Paul F. Tompkins

Paul F. Tompkins
Paul F. Tompkins on stage at the Ultimate Comedy Bash in October 2009
Born	Paul Francis Tompkins September 12, 1968 (1968-09-12) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Awards	Emmy Award in writing for Mr. Show with Bob and David

Paul Francis Tompkins (born September 12, 1968), best known as Paul F. Tompkins, is an American actor and comedian.

Life and career

Tompkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a receptionist mother and railway worker father. 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, 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 was a contributor on The Daily Show in 1998 doing a semi-weekly segment called Us People's Weekly Entertainment, where he would poke fun at entertainment magazines. 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. Tompkins 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.

From 2008 through 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 Bang Bang, The Nerdist Podcast, Never Not Funny, Doug Loves Movies, Comedy & Everything Else, The Sound of Young America, Stop Podcasting Yourself, Mostly Comedy and The Superego Podcast. On the Comedy Bang Bang (formerly 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, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Buddy "CAKE BOSS!" Valastro. In the "Best of Comedy Death-Ray Radio 2009" episode, Tompkins's impression of Ice-T on Bonus Episode 1 was voted #1 by fans of the show via Twitter.

Tompkins starred 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.

On March 18, 2009, Tompkins appeared on Comedy Central Presents. His most recent one-hour special, entitled "You Should Have Told Me", debuted on June 11, 2010.

Tompkins frequently performs live in Los Angeles at Largo, Comedy Death-Ray, Thrilling Adventure Hour 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. This spurred like-minded fans in Halifax, Dallas, and Memphis amongst others to launch successful campaigns to lure Tompkins there.

Tompkins made guest appearances on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes "Boston" and "Juggalo". He also made a guest appearance on True Jackson, VP.

Tompkins married actress Janie Haddad on April 24, 2010.

On July 31, 2010 Tompkins launched The Pod F. Tompkast, a free monthly comedy podcast featuring excerpts from his show at Largo, new original sketches, and conversations with his good friend Jen Kirkman.

On October 28, 2010, Tompkins joined Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett in Nashville, Tennessee as a guest riffer for a Rifftrax Live event riffing on the 1959 horror movie, House on Haunted Hill. Tompkins helped riff a short, "Paper and I", and then came back briefly to help riff the feature film. The DVD release of this special was released on May 17, 2011, and the Blu-ray version was released on August 2, 2011.

He was featured as the voice of "Short Thug" in the 2010 Disney animated feature Tangled.

In 2011, he was featured as the voice of "Doug" in a Ford Focus ad campaign. Tompkins also partook in the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala 2011.

He also voiced the video store employee in the "Regular Show" episode Ello Gov'nor.

Discography

• 2007 Impersonal (Released on AST Records)
• 2007 Comedy Death-Ray (Compilation released on Comedy Central Records)
• 2009 Freak Wharf (Released on AST Records)
• 2010 Sir, You Have Fooled Me Twice (EP) (Released on AST Records)

Podcasts

• The Pod F. Tompkast
• The Dead Authors Podcast
• The Thrilling Adventure Hour
• The Superego Podcast
• Doug Loves Movies
• Comedy Bang Bang

External links

• "Paul F. Tompkins, The Famous Comedian" Official Website
• Paul F. Tompkins on Myspace
• Paul F. Tompkins on Twitter
• TrackPFT.com, a database of Paul F. Tompkins podcast appearances
• Paul F. Tompkins interviewed on TV show "Drinking with Ian"
• Paul F. Tompkins at the Internet Movie Database
• 2007 Interview with WickedInfo.com
• Interview with Paul F. Tompkins on Public Radio International's "The Sound of Young America"
• IMPOSE Magazine Interview July 2007
• Toronto Star article on Tompkins
• Scene Missing Magazine Interview with Paul F. Tompkins
• Pod F. Tompkast