Comedian, author, host, actress, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me panelist Paula Poundstone appears in Roanoke this week. Radio IQ’s All Things Considered host Luke Church recently spoke with her about performing and one of the big firsts in her career.
Among her many accomplishments, Paula Poundstone is the first woman to do stand-up comedy at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 1992. When she was first invited to perform, she balked.
“You know who was President when I did it? Was George Herbert Walker Bush. I didn’t think that I made sense . . . like I didn’t see myself in that setting. And, because I was . . . uh, because I’m a Democrat, and I just felt like . . . eh . . . you know. You have to keep in mind I was very young I was a little be shrill in my beliefs.”
She relented, agreeing to the gig, but making one thing perfectly clear.
“I don’t want any pictures with this Republican President. You know, ‘I feel very strongly about this,’ I had said.”
That resistance also crumbled when she checked into her hotel room in Washington.
“The phone has the red light on it to tell you there’s a message. And, so I called down to the front desk and they go ‘The White House is calling,’ I was like stunned, so I returned the call. And, the President was inviting me to come to the White House; he wanted to meet with me. I could not stow my spine under the bed fast enough. I flew to the White House. I took tons of pictures with President Bush. You know, once my feet were held to the fire, my resolve just crashed.”
Along with her busy performance schedule, hosting her podcast Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone and other commitments; she is also an author. Her second book investigates the secret to happiness.
“The real question for me wasn’t whether or not I would enjoy doing something; the question was what could I do that would leave me with a bounce, so that when I return to my regular life, which was raising a house full of kids and animals, being a stand-up comic and just being stuck being me 24 hours a day. You know, what could I do that would leave me with a reservoir, so to speak.”
She says in the process of writing The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search For Human Happiness, which took over seven years, the biggest revelation came early on.
“I did learn from my very first experiment, which was the get fit experiment, that physical activity really does make you feel better. And I loathe saying that. I was hoping the answer was sitting in a chair eating Doritos. That was my fondest desire.”
After 39 years of doing stand-up, Poundstone says she does not have the problem with hecklers which some comics do.
“I don’t have hecklers, I have conversations. I do the time honored ‘where you from, what you do for a living.’ And, I use that from which to set my sails. So, no two shows are the same cause I really don’t know who I’m going to talk to. And, I really do sort of decide what direction to go in, even in terms of material, based on who I talk to.”
And, she says it is truly random.
“Sometimes people have suggested that I had plants in the audience; that I put people there to say stuff. First of all, that’s absurd. First of all, that would require the ‘E’ word, effort. And, there’s not much likelihood that I’m going to do that. But, the other thing is, it wouldn’t require that. You get anyone talking for a few minutes and they’re great.”
Paula Poundstone brings her conversationto the Jefferson Center in Roanoke, Friday night.
Jefferson Center is a financial supporter of Radio IQ.
