Paul F. Tompkins: You Should Have Told Me

Mr. Tompkins enters the set and begins to offer his anecdotes and observations. It looks like a comedy club he is in, and there appears to be a live audience -- you can hear two guys laughing nervously at the jokes.

Unhappily, while the situations are decent, Mr. Tompkins offers them in a slow, deliberate, overwritten manner with an emphasis that sounds overdone. He does not sound particularly strong on the stage and while I can imagine these being rewritten slightly and being quite funny, Mr. Tompkins does not seem the person to deliver them. In the last half century the role of stand-up comic has changed: no longer do we expect someone to come out and offer short observations and quick jokes. Instead we want to hear a stand-up philosopher. Mr. Tompkins gives us that, but I've heard better.