Laugh Lines
OUT FRONT chatted with Paula Poundstone about her comedic style and her undying love for her audience. Catch Paula at Chautauqua Auditorium June 11th!
Throughout your impressive comedic career, what is one thing that stands out to you?
I have the greatest audience in the business, no exaggeration. When I was starting out working clubs, guys would kill to work with me and not because I am such a stroll in the park and certainly not because they were fans of my work, but because they wanted to get to talk to my audience, because they’re just plain fun.
What inspired your audience interaction?
You know like so many things, it was sort of accidental. I would go on stage as an open micer and the rule was anyone who wanted to could go on stage for five minutes. Comedy was very, very hot in the early 80s and open mics were just wild ruckus nights — particularly in Boston. There would be like 30 people on the list for five minutes a piece, or something like that. And if you went over your five minutes, you could hear them sharpening their knives in the back. At the time, I practiced my lines at work, and if you watched closely you’d see my lips mouthing my lines as I bused the tables, but when I went on stage, I would immediately forget everything. I would just get distracted, either by someone or something amusing. And now, I don’t know where I am in the five minutes! And I thought I was awful, a liability and so, so unprofessional. But I noticed that the stuff I said unplanned when I was nervous or panicking was qualitatively better than the stuff I did plan to say. I realized that this audience interaction is where the heart and soul of the night was.
You know it’s funny: I’ve taken some improve classes in LA and it’s so much fun but the audience interaction is nothing like that. It’s so different. It just feels like a conversation. When I’m talking to an audience, in my brain, I’m improvising with my best friend. It’s the most cared for relationship that I have in my entire life, and sadly I think that includes my children!
I feel very comfortable on stage.
Do you feel more comfortable on stage than off stage?
I do, by a country mile. You know when I was younger, I used to hate talking to audience members off stage. They would tell me how much they liked me, and I would say thank you and they always looked like they were disappointed that I wasn’t more entertaining. And I always felt like I let them down! Like I didn’t have enough to offer. But then I made some CDs and books and so after the show I would sign a bunch of stuff. And I think that having this task to do, of selling and signing books after the show, made me interact and chat with my audience. And somewhere I discovered a certain feeling, like I knew the general person who comes to see my shows, like who they are and the parts that we have in common. It’s really uplifting. I was really missing the boat years ago. I thought it was about what I was saying, but it’s about what we already share together and the struggles we have in common.
[quote]Humor has got to be the best coping mechanism. Not that sadness and crying and processing things that way isn’t healthy and helpful sometimes as well. But everything that happens probably doesn’t necessitate breaking down and crying about it.[/quote]
So would you say that your favorite part of stand-up is that moment of human connection that you share with your audience?
Yeah, it is a great thing. In this world of electronics, it’s so amazing that all these people just came out of their houses — so already I’m speaking to a pretty special bunch — for a night to laugh and have a good time.
How do you come up with your material?
Someday, when I get these f*cking kids out of my hair I have a fantasy of sitting down with a neatly labeled notebook. Just one notebook, in a very organized type of space and I will think about things and I will write them down and I will take it with me and study it and use it. I haven’t done anything remotely like that in many, many years. When I was starting out, I used to do that — sit down to just write. Now, when I just think of something funny, with any luck I remember it and jot it down somewhere and that piece of paper makes it to my folder that I religiously carry with me. And like a tinsmith, I beat it into shape on stage. I rarely have anything that is particularly well-crafted before talking to the crowd.
You mentioned that you like to find as much stuff funny as possible to get through life. Do you think of comedy as a sort of defense mechanism?
Certainly. Nature has provided us with such a wonderful thing, not wrinkles, not jowls, and certainly not the dewlap which is that obnoxious piece of skin that stretches from your chin to your neck, but laughter! And I don’t know if other species have it, really. Humor has got to be the best coping mechanism. Not that sadness and crying and processing things that way isn’t healthy and helpful sometimes as well. I’m not suggesting that we need to be in a constant state of avoidance. But you know everything that happens probably doesn’t necessitate breaking down and crying about it.
Laugh your troubles away with Paula Poundstone in Chautauqua Auditorium on June 11.
