Noah Savage spent his formative years competing on the basketball court. Now he is competing with other comics for stage time.
Savage is an aspiring comedian working his way up the ranks in New York City. In the past four years he has gone from begging for stage time to being asked to perform shows with prominent comedians like Jim Gaffigan and Amy Schumer.
His mother, television producer Michelle Clark, said she was taken aback when Savage told her he was pursuing comedy. She had expected her son to continue the basketball career he started in third grade.
Savage said he was not naturally good at the sport. He attended a camp when he was nine-years-old featuring NBA coach Jeff VanGundy who inspired him to practice shooting.
“He gave this talk about learning how to shoot and the message was basically like here’s how to shoot, here’s how you learn how to shoot, it’s really boring but you have to do this literally thousands of times and I remember that sitting with me,” Savage said.
He took Van Gundy’s advice and started practicing on an old, rusty hoop in his backyard. Savage said he shot on the hoop so much the rim snapped off.
Clark remembers watching her son carry huge bags of cement into the yard to construct a new hoop. She said he practiced shooting on the new hoop every day.
In seventh grade, Savage moved to Princeton with his mother, step-father Geoffery Clark and older sister Alice. The family was instantly infatuated with the town.
“When we moved to Princeton, it was an immediate love affair. It’s a wonderful town we love the people there, we love the community,” Clark said.
Noah enrolled in Princeton regional schools a grade level above children his own age, a result of starting kindergarten at age 4. After completing his junior year at Princeton High School, Clark decided her son should repeat eleventh grade at the Hun School so he could start college with students his own age.
Clark said she was thrilled with Savage’s academic experience at both PHS and Hun, noting the wonderful coaching by Gene Mosely and Jonathan Stone at their respective schools.
College recruiters noticed Savage’s accomplishments on the court and started contacting him at 15 years old. Savage said he never had a specific school in mind, his goal was to play Division I basketball for the best team he could.
Teams from all over wanted Savage, but a local coach had already started courting him.
Princeton University basketball coach John Thompson III invited Savage to play pick-up games with the team. One day, Thompson asked Savage to play for Princeton, then told him which skills needed work to be on par with the team.
Savage didn’t say yes right away, but he knew Princeton was right for him. He agreed to join the team and started all 28 games in his first season. The Ivy Leauge awarded him Rookie of the Week twice.
According to StatSheet.com, Savage played 111 games as a forward for the Tigers averaging 24.6 minutes and 7.9 points per game.
Savage graduated from the university in 2008 with a degree in sociology and a contract to play professional basketball in Lugano, Switzerland for one season.
While Savage was becoming a professional basketball player, his mother was making strides as a television producer.
Despite her long list of producing credits, Clark said started working in television when she was 38 years old.
Before producing, Clark earned a bachelor’s degree at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and master’s degree in painting from Parsons School of Design in New York. She started working as an art dealer, which focused more on sales than creativity.
After having two children, Clark was itching to make something. She turned to television, a medium she dealt with once before as the anchor of her high school’s news show.
She took a few classes at New York University and wrote a personal ad to accompany her résumé. In the ad, Clark said she was highly motivated, creative person looking for a career change.
Clark was hired in the sales department of a production company, which also trained her as a production assistant. She worked on Lifetime’s Intimate Portraits documentary series.
The first episode she wrote for the series was about Bette Davis; while researching she discovered the actress once lived in a house neighboring hers in Connecticut.
Later in her career, Clark worked for Banyon Productions, which produces many shows for TLC.
She was the executive producer of A Makeover Story for 125 episodes and worked on Trading Spaces for more than 100 episodes. Clark said she primarily works on transformative TV shows, either making over homes or people, and likes to see how people react to the change.
“It’s always really fun to see how people react to their new space and sort of take them through the process of transformation. It’s a little nerve-wracking, too,” Clark said.
During college summer breaks, Savage worked as a production assistant on the set of Trading Spaces. While Clark worked mainly from her office, Savage said his mother is the best to learn the industry from.
Clark and Savage have a very close relationship. When Savage returned to the U.S. after a year in Europe he moved in with his mother in New York City.
Despite having a 14.9 points per game average with the SAM Basket Massagno team, Savage said the offers he received for the next season were not good enough to sign. He said his agent credited the economy as the reason.
Savage said he had expected to play overseas for at least five years. When his professional career ended early, he needed some time to regroup and find a replacement for basketball.
Savage said while in Europe he thought a lot about comedy and started writing jokes. One night, he realized nothing was stopping him from being a comedian and roamed the city looking for a place to perform.
He told his jokes at an open mic night and heard laughs in return.
“I was good the first six times and then bombed my seventh time because I tried to do some jokes that weren’t really finished. But the first time, I got laughs,” Savage said. He began performing at bringer shows where comedians bring their friends to a comedy club in exchange for five minutes of stage time.
Clark said she had reservations about her son’s career choice and it took some adjustment to warm up to it.
Hungry for more time and a different audience Savage started barking, a technique used by comedy clubs to bring people into shows. He said clubs trade stage time for tickets sold by the comics.
Hours before his performances, Savage wandered the streets trying to catch the attention of passersby and convince them to come to the show.
Savage said he does not bark often anymore. He is getting noticed by other comedians and asked to perform in their shows.
Clark has adjusted to her son’s career choice and is working with her agent to develop a television or online show for Savage; however she is not doing all the work for him.
“For any parents that are in the entertainment industry, all you can do is hook them up and then they have to do the work,” Clark said.
Clark is busy working on a new show with former Trading Spaces designer Genevieve Gorder for HGTV called Genevieve’s Renovation.
Gorder purchased the apartment next to her own in New York City and is remodeling it into a 2,200-square-foot home to share with her daughter. Clark said the apartment is a five-floor walk up, which makes the renovation challenging. The show is set to premiere in the fall.
Savage recently started a new job in pharmaceutical sales and has returned to Princeton as a commentator for men’s basketball games. He said he loves to being back with the team and feels at home in Princeton.
Broadcasting is not a stand-up routine, but Savage said it allows him to work on being funny on the fly.
As a natural competitor, Savage is satisfied with the way comedy seamlessly replaced basketball. He said the preparation, nerves and rewarding laughter reminds him of playing a game.
Clark said watching her children succeed in their goals is her dream for them.
“He’s pursuing his passion and he’s doing everything that he can to make that work and I hope that will work for him,” Clark said.
Savage announces upcoming performances on his twitter @yoitsthesav.
Noah Savage and John Sadak broadcast from a Princeton University men’s basketball versus Rutgers Nov. 16, 2012 in Princeton.,
