Tom Scharpling

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Tom Scharpling (born February 9, 1969) is an American comedian, television writer, music video producer, singer, and radio host.

He is best known for hosting The Best Show with Tom Scharpling (formerly The Best Show on WFMU), the voice of Greg Universe in the animated series Steven Universe, and as a writer/executive producer for Monk's television show. Scharpling was also known as a writer on Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Exhibition, Great Job!

He released six albums with comedy partner Jon Wurster under the moniker Scharpling & Wurster beginning in 1999. Scharpling has published articles in GQ, New York Magazine, and Harp.

Scharpling has produced music for The New Pornographers, Ted Leo, Titus Andronicus, Wild Flag, Aimee Mann, Real Estate, Frankie Cosmos, and The Ettes.

Early life

Scharpling was born in New Jersey. He grew up in Dunellen, New Jersey. From a young age, he was a fan of Saturday Night Live and SCTV. He attended Middlesex High School, Middlesex Community College, and Trenton State College. He earned a degree in English. Scharpling worked in Summit, New Jersey, from 1979 to 1999.

He has cited his major comedy influences as Chris Elliott's Get a Life, SCTV, Saturday Night Live, and Martin Short's 1994 absurdist comedy Clifford. Scharpling purchased the suit worn by Short in Clifford later by an eBay auction.

Scharpling had a mental breakdown in his late teens, leading to his admission to a mental hospital; his illness was treated with electroconvulsive therapy, which resulted in some memory loss.

Scharpling developed a passion for cassette tapes and began using the term "Mel Sharples" (the name of a character on the sitcom Alice) for himself when ordering tapes to distinguish himself from his father, who had the same name (Scharpling was also known as Tom Giuliano). He found that he liked having a pseudonym because the new name had no "baggage," including no reference to his previous mental disorder. Mel Sharples was "tweak" and went with "Tom Scharpling"; the surname was based on a combination of two of his heroes' names, activist Al Sharpton, and comedian Garry Shandling's, with a "c" added in for "panache."

Personal life

Scharpling and his wife, fellow WFMU DJ Terre T., lived in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, until mid-2020. Julia Vickerman, his current girlfriend, lives in Los Angeles. He has been a pescatarian since about 1994, and is unlikely to drink alcohol.

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Career

Scharpling began volunteering at WFMU, a New Jersey-based freeform station. In the mid-1990s, he began a music-oriented program on the station. In the late 1990s, he briefly left the station because he "had some personal things to take care of with family and stuff." Scharpling has told interviewers that he prefers radio due to the anxiety he suffers from being onstage.

Scharpling, a writer of the 18 Wheeler fanzine, also ran an independent record store with the same name in the early 1990s. The first 7-inch single by Portastatic was released by Scharpling's label in 1992. He also contributed to the liner notes for the "final" live show in Chicago, courtesy of Guided By Voices' DVD documentary The Electrifying Conclusion.

On October 10, 2000, Scharpling hosted the first episode of The Best Show on WFMU. The program, which included a cast of callers (some authentic, some acting in character), as well as the occasional celebrity guest, was a three-hour comedy, music, call-in, and talk radio show that aired on Tuesday nights. Scharpling received no money from the station, and fans were always encouraged to support the non-profit station by giving elaborate pledge drive gifts.

Almost every episode of The Best Show featured an on-air performance with Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster. The pair met at a concert in the early 1990s and became friends over Chris Elliott's short-lived sitcom Get a Life. Scharpling and Wurster have released six albums of comedy segments from their Stereolaffs record label, The Best Show. The pair seldom performs live, with one of the few exceptions to the rule being when they hosted Matador Records' 21st Anniversary Festival at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas in October 2010.

The August 2010 issue of GQ magazine featured Scharpling No. 1, citing his service on The Best Show as proof. On its list of 37 "Never Not Funny" comedians, 11 of whom have been dubbed one of "the funniest guys you haven't heard about yet" comedians.

Scharpling announced on October 29, 2013 that the final Best Show on WFMU would air on December 17, 2013.

Scharpling revealed on Twitter that The Best Show would return in November 2014, 14 years to the day after the first broadcast. The first episode of The Best Show in its new form, a web-cast and podcast, aired on December 17, 2014, www.bestshow.net. The show's live webcast follows the same format as it did on WFMU, with callers, skits performed by Scharpling and Wurster, and a three-hour run-time.

Scharpling is regarded by some as the "Godfather Of Podcasting." The Best Show episodes had been archived from the start of the show, as had the majority of WFMU's programs in the RealPlayer style. It began podcasting in early 2006 with the songs taken from the latest shows and offered as downloadable files on the internet for the remainder of the station's run, extending the show's reach to a much larger audience than it had expected.

Tom Scharpling was the first writer to be hired for Monk's series. He was recruited by Saturday Night Live writer and fellow WFMU DJ Andy Breckman to be on the show. During the last four seasons of Monk, Scharpling appeared as Monk's executive producer.

He appeared on "The Shaving") as the voice of "Willie Nelson," an awkward, unattractive onion-spider hybrid who lives in the house's attic. He appears on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 3 DVD's special features segment. In addition, Scharpling has occasionally wrote for Tom Goes to the Mayor, and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! In the animated film Steven Universe, Greg Universe is represented by him. In the animated series Adventure Time, he also played Jermaine. Scharpling was a head writer/co-executive producer on season one of HBO's Divorce.

Scharpling has produced a number of music videos, most for groups that he is friends with, but mostly on a very small budget, beginning in August 2010. The shorts usually feature a number of celebrity cameos, and they are often greeted with positive feedback.

In a spoof of Green Day's musical American Idiot, Scharpling's music video for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' "Bottled in Cork" shows the band's participation in a Broadway musical. Paul F. Tompkins as a theater promoter, Julie Klausner as a dance coach, and John Hodgman as a theatre critic are among the film's stars. The video gained "Immortal" status on Funny or Die about a week after it was announced online.

Scharpling was given the news that the band was on tour, meaning they were unable to appear in the short film. Scharpling made a trailer for a fake biographical film about The New Pornographers as a result, with a number of comedy celebrities starring the various members of the band. Wyatt Cenac, Horatio Sanz, Gary Dell'Abate, Todd Barry, Julie Klausner, John Hodgman, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Donald Glover, John Oliver, and Jon Wurster appear in the film.

Scharpling supervised the video for Aimee Mann's album "Labrador," which is a shot-by-shot remake of the 1985 'Til Tuesday song "Vivoces Carry" with Mann in the lead role, Jon Wurster playing the obnoxious yuppie boyfriend, and Ted Leo as Mann's guitarist. Jon Hamm's "making of" clip stars her, along with Mann's assertion that she was tricked into filming the clip.

Scharpling has also produced music for Titus Andronicus, Wild Flag, The Ettes, Real Estate, and The Stepkids.

That Is All, Scharpling co-wrote the web "trailer" for John Hodgman's 2011 book "That Is All."

Scharpling wrote and directed the web "trailer" on Funny or Die, the group's 10-year anniversary reissue of their album Give Up.

In the episode "A Room With a Feud" of John Hodgman's comedy/court show podcast, the bailiff appeared.

Scharpling has appeared on The George Lucas Talk Show several times and is a regular contributor to the live chatroom discussion.

Scharpling is a regular columnist and co-founder of the sports website The Classical. He has served as both a reporter and reporter for Harp Magazine's "Not So) Great Moments in Rock" column, as well as a writer for Harp magazine's "Not So) Great Moments in Rock." He has also contributed to GQ and SLAM Magazine with basketball-themed content. Scharpling was hired by New York Magazine to write multi-page recaps for every episode of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice's fourth season.

It Never Ends: A Memoir with Nice Memories, 2021, Abrams Press published Scharpling's memoir, It Never Ends: A Memoir.

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