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Grand Delusion
Alternative style stand-up Paul F. Tompkins shines in extended new special
By Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief
A hallmark example of this in Tompkins’ special is his tale about
having a part in the movie “Magnolia” that eventually got cut, and
being at a table reading of the script, where his misreading of his
lines was called attention to by none other than the most famous
person in the world – Tom Cruise, who had a small part in the movie
that definitely didn’t get cut. Tompkins telling of this story finds
him taking that incredulous amazed tone deployed so well in his
extended set on the Comedy Death-Ray compilation album.
Tompkins can marvel at little occurrences and build them up with
that escalating tone of his – it might be annoying to some but
amusing to others, and definitely effective. As alluded to by the
title of the special, a large amount of the theme of this
performance is about Tompkins’ past retail jobs and endeavors in the
lower levels of show business, like being pelted with ice in an
early unsuccessful stand-up gig. And there’s whole portions of the
set devoted to working in video stores – one that only rented
Betamax tapes (for the uninitiated, an unsuccessful early 1980s
video format) and another where Tompkins regularly stole titles from
the library until the owner finally caught on.
On being fired from that gig, Tompkins had to sign a confession and
was told he was no longer welcome in the store. “Really?” he says,
in that trademark tone, “You don’t want me as a customer anymore
either? Because I thought that went without saying.”
“Laboring Under Delusions” definitely finds Tompkins at his best, and the 90 minutes or so goes by all too fast.
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