For a generation of younger fans, Paula Poundstone is most widely known as a panelist on the hit NPR radio program Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!. For comedy fans of a certain age, she’s a brilliant stand-up that’s been making audiences laugh since the 1980s. A killer joke writer, Poundstone can just as easily find the funny by chatting with an audience.
CityBeat spoke to her by phone from her home in Los Angeles.
CityBeat: When you tour, is it primarily fans of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! that come out, or do long-time fans turn up as well?
Paula Poundstone: Fortunately, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! has brought me a wonderful audience. Some of those people have come to see me because they are fans of that show and had no idea I was a stand-up. And then there are people that come out because they’ve been coming forever and they had no idea there was a weekly news quiz show called Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! on public radio. They seem to get along, the two groups. There’s no Hatfields and McCoys going on; they seem to merge very well.
CB: Is the show jokes and stories or has it become more of a conversation with the audience?
PP: It’s both. I hate electronics, but having said that I do a lot with stupid, goofy Twitter. It’s caused me to more consciously think of jokes on a regular basis. Originally — I don’t know how many Harry Potter fans are out there — my notion with Twitter was this thing I could use as a Pensieve (a device to view memories). I could take the things that were rattling around in my head and put them somewhere so they didn’t bother me all day long. But then there’s this horrible idea of self-promotion, which everyone in my business does with Twitter and Facebook.
It’s nice to let people know where you’re going to be, but I hate that part because I hate spamming people with it. But what I figure is if I provide enough funny joke content then maybe I can slip in “I’ll be here on this date,” without pissing people off too badly.
CB: But your fans — and the people following presumably are — would like to know where you’re going to be.
PP: Every time I decide that I’m not going to pummel people with where I’m going to be, inevitably someone tweets, “Hey, when are you going to be in Atlanta?” It’s like I foolishly, years ago, gave my email to Radio Shack. What possessed me, I don’t know. The guy at the cash register asked me for it. And every day they would send me an email with another sale for holidays both real and faux. “Time to get your New Year’s flashlight.” I didn’t realize there was such a thing
CB: You talk on stage about having a house full of kids and animals. Does raising all of them keep you young?
PP: (Laughs) I’m not sure it keeps you young. It eats away at your brain. You know how they show the pictures of the president when he first took office, and then a few years into office one always notices this physical change. Anyone who has kids can outdo the president. Having kids does keep you aware of what young people are doing.
CB: Up at Wiley’s Comedy Club in Dayton, Ohio, there’s a picture of you along with the rest of the comics, and you pretty much look the same.
PP: I remember at one point the guy that used to own Wiley’s was always trying to make improvements. So once he painted the Dayton skyline as the backdrop for the stage. And the Dayton skyline — this would have been in the ’80s — was barely discernable. And I remember after 9/11 they said terrorists would strike iconic structures. And looking back at that, I think Dayton was very safe.
CB: Well, Mead, the school supply folks were there.
PP: I did like knowing where my school supplies came from.
You know, when I was a kid, every year I would buy into this fantasy I had in my head — I guess it came from advertising or it was something I dreamed up myself. But somehow I thought if I had the right school supplies it would increase my street cred. I would firmly believe that. Or it would be the sneakers I had. I really was just the person the advertisers were looking for, because I believed everything they said.
PAULA POUNDSTONE performs Friday at Taft Theatre downtown. More info: tafttheatre.org.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2015.
