Arts Arts
SLAY, SammyJ By Muriel Cooper Photos Supplied
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ou might not know Samuel Jonathan McMillan, born and bred on the Mornington Peninsula, but you probably know Sammy J, writer, comedian, singer, composer, and breakfast presenter on ABC Radio. Sammy was born at the Mornington Bush Nursing Hospital, now The Bays, and lived in Mount Eliza. “Fifteen years later, I was working at Fossey’s Mornington, so I didn’t go very far in fifteen years – just up the road. I think it’s a pharmacy now. The top of Main Street was very much my neck of the woods.” Why Sammy J? “It was just a nickname back in high school in about year seven. I think everyone was scrambling to get Hotmail addresses at the time, and so Sammy J seemed like a fun, silly nickname to give myself. I think I had one of the early Sammy J addresses, but then I let it lapse – stupidly,” he laughs. “It was a nickname that became a stage name. It stuck around longer than intended.”
Growing up in Mount Eliza and Frankston in the eighties and nineties was, as he says, “Marvellous. It was a very small-town feeling. I can't count the number of times I walked over that bridge across the Nepean Highway from Mount Eliza Primary School to be picked up by my mum, who taught at Toorak College just around the corner, or I’d walk to my grandma’s house just off Old Mornington Road. I spent a lot of time walking. You wouldn’t think twice about walking five kilometres to a friend’s house because that’s how I got around. I think that was good for me because it left a lot of space for reflection, and nature was in your face, which was a beautiful thing.” Sammy showed early comedy inclinations at school. “From primary school, I was the class clown. I’ve been back there to tell my story because it was my first experience of Show Biz. I really credit my teachers in High School at The Peninsula School” (now Peninsula Grammar). “My drama and English teachers saw some potential in me and gave me that confidence. continued page 32...
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30 | PENINSULA
November 2023
