It's our 400th episode today.
Oh, wow.
That deserves a snack.
Yes, exactly.
David that's kinda of what we're thinking
too, you know.
David, you're our treat.
Okay, great.
Well, I am dipped in fudge bi annually.
This is What a Joke with Tom Papa and
Fortune Feimster on Netflix is a Joke Radio.
How you been?
Good.
You know, as a relative, uh, sense.
Yeah.
All right.
Getting somewhat back to a normal life
doing stand up again.
I've been doing that for a little while.
It's been great and fun.
And, uh, I was stuck in Canada for
about six months, which was not great.
And they were all locked down.
Canada's great, but not when it's locked down.
Oh man.
But we're back home.
In Brooklyn.
Everything's great.
So now you're married and have a child.
Is this going to be your Ray Romano
era early Cosby?
Uh, it's going to be my Roseanne Barr
period, I think more than any thing.
No.
I mean, I definitely have material about having
a kid and I didn't the last special too, but
it's was more of a.
Cynical take, uh, you know, I talk about how
much I resent her because she's rich and I don't,
I can't deal with it.
You know, I have a prejudice that
I know is wrong.
That's a hangover from when I was growing up.
Right.
I hated rich people and I got to get
over it, you know.
Is it hard to raise your child as a wealthy
individual when you.
Raised differently.
Like, do you even know how to do it?
I mean, you just don't have to say no,
you're saying no for a different reason.
You're not saying no, you can't have that because
you know, or, you know, when I was being told
no, but I understood it pretty early on.
I mean, You know, I mean, I'm guessing I
was like eight, seven or eight when I just,
I was disappointed, but I got it.
I didn't get to have the things that kids in
school in class had, and you don't get to do that.
And I just, I got it.
Right.
Whereas I'm telling her no for the opposite
reason, like you have too much shit, share it.
I'm taking it away and giving it to somebody
that doesn't have.
We don't want you to be spoiled.
I mean, I I'm serious when I say.
You know, the, the kind of standard
thing of like, uh, I want my kid to have
everything I never had.
And uh, I'm like, fuck that.
Absolutely not.
I want her to know the value of money.
Yes, that's true.
I get that.
I mean, I get it, you know, the, the value of
working for something, it goes a long way
because it stays with you your whole life.
Tom's just handing over money.
Let leftover, what's it?
Hand over fist?
Leftover fist!
Hand over fist.
I have two daughters.
And they're now 16 and 19.
And.
It's hard to say no.
And if they're relentless and just keep coming at
you, they know they're going to get a yes.
Eventually to run out of steam.
I've already experienced that on, on, on a level.
That's disappointing to me because I'm
like, oh, I thought it was gonna be.
More stricter, but then also my wife is much
more lenient than I am.
And I've said like, I never want
to be poor again.
I mean, if it means having a, you know,
an excess of money in the bank that we don't
touch, because what if somebody gets sick
or somebody, you know, in our families needs
it or whatever I have on numerous occasions
started with a firm.
No.
And explained it.
And thought I was a little bit, had a little
bit more willpower and then, you know,
20 minutes later, she's got another ice
cream in her hand.
So yeah.
I was thinking about you yesterday because knowing
that you were coming on the show in that.
My, uh, my iPhone was going through stuff and
there was an interview
Your iPhone was having issues?
It was going through stuff?
So that was good times.
It was going through here.
It was really, it was working some stuff out.
It was going through random on my stuff.
And there was an interview with George
Carlin and they asked George Carlin, you
seem to be getting more political these days.
And he said, yeah, you know, I put it
down for awhile.
I had to take a break from it, but it starts
to build up and then naturally finds itself
back in the act.
And it really kind of struck me knowing that
you were coming on because you always seem
to have this really fun, playful side to you,
but there's almost seems to be from the outside.
Stuff that you find yourself having to
express and having to talk about socially.
Yeah.
Uh, I mean, that makes its way via stand up
a lot of times, but that is a thing that
I, I mean, since I was a kid, I've just had
that of hyper-awareness of inequity and, you
know, I remember.
Being in Atlanta.
And I went to a bunch of different schools,
but one of the last high school I went to was by
a very prosperous white, uh, community and you'd
have to drive through and you would see all
the, the servants to help the nannies, the
cooks, the whatever, all those people,
all of them are black
and all of the wealthy people are
white, all of them.
Right.
Every single one of them.
And I, I was always like a little confrontational,
I guess, in school.
And, uh, and I, you know, questioned religion
and all that stuff when I was younger.
And, um, especially because.
Who would there be an, uh, uh, a very passionate
prosaic lecture or speech or whatever, uh,
utilizing the parts of the Torah and look God
said, and it's, and it's, um, you know, always
about helping the poor, helping the neigh- and,
you know, your neighbor and the less fortunate.
And then these people would kind of just
give it lip service, and then they.
You know, you'd say Shabbat Shalom
or whatever, and then that's it.
And then everyone's immediately talking
about, oh, so, uh, we're going to get a new car.
We don't need a new car, but we're going
to get a new car, but I just have to have
in there talking about all that kind of stuff.
And not that that is in every single
religion, but I saw it firsthand in that one.
I don't know.
I'm I'm rambling and whatever.
No, but it, it, it, that stuff is, it's not phony.
Like the you'd watch some comics sometimes gin up
anger about that's the, you know what I mean?
It's like, it's kind of like really, are you
that mad about parking?
Yeah, those, those guys who do, who do
that stuff, it's like kind of funny the first
time, but then when you watched them do
the exact same way, the exact same cadence,
the exact same pausing, the exact same place
where they sputter and loose, thereby you know,
Not very genuine that anger.
When you started comedy, did you start
in standup or what's it?
Was it sketch?
No. Standup.
I was in Atlanta.
The very first open mic night I ever did was a
week before my birthday, my 18th birthday, and
then did stand up and then, uh, I didn't
really do sketch until I moved to Boston and I
went to Emerson College for a couple minutes.
While I was there.
Um, was it a sketch group with people that,
you know, remained friends to this day.
And that's where I really got my love of it.
And my friend Mark Rivers, he and I would
kind of write these little bits and he
would go up on stage with me and we'd do
these characters.
Um, so that was kind of, you know, the Venn
diagram, I guess, of standup and sketch,
but too, I mean, nobody appreciated it.
We were in Atlanta, early eighties.
Nobody gave a shit, there was a guy.
First starting out, there was a guy, uh, I want
to say his name was Trip Wingfield, and he would
bring a toilet seat and he put it on a chair and
then he would do, uh, I so hope I got his name.
Right.
Cause if I didn't, that's terrible.
But, uh, um, he would do like shit, like different
ways that people shit.
I'd go up there with my goofy shit.
And they're like, no, thank you.
Which I always heard.
I always just heard "Jew" you know.
They're like bringing the toilet seat guy back.
More shitting!
I remember watching.
Janeane Garofalo and Maron, and like when
you guys were all like really making strides,
it was pretty unique.
When you look back that you had like this
common, like it doesn't all have to be that
toilet seat thing in the mainstream clubs,
you know, and that's, it's pretty unique.
It was pretty special.
And I, and I I'd be disingenuous, if I
said that we didn't know it at the time.
I think a lot of us, even though we were trying
to be self-effacing and like, oh, we're just
having fun and all that.
But I think most of us had this.
Like, I think we're kind of doing something
really pretty cool here.
Not that we knew it would kind of forever
change the landscape.
And now the idea of alternative comedy
doesn't mean anything.
It's just, that's what it is.
But you know, back then, You know, eighties.
Yeah.
I mean, it was all kind of Seinfeld type stuff,
you know, not that there's anything wrong
with it, but that was it.
But there was no, it's okay to be personal.
It's okay to, you know, go through your
stuff here with us.
And, uh, and yeah, it was really pretty cool.
What year was Mr.
Show?
Just the 19 95, 6, 7, 8.
I want to say 95 to seven eight.
Cause I feel like Mr.
Show was like, oh, now we've broken now
we're over the wall.
Yeah.
Well, and before Mr.
Show, there was, you know, Ben Stiller show,
which was comprised to Janeane and Andy
Dick, Ben and Bob, and it was starting to be.
Yeah.
There's some, burbling verbal.
Burbles.
Tower bottom.
He's got a new sign,
so nice to see you.
We, you know, you're one of our favorite people.
That's why we asked you to come in for the
Thanksgiving special.
Did we give you any treats?
Did you ever.
It's potstickers it's like favorite appetizer.
Look at that, I love a pot sticker.
Nice.
This from a place you really like?
Tasty noodle.
Tasty noodle sounds like it should be another
part of your merch.
How is it working with you guys.
Did you get a snack?
I got squash blossoms.
It's like a squash.
It's like a piece of a squash with cheese
in it and it's fried.
Okay.
The Midwestern me perked up and said,
can we dip it in ranch?
Stop.
That's the pork chop you're going to eat.
I'd like you to meet Frank
Frank.
He's obese.
He's out in boneless dog.
He just let's you,
Yes he is, he's like a squash blossom.
Fortune, you got your food.
Is that your lobster slider?
Right into it.
Oh, it was there to happy girl.
Look at Frank.
He wants that food, that food so badly.
Frank is giving it to us.
He's transfixed by the limelight.
He really is.
He's a dog made for radio.