#882 - Tom Papa

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Confusion.

Tom Papa (0:00)

If you don't get it, you don't get it.

Joe Rogan (0:02)

They're about subterfuge. And we're live, Tom Papa, who has a special this Friday coming out on EPIX.

Tom Papa (0:10)

Oh, no way!

What kind of special? It's comedy.

SPEAKER_3 (0:17)

Hilarious and gregarious.

Tom Papa (0:19)

So charming.

SPEAKER_3 (0:21)

He's a fucking sourdough expert.

Tom Papa (0:25)

The Sultan of Sourdough.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Where'd you film your special?

Tom Papa (0:28)

Cleveland.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

Cleveland's fun.

Tom Papa (0:30)

I love Cleveland.

Joe Rogan (0:31)

It's a good place to do it.

Tom Papa (0:32)

I've been going there for a long time, and I love the people in Cleveland.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

Where'd you do it? What place?

Tom Papa (0:37)

Hanna Theater.

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Yeah?

Tom Papa (0:38)

In Playhouse Square District kind of thing. Really nice theater.

And, you know, I've been going to Cleveland for a long time. I like the people there. It's got that good mix of, you know, hopefulness but grounded in reality.

Joe Rogan (0:54)

It's making a comeback.

Tom Papa (0:56)

It is.

Joe Rogan (0:56)

That city is really making a comeback. A lot of, like, craft stores and craft breweries and nice restaurants.

Tom Papa (1:02)

When I started going there, you couldn't eat healthy if you tried. Like, it was just corned beef, and now, you know, 15 years later, there's vegan restaurants. There's all these, like, you know, these noodle places. It's just, it's completely come up. But, you know, when LeBron left, they were devastated.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

How crazy is that? That one guy.

Tom Papa (1:24)

The whole city dipped.

Joe Rogan (1:25)

He throws a ball into a hole.

Tom Papa (1:27)

Completely. They took his banner off the side of the building, and it was over.

And since he came back and then won it, it's changed the whole place.

Joe Rogan (1:37)

I remember how much they hated him when he left. I was like, this is ridiculous.

Why are you so mad? The guy had to get some money.

Tom Papa (1:44)

But it was real.

It was real. Like, there's a difference when you go there now. People, there's like a pride. They're walking around, like.

Joe Rogan (1:50)

Well, they have the heavyweight champion of the UFC too.

Tom Papa (1:52)

Oh, they do?

Joe Rogan (1:53)

Miochuk, he's from Cleveland.

Tom Papa (1:54)

He's from Cleveland too?

And the baseball team went to the World Series. So they were like really like pretty cocky. Bad motherfuckers. But they have the Browns, which always.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

Is that bad?

Tom Papa (2:04)

They're bad.

Joe Rogan (2:04)

But they had Jim Brown.

Tom Papa (2:06)

They had Jim Brown.

Joe Rogan (2:07)

But still, that's in the past.

Tom Papa (2:08)

They haven't won one game.

They haven't won one game this year. Really? The football team, yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:13)

How many games they played?

Tom Papa (2:14)

We're up to nine or ten.

Joe Rogan (2:17)

Hey, give them some time.

Tom Papa (2:19)

They'll work it out.

No, but I really love that city, and I really liked it for stand up, and I figured it was a good mile marker. You do these specials, and it's like, okay, this was this period. And I figured this was a good place. I'd like to commemorate my time in Cleveland and this material at this point, and it was good.

Joe Rogan (2:40)

How often do you like to do specials?

Tom Papa (2:44)

This is my fourth. And they come every like two and a half years.

Joe Rogan (2:50)

Yeah, it's pretty much the standard number now. Everyone seems to like a lot of guys were trying to do them every year. Like Louis was doing one every year for a while. But then he was like, you know what? They're not as good when I do it once a year.

Tom Papa (3:01)

They're not.

I call them premise pilots.

There's a lot over the last five years, a lot of premise pilots, like people just rushing them out. And it's like, yeah, that's a good idea. Imagine in three years what that joke would be. You know what I mean? And that's the thing, I think even two and a half years, and I try and just do it when it's ready, but I feel like two and a half years is kind of rushing it. There's jokes. If they stay in your act for five years, it's no joke that that thing becomes something different.

Joe Rogan (3:32)

They become better.

Tom Papa (3:33)

They become better.