On a June morning in 2008, Sam Miller woke under a tarp, next to a homeless woman he didn’t recognize, outside the historic Capitol Theater in Olympia, Wash.
He looked out as the sun was coming up, and saw a woman outside the theater, walking her dog before work.
"And she gave me a look, and that look changed me forever," Miller said. "She gave me the look that people give you when they're walking their dogs before work and they see you f—ing under a tarp."
That's a joke about the last day he ever did methamphetamine; one of the many jokes Miller has honed in the years since, at comedy shows, at Al-Anon and Narcotics Anonymous events, and onstage at the very theater he woke up outside of in 2008.
On October 28, he’s returning to that theater once more to screen his first comedy special — which he filmed there last year. As of Friday, that special is available to rent on Amazon Prime. (Content warning: Miller's special doesn't gloss over descriptions of drug use, and has more than a few explicit descriptions of sexual acts.)
KNKX last spoke to Miller in 2020, for Episode 5 of Outsiders, a podcast about homelessness from KNKX and The Seattle Times. At the time, he was trying to make it as a comedian but still working at a youth homeless shelter.
Now Miller is doing comedy full-time: He's signed to a major comedy recording label that also boasts albums from Marc Maron, Hannibal Buress, and Richard Pryor. Miller is touring nationwide and has appeared twice on the popular Bob and Tom Show, in between guest appearances from Cheech Marin and Maria Bamford.
Miller attributes his success to his honesty about homelessness and drug use. He says it's not accidental that he's gotten more popular as homelessness, and the drug crisis, have gotten worse.
"I feel like me talking honestly about my drug use is the engine of my comedy career," Miller said from a hotel phone in Illinois, the day before a performance at Chicago's Madison Street Theater. Next month, he's performing at the famous Comedy Store in L.A.
"And I feel like the reason why that engine seems to be humming right now, is because I came along at the right time."
Miller's drug use originated after the death of his father when Miller was just a kid. Weed, alcohol, and later, stimulants, started as a way to not feel bad all the time.
"I would smoke meth and I would feel like everything I did was a mission, and every thought I had was an inspiration," Miller says onstage in his special, named "Round Trip" (Miller is 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 360 pounds, as he says at the beginning of every set.) "I would get high on meth and I would march everywhere I went."
In that bit, he talks about trying to act normal, marching across the stage from an imaginary Fred Meyer to an imaginary Department of Social and Health Services. But he realized after many, many run-ins with the police — and arrests: "I gotta stop marching. Everyone's gonna know I'm high. You know? I was like, I'm gonna do the opposite of marching. I'm gonna sway my legs."
The walk he does then is easy to recognize for anyone who’s been around people experiencing the effects of drugs. But it's surprising, and disarming, to see it played for laughs by someone who's trying to make you understand why it felt rational.
"It’s not a thing where it’s like, 'oh ha ha, look at that silly ex meth user,'" Miller said on the phone. "I hope people look at that stuff, and they go, 'Wow, like, these folks are really trying hard. For me.'"
