Tom Papa: You’re Doing Great!

  • 15 Feb - 21 Feb, 2020
  • Mag The Weekly
  • TV TIME

With all the humour, watch for gags!

Even if you don’t recognise Papa, there’s more likely a chance you’ve heard him recently, especially if you listen to the radio. Papa is the head writer and regular contributor for Live from Here with Chris Thile, the weekly public radio show that replaced A Prairie Home Companion. He also co-hosts a morning radio show with Fortune Feimster. Feimster’s Netflix debut just came out last month, and now its Papa’s turn. While Feimster’s hour was deeply personal, Papa’s keeps the focus of his humour on his audience, whom he wants to reassure in this divisive, troubling times. “Calm down. You’re doing great!” he says. “Life isn’t perfect. It never was, and it never will be. We’ve all got stuff to deal with. You’re doing great.” Papa’s observational humour feels like an amalgam of contemporaries like Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan, with the suit and the punctuation of punch lines showing influences of Seinfeld (with whom Papa used to tour more regularly before breaking out as his own headliner). There’s a bit, excerpted in the trailer, in which Papa imagines waking up one of his daughters in the middle of the night, questioning himself really about whether he’s going to make it. In real life, Papa has made it, with his multiple radio gigs and steady touring schedule. But the bit speaks to the self-doubt that creeps into our thoughts, for which Papa perhaps rightly blames not just social media but also the news. You might not feel inspired to save the world after watching this hour, but you may just save yourself.

– Compilation

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