The most fun I’ve ever had at a show was at Jimmy Pardo’s regular stage versions of The Match Game here in Los Angeles. Jimmy was born to host this show, and Paul F. Tompkins was born to be his foil.
Perhaps the most memorable running joke of the shows was Tompkins’ ever-more-elaborate introductions of Jimmy reading a prompt in the voice of “Old Man Periwinkle.”
As Jimmy has said many times (often on stage, during the Match Game), he does not do voices. Yet he persists in doing an old man voice to read Old Man Periwinkle prompts, and thus Tompkins persists in his ever-more aggrandizing introductions.
Sadly (for me), Jimmy doesn’t do the Match Game in LA anymore, but he did it (as “Game Show Explosion”) at SF Sketchfest this past weekend, and Pat Francis caught the Old Man Periwinkle introduction on video.