Paul F. Tompkins

“The ideas that you find funny and the things that you are offering to an audience are tied up with who you are and your soul and your heart.”

“I love words, and I love that there's so many words available to make a point and to create a picture.”

“I have a hernia scar from when I was a kid. I had a hernia when I was like in fourth grade.”

“When Huell Howser died, James Adomian had done Huell Howser for years. As crazy as that impression was, James genuinely loved Huell Howser.”

“Happy Days,' 'Laverne & Shirley,' 'Mork & Mindy' - it takes no effort at all to conjure, physically, the profound excitement I felt watching these shows in prime time. I remember sitting on the floor, too close to the TV, rapt.”

“The way we get our news is very important, and the idea that the media doesn't always do right by us, and that they focus on things they shouldn't for ratings, is very important, and it's absolutely worthy of ridicule.”

“I enjoy very traditional stuff, and I enjoy kind of outlandish stuff, and I just really like clothes. I always have.”

“An audience can become a mob very easily.”

“A big difference between podcasts and radio is the intimacy. Radio oftentimes feels big and loud. To me, podcasting is closest to that weird late night stuff, whether it's late night love song request lines, or it's some talk radio show where you feel like you're the only person listening to it.”

“As much as I love live performance and as much fun as it can be to travel around, it really is nice to be able to stay at home and make a living and pay the mortgage and spend time with my wife.”

“When I first started doing stand-up back in Philadelphia, the idea of being a professional writer was completely beyond me. It didn't even occur to me that that was something you could do.”

“The old Johnny Carson 'Tonight Show' was great in that he was so good with the guests, and it was not about him. I think he was very smart in realizing 'I have plenty of screentime on this show. I do my monologue and we do sketches and stuff like that.' During the interview, he really made it about trying to bring the best thing out of the guest.”

“The podcasting world has changed the way I book my shows. I knew that I could announce a gig on a podcast and that people would hear it. People that like what I do would hear, 'Oh, he's in my city.' And that makes it so much easier.”

“I love The Rock. I never want him to be president.”

“What I do with impressions, I try not to be mean-spirited. To me, it's just about being silly.”

“Politics is a thing that is kind of the same over and over and over again. But we have to find new ways of poking fun at it and letting the air out of people and satirizing things that are worthy of satire.”

“In an effort to devote more time, energy and focus to fewer projects, I've had to make some tough decisions, and one such decision was 'retiring' from 'Speakeasy.'”

“If written with enough care and thoughtfulness, a joke can make you laugh at a belief you hold dear.”

“It's important for us all to elect people not just on blind party loyalty. We've got to really examine what candidates say and do.”

“I think that a lot of times Mr. Peanutbutter is absolutely speaking directly to the audience and saying basic, human truths that we need to hear.”