Paul F. Tompkins

Ahoy there, Spontonians! Do you have questions about the show? I will answer them! If your first question is: "Paul, will you answer all the questions?" the answer is, "Probably not!" I bet I won't entirely regret doing this. Ask away! Paul

I listen back to every episode, and because everything happens in such a rush in that hour, I am constantly surprised and delighted by the show. Some stuff I remember, but always always always there are things I forgot or didn't fully catch the first time. Episode 101 in particular-- I laughed out loud listening to that one more than any other episode so far,

I bet it's "Lost In Space"

(Psssssst... that was Tawny Newsome)

Well, I guess it's a bit more challenging to develop a story & keep it going with fewer people, but the pressure is a fun pressure. Ultimately, every combination has its own unique challenges AND benefits. With two of us, it's the adrenaline-fueled fun of keeping all the balls in the air with just one partner; with a large group, say, 5 or more people, the resultant chaos delights me.

Hey there! We have gotten a fair amount of comments about the audio on these Bell House shows. We tried floor mics for these shows, because we had hoped to make things simpler when we do road shows, but still preserve the freedom of movement for the performers. We researched the mics thoroughly and spent a good deal of money on them. Us, not Earwolf. Eban and I. The audience was not miked at a higher level than the stage. The layout of the Bell House/our equipment was such that the audience was only minimally miked. We checked and double-checked everything at sound check, but! The audience doesn't come to sound check. The Bell House is a good-sized venue and they can pack a lot of people in there, far more than Largo, and these folks were INTO THE SHOW. We could not have anticipated that their response would be so emphatic. I mean, not without being a little monstrous. We have a couple more live shows that were miked with headset mics and should sound like our Largo shows traditionally have sounded. We will continue to improve the live sound. Thank you all for listening and enjoying the show.

The podcast is NOT ending-- we are just taking a break from live shows in Los Angeles for a while. This will merely be our last live show at Largo.

I really, REALLY don't want to get into this here, but let me just say, time and place, dude. Time and place. I'm asking, as a personal favor, please don't post shit like this here. Especially if you're going to be so disrespectful of peoples' feelings. There are plenty of other places to take this nonsense. You can do what you like, obviously, but I'd prefer you didn't do this. Thanks.

I'd love to do Spontaneanation in Toronto! And I am confident it will happen when all the right conditions are in place. The "300 thing" was a plan that was as useful as it was short-lived! I just book shows now. If I haven't booked a show in a specific place, it's probably a matter of time and/or logistics. The Spontaneanation pins are not for sale-- they are gifts for guests of the show! But speaking of pins AND socks, the Earwolf store DOES offer pins of my face and socks with the Spontaneanation logo!

What this accomplishes, hopefully, is that maybe the clerk will ask someone who has stolen my card to see I.D., and hopefully that person who has stolen my card does not look like me. Also, just looked up the word "indelibly" and you maaaaaaaay be wrong about the "system" I have "created." That's true, at least! Hey, you've really done your research for this bit of scholarly condescension on a comedy podcast discussion forum! Oh, and speaking of archaic practices, it's actually spelled holdover. You don't need the hyphen. And you're double-spacing after your periods. (Neither of the two things you're about to illustrate has ever happened, but go ahead.) I would not point out that they didn't ask for I.D., because I know that I am me and that I am using my card which has not been stolen from me by me. I don't work for the store; I am not the "secret shopper," so my goal when writing "Please ask for I.D." on the back of my card is not to test the cashier. All of these forms of fraud protection are flawed and you're kind of throwing a Hail Mary that anyone will even check a signature. So this is not, actually, any more absurd than a signing the card. If anything, it may deter someone who doesn't have my exact face from using a card that says "See I.D." because what if the cashier does ask? See? So I lose nothing by writing that on my card. It's kind of a lateral move in terms of security, but one that I prefer. Thing is, I'm not an asshole, so I never talk on the phone when a human being is waiting on me. I also don't have kids to wrangle. I also don't live in the cold open of an infomercial. So although you can see these scenarios so clearly, indelibly even, they are not predestined. And maybe your little sketch here says more about you than it does about how ridiculous and thoughtless I am supposedly being? Because it seems like you really have contempt for cashiers. Why? The entire signature 'thing' is a hold-over from the early days of credit cards, when we didn't have ease of electronic transparency and oversight. We already have much better checks and reconciliation for stolen cards and fraud. So it doesn't really matter what's on the back of the card, right? RIGHT? OH THANK GOD YOU WENT BACK AND ADDED THIS JOHN OLIVER-TYPE EVISCERATION TO YOUR FLAWLESS POST THIS IS SOME GOOD COMEDY AND YOU SHOULD QUIT YOUR DAY JOB (IF IT IS NOT ALREADY COMEDY)

While I have no doubt that many listeners are certain they have the "perfect" location and/or question, my experience with soliciting this kind of stuff from the audience is that it leads to me sifting through a lot of, shall we say, LESS-than-perfect responses. And honestly, it's really not ever about the location or the question. It's about what we do with it, where we go from there. If you especially enjoy one episode or particularly despise another it all comes down to what we've done and how you took it in; there are no magic, "can't miss" locations. So I think we're all set. Thank you and I hope you will continue to listen!

Initially I had the second break where it was because I wanted get into the improv right after we met everyone, so the players would be fresh in people's minds when we started playing. In studio, everyone is, of course, there from the very beginning, as anything said up to the improv set is considered fodder for the improv. So the players are present to absorb as much potential material as possible. For the live shows, it would be weird to have the players there from the start without introducing them, so we intro them first. It didn't feel right to take a break in the middle of the set in front of an audience (although I think we do that in the "Sport Club" episode with Kumail Nanjiani). After a while, it just occurred to me that we could do that in the studio, too, and the small distance of an ad or two between meeting our improvisors and the improv itself wouldn't hurt anything. Plus we get to hang out with the improvisors a little more. I am enjoying the change so far!

Well, what happened was, Earwolf had this plan to hold various podcast episodes back for a week for reasons that who cares. So for a few epiodes I was anticipating those episodes being released a week later than they were/will be. I believe things right themselves in a week or so. There are no lost episodes.

LIAR!!! It's "The ContraptionAIRE."

I don't know offhand what the highest number of banked episodes was before the gap started closing. But it was a lot. You could probably piece it together from the plugs at the end of the episodes if you're inclined to do the work (PS: I am not). I believe 10. Get ready to be sad. I will not be there. Hopefully another time!

They do NOT!

It just shook out that way. Due to my various other professional obligations and travel, I was unable to record on weekdays, which is when we record the studio episodes. We contributed with live recordings at Largo and a few other special settings. We have resumed recording studio episodes.

Very close! But I actually crept up on and gave a little scare to EBAN!

I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

Kia Ora! Thank you! I do not know if such a list exists! Likelihood is low, I'm afraid. I haven't yet committed to the cruise for 2017 because I'm not quite sure what my life will be that time next year. It depends on a few different projects whose outcomes have yet to be determined. Also, since I just did the podcast on this last cruise, I'll probably want to do something different next time. Yes! More soon.

That's a real maybe. It'd depend on the quality of the performances & sound and getting music clearances. We shall see!

You won!

Largo keeps that piano TIGHT

This was put up too soon! It was supposed to debut with Episode 53 (the beginning of Spontaneanation's second year). Please be conscientious, friends!

This was put up too soon! It was supposed to debut with Episode 53 (the beginning of Spontaneanation's second year). Please be conscientious, friends!