Sam Harris is a funny man. In fact, it’s Harris’ mission on this planet to make people laugh. For anyone who needs proof of his uncanny ability to do so, an evening at the Old Globe’s First Wives Club will give more than a glimpse into the genius that has made Harris a hit in the studio, in concert, on Broadway and on television. But for deeper understanding of the man behind the smiles, the laughs and the gags, we went backstage with him to talk about his journey and the whole experience that is “SAM.”

Gay & Lesbian Times: Let’s start at the beginning. With all of the drama around “American Idol,” and your involvement with the first season of ‘Star Search,’ can you compare or contrast that with what some of the young people are going through today?

Sam Harris: Oh, God, yes, there are so many similarities. The first year of “Star Search” that I did was like what this last season of “American Idol” was. It was 30 million people a week, and it was crazy. It was intense. Most shows don’t get these kinds of numbers because there are so many more channels and so much more cable. And so, we had the same the kind of numbers in that first year, and so I totally understand that experience of what going from mere anonymity to a house-hold name in the matter of one television season. America loves a contest. And we love the American dream and we love to get behind somebody and push for them. And I think also this year – and I’ve really never watched the show to be honest with you. I’ve known about it, and I’ve known some people who have come from it, but this year I watched because every 15 seconds someone would say, “Oh, my God, Adam Lambert reminds me of you.” There were, like, 10,000 blogs on Sam Harris and Adam Lambert. So I started watching it and I had met Adam a few years ago and he was just amazing and I thought he was so dynamic, had an incredible instrument and he said to me at the time that I was quite an influence and I think that is because when you are a young man with that kind of range, and there aren’t that many, you know there are few people you can look at and say, what are they doing and how did they do it? And what are they doing with it. I was thrilled. I think he’s fantastic. I think he’s the real deal and it’s because of that voice and the way he uses it but it is also because he thinks about what he is saying. He’s not one of those singers that goes out there and uses a bunch of vocal tricks. He actually thinks about the content and the lyric and what it means to him and I think that’s what makes a real artist.

GLT: I agree. I think there is a sense of authenticity.

SH: Absolutely. He’s the real thing. He’s not bullshitting you. And also, and I think the comparison was not only in our vocal ranges and arrangements, I think that we had similar takes on songs. He would take something and reinvent it in a way that I like to do. There is also a theatricality to Adam Lambert that I certainly have, so I was thrilled by the comparison, and it’s nice, having been in this business long enough to actually, feel that influence, it’s very flattering.

GLT: The song you released that you released last year, “War on War,” can you tell me a little about that?

SH: Well, obviously it was an anti-war song inspired by my discontent and anger at [the Bush] administration and what had been going on, and my brother and I wrote it. We did a video contest on YouTube. People submitted all these amazing videos. Some of them were original, some of them were acted out, some of them were montages, some of them were clips from different things, but all of them had a different voice and a different perspective. It was a really amazing experience for me to provide the music for other people’s visual vision. And it became a nice phenomenon. And then I got all these friends of mine, everybody from Liza Minelli to Kat Stevens (SP) to Steven Weber to Cindi Lauper, to vote on the videos and choose a winner. It was a lot of fun. I mean, it’s a whole new world now with the Internet, and the way it opens the door for creativity. It’s thrilling.

GLT: Speaking of Steven Weber, I did see you in Hair with Weber and Marissa Jaret Winokur in Los Angeles.

SH: Oh, you did? It was such a great production.

GLT: I was disappointed that it didn’t go onto Broadway. And as a side note, it was way better than the current Broadway production. Anyway, I remember it was at this small theater.

SH: We actually did it at a theater on the Veteran Administration’s ground, which was sort of ironic given many of the people who go there were Vietnam vets. I haven’t seen the current production, but I remember the one that we did was very, very powerful and beautifully done in a very artful and political way. I was pleased with the way it was done. And it was going to at one point go to Broadway, and there was a lot of stuff I think with the authors or something, but I will tell you something, Brian, it was a Godsend, because that was the summer of 2001, and, the Fall of 2001 is when we were suppose to go to New York, and then September 11. Had this show gone to Broadway as an anti-government, anti-nationalism, anti-war statement in the midst of all of that flag waving, and let’s kill the enemy, it would have died a dismal, horrible death. It would have been wrong. Now, two years later, it would have been giant. I thought, actually, that this production came up quite late.

GLT: My favorite piece that I have seen you in, though, was The Life.

SH: Oh, thank you. It was a really, really great company, and it was Cy Coleman and it was exciting and I loved that show and that cast, in particular. And I got to sing Cy Coleman songs that had never been heard. And I loved playing a villain. I typically don’t play that. I typically play the good guy, so it was really, really fun to investigate that whole other thing. Plus, it was so exciting to just walk out on stage where there is no overture and start talking to the audience and then sing a big show-stopper. It’s just thrilling.

GLT: Speaking of the more playful side, on CBS’ “The Class,” you played Perry Pearl, who, for lack of a better phrase was a pretty effeminate gay. There were a lot of people who were pretty critical of the role because it didn’t portray gay people in a good way, etc.

SH: Well, remember, he wasn’t gay.

GLT: Exactly! I would remind people that you are from Oklahoma. It actually played well with folks in the Midwest. It was humor was they understood, and it took them a little step closer to being aware.

SH: Not only that, but how many people do we know who are actually like that? And I thought actually, yes, I can see, and I gave that a big thumbs up because the joke was on them. Yeah, the joke was on them! This was someone playing a character who was clearly, or at least probably, gay but chose this life and this family over it. It was like Corky St. Clair in “Waiting for Guffman.” And so, it was a comment on all those people who make that choice, and, well, I just loved playing that character.

GLT: And with the sock puppy birthday scene! It was off the charts.

SH: I enjoyed that so much. I laughed so hard, when they let me do that, and that our child’s name was Oprah and that her middle name we came to learn was Liza. And I called Liza and said, “You’re gonna love this, this is a scream!” She actually flew out for the last episode and came on the set being taped, and she said she loved the show so much.

GLT: Do we need to laugh at ourselves more?

SH: Oh, my God, it is how we survive. I think everything is funny. I am also a pretty mush pot, and cry at the drop of a hat, but I think everything is funny. And, we have to laugh at ourselves. Otherwise it is just way too depressing. I have to be around people who make me laugh. It is my single mission in life to make someone else laugh. I am a laugh whore. I will do practically anything to make you laugh. And I also think that through laughing, we let down our guard, and we are able to be available for other things, for relatability. It’s through laughing that we become equal, so that we can see our sameness. That’s why I love the theater so much. When people have that common experience, when they laugh, and they cry, and they think in the theater in a room with strangers, that’s a powerful thing.

GLT: Speaking of powerful changes in your life, you had 10 years of support from [your now husband] Danny [Jacobson] from the time that you met to the time you became sober. That’s a real tribute to him.

SH: That’s right, and you’re telling me! Actually, it was nine years, but it probably seemed like 20.

GLT: And then, was there this epiphany to adopt?

SH: Oh, it was no epiphany. It was there forever. I wanted it. It wasn’t a good idea until I got sober. I think this is typical in any relationship – straight or gay – that one of the two is more ready than the other before the other. Unless one happens to get pregnant, which, well, wasn’t going to happen to us. I was campaigning for this. I needed it. I wanted it. I realized how important it was. Danny was terrified. He was afraid it would change our lives. He was afraid it would restrict us. It would inhibit our careers. Meanwhile, now we have this baby, and [Danny] is the most incredible dad. It’s our life. It’s the center of everything. I had no idea that I could love this much.

GLT: One of the comments that you made that I found really powerful was that you and Danny fell more in love with each other than ever when Cooper came into your life.

SH: All of a sudden, you have this partnership, where the purpose becomes so much larger that you are talking about a person that you bring into the world where your job, from the moment they’re born, is to prepare them to leave you. Is to prepare them to go be a good citizen. I think when you have two fathers, or two mothers, or an interracial marriage, or anything that is considered non-traditional, then the stakes become higher for that good citizen. They have to represent something else, because it’s not their choice to do that. And Cooper. Sorry, Brian, I haven’t seen him in five days, so I’m getting weepy. My heart is so large. It makes me be so much better than I thought I could be.

GLT: While we are on the weepy part, you were heavily involved with the Michael Jackson 30th anniversary concert in 2001. How did his recent passing affect you?

SH: Oh, well, I find it so sad, and part of that sadness is the predictability of it, in a way. This is someone I didn’t know well, but I had met a half a dozen times, and the first time I met him was in the mid ’80s when he had asked to meet me, which was so thrilling to me. I met Michael Jackson and Rosa Parks on the same day, so I was like, this is a big day for Sam Harris. And, he was kind of normal then. He was available. There was eye contact. It was so sweet and genuinely excited and present. And then over the years, I met him a half a dozen times and every time there was little less presence. And a little more strangeness and the wall was up a little more. There was this disconnection, and it was just sad. And, there’s all this trash coming out, and it’s probably mostly true. As a father now, it breaks my heart mostly for the children. This is a man who was so psychologically fucked up and of course so supported by yes people who just wanted to be in the train wreck. They want to be in it. Listen, as a sober man, I don’t blame, I don’t blame anyone around the sick person, because they’re sick, too. It’s our single responsible to take care of ourselves, to get help, and take care of our children. I am not one of those people who says everybody led him astray and they should have done this and he should have done that. He’s responsible. Ultimately, addiction is the ultimate selfishness. And whether that is addiction to drugs or alcohol or plastic surgery or attention or just narcissism, it’s just selfishness. And that’s what he suffered from. He suffered from the disease of selfishness. And it breaks my heart because he was a great, great entertainer and contributed so much to not only show business but to people’s enjoyment and awareness and color barriers, and I think it’s very, very sad. But I hope it’s a lesson.

And every time we frickin’ find out about someone – Billy Mays now, that it’s cocaine, and someone said, “Oh, that is so sad for his family.” And I said, “No, we need to know this! We need to know that this, whatever he was, 48-year old man, didn’t just drop dead, that he – it’s self-inflicted. It always it. I shouldn’t say always. But it usually is, and I think we need to know that. These aren’t just things that happen. They are things that happen because we chose them.

GLT: Now, let’s touch for a minute on your current show First Wives Club, because I think it’s pure genius, but I’m biased.

SH: Yeah, well, let’s talk about that. The reviews have been an occasional rave, mostly mixed, and several dreadful. We’re a work in progress. I think there’s a great show here. I am experiencing incredible audiences every performance, screaming with laughter, and singing the songs on the way out of the theater. Are there problems? Absolutely. Is this a first-run, original show out of town? It is. I think there’s a lot of things that can be fixed, and it’s a great show. And once again, I look at every experience I have, and I am working with these wonderful veteran actors. I think every single one of who is a principal in the show has been either nominated or has won a Tony. These are wonderful people I get to play with on the stage and learn from and experiment with, and I am having so much fun. And, really, for the last year and half, I have been at home being a dad, doing an occasional concert or an episode. So to be in the room, or the theatre, or the dressing room or on the stage with these inventive, hysterical and wonderful brilliant people is really valuable to me. So, will the show go on? We shall see. I hope it does. I think it has a lot of great potential. But it’s a process, man. My friend Frank Langella, who is one of my dearest friends, who has a career that I just admire so much, he talked about the roller coaster of the career in show business. And it’s not just any single element. It’s a library of work. It’s the up and the down. It’s the experience of the entire spectrum. Not a moment. Not a single show or movie or record. It’s the culmination of the whole experience that makes an artist and gives you a career.