By TRACY BAIM AND AMY WOOTEN
Comic Paula Poundstone will be performing in the Chicago area for New Year's Eve—at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd, Dec. 31. Ticket prices are $34.50/ $29.50/ $24.50 and can be purchased at the Paramount Theatre box office by calling 630-896-6666 or www.ticketmaster.com .
Poundstone comes to Chicago about every two years, and in the early 1990s she hosted the AIDS Foundation of Chicago annual gala several times.
WCT: On your Web site you list a lot of the non-profits you're involved in. A lot of celebrities tend to shy away from more controversial ones like Planned Parenthood—how do you choose?
PP: I do get asked a lot, but you know what? It's luck of the draw. What I'm available for. There's legitimacy to the majority of them. But I was sad to hear there's a problem with the Red Cross. That was troublesome. Because you know, in thinking of how to help the Katrina victims, you obviously want to give it to the place where it does the most good. And to hear the Red Cross ...
WCT: ... and the Salvation Army.
PP: I didn't know that. ... I saw some piece last night on the news about charitable giving and they were saying that charitable giving to the poor is at like this ridiculous low as compared to, you know, museums. And again, all perfectly legit. If somebody was to do a benefit for such-and-such museum I would say, well yeah if I could. I mean, they're all legitimate interests.
WCT: But even being involved in Democratic Party politics these days seems to be controversial. Do you feel like in your audiences, your audiences are favorable to those kinds of politics anyway, so you don't see any backlash?
PP: I don't worry about a backlash. I don't even give that a moment's thought ever—until you just now mentioned it. And now I might pull back as a result of this eye-opening [ laughs ] —no, I never thought about it.
WCT: On your Web site you say you do political humor that doesn't necessarily alienate your audiences.
PP: Oh, I think Republicans come to see me. I'd say not in hordes, and certainly they don't come as a Republican group. But no, I mean, I know I have some Bush supporters in my crowd, but probably not that many. As a percentage, it would be smaller. You know, I think I saw that by way of saying you know, the majority of my act is not really a political statement exactly. I kind of am who I am and I don't generally skirt around who I am to appease in any way. And maybe if I did, I'd be a really big deal, you know? Maybe I'd be rich and famous, but I kind of can't help it. I have OCD and I can't stop talking and I tend to reveal things—I've spent my entire life saying the wrong thing. Some nights I go to bed just totally exhausted. I realize I've said the wrong thing a thousand times today. It's grueling..
WCT: You did a show in Skokie where there was an Anne Frank comment. I know people who were at the show—and it was not received well in Skokie.
PP: It's a joke in my act—about helping my daughter with a report on Anne Frank. And after a night of working with my daughter on a poster I began to think of Anne Frank as a slacker. No, I will defend that line to its death. Did I say that off the top of my head and wish I hadn't? No. And I didn't even wish I hadn't, despite the fact that—the response from the crowd was kind of funny, actually. It wasn't like cold and offended. It was like, you know, "Baaaoooh!" [ laughs ] The response from the crowd was comedic. It wasn't like it was hard to work after that and we all felt sort of embarrassed. It wasn't that kind of thing. I don't—Anne wasn't there. You know, if Anne Frank had been in the room, I wouldn't have said a thing.
WCT: But you're not worried about those kinds of things. Let's say, you know, the gay community or things like that. I remember at AIDS Foundation of Chicago the jokes you did on us were pretty well-received. They were kind of edgy.
PP: No, not really. I don't think I say anything that ghastly or awful. But I guess—not that I know of. ... There's always going to be somebody who draws some personal whatever into everything. But I don't think I say anything so—and my act is not designed to shock or, it's not. On the other hand, it's not going to please everyone, as it turns out. Except a Chia Pet. I don't think there's anybody who's upset about a Chia Pet.
WCT: The TV show you did—I remember it being this great, innovative show.
PP: Thank you. Me too.
WCT: With all the cable expansion and networks, is there any possibility that you would be able to do a show again?
PP: Oh, maybe someday. It's possible. It's not a big driving force for me. I mean, I don't feel like I must get on television. In fact, if anything, having done a little bit of television, I feel I must not do television. [ laughs ] You know, that's not exactly true. Maybe it's like winning the lottery. It really was. The great thing about my job now, if I dropped dead tomorrow—no, better yet, if I dropped dead tomorrow I'd have nothing to say—but if I was diagnosed with some heinous disease and had a week left to live, I would, I think, look back on my career and it is currently in such a wonderful place because for one more week I could continue to work as I do now. I don't have to committee anything that I say. And that is such a great freedom.
You know, anytime you want to do anything on television, even all the reality TV, you know, it's scripted. Anything you want to do on TV, some suit comes in and, in a very uninformed way, presents their opinion. I mean, even when we were doing the ABC show, I remember the guy that was the network guy. ... One of my favorite things was we took economists and put them in scrambler or a tea cup kind of a ride down the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Now I think they do a lot of that kind of stuff, but this was fairly new at the time. ... As the economists came toward the camera, they were to answer whatever the question was. You know, what's your belief? What kind of economics do you believe in. You know, 'Supply side!' And then away they would go. ...
WCT: When's the DVD coming out?
PP: Let me tell you, it was so much fun to do. ... So we had talked it over and thought this was a funny idea. You write it down on a stupid index card. They are very big on index cards in television, and put it with a thumb tack on a board. And so, all it would say is 'Economists in the teacups.' That's as much information as was put on the card, and we all knew what it meant because we talked about it and laughed over it. And now, here comes this suit to a meeting. He doesn't even work in the building. He comes from ABC. He sits down for a few minutes. He looks at the card and says, 'Economists in teacups. Well, that won't be funny.' OK. You might want to hear what it is. 'Get that off there. I don't like that.'
An informed opinion would be OK, maybe. But not that like that. And that kind of thing happened over and over again. And we were right. It was very funny. It was a great thing to do. There were only a handful of shows recorded, but among them, that was one of the more memorable things. It worked out really good. The audience in the house laughed a lot. The handful of people who talked about the show in print favorably viewed that particular piece. So, that guy was wrong as he could be. And continued to climb up the chain of ABC. I think he's head of ABC now. [ laughs ] .
WCT: Is there any chance of your TV work coming out at all on DVD?
PP: Oh, I might one day do one of those things where you've done so little television work you can take all of it and put it on a disk. [ laughs ] I might want to do that, the collected works of—but the point is, now when I go out, I say whatever I want. I spent a good deal of time the last couple of years writing a book and then another smaller book and nobody tells me what to do. It's great. Great. I go and talk to the audience. Some people like what I say, some people don't like what I say. It doesn't really much matter. It doesn't effect the world anyways. It's great.
WCT: Your audience seems to include a significant proportion of gay and lesbian people. And also a wide variety of other people. Can you talk about where your audience really comes from, and how they've been loyal over the years?
PP: I have a great gay and lesbian following that I absolutely adore. They are very fun to play to. And a lot of older people, I have no idea why. Maybe because I work in Florida a lot. You know what I'm really surprised by when I work? How many financial people there are in the crowd. When I used to do corporate, nine times out of 10 the job was to some sort of financial organization. I think I couldn't be any more separated from that group. Like, I have an accountant, for example, and he sends me accounting statements that I can't read or understand. And so I don't open them. ... But I do have a lot of those people, and I don't know what else. I don't know who else comes specifically. It's not as racially mixed as I might enjoy, but, what are you gonna do?
WCT: How do you think your audience has changed over the years? I'm sure you get asked a lot about the arrest and the controversy and your family. Do you think it's matured with you? Do you think there's been a change in who comes to see you?
PP: Um, no I don't think so. Certainly, I lost the deadwood. [ laughs ] I don't have any fence sitters in my crowd. Which obviously wouldn't have been what I sought. But I think in terms as an audience member—I mean, the shows are really strong, and I think part of the reason is because I say funny things, hopefully. But also part of the reason is everybody there is there because they really want to see Paula Poundstone. Nobody came because they heard there was a night of comedy somewhere and they didn't really— people are pretty schooled, I think. Usually, I suppose, if there is somebody who hasn't seen me before that's there, it's because they're there with a friend, or they're there with a spouse who dragged them. And therefore, you're really preaching to the choir, which is kind of fun as it turns out. It's a good thing I had a fairly large choir before, you know, before disaster struck. Because I have had a really loyal following. Again, not huge, necessarily, but you know. I remember in The Greatest Show on Earth, you know that movie? Did you ever see the one with Charlton Heston? OK, well the circus train crashes and many of the animals escape. [ laughs ] Many of the performers are injured. But they put together a little parade anyways. And they can't really put up a big top anymore because I think it burst into flames or something, but they still create a small circus out in a field somewhere beside the crashed train and it's good enough. That's really the format I've been using.
WCT: Was it hard to be funny at that point [ after the arrest and subsequent media coverage ] ? When you were first coming back.
PP: No. And first of all, people are so funny. Everyone assumes—I can't tell you how many people I talk to who go 'Are you working?' Well, what the hell else would I be doing? Yeah, I'm working. Because I wasn't one of those seven people who won the lottery [ referring to a recent lottery win ] . Yeah, I'm working! Believe me, I'm working. What a stupid question. I think a lot of people think that—I don't know where this idea comes from—I generally go into Chicago a lot to [ appear on the radio show ] Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me! now. Because of the corporate work and that, Chicago is one of the cities that I've come to many times in the last four or five years. But generally speaking, in terms of theater or something like that, it's about two years in between usually. Because I've never had the kind of draw that could fill a room more than that, honestly. So, people assume then that during that two years—it's like how my cat thinks when I leave, I'm just sitting outside the door and then I come back into the house. I think people think that's what I do. I come to Chicago and then I just sit at home and wait until I come back to Chicago again. No. When I'm not in some place, during that two-year interim, I'm working at other theaters and corporations around the country.
WCT: So, there was no gap at all.
PP: I was in rehab for six months. I came out Dec. 5. I went to work Dec. 15. And I would have gone to work Dec. 6 if I had a job then. Seems silly to go tell jokes until there was an audience in front of me. I worked in Santa Cruz to a full house the first night I got back. You know, I had that six-month—we could politely call it a hiatus. [ laughs ] A rest period. I never consciously took time off or didn't come back or whatever. And I would say I was somewhat nervous on the first night, but after that—the first night went great, actually. If anything, that was a little bit misleading as to what was ahead of me. Dec. 15 went very well. In fact, that was four years ago yesterday.
WCT: A lot of your comedy addresses gender roles, and you get very personal, but at the same time it's almost third person in how you talk about comedy. And your Web site talks about the gender biases.
PP: I got to look at this Web site!
WCT: So, you don't do it?
PP: No, I'm joking. [ laughs ] I actually don't know how to work a computer. I write all this stuff, but my manager—well, somebody else—puts it on, but Bonnie kind of oversees what's there certainly more than I do. I mean, I just wrote it. I just wrote this year's holiday letter, which is going up soon. That's really all I want to do is just write holiday letters every year.
WCT: You can write them all year round. There's always a holiday coming up.
PP: You are right, good point.
WCT: So, gender plays a role, but it plays a very different role for some comics. It's very funny, but very subtle humor about gender roles. And I'm curious—do you consider yourself a feminist comic?
PP: All women are feminists, aren't they? I think you have to be. ... Well, we've backlashed a little bit in our recent years. That's true.
WCT: Even lesbians I know say, "I'm not a feminist."
PP: That's a little weird. It's like a gay Republican. [ laughs ] I was just talking to my sister about this in the car. I've never understood that. ... Well I do have a lot of prejudice because I'm also very uncomfortable with Black Republicans. I just don't understand it. It just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, unless they're from Lincoln's time, I don't understand where the security is in that. There's this idea that whatever white men do, we should be allowed to do. I feel like some of us should figure out that what they were doing wasn't good. So, it's not necessarily equality to do the same thing. But you still want to be allowed to do the same thing, I suppose.
WCT: Like gay marriage. Why would you want to imitate that?
PP: Yeah, I totally understand that. [ laughs ] I feel that they should have the right to marry, I just don't understand where the impulse comes from. [ laughs ] And they always say it's to access benefits and it's hospital visitation. I go, well let's change those laws, and get everyone off the hook.
WCT: Right, there shouldn't be a bias against anything.
PP: I don't couple anyways, so I wish the rest of you luck.
WCT: What is this show coming into town, and is this a specific tour?
PP: My act has a little evolution to it only as a result of being a human being and getting older. I probably think some different things than I used to think. A couple of years ago I used to do this thing about how I hated babies on airplanes. You know, if instead of smoking and non-smoking, they had a babies and no-babies flight, I would fly in a day early to go no-babies. And I think about that now and oh my God, how could I ever have said that? [ laughs ] Meanwhile, we were at the Target a couple of days ago buying Toys for Tots. And I said to my children before we left to do it, I said, 'Today we are buying for people who don't have.' And we've done this annually forever. ... And then ... tantrums in the Target! Oh my God! My one daughter managed to keep her mouth shut. The other two: 'Well, why couldn't I have that? What?' And I made the little holiday speech about how special it feels to give and 'Eeeh, I want a watch! I want that Star Wars watch.'
WCT: Are they your best or worst audience in terms or your humor and comedy? Do they think their mom is funny?
PP: They are a target of many of the jokes. [ laughs ]
WCT: Until they can come see?
PP: Yeah. People say, 'Do your kids come to your show?' What, are you kidding? Don't even say anything to my kids about my shows. And they don't even know I do shows! Well, if my kids ever read the book I've written, they'll sue me. But I feel that it's my payback for putting up with [ them ] . It's that I deserve to have some sort of an outlet.
WCT: So, to Chicagoans, why come to this show? I mean, it's on New Year's Eve?
PP: ... Well, mostly I don't really care about the New Year, but if you did, I think to welcome it with laughter and community is probably about the best thing you could do, with the exception of maybe working in a soup kitchen that night. ... But then there's that awkward moment when you realize there's absolutely no difference between… 11:59 p.m. and 12:01 a.m.
WCT: You talk about your life a lot in your act—
PP: How much longer is it [ her life ] going to be? [ laughs ] I don't know, a couple of days? My son one day said there was something of mine he wanted, and he wondered when I was dying. [ laughs ] But he was six, swear to God. I don't even know where he got such a firm idea of the will thing. I think I explained it before, but I didn't think I explained it that good. He doesn't really have a generous spirit, can you tell that from these stories?
WCT: You tend to talk about the arrest from a couple years back and everything, and you could very well just not talk about it. How does it help you to be able to be so open?
PP: Well, honestly, I might eventually sort of—this was four years ago. Five years ago, something like that. Sometimes I feel that there is an elephant-in-the-room quality about the subject, and so I refer to it, sort of address it early and move on. On the other hand, there's a lot of people in the last couple of years that have seen me and heard me address that. Perhaps even they don't need to address that anymore. My act evolves as I grow older and when all that was first really sort of more in my own focus, I mean I talked about it a lot, a lot, a lot onstage. And, you know, I'd say less and less so. It would be nice if it petered out altogether at one point or another. But people do ask me about it a tremendous amount. And unfortunately, it's what I'll be remembered for probably. Which probably makes you think a lot, you know? Especially, you know, I'm coming up on my 46th birthday, and you know, it's the beginning of the New Year and all that kind of stuff, and every now and again you reflect on what is my purpose here, what have I done, and it's kind of sad to say that is what I'll be remembered for, more than likely. More than anything else. Oh that comic, oh yeah, she got arrested. But, since I'm not really in control of that. I'm not really in control of what other people think or— my main job is to be funny. And there's funny parts of all that. In fact, there were lots of funny parts of all that, quite honestly. But again, I think the main reason why I continue to mention it is because of that elephant-in-the-room quality, which if I mention in the beginning, people don't worry about it. People don't worry that I might accidentally say something or they are worried that if I pick up something to have a sip of, 'Oh, what if that's alcohol?' You know. I did have a candy the other day that I think had liquor in it. God, was I high. Totally wasted on bon bons.
