On June 11, 2010, Paul F. Tompkins’ one-hour comedy special, You Should Have Told Me, debuts on Comedy Central (11:00pm EST).
Tompkins spoke with Suite 101’s Christine E. Taylor about the special.
You Should Have Told Me Showcases Personal Material
Paul F. Tompkins (Mr. Show, The Best Week Ever) has been performing stand-up since 1986. The Comedy Central special showcases a new style of Tompkins' stand-up.
“It’s sort of the next evolution in my stand-up, in that it’s my most personal stuff to date. It’s really all about me. I talk about when I was a young f----up in my early 20s, to my mother’s death a couple years ago. It’s all stuff from my life.”
Material from Tompkins 300 Tour
Tompkins has worked with this hour of material on the road for the past year through his fan-support-based Tompkins 300 Tour. Since the first group formed in Toronto in August 2009, Tompkins has taken his show to any city in which 300 fans join a Facebook page asking him to come.
Comedian Bob Kerr started the tour when he suggested to Tompkins (via Twitter) that he bring his show to Toronto. "I wrote back to him: 'Well, you get 300 people to say they’re going to see me in Toronto, and I’ll book a show there.'"
Kerr started the Facebook group "Bring Paul F. Tompkins to Toronto!". "He got 300 people [to join], and I said ‘Alright, I’m as good as my word, I will book a show in Toronto.' And it was great! It was one of the best nights of my entire career. So, I thought ‘There’s got to be a way to make this happen again.’"
The Tompkins 300 Tour has since made stops in Halifax, Dallas, Memphis, Seattle, Madison, and Austin. Upcoming stops include Brooklyn and San Francisco.
“Doing that material in person has been great; I hope it translates to the screen. It’s been very satisfying to do personal material and make that sort of connection audiences.”
Tompkins Begins New Show on Tour
Once You Should Have Told Me airs, audiences will no longer hear that material on tour. “That’s been my hour for this past year. Once the special airs, I’ll be talking a new hour out on the road.
“I definitely don’t want to be out there doing something that somebody has already seen. So, it’s time to move on to the new hour.”
Paul F. Tompkins’ You Should Have Told Me premiers Friday, June 11, 2010, on Comedy Central at 11:00pm EST.
Christine E. Taylor - Christine E. Taylor is a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Christine is currently writing a series of articles ...
