A true New Jersey native, Comedian Tom Papa knows a thing or two about funny. Inspired by family and everyday debacles, his 20-year career has spanned multiple Netflix specials, books, television, podcasts, and feature films.
It’s the rare kind of funny that you can sit down and watch with your kids and all have a wholesome laugh—everyone can identify with something, and no one is blushing.
He’s returning to his roots for his latest Grateful Bread Tour with a performance on October 8th at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.
I was lucky to sit down for a lighthearted conversation about his Breaking Bread Podcast, upcoming tour, his love for chocolate chip cookies, and one of his greatest passions—bread.
I wrongly assumed you were one of those COVID sourdough bakers, but you were into it even before sourdough was cool.
I was one of the originals. I was working on a TV show, and one of the other writers had just learned about sourdough starter and what that whole thing was—the living bacteria. I went home and told my family this whole science fiction story, because I had never heard of it. So my daughter, for Christmas, started one for me with flour and water, put it in a bowl, and on Christmas morning gave me this bowl of goo. I always say that my best acting job was pretending to be excited about this bowl of goo as a gift. But I made bread off of it!
Have you had any baking fails?
Oh, I had a ton of fails, and I still do. I say, it’s kind of like standup. You can get really good at it for years, but there’s still the potential for it to all go wrong at any moment, and that’s ok. It’s the nature of the game. It’s a nice way to exist. Because you’re always striving for perfection, but you’ll never get it. It’s kind of humorous that you can have all of these things go wrong. You just keep trying and keep going.
Who babysits the starter when you’re on tour and not home?
My wife has gotten very good at emergency calls when I realize I didn’t feed the starter. In the fridge, it can go for a week and a half. If I suddenly remember it has to be fed before I get home, she’s gotten very good at feeding it through all its different phases.
I watched an episode of your Breaking Bread Podcast, and you interviewed Phil Rosenthal. Entenmann'sdonuts bring him back to his childhood. What is your Entenmann's donut equivalent?
Pop-Tarts are big, which one of my friends just told me is like the worst thing you can eat. Someone made some list of bad foods, but I’m not swayed by that.
Any flavor in particular?
Yeah, strawberry. Frosted.
Is it really a Pop-Tart if it doesn’t have frosting?
Maybe for some of the old-school people, but I don’t think so anymore. I like when it gets a little burnt on the edge of the frosting.
Some savages eat them raw.
I’ll do that sometimes in the pantry quickly so I don’t get caught. Just for speed.
During your episode with Phil, you said you were on a cookie journey.
I love cookies, and I put them in my riders for my tours. So we ask each venue to give us their best cookie that represents the city we’re visiting. We’ve had some really great ones. And it’s actually becoming more of a journey than I even intended.
Are we talking chocolate chip specifically?
Definitely chocolate chip. Is it the size, how thick, how crunchy, all those different elements? Is there a sourdough component to it? We’re starting to experiment with all these little things. It’s also at a time when we’re trying to get in shape, so we’re kind of fighting two battles at once. So far the cookie is winning.
That’s a battle I’m willing to lose.
Me too.
Finish this sentence: The perfect chocolate chip cookie is….
There’s the trend where everyone keeps getting bigger and bigger. Then you can go thin, like Tate’s, but it’s almost too thin. Somewhere in between, there is what I like. You want it to be kind of crunchy but like a thin personality to it. Where it’s a little airy and a little snappy.
All of this love of baking has led to your own line of baking equipment! Tell me how that’s going, and do you feel like Martha Stewart?
I do. I keep joking that I’m the Martha Stewart of comedy. This company, Nambe, is a beautiful houseware company that designs everything from acacia wood. The owner was a fan of my comedy, realized I was a bread baker, and figured we could come up with a line together. We spent about a year designing it because they’re artful and very practical. I’m so proud of it. It’s one of the best launches that Nambe has had as a new product line.
If you put yourself back to the time when you were a young comic, did you ever see yourself having a baking line and selling spatulas?
Haha, no. Not at all. I don’t know what happened. I mean, it kind of makes sense because my comedy is very family-based and very welcoming. But it definitely wasn't what I was thinking when I was doing my first open mics. I wasn’t thinking, I hope this leads to a Dutch oven one day.
Thank you so much for being the kind of comedian families can watch together.
I love hearing that. Sometimes I’ll be signing books after a show, and parents come, and their kids are there with them, and they're all into it. That makes me really happy.
For more info visit: https://tompapa.com/
Purchase tickets at: https://www.mayoarts.org/tickets/
I keep joking that I’m the Martha Stewart of comedy.
You can get really good at it for years, but there’s still the potential for it to all go wrong at any moment, and that’s ok. It’s the nature of the game.