An intimate, original musical-theatre work about resentment,
identity and the struggle to let go.
Mission
To make opera's scale of feeling small enough to travel and honest enough to matter — the old form, carrying what people are carrying now.
Available for venues across the US & Canada
◆ Book Now
An intimate, original musical-theatre work about resentment,
identity and the struggle to let go.
Mission
To make opera's scale of feeling small enough to travel and honest enough to matter — the old form, carrying what people are carrying now.
Paper Gun — Setting the Scene
Left alone in what looks like a Turner Venetian oil — a painted street scene of water with a hazy sunshine and beautiful buildings lining into the distance — our protagonist wonders: "this is probably not real either, but that's what had been painted around me" — to then have the painter removed from the painting the second he hit her with the final line: "that's it, that's the difference."
And he was alone — alone in this beautiful setting, to be alone, to be alone for the rest of time. Initially it seemed like a most horrible thing, but…!
Leading up to that she'd come, was visiting him in his room. The parting scene had started with her there. There was an emotional hug; she said, can we take it down an emotional notch? A shadow of someone could be seen in the hall… was she going to chat with them, to deflect and avoid him? He said, can we close the door, and chat.
They entered some of the usual competitive arenas — where everything's polarity, everything's some criticism of the other in some form; it just seemed unavoidable. It eventually led to her saying "so you'd rather hurt me" — and he said, with a presence of mind to be able to say it this time: "I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm trying to prevent myself from being hurt… and that's it, that's the difference."
Before that there was some light interaction and dialogue — and he was trying to hug her, as if to say: that's really what I have to say. But it was impossible. She was too stiff. It was impossible.
Prior to that he'd said, "maybe I can play some piano. I'm doing some interesting stuff these days." He played a little, but that didn't last — she'd come to visit him as if to wonder what was going on, as if to ask "what's wrong"; of course he would be the one to venture to say: OK, let's talk.
See It For Yourself
Paper Gun
I've been introducing these songs of pain and love from my operetta in churches, country clubs, synagogues, community centers, and senior facilities — I am now touring my one-man operetta — an entirely original work, music, lyrics and text my own. My other show, The Song Is The Play, is where I perform the songs of others: Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and Billy Joel, handled as theatre. Two shows, two different jobs. The theatrical handling has been my core performing approach, honed across years of The Song Is The Play. There is always scope for an unknown element — the show breathes differently each time, with relevance, and with a few surprises.
The education has run in both directions: so many words of wisdom, so many conversations with remarkable people. Paper Gun opens with a live recording from one of those shows — my microphone happened to catch a Mr. Hay, and what he says sets the tone for the greatest lesson of them all about the human condition — and its movements are exactly what this original work traces.
That's what built this show: the conversations, the getting to know them, wisdom collected one afternoon at a time over the years. I meet a lot of older people. Some carry resentment; some carry none. The difference between them is the heart of the show: when someone has hurt you, there's a better road than resentment — grieve the loss of what they meant to you, at their best.
A Word Before You Book — Honestly
Let me be upfront, because you'll sense it anyway: this show goes places most entertainment doesn't. It's about an inner tangle — and some of your audience will recognize it from the inside. That sounds like a risk. I understand why presenters hesitate.
Here's what twenty years of rooms have taught me: people aren't afraid of depth. They're afraid of depth handled carelessly. This is handled with care — framed before, held during, closed gently after (here's exactly how). The hard material earns the deep moments; it doesn't ambush anyone with them.
What I've seen live, over and over: the room leans in. People carrying weight they couldn't name hear a song name it — and leave lighter. That’s not my claim; ask my presenters, see the live testimonials — “I like your message, be kind to yourself.”
And if this still isn't the year for it — book The Song Is The Play instead. It's the same voice, the same piano, all warmth. Plenty presenters start there. The deep show will be here when your room is ready.
More Clips
"Who Wrote That?"
Wisdom From the Show
"After silence, that which cannot be put into words, but cannot remain unexpressed"Hugo / Huxley
Program Posters
The Operetta — Live
A selection of live full videos — the pieces tested over the years that became Paper Gun.
The Program
Every difficult relationship has two people in it. Tonight, they’re both me. Say something true to someone you love and if the painter steps out of the painting, you are left in something beautiful, but holding both sides of whether you did the right thing……sometimes for a very long time.
The protagonist contains extremes. "I know in this song the bully is me, but the bully is feeling free." He's not the innocent party observing. He's someone who recognizes the negative pull in himself, fights it, and emerges. That's the whole arc. This work operates on multiple registers simultaneously — emotional, theatrical, philosophical — and different audiences will unlock different layers.
A niche and unconventional product; therapeutic theatrical performance to help people — be more kind to themselves.
How these songs were made
Every song in Paper Gun was written by Paul Tosh — words and music — at a piano, one at a time, over more than twenty years. Some took a week. Some took a decade. Nothing in this show was generated, and nothing was assembled from anyone else’s songs. One man and a piano wrote it, which is also how it is performed.
Click a song, see a line.
Act One · The Trap · Paper Gun
Act Two · The Struggle · Paper Crown
Act Three · The Emergence · Paper Heart
Encore
Paul Tosh presents ◆ A Premium Solo Show ◆ tosh42.com
A man. A piano. A reckoning.EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING · THEATRICAL · INDEPENDENCE
An Original Song Cycle / Operetta
Paper Gun, about a conflicted Opera star, was built in senior communities — years of conversations and collected wisdom. Some of the people I met carry resentment, some carry none.
The difference is the point of the show.
Three acts of about thirty-five minutes — just under two hours of performance, with two intervals of ten to fifteen minutes, plus a ten-minute talkback.
A paper theme tied to the shadow and a parallel about sacrifice.
It's about survival over grievance. An original operetta / an actual mini opera. A paper theme tied to the shadow and sacrifice: a journey from disillusionment to authenticity. A therapeutic, theatrical one-man show….phew!
I have two shows. The Song Is The Play is built from the songs of others, performed as theatre. Paper Gun is entirely my own — every word and every note. What they share is the handling, not the material. There is always an unknown element to illuminate the terrain from a different angle.
What this work does in the rooms it reaches: for the elderly, for the isolated, for people carrying weight they can't name until a song names it for them — is real. I've been in an impoverished enough state myself to know what I'm giving.
A Point of Interest
Paper Gun is an entirely original work — the music, the lyrics and the text are Paul’s own. Five pieces from opera and the Neapolitan songbook are touched along the way, three of them carrying new words. All five are long out of copyright, which is why nothing in the show requires a licence.
With a lyric adaptation
As they are
What People Say
"Last night made me feel like the pre-WWII era of the arts in society! Loved it."Libby Fox (hostess) — Charleston home concert — Swamp Fox Dock & Marine
"It's Beatles, it's U2, it's Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz and Billy Joel, it's jazz — you write this style and that style — you have obviously been influenced by all the songs you have been playing through the years. The world would welcome something like this now with open arms. The songs are timeless. It's an album like Sgt. Pepper."Orna Wellman — Drama and English teacher, Canada — instagram.com/ornawellman
"Really good solid organic original material — it has to be experienced live. They're not simple in terms of structure nor in terms of emotional content."Miguel Cavazos — Session drummer, LA
"I especially like the substantive intellectual meaning that you weave into your music. You remind me of the inspiring Shlomo Carlebach."Rabbi Daniel Lapin — RabbiDanielLapin.com
"I can't believe the level of artistry you're bringing to the people in these residential homes. I bet they'd never seen anything like it before."Joe Tepperman — Author & theater writer
"A deeply personal, high value artistic offering. Light, serious, fun. Paul's songs are alive — you have to live with them. Paul also sets the standard when it comes to camaraderie and healthy artistic sharing."Mesoud Benasuly — Session Bass Player, New York City
"I think I've listened to that song a hundred times — but that might be the first time I've actually heard it."Video testimonial — audience member
"A poetic call to presence — reminding us that the pursuit itself is the purpose, and that love, more than anything, is the foundation of it all. So much fun to watch Paul's creative brain at work… a true pleasure."Amy Kirshtein — at Libby & Daniel's home concert
"This is as different a performance as anything I've seen in the Listening Room Network. It's really more performance art than musical performance — as much poetry as it is music. His piano playing is just exceptional."Listening Room Network — Audition Review, August 2025
From the audience —
For Whom & Where
This is not ambient entertainment. It is a performance that asks something of its audience — and gives in return.
It's a solo show in which the audience tracks two distinct presences, even though it's one body at the piano. If the audience has the booklet (cover pic above) with the character lines marked, they become co-readers of the drama as it unfolds.
It isn't a reading. It's a fully performed show, in which Paul plays three characters — the narrator, and the two voices of the man — and at times speaks as himself. No costume, except for a hat — and sometimes a shirt split black and white. No props, but a series of poster boards that help to create location and mood. The rest is carried by the performer: to make the characters vivid and real.
The painted boards the show is staged against
The Venues
Included in Every Booking
The performance is followed by a spoken frame of about ten minutes — the same one every time. It is not a Q&A about the show. The show takes an audience from resentment to grief; this gives them somewhere to put it. In clinical and therapeutic settings it is co-held with a clinical partner and runs longer.
Nothing about it is a surprise: the full transcript is published before you book. Read it word for word →
Investment
$POAAll-inclusive · Travel · Accommodation · Sound
Paul travels in a custom self-contained performance camper, making him available for venues across the entire United States and Canada — with no hotel riders, no staging requirements, no hidden costs. Just asking for a safe place to park.
Paul works across a wide range of venues and budgets. Please get in touch to discuss.
Referrals
If a venue or community comes to mind that you think would be a good fit — a country club, a shul, a JCC, a supper club, a home concert host — I'd love to hear from you. I offer a referral fee for any booking that comes through your introduction.
Pass It Along →Before You Begin
What you will see is one man’s version of the work — lived vicariously, from a seat. If something in it touched a part of your own life, there’s a way to begin that work for yourself.
The protocol the show is built on → a way of turning resentment into grief, so that it stops costing you. It’s best walked with a trained therapist beside you.
Host Introduction
"Tonight is something rare: an original operetta, written and performed by one man at a piano. It's called Paper Gun, and it's about the journey every one of us makes — from the resentments we carry to something we can finally call our own. It's honest, and it's handled with care from the first note to the last. He's performed for two decades across four countries, and he wrote every word you're about to hear. Please welcome the author and the voice of Paper Gun… Paul Tosh."
For presenters — read as written, or make your own
About the Performer / Author
Born in Scotland. Son of Avril ז״ל and Mori, both avid opera fans. Formed in piano bars in Europe. Seasoned across a decade of performances for senior communities on the American East Coast. Paul Tosh is a performer whose work refuses an easy distinction between entertainment, art and therapy.
Paper Gun is serious work, and I want it seen. Not for its own sake — because it gives something to people, and particularly because it can take someone out of some misery.
With an audience in the room, the dignity of it shows. Live performance is exciting; there’s a great feeling between me and the people there. I am always improving one aspect or another. I was born with determination, and with wanting to do better.
His signature approach — Song Is The Play — treats every performance as a piece of theater: looping piano, dramatic song, and the kind of presence that makes a familiar melody feel heard for the first time. Paper Gun is his most personal and fully realized work to date: a show about damage, clarity, and the quiet violence of the truth.
Paul's celebrated concert show — Billy Joel, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Sinatra, Neil Diamond, and originals, performed as theatrical prose with looping piano.
See the full show →Video Testimonials
Credits
Piano & Vocals
Paul Tosh
Soloist / Narrator
Mesoud Benasuly
Executive Producer
Eli Gestetner — The Signpost
Production & Guitar
Yisroel Ament
Yisroel Ament · from rehearsal
Mesoud Benasuly · narrator
Some backing tracks built by Yisroel and fed live into the looper; narration written and sometimes performed by Mesoud.
With thanks to Claude AI for incredible organising help and web design.
With ultimate thanks to G-d.
Book the Show
To discuss availability, venue fit, or pricing, reach out directly. Paul responds personally to every enquiry.
Ready to book? Paul responds personally to every enquiry.
◆ Book NowWords & music by Paul Tosh · Written at a piano · Not AI-generated
