Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler #7: Paul F. Tompkins

Paul F. Tompkins: Fred (Armisen) was a guest on the show and he did this character, and we were at the Nokia Theater, and it was weird. And Fred was bombing and, uh, which is first of all weird to see because Fred is so funny and people know who he is, you know…

Aisha Tyler: And there’s something about familiarity that you already get like a bonus…

PFT: Yes, you get a little buffer so you can get into it. So people were not responding to this character at all and I was watching Fred from the wings and I was thinking, all of a sudden it dawned on me, I bet he thinks its hilarious how poorly he’s doing. Not that he’s trying to do some anti-comedy, he’s not trying to turn people off and he’s not looking for this response but I bet Fred is the kind of guy that finds this kind of funny. And that was a big turning point for me where I realized, you know, I’ve been doing this for a long time and that’s kind of the place you should be. You try your best, you do the best you can to try and turn it around, but if its not going well, it is kind of funny. When its not life or death anymore, “Oh my career is over because I had a bad set.”

Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler #7: Paul F. Tompkins / 8/30/11