BRATTLEBORO-Comedian Paula Poundstone, known for her "smart, observational humor and spontaneous wit," according to her publicity materials, returns to the Latchis Theatre for the third time on Saturday, May 3.
"She's very down to earth […] with a little bit of snark and bite - but really, really funny," says Jon Potter, executive director of Latchis Arts and Latchis Corporation.
During her last performance here in 2018, "she packed the Latchis and had us all in stitches for a very generous amount of time," he adds.
"She's a generous performer. It was just wall-to-wall laughter and a really great night. She has a way of connecting with people very naturally, and she spent maybe 1½ hours signing books in the lobby afterwards, interacting with people," Potter says.
He notes that Poundstone's comedy is generous too.
"She sort of seems like the person in your group of friends that is the funniest one. She seems to be part of your group but very funny and very relatable," Potter says.
The timing of her comedy is particularly helpful, he says.
"People are hurting now because of the things that are going on," Potter says. "It's natural that people need laughter and Paula is perfect for that."
Potter explains that the Latchis has been booking a number of events that are dealing with serious subject matter, including the Palestine Film Series and a recent event to raise money for medical supplies for the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
"Both of the trends - the desire to escape with laughter and the desire to understand and try to come to terms - have validity. They are essential elements to us navigating difficult times," Potter adds.
Poundstone regularly plays theaters across the country, hosts a weekly comedy podcast (Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone), and is a regular panelist on NPR's news quiz program, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
She also voiced the character Forgetter Paula in the feature films Inside Out and Inside Out 2.
Poundstone has also starred in several HBO specials, including Cats, Cops and Stuff (1990), which nabbed a CableACE Award for Best Comedy Special.
The Commons caught up with Poundstone at her home in Santa Monica, California, to talk about her upcoming show at the Latchis, where she got her start, her podcast, and more. Here's an excerpt of the conversation, which took place April 1:
Victoria Chertok: Hi, Paula! It's great to speak with you. Do you have any April Fools planned today?
Paula Poundstone: I don't, but so many times I look at my Twitter feed and see people posting things about the news. I always think it's fake. What could you possibly do to outpace "I'm going to run for a third term!"?
V.C.: Where did you grow up, and what did your family think about your profession as a stand-up comic?
P.P.: I grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts - Massachusetts is a great state. I can't help but have a smile on my face walking the streets of Boston.
I started when I was 19; I left home at age 17 and went to a school for fucked-up kids. I didn't ask my family about it. I have no idea how they felt.
V.C.: Who were some of your early comedic influences?
P.P.: The truth is, I was always a big fan of comic actresses like Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Lily Tomlin, Madeline Kahn, and Gilda Radner. That's who I wanted to be. I missed by a country mile, but that's what I loved.
I remember one sweaty, hot New England summer I opted to sleep in the basement because New Englanders didn't have AC, so the basement was the coolest place. To this day, I read at night. I could never go to college, because reading puts me to sleep.
I was reading a Lucille Ball biography and a Carol Burnett biography. I believe I was in a reading contest with my sister, who was reading a big Judy Garland biography. My two books added up to her one book.
I dreamed about [Ball and Burnett] and thought about them a lot.
V.C.: How did you get your start?
P.P.: I went to Boston as a young adult and lived there. I was bussing tables for a living and went to see the manager's friend's band at a place called the Springfield Street Saloon in Inman Square. It became the Ding Ho, which is a storied comedy place in Cambridge.
When I went to see this band there was a flyer up on the wall for a comedy show produced by the Comedy Connection, so I went to see it. Some of those guys are still working.
My take on it was not to be entertained but to look at what I had to do to join that - and I did.
V.C.: Is it true that Robin Williams discovered you in 1979?
P.P.: So to speak. I took a Greyhound bus around the country to see what clubs were like, and I went to a variety of places and did open mic nights.
The last place I went was San Francisco. On the second night there I did an open mic at a place called the Other Café, and I just fell in love with their audience. Something about them was so much fun, so I stayed on in San Francisco and got an apartment.
It was a good place to be. It was a very creative comedy community there.
So Robin is from there. He used to come by. He was already an enormous star - by then he was at the tail end of making Mork & Mindy. He used to come to the clubs. He would show up in the middle of the night at Uncle Funny's Yuk House at 1 a.m. He was the Tasmanian Devil of stand-up comedy because he was everywhere. That's how I met him.
He was a supporter of mine. He and Dana Carvey were both with the same management, and they encouraged their management to come watch me. I went down to L.A. and did the improv a few times, and they signed me.
I was outclassed by their roster: Woody Allen, David Letterman, Dick Cavett, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal.
V.C.: What makes for a really good stand-up show?
P.P.: I'm not sure that I know the answer. What I hope for myself is just connection with the audience. That is the No. 1 thing to me.
I don't have a set per se, but I certainly have 46 years of material rattling around somewhere in my head. The inside of my head must be like one of those arcade games where you go into the glass booth and they blow the money around and whatever you can catch, you keep.
Also, I love the idea of allowing for things to happen. My favorite part of the night is when I ask the audience, "Where are you from? What do you do for a living?" The hard part at the end of the night is I always go ridiculously long.
V.C.: You told me that you met Mary Tyler Moore and have a cherished picture of her.
P.P.: I wanted my middle daughter, who was an infant at the time, to get a picture with Mary. I got the funniest picture. It's me and Mary with big old show-biz smiles, and I'm holding the baby who's miserable.
V.C.: I heard you have another funny story about an Actors and Others for Animals event with your other daughter.
P.P.: Another terrific organization. They get tons of show-biz luminaries to do a fashion show, so I was a part of a fashion show. The fun part about me doing it is I don't fit in at all. I would grab a mic and interrupt the whole thing.
I would bring my children to that. I brought my daughter with me and had a picture taken with Florence Henderson - "America's mother" - holding my baby. My daughter is pushing Florence's face away. That is a great picture.
V.C.: Your podcast, Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, is going on its sixth year. Congratulations! How do you like that platform?
P.P.: It's equal parts fun and frustration. Almost the only reason I do it is the people who have come up to me or who have written to me to say, "Oh, my gosh, it's getting me through."
Podcasting in general is a funny kind of contact with audience members. It's the polar opposite to stand-up, where you can see the response of the room. As a podcaster you can't respond to the listeners.
The fun thing is, I can do goofy voices. It sort of unleashed a performing freedom, but the most important aspect is connecting with the audience.
V.C.: You're also a regular on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. How did that come about?
P.P.: I've been on it for 23 years! They contacted me, and it fell in my lap.
V.C.: You mentioned that you were out protesting on Wilshire Boulevard [in Los Angeles]. Did you get a lot of honks of support?
P.P.: I went out with a poster board, and on one side it said "stand up to trump" and on other side it said "stop the cuts/tax the rich." I walked up Wilshire Boulevard - the main drag in Santa Monica - to the entrance to [Interstate] 405, which is the heaviest traffic area.
I held the sign over my head most of the way. I felt like John Cusack with his boom box.
You know what was horrifying to me? Seeing people on their phones while they were driving. I got the occasional honk of support, but the most vociferous response was from a guy in a Town Car. He rolled his window down and, with a big shit-eating grin, he went, "Trump is great!"
I have a family member who is disabled and could not survive without Medicaid and Social Security. I was carrying this sign because I want all of us - Republicans included - to have a functional government that gives us what we need.
And if there need to be cuts to something, fine - have them be studied and careful cuts. That's not what is happening.
I want everyone to be OK. The other side is almost like cartoonish nastiness that wants people to suffer.
V.C.: Tell me about your roles in the films Inside Out and Inside Out 2, where you voiced the character Forgetter Paula.
P.P.: Talk about lucky. It's [a] very small [part] but really fun to do. I'm so proud to be a part of a Pixar movie. These movies are unbelievably timely.
It's a story on mental health. Who on earth thinks of doing a comedy about mental health and how random and rogue anxiety is? It is brilliant.
V.C.: I heard you love table tennis and hold tournaments at your house. How cool!
P.P.: Ping-pong parties for years and years. I'm firing up to do another one soon. When I lived in a rooming house in Boston, I had a ping-pong table in my one room. I will never forget the look on this comic's face - after a night out, he walked me back to my apartment. He comes into the room, and he thought it was going to be a romantic event. I slept on the floor under the ping-pong table. It was not a romantic night.
V.C.: Any closing thoughts?
P.P.: I'm really looking forward to coming to Brattleboro. The experience of laughing with people and being in a room of people laughing is great. It's different when you watch something at home during a stay-at-home order - there is a difference between laughing at home or being out seeing a dramatic play or a movie or a dance or a band.
That thing of being in an audience - we had to do away with it when Covid hit, but it's important.
When you are really isolated and by yourself, you have emotions. Then, when you're here and everybody laughs, it's so reassuring and they think, "So I'm not a freak."
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Paula Poundstone will perform at the Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St., Brattleboro, on Saturday, May 3 at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit paulapoundstone.com.
All seats are $49. For more information about the show and a link to purchase tickets, visit latchis.com. (Ticket sales are brisk, Potter notes, indicating that the show will probably sell out.)
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Editor's note: Stories presented as interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets.
Victoria Chertok is a contributing writer to The Commons and The Keene Sentinel. She has lived and worked in Windham County since the mid-1990s.
This Arts item by Victoria Chertok was written for The Commons.