Sammi Rozanski

Uncle Sham at a Field School event

11/06/23

Uncle Sham is an icon at the Field School, he has always kept an elusive and mysterious presence. So when he surprisingly reappeared at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, many Field School students were just left with even more questions than they had before. 

Miriam Rozanski, a Field School alumni, was a student when he originally appeared, and then just as mysteriously disappeared. “I always looked forward to seeing him, he was always really lively and fun, and made the whole club-choosing process more entertaining”. When Uncle Sham was suddenly gone, she was left confused and upset. “The time to pick clubs came around, and I wondered where he was. And then when I realized he wasn’t gonna be there, it just made me sad,” she explained. 

Her experience was shared by many, including Aaron Bachmann, history teacher and head of clubs at the Field School, and close friend and collaborator of Uncle Sham’s. Bachmann explained that while he and Sham were close, he was also left confused and lost by the disappearance. “In 2020, something like that, he was just gone. And I’m calling him and stuff, I called him up on his cell, I sent him emails, I got him on TikTok, and Snapchat, or something. You know, I’m hip to these things.” 

He continued “I tried to reach him on everything, I had him on Instagram, but nothing. Crickets. All I see on his feeds are like pictures of pine forests and ski ball scores. I’m just like, what the heck is this guy up to? It makes no sense, and he won’t answer anything.” 

Bachmann was left stranded and alone. Without Uncle Sham, his work was just not the same. “You think of the great partnerships in world history, you think of the partnerships that really lasted, and worked so much for history, like Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, or Bonnie and Clyde, or JLo and ARod. Maybe Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. You think of these partnerships that just push the dream of the world forward, and I thought I had that. And then he was gone!” Bachmann tearfully described. 

However, after a long absence, Uncle Sham surprisingly reappeared at the beginning of this school year. Although Bachmann was left frustrated and saddened by the actions and disappearance of his close friend, he was relieved by the sudden return. “You take one look at the guy after a second, and it’s really hard to stay mad at him. And in the end, I’m glad he’s back,” Bachmann admitted. 

So, after this sudden return, many were left wondering: where had Uncle Sham been this whole time? Why is he suddenly back now? In an exclusive interview with Uncle Sham himself, everything is explained. 

“It’s been really hard to talk about this,” Sham prefaced. “It was a difficult time. I went on a journey of sorts. A metaphysical journey. Mostly I just went to Chuck E. Cheese, and I went there for about 4 years. And I just kind of lived at Chuck E. Cheese,” he admitted. He described fond memories of dressing up in the rat suit, and honing his ski-ball skills at night. 

After living there, he then attempted to run for congress from Lichtenstein. However, he quickly learned that Lichtenstein is unfortunately not represented in the US government. “You’d think that given my ties to patriotism that I would’ve known that, but I didn’t. So, I had to learn that the hard way, and eventually after I was picked up by Lichtensteinian border patrols, they sent me back to the United States,” Sham detailed. 

When asked about the reason why he left, he froze. “This one is especially hard for me to say,” he admitted. “I left because I was starting to feel that I wasn’t so much Uncle Sham, I was becoming Uncle Shame. And the shame was that I’d lost my ability to bring a smile to the faces around me”. Sham described that the COVID-19 pandemic had really made him feel like he lost his ability to make people smile.  “That sent me into a dark place, and by dark place I mean the closet that I lived in at Chuck E. Cheese. Like, I was fine.” He assured, “Personally, my mental state was good, but I was in a really dark closet, because I didn’t want them to know that I was living there, because I really wanted to play free ski ball,” Sham said. 

When Uncle Sham was first introduced to the new club program, XYZ, he was ready to jump in. “It’s a lot like SHAM, and I felt like it was SHAM enough that I could get there,” he said. However, he was slightly hesitant about the new name change. “XYZ, to me, is kind of funny because when I was growing up, XYZ was something you said to someone if their fly was down, and you’d be like ‘XYZ: eXamine Your Zipper’” he admitted. 

Although he was skeptical at first, he soon came to love XYZ, because of the opportunity for students to be able to run their own clubs. “Our teachers are amazing, and they have so many amazing things that they want to teach people, but so do our students. Our students are better teachers than people realize. So, I learned that, and I’m glad,” he proudly stated. 

Despite his love for the school, Uncle Sham keeps his public appearances infrequent, due to a conflict with another icon of the Field School. “I kind of feud with the Falcon. The Falcon thinks they’re the only person that should be in front of people dressed up. I know there’s a person inside that falcon suit! They can’t hide from me, not from Uncle Sham!” 

In the end, despite challenges that he has faced, Uncle Sham has always stayed true to himself, and everyone at Field is relieved to have him back. “Uncle Sham’s the real deal. There’s no facade here.”