Who the hell is Paul F. Tompkins?

More on one of Decider's favorite fringe comedians

by David Wolinsky and Steve Heisler March 12, 2009

Even though Philly native Paul F. Tompkins has been doing comedy for 23 years, he's remained under the radar. Sure, he's appeared on Mr. Show and Tenacious D and enjoyed a few bit-time movie roles, but his following, while loyal, has always been on the small side. This might just be the year he earns mainstream success: The snappy dresser (he wears suits to every show) became the talking head on Best Week Ever when it was rebooted a few months ago as Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins. His Saturday stand-up shows at Lakeshore Theaterr—which will be recorded for a future comedy album, the follow-up to 2007's Impersonal—is his first outing since the change and a perfect opportunity to finally hop on the affably pompous Tompkins bandwagon. Here's a few tidbits on his career to jump-start the process.

Best Week Ever
This wasn't the first gig Tompkins ever had, but it increased his exposure exponentially; shortly after joining this weekly pop-culture skewer as a panelist, he started doing “Paul F. Tompkins: Celebrity Defender” segments, where he rushed to put in a good word for famous people on trial. His popularity among viewers—and surely plenty of jokes about Britney Spears's cooch—landed him the coveted host slot of the new BWE, which is a lot more like The Soup than before. Tompkins cracks the majority of the wise, and former panelists contribute special reports, including new iterations of “The Sizzler.” In short, it seems like the perfect vehicle for Tompkins’s outsider, oddball sensibilities—and he’s doing a hell of a job.

Writer-performer on Mr. Show
The short-lived HBO sketch series Mr. Show was a rare aligning of the stars in the mid-’90s. Sure, it boasted an incredible writing staff with the likes of writer-performers Dino Stamatopoulos (Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Moral Orel, TV Funhouse), Tom Kenny (a.k.a. SpongeBob SquarePants), Paul F. Tompkins, and show creators Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, but none of them were exactly known quantities at the time—there’s a reason the show was so low-budget, after all. But the drab scenery just gave the cast all the more room to shine. Bob and David were the stars, but Tompkins was arguably one of the best supporting players on staff. He easily exudes the sort of silly theatricality showcased on Impersonal’s “Elegant Balloons,” but also effortlessly matches Bob and David’s disarming sincerity. Here he is carrying a scene before a sudden life-altering epiphany while hooked up to a lie-detector machine:

Go-to talking head for Countdown With Keith Olbermann
When not counting down the worst people in the world or spitting vitriol at Bill O’Reilly in an urgently melodramatic “special comment,” MSNBC political commentator/news anchor Keith Olbermann has turned to Tompkins for gloves-off commentary. Or did until last year, anyway, before Tompkins apparently got too busy with his VH1 gig. Always clad in his ubiquitously classy suit, Tompkins could always be counted on to affably and incisively dig at topics ranging from Twitter to the former President Bush’s dancing:

Industry work
Every once in a while, Tompkins ventures over to ol' Tinsel Town for some legit, non-sketch comedy acting work—he's appeared in episodes of Weeds, Frasier, and Pushing Daisies, and voiced a character on a 2005 episode of King Of The Hill. In addition, after meeting Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of Magnolia—he had a tiny part—he secured a few lines in the behemoth production of There Will Be Blood(Take a look at that early scene, where Daniel Plainview sits at the head of a table, spelling out his vision for the proposed drilling; up in the corner, there's Tompkins.) He wears a special insert to eliminate his gap-tooth while on these sets, and, at least according to this video, later sings duets with the artists who played the films' soundtracks:

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