Paula Poundstone has one of the busiest schedules of any veteran comic, which may explain how she’s ended up with three separate appearances in Minnesota over the next six months, starting with a Friday performance at Red Wing’s Sheldon Theatre.
It also explains why she covets sleep whenever she can get it. The 64-year-old comic, best known as a panelist for NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” and serving as a political correspondent for “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” spoke by phone recently from her Santa Monica home about her unglamorous touring rituals and playing rural America.
Q: I think you are booked every weekend through March. Why so busy? Are you trying to make up for the time you lost during the pandemic?
A: If I go too long without working, I forget how to do it. During the pandemic, I forgot everything. I still feel slightly nauseated when I hear the word “Zoom.” I’d do a fundraising show from home, although I would say to organizers, ”You really can’t do stand-up in your living room because you don’t get any response.” And they’d say, “Well, I’ll laugh.” That’s not going to carry the day. During the pandemic, I was watching “PBS NewsHour,” which I watch somewhat religiously, and they did a piece on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s concerts from her living room. Meanwhile, I’m trying to tape “Wait Wait” from my closet. I kind of built up a resentment to Mary and would say so in interviews. Of course, I was kidding. When I got back on the road, I did a theater in Virginia. Backstage was a little bouquet of flowers saying “That’s OK. I love you, anyways.” It was signed Mary Chapin Carpenter. I didn’t really think it was her, but I mentioned it to the audience. Someone responded that it really was her. It was the florist.
Q: One of the things I like about your schedule is that you play a lot of smaller cities that other comedians might skip over.
A: It’s funny. We have a lot of towns that are small but have spectacular theaters. The Bing [Crosby Theater] in Spokane has a particularly great marquee. What’s the Egyptian Theatre doing in Boise? When it was built, it gave people there the feeling that they were visiting another country.
Q: Lots of these towns have conservative residents. How do they react to your liberal point of view?
A: The friction has started to rise. For years, I told jokes about Bush and Reagan and no one ever complained. It wasn’t necessary to pompously storm out. But then this other thing came into the world. But I feel we have far more in common than we have differences. About seven years ago, I was doing a Florida radio talk show and they asked me why I was playing the Villages. I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about. I thought I was doing Orlando. They explained it was this right-wing retirement center. I just laughed and said, “I guess I’ll have my work cut out for me.” I told the crowd that story when I got there and they thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. I had the best time with those people.
