Name: Tom Papa and Bob Talk About the Role of Positivity in Comedy | Bob Saget
Uploaded: 2020-06-25T17:00:12.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Papa and Bob Talk About the Role of Positivity in Comedy | Bob Saget' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-06-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Papa and Bob Talk About the Role of Positivity in Comedy | Bob Saget' from Bob Saget on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-06-25. Transcript available.

Tom Papa and Bob Talk About the Role of Positivity in Comedy | Bob Saget

Hey, I'm here and it's another episode of me being here for you for you. And I
have a guest today
that I just love Tom Papa. He is he's a comedian, you know him from hosting
television. He's a
writer. He's got a new podcast got a brand new book that is so special. And he
has a Netflix
special by the same name. But he's just a real real special valuable comedian
and
more importantly human being. Does that matter as much as comedian? I don't
think so.
A couple brief announcements. We'll be getting out early today. Oh, no, we're
not getting out
anywhere. No one's getting out. Some people are. But we'll talk about that with
Tom. If you look up
in the thing, there's a phone number or I don't know where it is. But it'll
tell you that you can
call a number and leave a message. And I'll be announcing it on Instagram
stories or Twitter
calling and I'll be calling you guys. So you just do that. And I'll be calling
you and see how you're
doing and have a convo. And hopefully it's funny. Otherwise, I'm just gonna
have a nice convo with
you because people deserve to be convoed in a convoy. So what else can I tell
you except here comes my
friend Tom, Tom, Tom, we're not at Arts Deli having a sandwich. Yeah, it's true.
We're doing this and you've been doing it a lot. You're communicating
a lot. A lot. I sit here at my desk in my office. Right. And I'm just doing it
a lot. You're communicating a lot. A lot. I sit here at my desk in my office.
Right. And I'm just saying that you're doing it a lot.
You're communicating a lot. A lot. I sit here at my desk in my office. Right.
And, you know, I had my radio shows and then I've got the book tour that I've
been on. And you have all of the anxiety of, oh, I have to go on this show.
I have to do this appearance. But I haven't left this chair. Right. I choose
like different sets. I tried a couple different places. And I have 100 foot
Ethernet cable and the highest possible. So when I go into promotion somewhere,
it's at least it's I'm communicating clean. But yeah, you have a good signal
going.
Yeah, I've got a I've got Ethernet to going through. I hear that the real the
real thing to do is go with the new AT&T fiber for your Wi-Fi.
I can't do it. I only have one service up here and it's the one that's I think
Satan runs it.
I know how old I am. I asked my wife and she doesn't do things like this. She's
just loves me. So she's kind and she's a cook.
And I asked her, can you possibly make me a cup of coffee? I'm running late,
which I do for her as well.
This is how old I am. The late show with Craig Kilbourne.
So that is old. That is old. That was he got that after he left The Daily Show.
And then thank God he did. Not bashing on Craig. I always liked Craig, but we
got Jon Stewart out of that, which is.
Yeah, it was a miracle.
It's hilarious. I know. I always remember doing like finally getting Letterman
and then realizing once he retired, it was like, oh, that doesn't mean anything
anymore.
All that means now is that you're old.
Well, he was, you know, just like Johnny Carson. He was a one in a million and
he's kind of our saint now. I mean, he's kind of.
Oh, he, he means everything. But as far as like a credit, it was like when we,
like when I started, when someone would have a credit of like he did The
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
They thought it was a positive, but everyone in the club was making out with
their girlfriend was like, who is this old dude?
That's what some people, I don't think a lot. Well, I don't know. The new Jen.
What, what is the new Jen? I keep forgetting. What are they called?
Well, we're past Jen. We're past the millennium.
We're Gen Z?
Gen Z.
I think so.
I know a girl named Gen Z. She was cute.
Oh, I remember that girl.
Very young. Very, very young. Um, but her demos were good.
And the improv, right?
Oh yeah. At the bar.
We don't have, we don't have an improv. We don't have a comedy store. We don't
have a laugh factory. We don't have, I mean, uh, some places are opening up now.
I know. Um, uh, I have a gig in maybe two or three weeks in Salt Lake City at
Wise Guys.
Yeah, they opened up. I moved my date there to a little bit later because I,
because I want to bring my wife with me so we can get a couple more.
Yeah.
So this fits her schedule so we can, we can Mormonize.
Yeah. I, uh, uh, Brad Williams went to do it the first weekend, which was last
weekend and he drove it in 10 hours and, uh, I won't be doing that. I will, uh,
I haven't been on a plane since March 7th.
Same.
So I'm, uh, I think I don't care. I'll go.
Have you had a test? Have you had any?
I've had the antibody test.
Yeah, I had that too. And they told me I never had it.
Me too. We all were convinced we had it.
They made me take the SAT test over again.
Oh, they shouldn't have done that.
I know. And my joke that no one laughs at is antibody. What about uncle body?
Nobody ever talks about uncle body. Oh, you're kind. You're just kind to me.
I love those kinds of jokes. I love those jokes.
I do too. They're there. They call them dad jokes, but you know what? They didn't
think of it.
That's right. Only dad could do it.
Right. And dad can make some people laugh if he's not being a jerk or confining
you to your room.
So you've got, what do you, you, you have two kids, right?
Two.
And you still love them?
They do.
This time has been crazy, man.
So have you all been cooped up together, been homeschooled on the computer?
Yeah, we've got two girls, 15 and 17.
And we, my wife and I are enjoying their time a lot more than they're enjoying
ours.
Right.
Well, they're at that age. I mean, they want to get out.
Oh, wow. My God. My, my one's going to be going to college next year. And she's
just like, you know, she's, she was all, all these things, all these timings of
life are, they've been thought out before we got here.
And it's like, they, they know that like a 17 year old has got to lift off the
launch pad and get out of the house exactly June of their, you know, senior
year.
So she was ready to go. And, and then all of a sudden just back there with us.
And the 15 year old is in the, you know, the, the squirmy, I just can't, I just,
I can't, I cannot, I cannot be around you.
And so it's actually, and I'm trying to give them a little distance and be cool
about it and not, uh, I go back and forth between trying to be respectful and
tiptoe around in the morning, not to wake them up and do all that stuff to just
literally plopping down on the couch next to them when they're watching a show
and be like, so what are we watching?
So you can't have any, any closeness with them at all, but around dinner time,
do you have a dinner? Do you do a scheduled dinner?
Yeah, we do dinner. We do dinners for sure. And, um, and once in a while we'll
let it pass. They're so relieved to like the other night I made them food and
just put it on the counter and let them come and get it and go there.
So you can just see like the relief that they didn't have to sit at the table.
So your daughters are, they're cats basically.
Yeah, they basically are.
They're like, they get away from me and if you stand still for a year, they'll
come toward you.
And just brush against you and keep going.
Yeah. Give you that look and then not at all.
Yeah. Yeah.
I remember when mine were that age.
What's in your house?
My house is, uh, it's, it's nice, except I had a major plumbing thing happen.
I got no, my two daughter, my two older ones are in New York, in Brooklyn and
in downtown.
And it's been difficult because people have been careless and weird and it's
not been, not been healthy.
And, uh, my youngest is out here, but she's not living with me and, uh,
everybody's, you know, accepted what this is like.
And different people are going to go with quarantine in a different way.
Now I'm going to try to do it as long as I can, but I, I looked up your dates
and saw how many you had.
And I'm like, Oh my God.
Cause I had a bunch schedule.
I had, uh, Denver at the comedy works, which I love, which I'm sure you love in,
in July.
And, um, I had to move that.
So I just started moving stuff just cause I don't know, you know, what if we're
lucky?
Cause every day I wake up, I see something from the doctors that says something
else that says there's not going to be a giant wave perhaps.
And I don't know if they're being told to say that with electric shock collars.
Yeah, it really has been so maddening.
The lack of information, the lack of, and I know the part of it is them not
knowing, but there's also a large part of it of manipulation.
And it, it really gets, you get that sense of what it must be like as a child
to be raised by a parent.
Who's like, uh, an alcoholic who doesn't care and they just have fits and they'll
blurt stuff out and you take it to heart and then you, they change their mind
and you, you follow that path.
That's how I feel about what's going on right now.
I mean, that's how I feel about our leaders, unfortunately, not all of them,
obviously.
Yeah, no, I mean, me too.
And it's, you just want just, if they could just consolidate it to one message
and just give us the truth, whether it's grim or not, just keep going with it.
Like, I keep thinking back to all of those, um, Churchill moments, you know,
like when you'd be on the radio, giving the address all the time.
Like I, you've only seen through movies and read about, right.
To just have that one message from that, from that leadership figure steadily
giving you the truth, but giving you hope at the same time.
And that we don't have that has been so that's been the most upsetting part of
this whole thing.
One of the jobs of, of being a leader of a country, unless you're a
dictatorship is to tell everybody that, um, we're going to get through this.
Even if you're not good at many other things, uh, one of the things that you
need to learn to excel at is to be a good maitre d and a good, not a good maitre
d a good broadcaster, a kind person, even if they didn't write the stuff, be
able to look into the lens.
Just like when we were, I mean, I was nine when I came home from school cause
they sent us home cause John Kennedy was assassinated and Walter Cronkite's
crying on the air and I'll always thank him for that.
I, I, I always know we're turning to a couple of news people, but even the best
ones, it, then you go to coming up.
It's like echo the drag way.
We're going to have funny cars, even on the best, you know, we'll be, or they'll
say, I have a question for you.
And it's really like the answer to the whole thing after this.
And then it's six minutes of commercials, man.
And I was driving in my car and I was listening and CNN was on, on the Sirius XM
radio and we don't have it playing in a loop in the house because we've got
kids and you don't want to, you know, so we, we don't really have the news on.
We, you know, driving in the car, you would have thought I was listening to a
promo for a horror movie or an action movie.
Like, it's like every news story, this dramatic music pipes in and you don't
have to tell me how to feel.
You don't have to create emotion.
Just give me the information and I'll take care of the emotional part.
They're producing it.
They produce it.
And it's every single one of them.
Everyone.
It's, it's, it's Fox.
It's MSNBC.
It's, it's CNBC.
It's, it's CBS.
I mean, it's, it's show business.
It's show business and it's selling ad time and this is what sells.
It's so gross.
It's so gross and manipulative.
And I just, I just, and you can see, like you just, you can see why people are,
are gravitating towards Cuomo and Governor Newsom.
It's because they are, you crave it.
You crave it.
And when they speak in a, in a dignified manner and just act like an adult, you,
you just lean in, you know, like George Bush after 9-11.
It was like, just say the right things.
Just tell us what to do.
Just, we're with you.
We're with you.
This is an opportunity.
And I think that's the, the grossest part of this is in this tragedy, uh, is pitting
Amer