We were lucky to catch up with Tom Zawacki recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tom, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’d say the most meaningful project I’ve worked on has to be my current comedy show that I do once a month(ish) called Would You Rather with Tom Zawacki. I do it on Sunday nights at Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood. It’s a loose comedy game show where comedians and celebrity guests answer uncomfortable questions. After I do some stand up at the top of the show I bring up my guest for some bantering and then we start the actual game where they spin my Would You Rather wheel to land on a category for a horrible question. There is a FREE PASS envelope the guests can open to get out of answering a question. Usually when the free pass is opened it’s just to see what’s in there but I still make my guets do what’s in there so I don’t burn a free pass without it actually happening. Jim O’Heir, from Parks and Recreation, opened his free pass and it said “Facetime all the famous people in your phone until someone picks up” and the best part was, no one picked up. At the end of the show, I give every guest a gift that I purchased at Goodwill. It’s always something silly and I give myself a 20 dollar limit on gifts which I actually just hit for the first time. I gave comedian Ketra Long a set of floor mats for a Subaru Crosstrek (model year unknown), and those cost me 20 bucks exactly. In a very likely turn of events Ketra announced she did not drive a Crosstrek but someone in the audience did and he took the floor mats and sent me a photo a couple days later saying that they fit his model year Subaru. So naturally as everything with Would You Rather, a happy ending.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into standup by going to horrible open mics and that led to getting booked on horrible bringer shows. It’s all horrible but what most comics don’t realize is during that time you get good (hopefully). You learn how to be comfortable on stage and learn what your comedic style is and it’s not always what you think it’s going to be when you first start stand up.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Fuck NFTs. I’m still not entirely sure what they are but I know I don’t support them. A sentence all smart Americans should make. In all seriousness if you can get someone to buy your digital art for a lot of money you do you I guess, good hustle. I wish I was smart enough to understand it and exploit it too. Here buy this thing you can’t touch and just take my word that it’ll always exist! I bought a new electric car in January 2023 before all the strikes, I like that car, I wanna keep it and pay it off. So yeah give me your NFT money? I don’t think I answered this the way you wanted but here we are!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Go to my comedy shows! I’m not big enough and don’t have or deserve a platform to tell society what to do, so support me! I’m a creative support my ecosystem! Follow @tomzwhat on instagram and go to all the stuff I post about and say you should go to. I also wanna buy a house in this expensive city. I’ve been renting in LA since 07 and it’s getting old.

Contact Info:

• Website: tomzawacki.com
• Instagram: @tomzwhat
• Youtube: @tomzawacki
• Other: imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3706958/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Image Credits
Kat Hanegraaf