Paula Poundstone is one of the top comedians of her generation. A brilliant standup comic who tours regularly across the country, her spontaneity with the audience has become the stuff of legend. We talked with her on a “chaotic” morning involving a plumber, a sick cat, and the whirlwind of activity that precedes the sending of a child off to camp. Nevertheless, she patiently answered our questions with the charming amiability that is a hallmark of her performances. Following are highlights from our interview. For the full interview, go to www.foolishtimes.net. Be sure to visit Paula’s website at www.paulapoundstone.com.
FT: When did you know you wanted to be a comedian? Was there a particular moment or event?
Paula: The first sentence of the summary paragraph written by my kindergarten teacher in May of 1965 says, “I have enjoyed many of Paula’s humorous comments about our activities.”
FT: And that kind of did it for you, right there?
Paula: I was definitely impacted by it. I loved the fact that an adult responded to my sense of humor. … Growing up I loved comedy shows. Dick van Dyke and “I Love Lucy” and the Three Stooges and on and on. Mary Tyler Moore, Lily Tomlin. I think I wanted to be Carol Burnett. But I’m not. One of my regrets of my career—and it’s been a lovely career, and I’ve been lucky to do this for 30 years—is that I never did ensemble stuff or character stuff. I sort of wish I had been Carol Burnett in that way, on TV or SNL or something. On the other hand, there is no place else I would rather be than with my children or on stage telling my jokes.
FT: So you’re living your ideal life.
Paula: I actually am. The only difficulty, and it’s the only difficulty every parent faces, is striking that balance. For example, in terms of work, you kind of have to take what you got when you got it, so some weeks I’m home all week, and then a week will come up when I have to be gone three nights, which doesn’t happen very often, but that part is hard. Make sure you’re paying the rent. My job, I find if you don’t do it, you get kind of rusty.
FT: When did you realize that you had this talent for interacting with your audience? Was it something you stumbled on or something you were forced into at a particular point?
Paula: Definitely forced into. Because I have a terrible memory. So from the very start I would plan my goofy five minutes, when I would go to do open-mike nights, and I would go onstage and invariably within a few seconds go blank. Or be distracted by something in front of me. I lock on an audience member’s face or something at their table, and everybody at a nightclub is competing in a way, with the waitresses walking through the room bringing the food and the drinks and the ordering, so you never have everybody’s attention in that setting. So I would get distracted by the waitresses or whatever. And then I would talk to them for a minute, and then I’d be like, I don’t know where I am! And so I really was forced to improvise, if I can use such a highfalutin word, or make stuff up, or have a genuine interaction with the people in front of me. I thought this was terrible, that I was making a big, unprofessional mistake. … I can’t remember what point I figured out, No, no, no, that’s the good part.
FT: The part where you’re enjoying it as much as the audience is.
Paula: Yeah. I really do have such great crowds. Which isn’t to say that every word out of my mouth is a gem or brilliant, that isn’t true at all, but the people I stumble on are often just really fun to talk to. I tend to find out stuff about the community and the area I’m in. There’s a certain sense of where you are and who you’re talking to, and on a good night I might have three, four, five people I have engaged and the wind section and the percussion and the strings and I just sort of bring them up when I need to or where it seems appropriate. Works out good.
FT: You came out of the Boston comedy scene of the late 70s and early 80s. What has been the biggest change in the art of standup since then?
Paula: I tell you, the biggest change I saw happened before I came on the scene. Which is Robin Williams. I hold him almost singularly personally responsible for both my career and that of others. I mean, he really reignited the country’s interest in the form of standup comedy. He was certainly not the first standup comic, there were brilliant people who went before him and long before me, but he became wildly popular. … And because he had this boundless energy, and showed up everywhere and spread this fire of enthusiasm for standup comedy, what happened was, while people were waiting for him, or interested in seeing him, the rest of us went on stage. And people would say, “Oh, that guy’s funny too.” But they would never come out to see us as their inspiration. So in this way I really feel like he changed the face of things.
FT: One of the projects you have going right now is that you’re a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” and I was wondering what attracted you to the show.
Paula: They called me, sent me a tape of the show. It sounded really funny and fun, and when I first started, we had a show where we were all in studios, not even in the same room at the time. Peter [Sagal] was in Chicago, and that’s where the brains of the operation is, and I would go to the studio here in L.A., and we were all hooked up via wire, and there was no live audience. Which I kind of marvel at today because, to me, the audience is such the main player in the show. They invited me to come to the show, and I did it and loved it. It’s a perfect venue for me. It’s sort of like being a batter in the batting cage. I just sort of get lobbed topics, current topics, all night long and I have the opportunity to make jokes about them. And again, I consider myself unbelievably lucky. That they happened to ask me. It’s become, I think, a successful partnership for both of us.
FT: You recently released your first CD [I HEART JOKES: Paula Tells Them In Maine] and I was curious, did you purposely avoid comedy recordings or was it something you just recently wanted to do?
Paula: Quite honestly, I was never quite sure it would be profitable, or that I had anything that was worth doing that with. The venue in Maine where I did it, they had a great recording engineer and a great setup for doing it, they asked me, and in the end it was totally effortless for me. I just went and told my jokes. And the recording engineer and my manager took care of the rest. I worked with a spectacular crowd in Maine when we were making the recording, so that was nice.
FT: I just finished reading your book [There’s Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say], which was really great. A lot of people probably don’t realize you’re a talented writer as well as comedian.
Paula: That’s so sweet of you to say. A lot of comics, when they do books, they just write their acts. And although I could have done that—I’m not sure I have enough jokes to do it, frankly, although I could have done that—I wanted to do something that had more meaning for me. So my book is a series of biographies of towering historic figures, and in the telling of their stories I tell my own. … I felt goofy writing about myself. I thought, “If I were to try to write about Abraham Lincoln, I would not be able to shut up about myself.” So he was my first test subject. There was also a series of kids’ books at that time—still are out—that are brilliant. The first one, I think, was If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. And you gave the mouse a cookie and it reminded him to ask for something else. So you give him a cookie and he wants some milk. So you give him some milk and he thinks of his uncle on the farm and he wants to write him a letter, so you give him something to write a letter. So my book is a mixture of history and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. And it was really fun to do.
FT: Do any of your three children [Toshia, Allison, and Thomas E.] express an interest in show business?
Paula: No. They really don’t. Which I think is good. Personally, I have no investment in what they do, other than that it be productive and fulfilling, but so far nobody has thought in that direction. They’re a little bit charmed by what I do, but they also see it as a job. “Mommy has to go to work.” I try to keep from them the fact that it’s actually fun.
FT: What’s the latest cat count at the Poundstone household?
Paula: You know what? We are up to twelve. Except for the one sick right now, so it’s eleven and a half. We’re hoping he pulls through. Giving him liquids even as we speak.
FT: In your opinion, what’s the hardest—standup, writing, or motherhood?
Paula: Motherhood. Hands down. It may just be the thing I’m most poorly equipped for, I don’t know. It has something in common with standup, which is the ride can be really rough. It can be exhilarating and you think, I got this! Something good has come of this! I got it figured out! And then, 20 minutes later, you’re struck down in the prime of your life. I did a show a few weeks ago. Now in my defense, I had the flu, and I was at the tail end of it, and I thought I was getting well. But I went and did a show for the LA Press Club, and it was horrible. I bombed in the classic sense of the word. And I hated myself. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. And there’s a point where you just go on and you’re standing on top of that 30 years of experience and so bombing is just not possible. But in fact that doesn’t happen. Every night it could go well or could not go well. Every night. There are a lot of elements that go into it. So in that way standup is very, very similar.
FT: Does Hep Cat still answer questions?
Paula: Hep? Yes, she does still answer questions.
FT: Okay, we have a question here from a cat in Monterey. He’s wondering if catnip should be legalized in California for medicinal purposes.
Paula: [laughs] Heppy actually hosted a rave for catnip a couple of nights ago. We came home from a friend’s house after dinner and there was catnip all over the kitchen floor. Distributed itself into other rooms as well. And all the cats were lying around.
FT: Sounds like an opium den or something.
Paula: Yeah, it really was bad business. Although Hep is clearly in support of legalizing nip, she feels it should be done with an eye of caution.
Paula Poundstone will be performing live onstage at Golden State Theatre on September 12, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. For tickets, visit www.goldenstatetheatre.com or call 831-372-3800.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I went to see your show last year, and I’m going this year as well — see you tonight, Paula!
PS Laughter is good medicine; thanks for being a healer.
Great interview by Mike Thomas.