First ever live chat with Paul F. Tompkins

I was on Twitter this morning after my walk with Gypsy, just checking to see what people were saying. I saw Janie Haddad's tweet saying her husband Paul F. Tompkins (One of the funniest men I know) was going to do a live chat at 7pm. That meant, that this was going to happen at 7:30am my time. It was 6:45am then and I looked at the website and decided to go on for half an hour before I had to leave for work!

I registered or RSVP'd as they called it and got ready before 7:30am. I had no clue how this would work and the website kept asking me if my web cam was working and if I could hear! I said yes to both!

By the time I figured all this out, Paul had already come on and was answering questions. I saw the "Ask a question" tab and clicked on it. I asked my question and then tried once again to figure out how it worked and when my question would be answered. Suddenly, my web cam came on and a pop-up said that my question was voted to the top and that I had to get ready to answer it! Then I got a little nervous!

I mean, I was going to talk to one of the world's funniest people, and I certainly didn't want to sound idiotic! I rehearsed my question in my head and then my face filled the screen! Paul recognised me from Twitter (We've had our conversations!) and said "Ah, Romy Skye from Bangalore! How are you? It's good to finally see (or meet?) you!" (I have a somewhat eidetic memory) and I said "It's great to see you too" and then proceeded to blurt out my question, jumbling words (of course this would happen)!! Luckily Paul was kind enough to blame the great distance between us for static and I repeated the question slowly and he got it! My question was "What is your favourite worst food combination?" Mine is a jam, ketchup and cheese sandwich. He said something about a Philadelphia specialty with the leftovers of a hot dog and eggs.

At least that is what I think he said, since I am not American and I am a vegetarian and have limited knowledge of meat and eggs! He then said that Janie liked boiled peanuts and made fun of wet peanuts until I told him I loved them too!!! I died laughing at his pained what-is-the-world-coming-to expression!

For those of you who don't know, boiled peanuts is a VERY popular snack here! It's boiled in salt water and sometimes people put some lime, cut up some onions and tomatoes and eat it as a snack with beer!

I found out that you type a question, the other people online vote for it and if it's popular, you get lined up and get to ask Paul your question. I asked two more - "What is your favourite TV show right now?" and "Describe your first stand-up performance". My TV show thing was picked up and I asked him. He said that it was Mad Men and Breaking Bad on the drama side and The Colbert Report on the comedy side.

I have to say that I do not watch Mad Men or Breaking Bad - they don't air here (But I have watched Panel discussions with Janie Haddad! HA!) but I have watched The Colbert Report (YouTube) and that is just amazing!

As I was running out of time and a lot of the video chatters were asking multiple questions, I asked if I could ask another question and he said that I could. I asked about stand-up and he said that he didn't remember anything about the actual show, but he remembered everything before (feeling nervous/excited) and after - the exhilaration of having done it!

Then I had to leave as it was 7:57 and I had to be out the door at 8! The funny thing was that just as I was leaving, the website asked if I was ready to have my stand up question lined up!!! HA! I didn't feel bad cause I asked him two questions then!

It was such an amazing Thursday morning!!! Thanks so much Paul for doing this and I really hope you can come to India one day and thanks Janie for tweeting about it!!