Tom Papa couldn’t have been blessed with a better name. On the phone from his home in Los Angeles, he’s warm yet playful, jibing me gently about living in Portland, Oregon (“Ohhh, aren’t we lucky? Aren’t we living the life?”) but also wise and resolute about his lifelong pursuit of laughs. Like his belief that the methodology that most comedians hold to, that when you film a TV special or record an album, all that material is tucked away, never to be heard from again, is foolish.
“I don’t create my stand-up just for specials,” he says. “I feel like you’re always working on these jokes and you’re always getting better at them. An act for me is always evolving. And as much as you want everybody to see your stuff, there are still people coming to see you perform who haven’t seen anything. To not be able to tell any version of a joke because it was in my special? That just wouldn’t be nice to the public.”
Papa does seem like a nice guy. He’s got soft features and a friendly open face. He seems to be in a perpetual state of bemusement at his own luck that he gets to tell jokes to strangers for money. And the jokes he tells are of the same old school, working class bent of folks like Tim Allen and his buddies Jim Gaffigan and Jerry Seinfeld. In his latest stand-up special Human Mule, which premieres on Epix tomorrow night, he has fun with small absurdities like coloring books for adults and people bringing small, skittish animals on airplanes as service pets.
Mostly, he shines the spotlights on his own failings and foibles. His lack of sex appeal, his crummy eating habits (lots of nachos), and his messy efforts trying to raise two daughters. Yet even when you hear him explain that he shouldn’t be trusted to pick up his youngest daughter from gymnastics because all he’s thinking about is which one of the moms he would sleep with first (“Not which one I would have sex with because I’d have sex with all of them”), there’s still this urge to invite him over for a home-cooked meal or come to him with your problems.
The affable spirit that Papa projects in person and onstage is key to the longevity of his career. It’s what helped endear him to Seinfeld, which led to gigs opening up for the former sitcom star around the world, as well as landing him multiple guest spots on The Tonight Show. And it’s what has made him an ideal TV host on shows like The Marriage Ref and Boom!, the strange short-lived quiz show that involved defusing bombs filled with mac & cheese or hot fudge.