingly whether he managed to fit anything else in last year, to which he replies: ‘Oh yeah, to avoid revising for exams last April, I set up a blog reviewing sandwiches – standard.’
In the future, Sam hopes to achieve a good degree, travel the world and eventually pursue comedy and radio, which we’re sure he’ll have no problem with. You can listen to his radio show here on Saturdays 2pm-3pm.