Comedy Q&A: Paul F. Tompkins and Kristen Schaal

Comedy Q&A: Paul F. Tompkins and Kristen Schaal
by John Wenzel on September 11, 2009

Love among performers in the insular world of stand-up comedy is common. If you play long enough with the same group of people, you’re eventually going to sort your friends from your enemies.

Still, it’s rare when two comedians praise each other as highly and openly as Paul F. Tompkins and Kristen Schaal. The “Best Week Ever” host and “Flight of the Conchords” regular, respectively, have been unabashed fans of each other since performing together on a bill at New York’s Comix in 2006.

“It was one of my favorite shows I’ve ever done,” said Tompkins, a veteran of HBO’s cult sketch comedy “Mr. Show.” “It’s rare when you watch and enjoy the whole show you’re working on. Usually there’s one act on the bill where you’re like, ‘Eh…’ But I watched her whole show every night.”

We chatted with Tompkins and Schaal in advance of their Boulder Theater show on Saturday, Sept. 12, about working together, their upcoming projects and why sex books should be funny.

Q: Paul, you’re heading back to Los Angeles after spending a year in New York as host of “Best Week Ever.” Is the show canceled?

Tompkins: VH1 pulled the show early, before our scheduled hiatus, and they’re going to bring it back in January. Since we can’t be expected to stay out of work for six months, we took it as a cancellation, not so much as a series but for all the people who were working on it. The show might come back, but it would have been great to have stayed home in (L.A.) and not gone through the insanity of moving me and my fiancée across the country on very short notice. We just finished packing up our stuff today and we’re exhausted.

In a few weeks you’ll resume your residency at Largo with “The Paul F. Tompkins show.” What does that consist of, exactly?

We start back up again on Sept. 26. It’s a variety show so I do some stand-up, there’s music, there’s sketch… I have a legit musical guests and they do a short set and we do songs together. There are characters in the show. It’s a really nurturing environment there.

Who are some of the musical guests we can expect?

Well, I can’t say because they’re under contract. If they have gigs that are coming up they can’t be advertised as performing other places. And I usually don’t tell people who the guests are. I try to keep it interesting with the idea that you know it’s going to be something good. It’s a leap of faith, but the show was established enough before that every month you knew you were getting something good.

Kristen, you were recently nominated for an Emmy for your role as Mel in “Flight of the Conchords.” Will that show be coming back for a third season?

Schaal: It’s precarious, so I’m not sure. Everyone is signed on and HBO has agreed to a third season, but we’re all sort of waiting to hear if the guys (co-founders Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement) are into it. I think they’re undecided, so we’re just hanging out until we get the final word. It’s HBO, so it can come out whenever it wants. It’s a little more artistic that way.

Paul, your second CD is coming out this fall, and you have a special on Comedy Central in the spring. How did that come together?

Tompkins: I got an offer to do a DVD (the Comedy Central special) and then I got an offer to do a gig at this place called the Laughing Skull in Atlanta. It’s a really intimate place and only seats 74 people. So I thought it might be a good place to warm up for the DVD taping. Then I thought, “Well, why not just do it there?” The nature of the material was much more personal, so it worked out well. It took some doing to figure it out logistically, but it’s being edited as we speak.

When is it coming out?

I think springtime. I don’t have an exact date. My first CD came out in 2007 on AST Records and my second CD will be coming out in a few months, probably November. That was stuff I recorded at the Lakeshore earlier this year.

And Kristen, I hear you’re writing a romance novel with your boyfriend, who’s a writer for “The Daily Show.” What’s up with that?

Schaal: It’s actually more of a sex book, sort of exploring everything related to sex and also including erotic short stories. But it’s a humorous book. It’s not serious at all.

Do you have any dates together other than your Boulder Theater show?

Tompkins: It’s a one-off but I would love to do it again. Kristen and I did a show together at the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago in 2007, and that was a blast. She’s somebody I really enjoy on and off stage. I just love her sensibility. She’s truly unique and I was so taken with her the first time I saw her at Comix with John Mulaney. I’m so happy we’re actually friends.

Are you actually going to perform with her on this upcoming show?

Tompkins: We were just talking about (the format) last night. We would like to figure out something we can do together as well as our individual sets because it would be a shame to miss an opportunity. Maybe that’s what we open the show with — something collaborative — and then we’ll each do our sets.

Kristen, Paul can’t say enough nice things about you, which is something I’ve found in interviewing everyone from David Cross to Patton Oswalt.

Schaal: Paul might be my favorite stand-up comedian, which is saying a lot because I’ve seen a lot of shows. He’s amazing — and I love his outfits. It’s also going to be his birthday that day so I have to try and cook up something embarrassing to do on stage.

You’ve met and become friends with a ton of great comedians lately, haven’t you? The comedy world is a pretty small one, as you mentioned last time we talked.

It is very small so you do sort of know everybody because you’re all working in the same circles. But I do remember the moment where I felt like I went from watching to performing stand-up with them to actually being their friends. It was funny because it really did sort of happen fairly quickly and after I met everyone it was like, “Wow, there’s no one left to meet!” I mean, not really, but it was a nice feeling.

Are you still doing occasional pieces for “The Daily Show”?

It’s still pretty sporadic and spread out but I’ve done about six pieces. It just depends on when something in the news tickles the imagination. I co-write all the on-camera pieces. I’d love to do a field piece some time for them.

What else has been keeping you busy lately?

I’d love to do more acting work. I really enjoy it, but that’s sort of less in my control than doing stand-up comedy. In the meantime it’s fun to be on stage and grow as a comedian. I feel like I’m in that sort of transition stage right now. The last couple years I’ve been getting away from stand-up and writing and working with Kurt Braunohler, my stand-up comedy partner, but I’m not bringing him this weekend because he’s going on a three-night bachelor party boozer!

Do you use improv much in your stand-up, since you came from that background? Or do you feel like you’ve hit a patch with your stand-up where you like it how it is?

I can’t imagine ever being in a place as a stand-up comedian where I’m like, “I’ve perfected my comedy and there’s no where to go with it.” Just last night I did a gig in Vermont and incorporated the act I have with Kurt into my solo act, sort of a hybrid of both. I like doing stand-up but I really do enjoy being able to have a dialogue with someone other than the audience on stage.

For more information and tickets to the Saturday show, visit the Boulder Theater’s website.

John Wenzel is the co-editor of Reverb, editor of the Get Real Denver blog and an arts and entertainment reporter for The Denver Post. His book “Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny” was recently published by Speck Press.