I had the chance to catch up with Paula recently and chat about her start in comedy, her three children and the dreaded $40 season, and just how much work she puts into her hilarious Twitter feed.<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> How did you get your start in comedy?<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> The first sentence of the last paragraph of the summary letter that they wrote on the report card by my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bump, in May of 1965 said, \u201cI have enjoyed many of Paula\u2019s humorous comments about our activities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I always liked the response of laughter. As luck would have it, there was a period of time where I thought I wanted to be Carol Burnett or Lily Tomlin. I still would like to be Carol Burnett or Lily Tomlin, but I guess I missed by a country mile.<\/em><\/p>\n But really, I happened to live in Boston in June of 1979, and there was a comedy renaissance. Obviously stand-up comedy has been around pretty much since time began, but there were a number of different cities where a couple of guys pretty much simultaneously got the idea to start venues for stand-up comedy. I happened to be in on the ground floor of that in Boston working. I was 19, and I had really the only responsibility of staggering in to bus tables every morning. Outside of that, there was nothing that I had to do. So that\u2019s what I did!<\/em><\/p>\n I started doing open mic nights in Boston, and then I took a Greyhound bus around the country to see what clubs were like in other cities. Then I ended up staying in San Francisco because there were just some really great audiences there, although the weather never suited me. It\u2019s too foggy.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> It is really foggy up there! Kind of rough getting up.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> It\u2019s really depressing there. It\u2019s funny because every time I work there now, I\u2019m up there a couple of times a year, I happen to be there on a spectacularly beautiful day. The thing is that it really is a beautiful city, and so it can be really tempting sometimes. I have to stop myself sometimes. But man, when I lived there, I almost shot myself it was so overcast! I don\u2019t do well in overcast.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Yeah, overcast is tough. Every morning San Diego is pretty overcast, and then by noon, it\u2019s gorgeous. But the mornings are so rough.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> That\u2019s what happens in Santa Monica for most of the year. They call it \u201cJune Gloom\u201d, but the trick is that it actually starts in May, and it doesn\u2019t clear up until\u2026 well, there was a whole summer where it never cleared up until 2 in the afternoon! The funny thing is that it\u2019s like a science experiment every day. When I wake up in the morning, I\u2019ll think of something and it will really start troubling me. But then, when I think about that same thing in the afternoon, it just doesn\u2019t have the same impact (laughs). I finally figured out, \u201dOhhhh! It\u2019s the light!\u201d It has such an impact!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) I do that all the time! It\u2019s bizarre too! All I want to do in the morning is sit around, drink my coffee, and dread the day. But then by the afternoon, I\u2019m in a great mood!<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Exactly. I almost can\u2019t figure out why I was so upset in the morning.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> That\u2019s why I had to start scheduling interviews first thing in the morning. They put me in such a better mood, and it\u2019s one of my favorite parts of my job. Why not start the day that way!<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> For sure. I don\u2019t know what my favorite part of my job is. I guess the part where I\u2019m with the crowd. (Laughs) I guess that\u2019s it! There are definitely times where I don\u2019t feel like going up on stage.<\/em><\/p>\n I have long believed that we are just big bags of chemicals walking around, but now with all the research, there are so many things that back that up. The light thing for example, while I kind of discovered that for myself, there\u2019s tons of research to back that up now. I consider myself a part of the endorphin production industry. I take great pride in that! Laughter is just so important. It\u2019s good for our brains; it\u2019s good for our overall well being. It\u2019s important for me because most of the time for work I\u2019m alone. I travel alone, I\u2019m on an airplane, in a hotel, I eat my room service dinner, throw on some lipstick, and then go off to tell my jokes! Then I\u2019m back in a hotel room by myself.<\/em><\/p>\n A lot of times, I\u2019m really not all that social. It\u2019s not so bad now. Now I kind of know the routine and I know how it is, so I don\u2019t fall prey to it as often, but sometimes I\u2019m just not in the mood! Sometimes I\u2019m just not in the mood to get up there, but then seconds after I hit the stage, I have a hard time getting off! I don\u2019t want to leave.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Sure! It\u2019s something you enjoy, plus people really get to enjoy it! It must be so cool just to see their faces and see the response so instantaneously.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> It\u2019s great. It\u2019s a really, really great thing. It kind of completes a circle. I just did an interview with the guy, who wrote a book called \u201cThe Moral Molecule\u201d, and there\u2019s a chemical\u2014 oxytocin I believe it\u2019s called\u2014 but it\u2019s released. It\u2019s this thing our brain does that rewards us when we do things that are good for our species. One of those things is eye contact, and then another is a certain kind of human interaction that fortunately, my job provides it. After the show I usually sign stuff and hang out with people, and I love every second of it, even on the nights when I don\u2019t really feel like it. Although I bussed tables for several years and was really good at it, I didn\u2019t always have that same energy of not feeling like doing it when I first started, but then I felt like it. I didn\u2019t always have that. (Laughs) Busing tables doesn\u2019t always provide that.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) I\u2019d have to agree! Something I\u2019d love to ask you about, especially because you\u2019re actually the first comedian I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing, but I\u2019d love to know about your writing process for jokes. I interview mainly musicians, and I love to talk a lot about songwriting because people write so many different ways. But I\u2019d love to know how that process usually goes for you.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> It\u2019s probably a bit of the same would be my guess. I kind of work off two tracks. I talk to the audience and do the time honored \u201cWhere are you from, and what do you do for a living?\u201d bit. There\u2019s a solid portion of the show, on a good night I\u2019d say about 1\/3, but it\u2019s not scripted, it\u2019s not written down anywhere, and I\u2019ve never done it before because it\u2019s a conversation. It\u2019s no more scripted than this conversation right here or any other. A lot of it just comes from that, so it\u2019s not \u201cmaterial\u201d per say.<\/em><\/p>\n But then, based on where the conversations go and where those jokes go, I kind of set my sails for what to talk to the crowd about of stuff that I have that I\u2019ve done before. Those things come from sometimes things I\u2019ve talked about on stage one night, but then it goes over well and I repeat it, or things that have happened that day. I have three kids, sixteen cats, and two German Shepard mixed dogs. I try to keep up with the news and the events of the world. I\u2019m alive and kicking in 2012, and sometimes I don\u2019t have to write so much as I just take notes. Some stuff just sort of presents itself in the happening. I almost never sit down with a blank piece of paper and say, \u201cNow I\u2019m going to write jokes\u201d. I have before, but it\u2019s just not my most effective way of doing it. Generally speaking, I think of stuff and grab a piece of paper. I have a million little pieces of paper all over the house. I\u2019ve got notebooks with sentences, and sometimes I forget what I meant when I wrote it down. That drives me crazy.<\/em><\/p>\n When I first started out in Boston, like I said, I bussed tables for a living. I lived in a rooming house, and I would go to clubs at night and watch other stand-ups and do open mic nights and stuff, and then I had to get up at like 5 in the morning to get to work. I\u2019d function on just a couple of hours of sleep.<\/em><\/p>\n Sometimes when I\u2019d lie down to go to sleep, I would have these ideas of things I thought were funny and I thought I should try. Of course I never wanted to get up and write it down because I was exhausted. So I had this system since I knew I\u2019d forget, I\u2019d take the phone book and throw it out into the middle of my one-room living space, and then in the morning when I saw the phone book there, I\u2019d know I was thinking of something the night before, and then I\u2019d be saying, \u201cOh, what was it (laughs)?\u201d It worked sometimes.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Just sometimes!<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Then it worked sometimes. Now, it\u2019d never work. I\u2019d just think I was using the phone book for something the night before. Now my memory is just so god damn bad that if I don\u2019t write something down, it\u2019s just gone.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> On that note, I follow your Twitter account, and I have to say that those things keep me laughing all the time.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> I\u2019m flattered! Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> You\u2019re very welcome! But do you ever use those to write new material that you can expand on?<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> I was on Craig Ferguson the other night. I had written this whole thing, and the show was taped to air in July. I had been told that when I originally got the date, but I forgot. But when you do stand-up on those late night shows, it\u2019s like 4 and a half minutes. So I wrote this set of material that I was going to do. The great thing about The Craig Ferguson show was that they really didn\u2019t care if I did that set or not. They go through the motions of insisting that I write it down so I can give it to them and they can clear it with the censors and all that stuff, but the truth is they really don\u2019t care if I talk about what was on that page or not.<\/em><\/p>\n I wrote out this set about this time of the school year with kids. This time of the year is a pain in the ass! They go to school at wacky times; they get out at wacky times, every day you have to buy something. I always call it $40 season. My daughter is a senior this year, so now it\u2019s more like $100 season! It\u2019s $100 for this, $100 for that, sign this! Every freaking morning! So I had this bit about this time of the year. But then I remembered that it didn\u2019t air until July!<\/em><\/p>\n So I talked to my manager about it, and she suggested I use some of my Tweets for material! So she sent me over a whole bunch of things I\u2019d tweeted. It\u2019s funny, because some things cross over, but what I found was that most of them are worded in a particular way that\u2019s really just for that format. It doesn\u2019t necessarily translate.<\/em><\/p>\n I do the same thing other ways too sometimes. I\u2019m writing a book right now, and I already wrote another book, but some of the stuff I\u2019m using in both places, and it came as a result of writing the book. I got on a train of thought, and I was able to get a lot out of it. Then there are other times where it\u2019s just too wordy and wouldn\u2019t work at all on stage. At least I think that anyways. I don\u2019t know. A lot of that stuff on Twitter is just on Twitter, and after it scrolls down, I don\u2019t even remember it anymore. Damn it (laughs). And I work so hard at it, too! The last couple of days though I\u2019ve just been bereft. I finally posted something the other night, and someone responded, \u201cPaula\u2019s back!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I\u2019m sure that does take a lot of work!<\/em><\/p>\n [At this point, Paula had to put me on hold for a second to chat with one of her kids, and when she came back, hilarity ensued]<\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Parenting. Oh my God, it\u2019s the worst (laughs). Do you have kids?<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) No, can\u2019t say that I do.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Don\u2019t do it. It\u2019s the worst. (Laughs) There goes all the fun in your life! Nah, I\u2019m kidding. It\u2019s not that it\u2019s not fun, but man, it can be fucking grueling!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Thus the reason I have no kids.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Seriously. And the thing is, I was a horrible kid, so I know all of the cons and the tricks! I can turn to my kids, and they do something, and I\u2019m like, \u201cYou\u2019re not fooling anybody here. (Laughs)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My daughter does this thing where she\u2019ll act like she doesn\u2019t really get what you just said. You tell her something, and she\u2019ll take it not entirely to the opposite, but well to the left of what you actually asked. Therefore, often the result will be that then I just go in and do it. Then she gives me this mouth open face that indicates that she\u2019s not even going to use the energy to close her mouth. It\u2019s one of my favorite looks, by the way. I call it the fish face. So yeah, now she\u2019s going to insist that this isn\u2019t something she\u2019s doing intentionally.<\/em><\/p>\n But hey, I guess when the result is that I go in and do the job instead, maybe that\u2019s the reward!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Thanks for even more reasons to leave the child rearing to my sisters. The nieces and nephew will do just fine by me.<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> Yeah. The truth is that my middle daughter is about to graduate and go off to college, and I wish I could start all over again. I wish I could start all over. I wish they were babies again. My oldest is doing her best to give me the feeling that she\u2019s a baby again (laughs), but that\u2019s not really what I meant! I meant that we turn back the hands of time, not that we regress!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) You get something to the left of what you asked for!<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> (Laughs) She\u2019s sensing my mourning of the passage of their infancy, but oh my god. If you want to hear yourself talk, be a parent. You get to repeat the same thing over and over! Then my son has the balls to say, \u201cYou already told me that!\u201d (Laughs) Yeah, I did, didn\u2019t I!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> What are you most looking forward to about coming back to Anthology?<\/em><\/p>\n PP:<\/strong> I love Anthology! It gives me a William Powell feeling that I like.<\/em>\u00a0It\u2019s a nice club because you\u2019re so close to the people too. I love that part.<\/em>\u00a0The crowds are always really nice, and the food is fantastic! Most times when I work, I get room service before I go from a Hyatt or something, so I often get a chicken Caesar salad or something like that. I don\u2019t get a wide variety of food, and I don\u2019t cook, so going to a good place for food is a big thrill to me. I\u2019m really looking forward to it.<\/em><\/p>\n Special thanks to Paula for her time and of course for the laughs! Be sure to come out and enjoy her show this weekend! We’ve still got some tickets left, but they’re moving super fast!<\/p>\n Paula Poundstone on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT: <\/em>Paula Poundstone<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Interview with Paula Poundstone By Casey Pukl For over 25 years, Paula Poundstone has been making audiences all over the US laugh. She considers herself part of the “endorphin production industry,” and couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. I had the chance to catch up with Paula recently and chat about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-6548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32899,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6548\/revisions\/32899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/paula.jpeg\" "\\"paula\\"")
<\/a>For over 25 years, Paula Poundstone has been making audiences all over the US laugh. She considers herself part of the “endorphin production industry,” and couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.<\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Saturday, June 9, 7:30 & 9:30pm <\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $12-$63 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n