Jacob Sampson play tells story of N
uk canada goose Nova Scotia actor/playwright Jacob Sampson wrote, and stars in, an award winning play about the life and times of the under recognized Nova Scotia boxer Sam Langford. uk canada goose
Q: I imagine I’m like many Canadians in that I’d never heard of Sam Langford. How did canada goose outlet black friday sale you find out about him?
A: I come from a long line of boxing fans. My grandfather on my father’s side fought a little bit in the Navy, and I grew up watching boxing. When I decided I wanted to write a show, it started as a one person show, and I wanted to write about athletics because I used to play football growing up. You don’t often see athletics on stage, so I thought that would be a great place to start. I started looking into some of the great athletes from Nova Scotia, and there have been quite a few great boxers. It was a phenomenal book. Once I read the book, that was it. That’s who I was going to write this play about.
canada goose black friday sale Q: What grabbed you about his story? canada goose black friday sale
Canada Goose Jackets A: In my mind, it has everything you could ever want in a play, and more we couldn’t get into. Sam canada goose outlet in new york fought some of the greatest canada goose outlet locations in toronto fighters in history and made vast amounts of money, which was unheard of for people of colour at the time. He fought a number of fights that’s unheard of today. canada goose outlet montreal Conservative estimates give Sam 250 fights. Other estimates put it close to 400, whereas boxers nowadays fight 50 fights total in their whole careers. Sam had a very long career. His mind was never affected. He https://www.canadagooseonline.info was quite the storyteller, and at the end of his career he fought pretty much blind. He was completely blind in one eye, half blind in the other, but he was such a tough fighter, a good fighter, canada goose shop uk he’d get in nice and close to have lots of knockout power so he still won fights, even at 47 and pretty much blind. When you read a story like that, it’s hard not to be captivated. I really wanted to bring that to the stage. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose coats on sale Q: Was racism a factor in Sam’s career? canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose online A: Yeah, a big reason that Sam never got the recognition that other fighters of the time had was something called the colour line in which white fighters could choose whether or not they wanted to fight black fighters. Because Sam was as good as he was, many fighters refused to fight him. And so a lot of other great black fighters of the time had to fight each other over and over. Canada Goose online
canada goose Nova Scotia canada goose outlet england actor/playwright Jacob Sampson wrote, and stars in, an award winning play about the life and times of the under recognized Nova Scotia boxer Sam Langford. canada goose
uk canada goose outlet Q: Sam was not a big guy. What made him so tough? uk canada goose outlet
canada goose coats A: Honestly, when you come from a small town anywhere in Canada, you’re going to find some tough characters, both men and women. There’s a real resilience to Canadians, and like my coach here says, no one goes into boxing who comes from a happy affluent life. No one chooses the life of fighting to keep food on the table. It canada goose kensington parka uk kind of chooses them. canada goose coats
Q: You play Sam. Had you been in the ring before?
A: No, I had never been in the ring. I tried when I was 13 and my mother found out and immediately pulled me out. She gave me a helmet and said I could play football. So I never stepped in the ring. I found a great coach at East Coast Boxing, and he showed me what I needed to know to look like I knew what I was doing. I do not consider myself a boxer by any scope of the word. I very much admire boxers and admire the sport. There’s a reason they canada goose outlet call it the sweet science, because it is one of the most complex sports I have ever tried to learn. Even the small steps I’ve taken in the last two years have been slow going. But it was an absolute incredible experience and I got to spar just a little bit.
Q: What’s your mother think now?
canada goose uk black friday A: (Laughs) I’m not taking too many hits to the face so she’s happy about that. canada goose uk black friday
Q: Is the play connecting more with sports fans or the theatre crowd?
A: I’d like to think a little bit of everybody. The artsy theatre crowd know we have experience in theatre, and we know how to create a good show. And sports fans definitely connect. There were quite a few times when we were producing it in Parrsboro where a lot of older fellows would pull me aside me on the canada goose parka outlet uk street and say ‘I don’t normally go to plays but I had to go and see the fight show.’ They were absolutely canada goose outlet orlando blown away, and really touched because a lot of them used to box. So I know boxing fans appreciate it.
Q: What do you hope audiences are taking away from it?
A: I think forgiveness is a big component, and just keeping your chin up in the face of adversity. Not letting it destroy you completely. Sam does get dragged down in the show but in the end he’s still standing and he’s still fighting and he still has a smile on his face. Those elements of toxic masculinity and racism are in there, because you can’t escape that, and they’re very much relevant today. One of the best pieces of advice I had from a professor was to show the human side of Sam. Just glorifying people is getting us into more and more trouble in today’s world. Sam was a great man and a great athlete but he had his flaws and it was important for us to show that, and it was important to his family for us to show that.
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