Short questions with Dana Perino for Tom Shillue

You've seen us on screen, but have you ever wondered what we're like off-camera?

For the last few months, I’ve enjoyed checking in with some of your favorite Fox personalities to learn more about who they are behind the scenes.

What's the one thing Jesse Watters couldn’t live without? What's Bill Hemmer’s favorite Halloween costume? And what's sitting on Greg Gutfeld’s nightstand? 

But that's not all! The fun is just getting started.

This week, we're excited to shine the spotlight on Tom Shillue, a Fox News contributor who joined the network in 2015. He regularly serves as a panelist on Fox News Channel's late-night program "Gutfeld!" (weeknights, 11 p.m. ET). Before that, he served as the host of "Red Eye."

P.S. We have so much more in store for you. Stay tuned each week for new editions of "Short Questions with Dana Perino" — and if there’s a question you want answers to or a suggestion for the person I should interview next, leave a note in the comments section below. 

Tom Shillue, a Fox News contributor, tells Dana Perino why he and his wife "want to resist the safe-spaces and ‘everyone-gets-a-trophy’ mentality" in raising their children.  (Fox News)

Q: How did you make your first dollar?  

TS: I’ll never forget it: my first lemonade stand. I charged two cents a glass, which was pretty cheap even for the 1970s, but I was going for sales volume over profit. 

By the end of the day, I had about $1.20 in change. It seemed like an impossible sum! 

I got a huge charge out of it, and thus began my lifelong love of entrepreneurialism. 

Q: In your book, "Mean Dads for a Better America," you reflect on your childhood, growing up as one of five kids in a devout Irish Catholic family in a small town outside Boston. What values from your upbringing have influenced your life as a father, and how have they shaped your parenting style today? 

TS: "Mean Dads" was aspirational for me because the tough love we got from our parents was the norm growing up in my hometown, and I’ve always wanted to model my parenting after that. 

My wife and I say, "If only we could be as mean as our parents were!" 

"We want to give our kids the benefit of the rough-and-tumble childhood that we had."

It’s a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but it’s real, too. We want to resist the safe-spaces and "everyone-gets-a-trophy" mentality and give our kids the benefit of the rough-and-tumble childhood that we had. 

Q: If you were running for president and you had to choose a fictional character as your running mate, who would it be and why? 

TS: I would choose Coach Taylor from "Friday Night Lights." Has there ever been a political speech that even comes close to one of coach Taylor’s pre-game pep talks in the locker room, ending with "clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose?" 

Just talking about it makes me reconsider — and I’ve decided to put Coach Taylor at the top of the ticket. I’ll be his running mate.  

Q: What is your favorite Halloween costume you ever had?

TS: In that brief historical period when American consumerism was at its height, cereal boxes came with their own cut-out masks, and kids were perfectly happy to go out as their favorite cereal spokesperson. 

My mother never bought those name-brand sugary cereals, but Kellogg's Frosted Flakes had a Tony The Tiger mask on the box and there was a big sign that said "Be a Tiger!" 

"I really wanted to be a tiger, and to my surprise, my mom gave in and bought the cereal."

I really wanted to be a tiger, and to my surprise, my mom gave in and bought the cereal. Knowing my mom’s thrifty nature, I really appreciated the gesture, so that has to go down as my favorite Halloween. 

Q: If you had a boat, what would you name it? 

TS: I would like to have a sailboat, and I already have a name ready: "Seaside Soul Engine." 

It sounds nice. Seems good for a boat. 

And it’s an anagram of the three women in my life. My wife Denise and my daughters Agnes and Louise. 

Q: Public speaking is a top fear for many Americans. As a comedian, you often have to face this fear head-on. What strategies have you found most helpful for staying calm and owning the room while performing on stage? 

TS: Make eye contact. A lot of people think that looking over the heads of the audience is a good way to deal with nerves because you think that seeing faces will make you more nervous, but it won’t. 

When you look over their heads, you’re still going to be very aware that you are speaking to a group, but if you look at a face, that group becomes just one person. 

So, when you speak, do it to one person at a time, and take your time with it — don’t dart around from one person to another every other word. 

"Each person is an opportunity to help you focus and make you comfortable." 

Say a few sentences while looking someone in the eyes, then look at another person and say a few more sentences. Each person is an opportunity to help you focus and make you comfortable. 

Think of it not as a long speech in front of a big crowd, but a series of short conversations with individuals.  

Q: What makes a good storyteller?  

TS: Everyone is good at storytelling around friends and loved ones. But when storytelling in front of an audience, we let nerves get in the way.  

Dana, think about if something extraordinary happened while you were on your way home from work. When you got in the door of your home, you would immediately say to Peter, "You won’t believe what just happened! I was on the corner, minding my own business, waiting for the light to change …" 

You would set up the story very naturally by creating drama and setting the scene visually, like the opening of a screenplay. But when we're asked to tell a story to a bigger group or an audience, we think we have to "structure" it correctly, and we don’t trust our natural instincts. 

Tell a story to an audience the same way you would to a friend or spouse. 

Q: Which historical figure do you think would be really funny on X (formerly Twitter)?  

TS: I think Lincoln would be great. 

It’s hard to picture, because we think of his eloquence and his seriousness, but he had a great wit, and being the master communicator that he was, I’m sure he could adapt to this very modern way of communicating. 

Q: If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be, and what would your superhero name be? 

TS: This is a good question for me, because I already feel like I’m a kind of superhero.

That’s how comedians think of themselves. When we are together, we’ll even use a word like "civilians" to refer to non-comedians. 

"This is a good question for me, because I already feel like I’m a kind of superhero."

It’s like we feel that in the decade-long boot camp that begins every good comedy career, we’ve been through specialized training, and, like Liam Neeson’s character in "The Taken," we possess a "very specific set of skills" that most people have not learned. 

So, if my power is wit, I guess my superhero name should be The Rapier. 

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To read all of Dana Perino's earlier "Short Questions" interviews for Fox News Digital, check out this (long) list!

For her interview with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, click here. 

For her interview with Todd Piro, click here.

For her interview with Adam Klotz, click here.

For her interview with Dr. Nicole Saphier, click here. 

For her interview with Kerri Kupec Urbahn, click here. 

For her interview with Dr. Marc Siegel, click here. 

For her interview with Taylor Riggs, click here. 

For her interview with Griff Jenkins, click here. 

For her interview with Joe Concha, click here.

For her interview with David L. Bahnsen, click here.

For her interview with Dagen McDowell, click here. 

For her interview with Lydia Hu, click here. 

For her interview with Brian Brenberg, click here. 

For her interview with Jackie DeAngelis, click here. 

For her interview with Claudia Cowan, click here. 

For her interview with Max Gorden, click here. 

For her interview with Jared Cohen, click here. 

For her interview with William La Jeunesse, click here.

For her interview with Matt Finn, click here.

For her interview with Rich Edson, click here.

For her interview with Gov. Chris Sununu, click here. 

For her interview with Ross Rayburn, click here. 

For her interview with Mark Meredith, click here.

For her interview with Emily Compagno, click here.

For her interview with Chad Pergram, click here.

For her interview with Mike Emanuel, click here. 

For her interview with Gillian Turner, click here. 

For her interview with Madison Alworth, click here. 

For her interview with Nate Foy, click here.

For her interview with Laura Ingraham, click here. 

For her interview with five New York FOX reporters, click here. 

For her interview with Katie Pavlich, click here.

For her interview with Guy Benson, click here. 

For her interview with Pete Hegseth, click here. 

For her interview with Sandra Smith, click here. 

For her interview with Nicolas Yannicelli, click here.

For her interview with Abby Hornacek, click here.

For her interview with Elise Bitter, click here. 

For her interview with Brian Kilmeade, click here.

For her interview with Kennedy, click here.

For her interview with John Roberts, click here. 

For her interview with Janice Dean, click here. 

For her interview with Charles Payne, click here.

For her interview with Trey Gowdy, click here.

For her interview with Johnny "Joey" Jones, click here. 

For her interview with Bill Melugin, click here. 

For her interview with Jimmy Failla, click here. 

For her interview with Tyrus, click here. 

For her interview with Ainsley Earhardt, click here

For her interview with Lawrence Jones, click here. 

For her interview with Dr. Arash Akhavan, click here. 

For her interview with Martha MacCallum, click here.

For her interview with Bret Baier, click here. 

For her interview with Kayleigh McEnany, click here.

For her interview with Harold Ford Jr., click here. 

For her interview with Shannon Bream, click here

For her interview with Jessica Tarlov, click here.

For her interview with Leo Terrell, click here.

For her interview with Geraldo Rivera, click here.

For her interview with Clay Travis, click here.

For her interview with Bill Hemmer, click here. 

For her interview with Greg Gutfeld, click here.

For her interview with Benjamin Hall, click here

For her interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro, click here.

For her interview with Jesse Watters, click here.