COURTESY PHOTO Rapid-fire comedy
Stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone
is back in the isles as part of her
"Unauthorized Autobiography" tour
For Paula Poundstone, fame made her feel like Dorothy when she first entered The Land of Oz. Here she was, a 20-something "white girl from a small town in Massachusetts," traveling out of her black-and-white existence and getting off the bus in San Francisco, where a Technicolor world of possibilities awaited.
Paula Poundstone
Where: Pipeline Cafe, 805 Pohukaina St.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday
Tickets: $20 general and $25 table seating
Call: 926-3000
"It was a neat time," the 43-year-old comedian said by phone just before Christmas season, as she was multitasking like any good mom, wrapping gifts for her three adopted children in her Santa Monica, Calif., home.
"In the first place I lived, I shared a flat with a gay white man, a black guy and an Asian guy -- I would've never met three such people back home! I considered them my family, although pretty mixed sexual and racial-wise, which is nice, and that feeling was reinforced with the nice living experience we shared. The pulse, at the time, was just wonderful and San Francisco was a great place."
Poundstone speaks rapidly, with thoughts racing through her brain, expressed, then let go. She's naturally glib and makes amusing, often hilarious, observations about her life and things in general -- much like she's expressed herself onstage in clubs and theaters nationwide for many years.
She's been to Honolulu as a panelist for an anniversary edition of National Public Radio's popular news quiz show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," which was taped and broadcast nationwide last year from Hawaii Theatre. Now she's back for two shows at Pipeline Cafe on Thursday and Friday as part of her "Unauthorized Autobiography" tour.
"I call it that because I don't edit myself very well when I talk," she said. "And also, I've been trying to write a book for a long time, but the problem is, I do everything handwritten. The time it takes learning to use a computer would squander the same amount of time I can do it in longhand -- when I have time to do it, that is.
She added: "Thankfully, there's no deadline for the book. I originally agreed to a contract for a year with Crown/Harmony books ... and I asked them, 'Are you going to sue me if I'm not finished in that time?' They said 'no,' and four years later, I'm still writing."
POUNDSTONE started doing stand-up in Boston, at open-mic nights in 1979. She moved to San Francisco to further her comedy career.
"I don't know when or how I decided this is the way my life would be. I knew I was going to be some sort of comic performer back in Sudbury, but I didn't know the medium of stand-up -- the only female comic performers I knew then were Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin."
Reverting briefly to "parentspeak," Poundstone said: "I always tell my children to get good at what you practice. As I look at the current stand-up scene, I can tell some are real original and do it from their heart, while somebody else, who's not even very good, will do it often enough that they can make a living. It's like teachers -- some have the spark and talent for the job, others do just OK."
And Poundstone has done more than OK for herself. She's done two HBO specials, back in 1992 and '96, and did a brief stint as the host of her own ABC variety show, showcasing her quick wit and whimsical spontaneity.
Even though the show lasted only two months in 1993, the experience "wisened me slightly," she said. "I had another similar experience with Fox years later, but my expectations of working within the networks' system reduced over time. At the time my ABC show was canceled, I felt pretty bad -- I just didn't know what the word 'difficulty' meant."
But the show gave Poundstone the exposure to become a commentator for the '93 Emmy Awards, leading to work on E! Television's '94 Oscar telecast and performances at President Clinton's gala shows at the Ford Theater in '94 and '95.
There's a political side to her, as well. She's worked as a correspondent for "The Tonight Show" at the Democratic and Republican conventions during the '92 presidential race, and wrote a monthly column for Mother Jones magazine from '93 to '98.
She thinks of herself, however, when it comes to the NPR radio quiz show, that "I am the village idiot of the panel. I tend to get my info from one source, while the other panelists are news junkies who tend to understand what the initials of numerous organizations stands for.
"But the world, in general, remains interesting to me. I wish I had more political stuff in my comedy. I want to look smarter, but that would be an illusion and a lie."
In a way, her naiveté going into the conventions was a plus. "I was pretty much a blank slate," she said.
"Since I've done it, there seems to be a rash of comedians covering the successive political conventions. But it was a novelty when I did it first, and I remember Ted Koppel telling me he was envious of the liberty that I had, because I wasn't a news person.
"It's also the way the conventions are done -- it's such theater, with pablum offered up to the press, and so long as you do it the White House's way, you'll be given more access. I didn't need these people, which is more than what you get on TV nowadays, where everything is scripted up the yin-yang, even the backstage coverage. But it was a pretty unique environment then, when people let me be."
POUNDSTONE'S tour routine is still pretty grounded to her home, kids and pets. "Even when I was younger, I never liked to be gone from home long. The first time I did a month straight, I decided then and there that it wasn't for me. I remember once when I did one week through, I flew home for one day just to pet my cat and clean the house."
She shares her Southern California home with "10 cats, a big stupid dog (who's so insane he's the work of the 10 cats), my kids, 12 and 5 and 9 years old, a bearded dragon lizard, a bunny, and we just lost two tadpoles. They just became frogs, but they gave up the ghost."
But first and foremost, "I'm a stand-up comic and I'm a pretty good one," Poundstone said. "I've been around a long time and I know how to work the crowd. It's not a fractious interaction, like in television, where you have to deal with annoying people who can't operate outside of a committee. I don't have to committee anything, and even though, during a show, some of it's funny, and sometimes there can be a lull, at least I don't have to ask someone else 'Is it OK to say this?' to someone with index cards."
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