Paul F Tompkins
Tompkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a receptionist mother and railway worker father. [1] He started out in stand-up comedy in 1986 at The Comedy Works, Philadelphia, PA, where he was half of a duo with the late Rick Roman. He moved to Los Angeles in 1994.
In what has been characterized as his first big entertainment industry job,[2] Tompkins appeared as a featured player on Mr. Show with Bob and David and served as a staff writer for the show's second and third seasons. He also appeared in several episodes of the short-lived Tenacious D TV series and appeared in the 2006 Tenacious D film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
Tompkins appeared on and wrote for The Daily Show in 1998 before Jon Stewart took over as anchor. In 1998, he created Driven to Drink, a one-man show that aired on HBO. He recorded two half-hour specials for the Comedy Central Presents TV series, one in 2003 and another in 2007. In the first season of Real Time with Bill Maher, Tompkins had his own segment.
He began hosting VH1's Best Week Ever in its revised format in late 2008 and continued to do so until it left the air in June 2009. Tomkins has been a frequent guest on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann and can also often be heard as a regular guest of Tom Scharpling's The Best Show on WFMU radio show.
Throughout 2008, 2009, and 2010, Tompkins has increased his web presence by appearing as a guest for new media formats, specifically podcasts. He has had numerous appearances on various podcast episodes including Comedy Death-Ray Radio, I Love Movies, Never Not Funny, Comedy & Everything Else, The Sound of Young America, and The Superego Podcast. On the Comedy Death-Ray Radio podcast, he has been both the guest host, when regular host Scott Aukerman was away, and appeared as character impressions of actors John C. Reilly and Ice-T. In the "Best of Comedy Death-Ray Radio 2009" episode, Tompkin's impression of Ice-T on Bonus Episode 1 was voted #1 by fans of the show via Twitter.
On 01/08/2010, Paul Tompkins announced, via his website, that he would be creating the Pod F. Tompkast, a free podcast featuring comedy excerpts from his show at Largo and conversations with his show business friends. It will be available for download either late January or early February.
Tompkins made a cameo appearance in P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood (2007) as a character named Prescott and in Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" (2009) as FBI Agent Anthony D’Angelo. Tompkins also had a small role in Anderson's Magnolia (1999) that was cut from the final film. He also performs with Aimee Mann (another frequent Anderson collaborator) in her annual Holiday Show.
His first stand-up comedy album, Impersonal, was released in 2007 on AST Records. In the liner notes, Tompkins explains that the jokes on the CD are his older, less personal material. He said at the time that he would record another album in the coming year that features his more recent work. On December 1, 2009 he released this project, his second CD entitled Freak Wharf.
Tompkins frequently performs live in Los Angeles at Largo, Comedy Death-Ray and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2009 he was brought to Toronto after a Facebook group found 300 Torontonians who vowed to attend if he did.[3]
