Craft no joke for Certified Sampson

Jamel Sampson turned his days of being a class clown into serious business.

While he still has people in stitches, the 28-year-old comedian’s success on social media and his transition into entrepreneurship is no laughing matter.

Since using the social media handle Certified Sampson, the Trinidadian has amassed over a million followers on TikTok, 559 000 YouTube subscribers and 823 000 on Instagram and recently started his Certified Scoop ice cream business.

With the help of the characters he created and portrays, especially the popular, mischievous ‘Ezekiel’, Sampson is quickly becoming a household name.

During his recent trip to Barbados, Sampson spoke to the Weekend Buzz at Hilton Barbados Resort about how seriously he takes his craft, which he began developing close to a decade ago.

“My online journey was just based on me wanting to express who I am, which is, as we say in Trinidad, a clown . . . a class clown.

“So I took that clown mentality and put that on the Internet and that’s what it’s been for the past nine years.

“At that time there was a shift in entertainment. A lot more Internet comedians started to come on board and share their talents. I was seeing it for a while and I said ‘Let me try this out’ and see what sort of content I can make,” he said.

His output then, was not what we know now.

“With anything that you now start, it was not going to be good. I’ve done some skits and now it’s like, ‘I need to take that off the Internet,” he joked.

There were even some moments in the beginning as he was building his portfolio when he felt disheartened.

“Growing up in the Caribbean also, you had to pay bills. Your mother’s not going to let you stay inside doing nothing.

“It was a little bit difficult to sort of get that momentum going for a long period of time, so some of the deflation happened many times,” he said.

However, he persevered and was consistent.

“You have to love it as much as people love it, however, the main fundamental part here is consistency. When you’re turning the wheel and you get stuck a little bit, you have to put more oil on and keep going and you will definitely get a break.

“I went on a trip to England. I saw what the content creators did across there and I was able to implement it in my own skits.

“I do a video every single day. I don’t let anything stop me from doing those sorts of relatable skits,” he said.

In addition to consistency, he said relatability was a key part of his success through characters like Ezekiel.

“The content that I do is more of the relatable type. Something that both myself or anybody else who’s looking at the videos could relate to and see the culture of Caribbean parenting and Caribbean personalities.

“We all know a child who does just give a lot of trouble. Like they ‘harden, that is what we would say in Trinidad. They ‘harden and miserable’.

“I have cousins and they would come over and be so mischievous. And as you watch them they would make sound effects like ‘oh oh’, when they’re giving trouble,” he said as he laughed.

While many people gravitate towards Ezekiel’s bad behaviour, Sampson is also proud of his character Zion.

The two characters have also crossed paths.

“Zion is a chill, meditated, relaxed character. He and Ezekiel met each other and Ezekiel gave him the trouble.

“Zion was meditating and had some candle wax on the ground because he lit a candle. Ezekiel took the candle and threw the wax on his face. Anybody would react extremely angrily in that case, but Zion kept his cool and sort of taught Ezekiel a lesson.

“That skit was painful but it was one I enjoyed doing,” he added.

During his latest visit to Barbados, he attended the Barbados Food and Rum Festival and collaborated with cultural ambassador Alison Hinds and fitness instructor and entertainer Spinny.

Those videos have already been viewed by thousands.

When he is not acting or entertaining he is promoting Certified Scoop – a project he developed after his online success and conceptualised with his manager Rajeev Singh.

“Before I looked at this as ‘I’m doing videos, I’m doing skits and getting them out there’.

“However, I recognised there are people that are waiting for a video to drop every day. That is an audience.

“With an audience, you have to find a way to get closer to them and the business was one way of doing that.

“Our first idea was stationary because we had a lot of following from kids. But I was like no that’s too hard. Then we thought of Certified cereal, but then a couple of months later Certified Scoop came into the picture.

“We launched the lolly side of the business two years ago and the physical ice cream shop three months ago,” he recalled.

His goal is to continue growing the business.

“I plan to definitely push Scoop regionally and have it in different Caribbean islands so that we can all share that moment which is enjoying ice cream.” he said.

He said he hoped to use his experiences to encourage more young people to go after their goals and to use digital platforms wisely.

“People didn’t see it as a career back then but now they do see it as a career. I want to take my influence, especially on the youth who look at me and sort of drive in their mind.

“Let them know ‘you can be young and successful as well in what you want to do’. In this case, entertainment and business,” he added.

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