The Pencil & The Paper Bag: A Tom Papa Story

Hi What A Jokesters!

You're getting this because at some point over the years, you subscribed to my website. Maybe for radio stuff, maybe just out of curiosity. Either way, thanks for being here.

I wanted to let you know I'm actually going to start using this list.

Here’s why: I’ve been producing What A Joke with Papa & Fortune on SiriusXM 93 for six years now, and I realized there’s no real way to stay connected with listeners between episodes. No official website. No place to share the stuff that doesn’t make it on air or to hear from people who actually care about the show.

What surprised me is how many of you signed up anyway—just a simple form on my website, and people kept joining. (I launched the new site on Friday, and by Monday night a ton more people had signed up before I could even get this first note out.) It made me realize there’s an audience for this. People who want to stay connected.

So I’m going to start sending occasional notes—something I noticed, a little context, maybe a question for listeners. Nothing on a schedule. Just when there’s something worth sharing.

Like this:

I love that our show is audio—there’s something pure about it. But there are moments with a host as silly as Tom (and Fortune) where you really need to see what you’re hearing.

This is from our February 10th episode. Tom was drawing with a pencil and playing with a paper bag while we were recording—and had absolutely no idea how loud it was. Charlene and I tried to edit as much of it out as possible. Hopefully it didn’t drive you crazy in the car—but I thought you’d want to see what we were dealing with.

A quick note on feedback: This whole thing is new: the emails, the notes, all of it. I’m figuring it out as I go, and I genuinely want to know what’s useful and what’s not. If there’s something you’d like to see more of (or less of), just reply and let me know. This is for listeners of What A Joke, so if it’s not working for you, I want to hear about it.

If you don’t listen to the show (or just don’t care about this), no problem at all. You can unsubscribe below, or just reply and let me know you’d rather get other updates from me instead.

If you do listen, you’re all set. You’ll hear from me when there’s something worth saying.

You can always reply to these—it goes straight to me.

Thanks for listening,

Joe