Paul F. Tompkins Quotes

When I've been on shows as a guest, I'm backstage, so I don't usually hear what the warm-up is saying, so I went and watched a couple of people do it and thought, 'Actually, I reckon this is do-able.' The audience is usually excited to be there; it's just getting a good chat with people.

The first time I was on 'Johnny Carson,' I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me. Hopefully, I have learned something from watching him for so many years that I can offer that to a guest.

As a host on TV, one has to engage the audience and contestants on the show. One has to bring a new element to their personality while hosting so that it doesn't look monotonous to the audience.

I have hosted many shows in the past. Anchoring is something I really enjoy; hence, when I was offered to host the show 'Super Dancer,' I was excited to take it up.

I can be on the Tonight Show, but not with Johnny [Carson]. He uses my name in his monologue all the time.

I think our strongest suit is our live show.

Performers often can be quite socially inept, you know? And even great comedians are like that.

For me, if I'm going to do a play, I prefer to do something with language that I don't get to speak on TV.

If the only reason to be on stage communicating with people is to tell them a joke and make them laugh, that seems thin for me. That has a place - I don't think it should stop happening - but for me, I don't know. I just don't.

I now do my own cabaret act, singing and telling stories about my life.

Diamond Dallas Page didn't have that larger-than-life persona, but he had a different connection with the audience.

If in the first 30 seconds, a comedian cannot bring a smile to your face, he is not an entertainer.

Headliners, no matter the genre, usually are a person or band who has an ethos.

Every time you're on stage, you look out at a packed house, people all the way up to the top, people having a blast, everybody forgetting about the world for a couple hours. That's a special thing.

What I care about is making sure that when the people watching me put their head to their pillow, I'm the last thing they think about. Not because I hit the coolest moves, not because I'm putting my body on the line for their entertainment, but because I'm captivating.

It wasn't so much figuring out my voice comedically, because that was always pretty clear. It was more about performing and being a good, watchable performer.

I thought I could see how standup worked. I never thought of being an actor - or anything else, really - but I thought, 'I can see how you get on stage and tell jokes.'

If you're not doing something or saying something in comedy, the camera is going to go somewhere else.

I continue to do standup because there's a connection with a live audience - there are skills that you do learn as a standup comedian that help you on a set.

There are lots of reasons people come to Beyonce shows. There's the music, her dancing; all in all a bedazzling show. She's a great performer and singer.

If you look at the Karamazov Brothers on TV, they're really small and the heart is taken out of their act. That's true for most variety acts. I'm an exception. When the camera comes in close and looks at those soap bubbles, you can really see what bubbles do.

Getting onstage and trying out all of my material and what works well with audiences and what doesn't, what works well in different atmospheres, has been the best training.

I'd rather be entertained and go to a show and watch a drummer and have somebody that makes me actually smile. So I don't judge drummers based on their technical ability; I judge them based on the overall package and what they bring to the music they're part of.

I just try to do things on stage that I think the audience would enjoy. And I try to draw on and add to acts that I've enjoyed watching.

When I got into comedy, which was really for acting, I would see the guys who would be considered great today. They were great, but after a few minutes I could get kind of bored because they wouldn't move around. The dress code was boring to me. I didn't want to see the guy next door when I'm watching a performer. I wanted to see someone I would pay a ticket for.