FRYEBURG — According to Maine humorist Tim Sample, who will be performing at Fryeburg Academy on Nov. 20, people “from away” are better off not even attempting to imitate the unique and complex “Down East” dialect for which he has become famous. Plenty of Hollywood actors — Tom Bosley, Fred Gwynn come readily to mind —  have “run aground on that rock,” he said. Two notable exceptions to that rule are humorists Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan whose landmark “Bert and I” record album was released in 1958.

“Considering that they were ‘from away,” Sample notes, “Marshall and Bobby did an amazingly good job of replicating the dialect. But their real genius was in understanding and accurately capturing in the studio, the timing, cadence, pace and dry understatement which are the true hallmarks of the Yankee storytellers art.”
Born in northern Aroostock County in 1951 and raised in Boothbay Harbor, Sample certainly comes by his mastery of Maine humor honestly. “I actually come from a long line of Maine storytellers.” He says, “My Uncle Steve had a barber shop in Brooklin, Maine in the 50s and 60s. Author E.B. White was a regular customer, but he didn’t really come for the haircuts. “Unc’s” barber shop was known to insiders as the gathering place for Hancock County’s best native storytellers.
Sample is the only Maine humorist to have performed and recorded with both Dodge and Bryan and his albums, books, videos, CDs and DVDs of Maine humor ( 4 of the albums were released on the Bert and I label ) have sold over a million copies. In 1990 Sample narrated the book-on-tape edition of the Stephen King novella “The Sun Dog” and in 1993 he was recruited by Charles Kuralt for a job at CBS news. From 1993 to 2004 Tim was a regular contributor to the Emmy Award-winning TV show “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
The Tim Sample show on Nov. 20 at Fryeburg Academy is a fundraiser to benefit the Raiders Booster Club on behalf of Fryeburg Academy’s softball team. Funds raised at the show will go toward paying for a spring training trip for the team as well as the purchase of a new pitching machine. Author Stephen King has donated an autographed copy of his best-selling book “On Writing” to the cause as well.
The Tim Sample show will take place on  at 7 p.m. at The Leura Eastman Hill Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy. Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 after  Nov. 15. Tickets are available at the Arts Center box office: 935-9232 ; Wiley Mountain Farm Grain Store, Fryeburg, 935-7447; Kezar Realty, Lovell, 925-1500, or email; [email protected]