Is your inspirational quote.

We're all fat, so eat more bread.

On this episode of the commercial break, I wrote him. I said, please, I'm a podcaster. Do you understand?

I work for free.

I'm doing Boner pill host. They don't pay very good, and I have to use them in order to get a personal experience. It's a miserable life. I live. The next episode of the commercial break starts. Boys and kittens, welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and beautiful co host of the commercial break, Chris and Joy Hodley. Best to you, Chris, and best to you out there in the podcast universe. Netflix. Netflix, take note. I just want to say this out loud. Netflix, take note. And I think every person who is on Netflix as a joke this year, it's swinging by the commercial break for a little how you do.

That's right.

Yes. Feels like we're the. You heard it here last. I think Netflix has an order, you know. You know what?

Yeah.

Conan. Yeah. Get him on stern. Maybe. Maybe Stern will do a two hour long interview with him. What about Jimmy Kimmel? Sure, put him on Kimmel. And then they go down the list, down the list, down the list. And then they're like, the commercial break, I guess. I mean, if we fucking have to, I guess we'll throw them there and we're blessed to have them. Don't make mistake. I'm super blessed, but I'm just noticing a little pattern that's going on, and I'm happy to be a part of it. Happy to be a part of it. But I want them to take note, because next time Netflix is a joke comes around in 2025, I think it just would be appropriate if they would just send us to some of these places where Netflix is a joke is happening, and let us do the interviews live there, where they're actually doing a set or whatever it happens to be. Netflix is a joke.

Great idea.

Yeah. Some of them are recorded for Netflix, and then others are just shows sponsored by Netflix. And then I guess some people are doing specials during that Netflix is a joke thing. It feels like Netflix is a joke. Lasts all year. Doesn't know. I don't know. We'll get the lowdown. And, Reed, where's the dinner invitation? I'm serious, Mr. Hastings, I should be respectful. Mr. Hastings, if you don't mind. Where's the dinner invitation? The private plane? The limousines. Tom Papa's bread. Yeah, Tom Papa's bread. Tom hasn't sent us any bread. And I'm going to ask him because this is a TCB infomercial day, and Mr. Tom Papa is going to be joining us.

I know. I can't believe it. I love him so much.

He is great. I think the first time I saw him must have been Letterman, don't you think? It was, like, way back in Letterman or something like that.

Yeah. I've seen quite a few of his specials, and I just love his brand of humor.

He feels like, I don't want to say this pejoratively, like, negatively. And I'm not even sure those two words mean the same. Uh, but they sound fancy, so I'll say them. I feel like Tom is like your best friend, like the dad of comedian. He's really level headed and very calm, cool, collected. And all of the comedians that I have seen him with, and I do listen to his podcast, all of the comedians that come, or stars that come to his show, they all seem to be so reverent of Tom. He doesn't get a lot of ball busting. He's like the guy that everybody wants to go have a conversation with, the exact opposite of the commercial break. So it makes sense that he's on the show.

We'll ask him about that.

I do love me some Tom. Papa, papa, papa.

He's like the papa comedy.

He is like the papa of comedy. Speaking of papa's, I do have to tell you, just like a little side note, a little funny conversation that happened between me and one of my children the other day. I said, hey, kids, what's going on at school? I like to check in with them.

Once or twice, of course. How was your day at school?

Once or twice a year, I like to check in with them, make sure they're doing okay.

How was your year at school?

How was your year at school? How's your last year of high school? Good. Yeah. I'll probably make it to the graduation ceremony if I don't have an interview from someone with Netflix. As a said, one of my kids said, yeah, it's going great. Today. We're learning about things that are alive and not alive. So they're very young. All my children are very young. All 22 of them are very young. They're all under the age of five. Figure that out. It's a good irish catholic family, Irish Catholic, venezuelan family we got going on here. Some of them don't look much like me, but I'm not going to complain. I like them, so I'm not going to complain. And I like my wife.

He goes, they're tax write offs.

Yeah. He goes, yeah. Or I said, wow. Things that are alive and not alive. Give me an example. He says, well, that ball over there is not alive, but my sister is alive. And I go, oh, that's good. Give me another example. He says, the table is not alive, but the dog, blue, is alive. And I said, oh, that's really good. And I go, oh, that's really good. So blue is alive, and the table is not alive. And he goes, yeah, but, daddy, I think I've heard you say that blue is not going to be alive for very long. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he goes, well, sometimes you say, I wish you were dead. But I was like, oh, no. He's been listening into the commercial break door. Because I really don't talk like that in front of my children.

No.

I just throw the dog in another room and go, go fuck yourself. And I was like, oh, this is it. These kids pick up on everything.

They always do. Way more than nephews.

Yeah. Do your little nephews pick up on everything?

Yes. Luca is very smart and remembers the memory.

It's unbelievable.

Yeah, I know.

Like, little cages. It's like they throw them in there, and it's like jail. It's like solitary confinement. Their brains are filled with none of the concerns that we have. Money, children, right? Time, energy, effort. We got to go here. We got to go there. I got to get in. Sherry, whatever the deal is, they're not filled with all of this junk that our heads filled. Who's going to be the next president?

Everything's new.

Everything's new. So when they pick up on something, it literally goes into solitary confinement to be let out in the most inappropriate of ways. So we have larger members of our family, and I don't think she would mind sharing Grandma Kiki. Vicky, my mom, is a larger lady. She shared that on the show before. And so I was watching my 600 pound life one time, and one of my kids said, why are they so big? Why is their belly so big? And I said, well, it could be a number of things. Maybe they ate too much. Maybe they're sick. Maybe they. Whatever. I was kind of going through explanations that I felt wouldn't unnecessarily prejudice him into weird conversations that sounded judgmental. Right. I was trying to be, like, as nice as I could about it.

Sure.

And so Grandma Kiki comes over one day, and Grandma Kiki says, come here. Give me a hug. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, oh, I want to give you a hug on your big belly. And I was like, oh, don't say that. Don't say that. And this is like two months after we had this conversation about my 600 pound life. And so I pulled him aside and I said, hey, you can't say that. You don't say that to people's faces. It's really hurtful. And he was like, oh, okay. He didn't understand a word I was saying because he went right back to my mom and he's like, are you sick? Do you eat too much candy or pizza? And I was like, oh, fucking motherfucker.

Here we go.

Here we go. How do we teach these kids? How do we get them? And they're also at the age where they start saying things, and you have no idea where they learned these things. Do you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

No idea where they learned them. And they start saying them to you. It's like on a television show or something. They start saying it like, get the heck out of here. The other day, one of my kids was like, get the heck out of here. And I was like, where did you learn that? Who says that to you? Mommy says it behind your back all the.

That's right.

Good old mommy. You can always count on her. All right, listen, Tom Papa, tompapa.com, he's got Netflix specials. He's on his fourth. He's got a podcast, breaking Bread with Tom Papa, which is great. He's on SiriusXm. What a joke with Tom Papa and guests. I feel like in a lot of ways, our podcast journey has been similar. While I don't feel we're as funny as Tom Papa, nor do I think it was famous as Tom Papa. But I feel like in a lot of ways, our podcast journey is similar. I'd like to talk to him about that.

That's right.

So many great things Tom Papa has done, including some movies that are some of my favorites behind the Candelabra. He's also was in the informant with Matt Damon, which is a brilliant fucking movie. And he stars alongside Matt Damon. I'd love to talk to him about that. And we'll get a chance to ask him about all of this stuff. You guys go to tomPapa.com, check out his tour. Check out his Netflix special. Check out his new book, siriusXm. All that good stuff. We'll put all the links and the pertinent details inside of the show notes so that you don't have to do too much googling yourself, you lazy bastards. And then we'll ask him about his kids, too. We'll ask if his kids have little mind traps also. What do you think?

I bet they do.

Okay, so, Tom Papa with us after this. We'll be back.

I know you're already on your phone, so pull up Instagram and follow us at the commercial break. And then follow us on TikTok at TCB podcast. Done. Perfect. Thank you. Since you're at the ready, why not text us? Hello at 212433 TCB. Or if you've got some drama in your life, a little fun story or anything, really, we're desperate for content. Call and leave us a message at 212433 TCB. And don't forget to check out tcbpodcast.com, because that's got it all. Speaking of having it all, let's listen to our fabulous sponsors and get back to the commercial break. It's after bedtime. The kids are asleep, and the moms.

Are out to play.

We're Dina and Kristen, the duo behind the Instagram account big little feelings. I'm Dina. I'm a child therapist and mom of two who nerds out on all things neurobiology and psychology. And Kristen is a parent coach who wrangles three kids on a daily basis here to give it to us like it is. We weren't meant to do this parenting thing alone. Consider, after bedtime, your village. Follow after bedtime with big little feelings on the odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

And Tom, Papa's here with us now. Tom, thank you so much. It's wonderful to have you on the show.

Hello, Tom.

Nice to see you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for wearing the same glasses that I have.

Yeah, well, I don't know if they're exactly the same, but I did have that pair of. How long have you been wearing glasses? That's a great question.

I've been wearing glasses for, like, ten years.

For ten. I should have been wearing them since I was about twelve years old. But I took a break, and I think one time.

A cool break.

Yeah, a break. And then it made my eyes worse. So now I'll be wearing them forever and ever and infinity. Tom, before we get into the meat and potatoes of you being here on the show, Christy and I have a pressing question to ask you. Do you have a will? Are your legal affairs in order? Should you pass away?

Yes, they are.

Okay, just wondering, because we're going through some family drama with wills and estates, we had a long conversation about PSA.

For everybody out there, get your affairs in order.

It is a very uncomfortable subject for sure. You feel like, are we talking about this? And putting the whammy on us at the same time? Then there's all of the who's going what to who? And then we did it. My wife and I drafted it. And I was literally thinking the other day, where is it?

Right?

Is there a copy?

Like, they literally old school give you the binder. Hard copy. Yeah.

Big hard copy thing. It's like, this should be like a PDF.

Yeah, exactly.

There should be a. Why did you give that to me ten years, like 20 years ago? And where is it? I don't know if my second child is on it. Here's the other one, though, is, okay, you've got to do that, like, official thing. Okay? We know where everything's going and who's going to take care of the kids when they're little and blah, blah, blah. But there's all these other uncomfortable conversations you should be having, which I know my wife and I haven't had, which is okay, so if you die, what do you want us to do? Yeah, do you want to be scattered somewhere? Do you want to go back to New Jersey? Do you want to be. We haven't discussed that at all.

Oh, you got to have that conversation.

I know. Otherwise, you're just putting it on the other person, and you're in a relationship for a long time. You love that person, and you don't really support all their decisions.

Exactly.

Or any of them.

I can see my wife coming up with a horrible idea. Do you have to write that down or can I just tell her?

You can just tell her that shit you don't have to worry about.

Like, but what if she gets dementia then.

Oh, what if she does have dementia or something like that. There's all these little things. Oh, yeah, you might want to write that down. Or your point, walking around Los Angeles with your ashes going, where did he tell me? A little here, a little.

I. I thought about, and I don't even know if I still have it. Of having a folder on my laptop saying, this is the final folder you should open.

Right?

And in there, you contain all of the uncomfortable things you don't want to talk about.

Yes. Here's where I keep all my secrets. My girlfriend gets paid $300 a month. Please send it here. The apartment is okay.

Don't ask questions. It's over.

Yeah.

I told my wife, whose name is Astrid. I said, astrid. And I do have a folder on my laptop. It doesn't contain all the morbid details, but it contains some of the more important details that she may not normally deal with has nothing to do with finances. She handles those because I'm terrible. But it says, in case of this podcast could possibly in the future at some point, make actual money. So please protect it. And here's the people you contact who might be able to help you with that.

I like the optimism. I like the optimism.

You've been in the podcast business. Kirsty and I were doing a little comparison because we've shared some guests, and then we started to notice that there's a not, not necessarily a pattern. But you started your podcast very shortly after us, like a week or two after.

Oh, really?

Was this a pandemic project for you? You just felt like, let me do something, because I felt like we started a week before lockdowns began to happen, and that allowed us to get a little bit more serious about it, because what the hell am I going to do otherwise? I'm stuck in the house.

I know. Yeah. I also have this Sirius XM show.

Yeah.

And it's great. We were in the studio, and then we shifted over and kept doing it from our home studios. And that thing was a lifeline. I mean, we were doing that through such a weird part was great. So I know exactly what you're saying, but my podcast started. I had different iterations of it, and I was always kind of doing it, but kind of like never really focusing on it. It was just like something I did on the side. I went through periods where I'd have great guests and all these great interviews on what was come to papa. And then I had my buddy Paul, who used to open for me. He would be on it, and then it kind of morphed. And then about the timing that you're talking about a week from you guys, I really started just dialing it in and really starting to enjoy it more and kind of had a clear vision of, oh, no, I should really focus on this and have fun with it. If I'm going to continue doing it, I should want to get to the mic and have some fun.

Absolutely.

So that's when it kind of clicked in. It's funny, I have a hesitation of saying anything is a pandemic pursuit, you know what I mean?

Because is it over now?

Yeah, exactly. I bake bread all the time, and I started that a couple of years before the pandemic. And people are like, oh, yeah, because of the pandemic. I'm like, no, I actually do it and like it.

Shut up. I had three children, two of which, during the pandemic and someone's like, oh, pandemic babies. I'm like, no, I don't think that was a pandemic project. We were kind of knocking it. We were doing that long before the pandemic started. But while we're at it, I guess so. But then I can blame all their silliness on the pandemic. I'm like, oh, don't worry about them. They're a pandemic baby.

Yeah, exactly.

When the teacher calls, they're not d.

Students, they're pandemic babies.

The teacher calls and it's like your son tried to gouge somebody's alleys out. Today. He's a pandemic baby. You got to.

Yeah, 2020.

The good old days. I think for Chrissy and I, I think we had something similar happen to us in that it was just something fun to do. At first we said, well, if we're having fun doing it, then why not? And then because 2020 hurt a lot of us financially, then we thought, well, maybe we could make this into a business.

We're still waiting for that to happen, but still trying.

Yeah, the supply chain is back and inflation is down, but still trying to make money off.

Still trying happen. And that's the case with almost every podcaster, I'm sure of it. But then you start to focus a little bit more on what actually is happening on the show. You give it some personality, and then the show takes on its own personality. And I think yours has a, it's got a, it's a great premise. And then you have these comedians mainly, and I'm sure you've had others on, too. But you have these comedians that come in and you sit at this table. On the YouTube version, at least, you sit at this table. It's got a checkered black, red and white checkered table, like an italian tertoria. And you've got a bottle of Chiante sitting there, and you break bread with them. And it's so cool. It's familiar to me. I worked at an italian tertoria for a long time. And I look at that, and it brings back memories of the time that I was working at that tutorial with a bottle of Chiante on every single table. You get so much reverence from your guests. You've been doing this for, I don't want to say so long because I don't want to date you, but I feel like I might have seen you first when you were on Letterman back in the day.

Having done this so long, do you feel now so comfortable getting up on stage and doing a set, or do you still get some nerves around it? What's that feeling, that seven. What do they call seven foot walk? Is that what they call it, the seven foot walk to the mic or something?

It depends on the situation. Of course, 30 years in, I'm very comfortable there. I'm as comfortable there as I am other places, sure. But it depends if it's a new situation. Like, I just had to host this award show last Saturday night, and you're walking into an environment where they aren't there to see me. They may not like comedy. They may not stop talking. It could go horribly wrong. So that day is ruined.

Leaning up to that, how'd it go?

And it went great. They were awesome. They were all paying attention and I got to kill right off the top. And then it was just. I was a hit for the rest of the night, which is not how an award show a month earlier went. The whole time did not care. You were like a substitute teacher and it's just a nightmare. So anyway, if it's an unknown situation, if there's factors that are out of my control, of course the nerves will be there a little more. But if I'm in a theater just doing my thing. You're not nervous, you're heightened. Of course. You're about to walk in front of 1000 people and you're the only one who's supposed to be talking.

Yeah, they paid good money to see you. You don't want to ruin their night.

Yeah. So you're definitely heightened, but not nervous. Back to the way you were describing my podcast with the table checkered thing. I had somebody contact me online and say that it's not pronounced tratoria. It's Tratoria.

Tratoria. Oh, really? Were you saying tratoria? For a while.

She was kind of like, attacking me. Like, you're from New Jersey and you're italian and how dare you call it a tratoria. It's a trateria.

Oh, wow.

Well, that's aggressive. And I'm not really sure you're right.

I don't think so. I had a real italian owner from Italy. Italian. He had just been here for 20 or 30 years. He was an older gentleman, and every one of the managers was exactly the same. Like real italian human beings that had lived in Italy for a portion of their life, shipped over here, I think, just to manage the restaurant and give away free bottles of Keante. And I think they all said, I.

Mean, tratoria sounds cooler, but France? Yeah, I don't know, but she has made me a little self conscious about it. But I do like that aspect of it. I'm hosting in my house all the.

And is that in your house? Do you do that in your house or do you do it in.

No, I have a studio, and we just got this new booth made, which is really cool, fun. I'm working on getting all of the bad headshots and stuff behind us. And that part of it, you got to work. Yeah, but the breaking bread part, I mean, there is that thing that I'm always hosting and doing, and I'm always playing around with, like, do I feed them? Do I do this, do I do that? But I think there's something very funny about the italian grandparent thing of during the podcast. It's hard because you don't want people chewing on Mike that much. Yeah, no, that's very pissed off about that. But here's an espresso. And just keep just in the middle of talking, just eat this, eat this. Have a bite, have this, have more of this. You know what mean? Like, that part to me is really fun.

I think it's very know. Do you know Steve o from know? You don't. Okay, so Steve O came on the show, and one of the things that he know, he's had some very interesting conversations on his podcast, and I find that some of the folks you may not normally think would go talk to Steve O, and they're disarmed by, you know, he has a conversation with him and he says, you know, the key is, Brian, is that I have my dog there, and I roll up in a van to their house, and I host them inside the van so they don't have to go anywhere. They have to do anything. And then I think the dog kind of disarms them. I think in a similar manner, you're breaking bread with them. You're offering them something. And then probably you're friends with almost a lot of these people. You've been around for a while, so I imagine you've done something with them at some point. It seemed like when we were listening to you with Donnell, it seems like obviously, you guys have known each other.

Yeah, but it's an interesting thing. I mean, from the comedy part know, I'm trying to expand outside of know. Yeah, that's the. But the comedy part of it is Danelle and I know each other. We think we know each other even more than we do just because we've seen each other around for so many years in the club. Like, we've never sat down and really talked like we did on that podcast ever. We had maybe a three minute conversation at most, but we'd see each other and just liked each other and liked each other's acts. And knowing that you both come from that world and you've also been doing it the same amount of time, there's just this. It's like when you see a cousin, like when I would bring my kids to see their cousins and they were little and they haven't seen these people ever, or only a couple of times. When they get around family, there's something different and they just light up. Different than seeing a friend. It's that way with the comedians. We don't necessarily have to know each other, but we are part of that same family.

Well, I think there's too, like a journeyman aspect, journey person aspect to comedy. And so there's shared trauma and experiences and joys and highs and lows. Even though you may not have shared that with each other directly, it's kind of like there's a commonality. We've been through this, we've seen this, and Danelle's been around for a long time, too. And so even you see each other in the clubs, and then when you have a chance to take a breath and talk, there's these shared, common experiences that you have. The highs and lows of being in the entertainment business and being definitely a shorthand. Do you still enjoy the travel of getting out now? Do you have two children?

I have two daughters, but they are now in college.

Oh, they're in college. Oh, I thought that they were younger for some reason. I thought they were younger.

No, they just.

Well, good for you left.

Yeah.

Good. You want to swap?

Yeah.

Well, we often joke that I have 13 children, but every one of them is under the age of five years old.

Such a long way to go.

I know, and I think you and I might be of similar age, so just imagine.

Ours are just off to college, too. And I'm like, fuck you.

Yeah.

I know. It's such an intense experience for so many years. Yeah, I feel like I'm really kind of enjoying it, but I know it's a break also, like, I know, like, my daughters are coming home for spring break next week, and it's like, all right, kitchen is going to be a disaster.

Rooms launder.

It's kind of a peaceful thing when they go. It's like 20 years. I think we're allowed to enjoy it. I don't think we have to be pining and just, like, pretending that we're sad all the time?

Do they come home and are they like, hey, dad, can I have $20?

$20?

I'm trying to be nice.

No. It is now, like a highly advanced digital currency. Yeah. They have access to all of my accounts, through all of my apps, Venmo, cash. I went through the subscriptions that I'm paying for.

Subscriptions.

I'm like, what are we paying for? Okay, so I know we have Netflix, and we know we have Hulu. Did we ever get Max? Yeah, we have three versions of Max. We have stars. We have peacock. We have the Hallmark channel and different tiers, because they just see a show and they're like, I'm going to watch this now. And I can press this on my phone and use my dad's account.

Right, exactly.

Hundreds of dollars, Tom.

Let me tell you, even when they're five and under, my five year old has made more damaging charges on my card than I can tell you, because he knows how to work these systems almost better than I do. I walked in the other day and one of my kids is playing, like, this hot wheels game on the iPad. And here I come in there. Oh, cool. Hot wheels, a game you drive and build your own truck. That's really cool. This morning, I wake up and PayPal $119 hot Wheels app. And I'm like, you paid for the hot Wheels app? And I go, there's a code on there. And he goes, yeah, it's 2217.

And I'm like, I got more coins.

Exactly.

There was like, animal. It wasn't Animal farm. It was something like that.

Yeah, I think it was called Animal Farm. I do remember that. Was it an animal game you played on iPhone? Yeah.

And we paid for that for years beyond. When the kids, it was gone. We didn't even know. And then we took a look at it and we're like, wait. And we couldn't find the password because my daughter, at five years old, her password was unicorn, fuzzy, lamb chop, five, four, three.

Right.

And we had no record of it, and they would not let us cancel it. And we went back and forth for years. I gave these people money.

I'm having a fight with one of them right now.

Yeah, you are.

Are you?

Yeah. I was like, everybody, when my twenty s, I went through this reflect, in word, self awareness meditation, which I took a lot away from, but I got involved in buying one of those apps. I don't know if it's a meditation app or one of these things. And they charged me whatever it was. 1999, a month about a year and a half ago, I realized that they're still charging me 1999, a month. I'm sure I've changed debit cards, like, 15 times, right? Yeah. And they're still somehow charging this same account. So I write them and they say, no, that's not us. It's a similar app with a similar name. So then you know how on PayPal they give you the phone, know it says, contact these people? So I google the phone number. It's the same damn application company. So I write back and I say, no, it's not here, look. It's this charge.

Oh, my God.

And they go, well, you have to talk to this department. We'll give you their email address.

Did you meditate on it?

Yeah, I meditated on it. And I said, I'm too old for this bullshit parent. When I didn't have kids, I could be a hippie, but now I'm done with it.

Yes.

No. Zen.

I don't have time for Zen.

I'm a militant hippie. That's what I am. I want to be a militant hippie.

It is ridiculous.

You.

I know. It's almost like you should just get rid of all of your credit cards and start new. The only thing that's going to stop them.

Yeah, well, charge you when I got this. What's that?

I said, they released at the limit. Yeah, that's true. The balance limit.

Eventually. Eventually. Most months, they don't have enough money to charge. Maybe they're just charging me from when I didn't pay them a couple of years ago.

Just max me out.

I wrote him. I said, please, I'm a podcaster. Do you understand?

I work for free.

I'm doing boner pill. Host reads. Just make a living. They don't pay very good, and I have to use them in order to get a personal experience. It's a miserable life I live. I want to ask you a question, because I do think we're all familiar with your work, and some of your work is. Chrissy and I were going over it before the interview. I mean, you were in the informant, which is a brilliant movie, by the way, and you're so good in that movie behind the Candelabra. But I do remember seeing you first, maybe on Letterman, because I was a deadhead Letterman watcher. Like, I loved it. I had to watch it every single night. And it seems like you were on almost every one of those late night television shows. I mean, you went through all of. When you went, I just have a question about the minutiae of all of that, when you would go on those shows, were the experiences vastly different from show to show, depending on who the host was or who the crew was, or did you have a favorite? Was there one show was like, oh, this is so laid back.

I enjoy these crowds. I enjoy these people. Or was it just kind of like, I'm so nervous about going out in front of 12 million people now.

They were pretty similar. You're pretty locked into what you do. And the crowds are always pretty great, pumped up, warm up guy, and they're excited to be there. And all of that mean the rooms could be a little different. Like Conan's back in the day was like the audience was far up in the rafters, nothing down low. And the Letterman, where Colbert is now, that Sullivan theater, it was like Nirvana. It was just such a perfect atmosphere of real theater seating, and the balcony even was right on top of you. And it was only the structure of the room that changed because you were doing your thing your way. And it's a great kind of environment for. Yeah, they were fun to do, for sure.

Do you remember Eddie Brill from Letterman? He was one of the guys who, I guess coordinated. I don't know if you were ever on Clubhouse, which was a thing during the pandemic, for six and a half minutes, it was like that audio.

I never did that.

Yeah. For six and a half minutes, literally was the hottest thing on earth, and then it's just gone away. But I met Eddie on that app, and we did some rooms together and some interviews together, and he would tell us about the minutiae behind the scenes at Letterman. And that kind of stuff was always fascinating to me as, like, how it all worked and how it all ticked. I think late night in general seems like it might be going crazy.

It is definitely different.

I mean, there's still a thing I could see with young comics where they want to check off the Tonight show, but it's crazy. The impact of it is just so different. Now you can go on a great podcast or have your own podcast or just have your own joke on TikTok, and more people will see it than will see that late night show.

Absolutely.

Which is so bizarre because it's still fun to do. Those shows are still great, but it's almost like the infrastructure, even for doing those shows is so they can get content for social media.

Social media, right.

It's such a bizarre. I mean, it's so fun. You get to go in and you're in a dressing room, and there's somebody cool on the show, and this host is amazing. And you walk out and the cameras and it's show business. It's like, it's so great. Glitzy and glamor, but the impact that it has for your career is so diminished from what it was. And I could see it not being a goal for. I mean, I really, truly don't think about it all that much, which is a shame, because I really love the process of it. The great thing as a comedian is to get to do those five minute sets. It was like 20 minutes of material boiled down to this perfect set. So it always kept you sharp, it always kept you refining and writing, and it was a good thing that kept you really in shape and really diligent about your act. And that is kind of know, it's not the, yeah, now it's like, just, how about do an hour special? And if you're lucky enough to be on the streamers, great. And if not, post it on YouTube yourself and see if the audience likes it.

That's it. You can be self produced in a lot of ways. We were talking to this young comic, Hannah Burner, the other day, and she was explaining the social media is the great equalizer when it comes to comedy now, because maybe not in all cases, but in her case, where she's putting out a lot of content, Netflix special and all this other stuff, she's like, I don't think without social media I would have been able to go into some of these clubs at two in the morning and jersey and knock around sets, because it's just a different vibe. But when I reach my audience directly with social media, then I can kind of engineer it backwards where now I can go into the clubs at midnight and be opening for a headliner, and it feels different. She doesn't need the benefit of these late night shows. I think even Jon Stewart said one time when he retired. The first time he said, it's just different. Know Trevor Noah went on to the Daily show and killed it because he put those clips on social media. And the one in two minute clips are what people saw of the Daily show.

That's how they knew the Daily show, not from watching the Daily show, from the clips on social media. Do you find social media to be an interesting process for you? Or is it like, I'm doing it because I want to reach out to my audience and stay connected with them, but it's not my favorite part of comedy.

It took some time to get into understand it just because I was so from the old model of trained in the way of doing it. It took me a beat, but I do really enjoy it. It's insane that you have a TV studio in your pocket. Yeah, you literally have a, like, I can literally take my phone and put it on a stand and roll some, need some bread dough in my kitchen and put it up and 500,000 people get to watch it. I mean, that's insane.

That is kind of crazy.

As a comedian, you don't get into this business to be anonymous. So the idea that you can do that is exciting. I think it takes a beat to learn how to do it your way. And I think you also, with having your own studio in your pocket, you also need help. You also need people to cut down your clips and narrate them or caption them and do all that other stuff. And I think now at this point, I've figured it out and have the right people in place to do it. And I like it. I mean, other than that, like tratoria lady, most people are nice, right?

I was going to say the personal interaction, which can be good and bad.

Which can be good. And by the way, you said that nobody gets in this to be anonymous, Chrissy. And I actually did this to become anonymous. It's working just great. I'll let you know that.

Good for you.

I can walk into any store. I'm not fearful, but I have a face for.

I host. Wait, on. Wait, wait, don't tell me. And I get to guest host it sometimes and also appear on it. And that has such a huge reach, that show. And it's funny how many places I'll be in and people don't recognize me, and then they hear me order my coffee and they're like, hey, it's literally the voice more than the face. It is a very strange thing.

It ticks it off. Yeah. I mean, that's a huge show, right?

I love that.

Must reach, I don't know, whatever, millions of people.

Yeah. One of the producers was saying the other day, or last time I guest hosted, was that when Jon Stewart came back to the Daily show and they were talking about how great it was that their ratings were up to like a million two or something, and they were all so excited that the Daily show had got those numbers again. And that's half of what? Wait, don't tell me.

Wow, that's insane. But you can have a podcast and reach millions of people or millions of downloads, too. I mean, you're right about it. It's like the RSS feed isn't technology agnostic. You put it out there, and if people like it, they'll find you. I don't know. I think every one of the people that we have interviewed, comic wise, in 2024, at least everyone has a podcast. And that's because it's just an extension of the brand. It's another place to practice. It's another place to get your voice out there. And like you said about having 500,000 people watch, you need bread. You might go on, I don't know, maybe you go on Jimmy Kimmel these days, right? And there might be a million and a half people watching, but the difference is this, a million and a half people, probably not every one of them. You're their brand. You're their flavor of comedy, right? But if you do half a million people watching your Instagram reel, it's likely most of those people are engaged in content that is similar or they have directly said, I want to see Tom Papa's content. Right. So it's like you're curating that audience and feeding them directly as opposed to showing up on a late night show once every three months and saying, oh, there's know I hope I like.

Yeah, it's definitely more of a conversation. I mean, think about how bizarre it is even to go through the search on Instagram and you're seeing Anthony Hopkins or Robert De Niro, like these giants, like, in their kitchen, they're doing meme videos. Access. Yeah, I mean, the access is kind of insane. It's insane. Like, if I was a kid, like, I've got that George Carlin painting behind me. If I was back to when I was 16, discovering him, and then I could be on my phone and see him talking to me and then hear him talk on podcasts, and all I had was HBO pop up on a special, and then once in a while, he'd do late night, and that was it. And you just walked around waiting for the next time you got to hear something from George. And as a kid, I mean, it would be the coolest thing ever if.

I could digest all of that. Absolutely.

But it does also, I think, take.

Away some of the mystique, a little.

Bit of the know. Like, I love that my friend Matt Damon is not on. Like, I like that. I think it helps. I think when he does a film, people are excited to see him.

You're right.

Rather than see him at the beach or at the mall or in a game, it's nice to have, but that's different. I think movie stars is a different thing. I think at comics, it's like, I think the machine is built that you're supposed to be putting out funny stuff, and there's all these places to do it, so you just got to constantly feed it. I don't think comedians really have much allure.

Well, I think there certainly are comedians, I'm sure we could say, have had allure, like, right. Like Eddie Murphy back in the 80s, George Carlin. There was just this certain sheen about them. They were really good at what they do, but they weren't as accessible. And I think it does take away some of the mystique, because it makes you realize as a fan just how everyday, common, your celebrity, whatever, the person that you like is just like you doing the things that you do. But you're right about Carlin. Part of the reason why I think of George Carlin as kind of like a comedy God is because there's only so much we know about him, right? There's only so much that's out there. And I don't know what George Carlin was making for breakfast. I have no idea. I don't know what he thought of eggs and strudel down to the restaurant down the street. Yeah.

And he didn't even talk about his family in his act. It was all issues. And I think that's why it lasted more than other comics. But we also left you wanting to know. Wait, like when his daughter started her show and we got to hear it, you were thirsty for it.

Yes.

You wanted to know more about it.

Absolutely.

Yeah. It is an interesting time, but I think that, look, I think for comedians specifically, it's just our job to create funny stuff and stuff that connects, and you should be constantly mining it and constantly developing it for the sake of creating it and developing it and how it gets sold and who all that stuff is extra. I don't think you can go into any of these things, social media, the podcast, thinking, I'm trying to get people. I think it's got to be, I am expressing this. I'm having fun with this. I'm putting this out in the world.

Yeah.

I think that keeps you interested in making it, and then maybe people will show up.

I don't know if Chrissy feels the same way. We've talked about this, but I feel like the energy, I think we're best when we're not worried about who the next listener is, when it's just kind of coming through us right when we're here creating the energy is here. It's in the right now, and we're having fun with it. And it's two best friends just shitting around. And that doesn't mean you're not going.

To have lulls and be like, I just talked to her yesterday. I'm tired.

Exactly.

Chrissy says that. That's actually what she says every day when she comes in.

She's like, I just, you know, it would be really good if you could download some kind of meditation app to your phone that you could listen to right before you did the show.

Exactly right.

I'm paying for one. I wish I had my login.

You might as well use it. You're paying for it.

My next email should be not cancel my subscription, but can you get my login? If you're not going to refund me, at least let me use the fucking app, for God's sake.

Yeah.

Is Carlin a huge influence on you? Is he one of your tops as far as comedy is?

Yeah, for sure. It was early, like, before I was a comic. It was Eddie Murphy, it was Carlin, it was Cosby, Steve Martin.

Oh, yeah.

Those were like, the first ones that I really kind of. Richard Pryor. The first ones that at that age, when they were. I was just realizing that was a job. There are grown ups doing this for a living.

It's like the four horsemen of 80s comedy right there.

Yeah, but Carlin, I think 70s. Yeah. I just think that over his career, just watching his integrity, he could be silly, but the integrity of trying to be great and trying to communicate was really inspiring. I think he was probably the top one.

He had a way of looking at the world and making it all make sense and knocking down hypocrisy at every turn, especially toward the end of his career, that I just think there's no one so good at that sense who has been, at least in my opinion, who has been as rhythmic, as musical, as on top of it, as quick as Carlin was at his best, in my opinion.

Well, if you ever listen to interviews, he really treated stand up with such. He really was a student of the craft and wording and pacing and different types of jokes and how he would go about putting it all together. I mean, he really was a taskmaster. That part of it. I gravitate towards the ones who are a little more written, who are really kind of attack it that way. That's when I worked with Jerry Seinfeld for years. That was a perfect. He's of that ilk, and just to watch them play with words and really just treat it with respect, like you put all this stuff into it and you get this great life back. Those are great.

Are you one of those, like, a studyer of the craft? And you spend a lot of time kind of breaking down what other people that you admire are doing and how they're doing it?

Yeah, I think that was the biggest. The thing that calmed me down the most as a young comic was learning that it was a craft that you could get better at. This wasn't this just vibe of, you were all funny when you start, but then how do you harness that into being a stand up comedian for your life? And that there was actually rules to it and you could actually craft it and all of that, that there was a working structure to it was really calmed me down and made me realize, oh, I can do this in increments, and as long as I keep doing it the right way, I should be getting better each year.

Is that because there was, like, you found a method in the madness? Like, you get out there at first, and you're just, like, trying to find what's funny, but then you realize, like, hey, there's, like, a math to this, there's a science and an art to this, and I can.

Yeah, I think it's also finding examples of people that you could emulate, because you work that way. When I was starting in New York, there were guys that would just get up there and riff and Chappelle would go up and just be up there for an hour, and David tell would be smoking cigarettes and look like he just came out of his apartment onto the stage, and it was like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm that guy. I don't know if I'm that guy. But when I would hang out with, like, Colin Quinn and Jerry Seinfeld, and it was like, oh, no, these are writers. And even Carlin said he was a writer before he was a comedian. He considered himself a like. Then I was like, oh, okay. So that makes sense to me that I could take my notebook to the diner and sit there every morning and go over my. That makes sense because I never look cool holding a cigarette.

I never did, either, but I sure did enjoy it for a hot minute. This is. It seems like things turned out okay for you, Tom. I'm just sharing that with everything worked.

Out, maybe it could all fall apart at any second.

Riding the rail, though. I mean, that's what I say. I say we're riding the rail, and it sure does feel fun. It's fun while it lasts, right? And I think, yeah, it's funny.

The thing I'm going through now is like, okay, I've been doing this for a long time, but I have barely a sense of that. When I run into other people my age that have run businesses or they're politicians, you'll read stories. And it's like, I do not see myself as them. I still see myself as, like, the 25 year old being like, right, guys?

Right?

The things I say.

Is that funny?

I don't think I've grown up yet. Yeah, I don't think I've grown up completely. Like, I have a family, I pay my bills, I do things. But there's another part of me that truly, truly feels like I just got here and I'm like, is this going to work?

You know what's funny is that Chrissy and I were having this conversation, is that I think we see you as kind of the opposite. Like, as one of the statesmen of comedy, one of the people who has made it, and one of the people who is consistently on their game. But I know that facade. He's like, no, it's not true.

Yeah, I think the part of it, I don't know. I mean, it could be a mental deficiency, but it could also be if you're constantly making stuff, you're always going to be a little vulnerable. If you're always trying to make stuff and feel like, will this be better than the last time? Does anybody like it? You always kind of have this feeling of uncertainty.

Sure.

You're never really on solid ground, so I think that that makes you feel. It may not be youthful, but it makes you feel vulnerable. So as much as you can have things on your resume and all that, you still feel a little wobbly when you've got to take this new dumb idea that you have and think that it's important enough for all these people to listen to it and respond the way that you want them to.

Yeah, but you don't want to become fat Elvis, right? It's like you want that kind of uncertainty because I think that drives a little bit of ambition. I felt like if I came in here and thought that I was the hottest podcaster, said sliced bread, which I know I'm not, but coming in here with a little bit of humility and believing that, not believing your own hype or not believe. There's an old. I don't know what it is. It's from Buddhism, and it says, don't believe the good news or the bad news.

Right?

Don't believe the good news or the bad news. None of it's real. And I think that that's a good kind of mindset to have when you're creating is. I think that's part of the ambition. It drives the hunger, and it makes you want to be better. If you thought you were the shit, you would say, well, I got nothing left to do. Right? I'm here. That's it. Matt Damon. I don't need to do anything else.

I'm the best.

No offense to Matt. Tom, I wish we could spend another 2 hours with you because you're such a good conversation.

I do have one more question. What is your favorite bread? I'm a huge bread fan.

My favorite bread to make is it's all sourdough based. It all comes from that method and using that starter as your yeast. My favorite bread is this olive loaf. It has like, green olive and calamata olives, herbs de provence and lemon zest.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my God.

Mushed into it.

Yeah.

That bread is like that one. Really?

That sounds incredible.

Yes. I got to let you go because I have some wonder bread in the pantry.

I just made a whole batch of sourdough english muffins. Good for you. Sourdough recipes.

I've never done that, but people say that's very satisfying.

I wish you would bring those in here.

Sorry. Eating them all at my house.

I thought we were best friends. Yeah, I thought you liked me. Never believe in your own hype. It's not true. Tom, thank you. We will have you back because I'd like to finish this conversation. I'd like to debate cruising with you that we didn't get to, but I'd.

Like you to debate cruising. I agree personally with you, Tom. Brian, cruiser, though.

Well, listen, I also have 15 small children and cruises are a great place to just huddle them all up. And what's the worst that can happen? Yeah.

If you get killed by E. Coli. You did your best.

At least I'm getting some sun, right? There you go, Tom. Papa, he's on tour. He has a new book, multiple Netflix specials. He's done it all. And anytime you want to invited us to the tratoria, we would be happy.

Yes.

We'Re sticking with the wrong. We're right.

Thank you so much. We'll put all of the pertinents inside of the show notes, as we all do. Thank you, Tom. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

I'll see you again.

Okay, thanks.

I don't even think those letters are in the word. It makes no sense that it said Trataria, but of course I'm going to be called out on this. And we're going to get hundreds of text messages of people telling me just how wrong I am. But I swear that those managers used to say tratoria. But anyway, Tom Papa was fantastic.

I have loved him for so long. I was a little starstruck. I was, be honest.

Yeah, I think I was.

But he was like so nice and disarming.

He was down to earth. Totally disarming. He is one of the statesman's, I'm not going to say elder statesman statesman because he's not that old, but he's like one of the statesmen of comedy. He's been through it 30 years. He's been doing comedy. He's been on every late night show under the sun.

He's just wrote for Saturday Night Live, wrote for SNL, seinfeld.

Didn't he do something with a daily show for a little while? I mean, the guy is great and he is constantly.

What an honor.

Yeah, what an honor. And he's constantly on tour. And we would love it if you go to tompapa.com, get his new book, which is, I'm sure, great. I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's great.

I'm going to read it.

You are?

I'm a book reader.

Yeah. You have time to do that kind of stuff? I do. You read and let me know how it.

I'll give you the cliff notes.

I can't even believe I got that far in Reggie Watts's book, to be honest with you. I was like reading pages while my kids were taking a bath. It was kind of insane.

Yeah. It's called we are all in this together. So make some room.

Make some room.

Yes.

And he's a great bread maker and.

I hope that he does wonderful bread.

Yeah.

What, from scratch.

You know, I thought I heard him say, you have to come to my show to get that bread. So can we come to your show, Tom? Is the question that we forgot to ask you directly, but Chrissy pointed out long ago, when you ask them on air if they'll come back to your show, if you can be back on their show, of course they're going to say yes. They're not going to be a dick. I would be honest about it if someone asked know if I was like a guest on their show. We'll see. It's like parenting by distraction. It's like, okay, let's clean up your room and eat dinner and then we'll talk about the Mickey Mouse watch. Okay. In hopes that you forget it. But of course they don't because they're like little animals with cages in our brains and they don't do it. And you know what I really enjoyed? I enjoyed when he was talking about, and, you know, being a student of comedy, I like that. I like that kind of talk. I know it might may bore some of the audience, but I like it. I like talking like that.

I do, too. In this day and age now, everything's kind of instant, happens quick and you can say some funny things and get traction going viral, but can you sustain from the old school, which is tried and true, quite frankly, I agree. Yeah. You hone your craft for the length of your career. Yeah, you have to hone your craft.

Yeah, it's kind of like us. Like we managed to be funny enough to get some listeners. But have we really done anything since then that has improved our craft? Probably not.

We got a new curtain.

We did.

We got a new curtain.

We updated the third room we've been in. So there we go. We updated the logo. What else do you guys want from us? How much more can you ask from this stupid podcast? It's free. It's not like going to see Tom. And you pay $70 for good seats, right? You don't pay anything here. So don't complain if we're not students of the podcast craft, because I don't even know what that means.

I don't think there's a school.

Listen, we're two white people pretending to be funny. There's a thousand of us out there. It's like we multiplied during the pandemic. I like when he said that, too. People ask me, is a pandemic project. Not really. I actually thought of that on my own without the help of the pandemic. Thanks very much. Tom was great, man. Tom was great.

Fantastic.

Tom goes on the list. I can't think of too many people we've had in 2024 that don't go on the list. I know of people we didn't have enough time with just a little, like pull the magic, the curtain back a little bit. And I'm sure it doesn't take a genius to figure this out, but we have a little bit of conversation, probably two or three minutes before we actually bring them on air. And so during the break. So when we do that, we just say hello and we don't want to.

Waste all the good talking technical stuff work.

Yeah. Make sure that you guys can actually hear them and so make sure we actually record the segment we're about to do. So you can actually hear it. But when we were saying hello to Tom, I forgot what I was going to say.

There you go.

I am not a child.

I thought it was funny in the couple of minutes before we actually did the interview that he was trying to go full screen to see us and said that he was able to, and he said, oh, okay, good. If it was a bad picture, I.

Was going to minimize. Yeah, I think we should just go with a dark screen. You know how on zoom you can just like. That's a little tile that has Brian and your first initial, like B. Why me? Why? Even if we put this on YouTube, people aren't there to see us. They don't care. Even on YouTube, our audio version gets so much more dramatic than our video version. I'm just embarrassed. I'm like, people really don't like the way that I look.

I'm sure like it that way, though. It keeps the pressure down.

Yeah, it keeps the pressure down that way. We're not going to become famous. Like Tom said, we're not superstars. We're. No, Matt Damon's here. All right, well, we want to thank Tom for coming on tompapa.com for all things Tom Papa. Tickets to his live events, his live shows. You can get the book straight from there.

I think we should send him a bottle of.

That tremoria, whatever that lady.

Wanted to call it.

Yeah, it's not a tremoria. It's a tratoria. The street cafe. I think that's what it means. Like on the street. Tratoria means street. Yes, I think. Right? In Italian. You're italian.

I know. I've been to Italy and.

You've been to Italy?

I've been to. I'm sticking with Tratoria.

It's your mother tongue. You don't know it. Okay, all right. Okay. Hey, listen, you know what? We're going to start a whole new segment here on the commercial break. Then we would love you to be a part of it. Ask TCB live. And I don't mean live like you'll be hearing it live. I mean live like you come on the show and we talk to you about it. We'll answer your questions. We'll give you life advice. We want to hear all about you, the average Joe, the regular listener. Not like famous people like us and Tom Papa. I love how we compared. I was comparing our podcast and he's like, yeah, actually, I've been doing this for a lot longer than you have. He called me out. But anyway, we want you on the program, and we're super excited about this new segment, so please do us a favor to aisle us up. 212433 TCB. That's 121-2433 TCB. Text us. Tell us you're willing to come on the show. Give us a little synopsis about what you want to discuss, and we will contact you for future communication. You can also drop us comments, questions, content, ideas, and concerns right there to that same line.

Or leave us a voice message, or we may play it on air here on the commercial break tcbpodcast.com that's where you go. You find out more about the show. You can get all the audio and all the video from one location. Tcbpodcast.com also get your free piggy fronting sticker by hitting the Contact us button drop down menu. I want my free sticker. Give us your address, we'll send it to you. No problem. No musk, no fuss. At the commercial break on Instagram TCB podcast on TikTok and YouTube.com slash the commercial break for audio version, the RSS feed version. You can now listen to it on YouTube. And the video version, we put all of our interviews up there. We love you to death. Thanks again to tompapatompapa.com. Okay, Chrissy, I guess that's all I can do for today.

I think so.

But I'll tell you that I love you.

I love you, best to you, best.

To you, and best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say we do say, and we must say goodbye.