Paula Poundstone returns to roots, says stand-up greatest job in world

Paula Poundstone can be both erudite and wacky in the same sentence. Her voice has something to do with it — a deadpan delivery coupled with giddy bursts of “Heh!” or “Hmmm.”

Poundstone has been a star in comedy clubs and theaters since she was around 20 years old (she’s now 66), a regular on National Public Radio’s long-running news quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” for a quarter of a century and a podcaster since 2018. Her acting credits range from the educational children’s cartoon series “Science Court” to voicing Forgetter Paula in the “Inside Out” movies.

As a stand-up comedian, Poundstone has developed a natural rapport with audiences that makes her sets so good-natured and inquisitive that no two shows are alike.

Poundstone was born in Alabama but a few weeks after she was born her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts. Her career began in the Boston comedy clubs of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, but it didn’t take long before she was touring the country and taping HBO comedy specials. She has lived in California for over 40 years.

Poundstone visits Connecticut frequently on tour. Last year, you could see her in Hartford and Norwalk. On Aug. 8, she’ll be back at Infinity Hall Hartford for an 8 p.m. show.

Hartford Courant: In the Boston comedy scene of the 1980s you really stood out. It was a certain type of thing, represented by a lot of loud guys like Lenny Clarke, but you were not of that thing. How did that feel?

Paula Poundstone: I think that’s accurate. I was not of that thing, yet I was of Boston. It was a rough and tumble stand-up comedy scene back then. I think that the reason that was what you expected from a Boston audience was that Lenny was from Cambridge and was such a man about town. He ran for office years ago. His friends were there. So when you played Boston, you were playing to an audience of Lenny’s friends. That was their sense of humor.

Do you get back to New England a lot other than for performances?

I have friends in Manchester, Massachusetts. I used to vacation there every year. This year I’m not taking a vacation. It’s depressing, really.

You play Connecticut pretty often. Any special feelings about the state?

I’m at Infinity Hall again. I’ve been there many times. Connecticut’s not a world apart from Massachusetts, that’s for sure.

Podcasting and radio seems such a good fit for you. If podcasts had existed 40 years ago, might you have started there instead of clubs?

Well, everybody gravitated toward podcasting. There’s nary a performer who could hold on any longer. Everybody has a podcast, and I didn’t want to be left out. I’m trying to think if I feel I’m suited to it. I’ll tell you what it does that stand-up doesn’t do for me: I like to experiment, and I’m more free to experiment because I’m not in front of an audience that I can see with my eyes. So I do goofy character voices here and there, which is something I’d thought about from time to time but never had the urge to do before.

I did an overpass protest the other day for Trump Must Go Now. An elderly woman showed up and she was bent in half. I leaned up to say hello to her and she said something to me about Mrs. Culpepper. Well, Mrs. Culpepper is a really goofy, silly character I do on the podcast. People surprise me the way they respond to that character. I would never have the confidence to do that outside of a podcast, I’d just be too shy. Yeah, I’m kind of big baby.

The thing about podcasting, too, is that, very much like the have or have-not economy, there’s this big arc of success. There are people like Joe Rogan making all the money and everyone else scrambling for crumbs.

Do you still fashion live shows specifically for the place you’re at or the crowd you’re with?

Yes. My favorite part of any show is to just talk to the audience. I do the time-honored “Where’re you from? What do you do for a living?” In this way, little biographies of audience members emerge, and I use that from which to set my sails. That makes every show different and tied to where we are in some way.

You’ve had other aspects of your career that have lasted a really long time, like “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” Do you have a regular contract with them for so many episodes or do they just call you?

I’ve been pretty lucky. I don’t think I have a contract. I’m just there. I’m not sure how big the panelist pool is anymore but I started there I think 25 years ago and it appears to me that they have 20-25 panelist and they rotate us all in no particular order.

When you’re doing that show, you have to be creative and witty in the moment but you’re also playing a game. Are you playing to win?

Oh, I’m very competitive. I don’t think it looks that way, but I am trying to win.

When you don’t, do you leave feeling you could’ve done better?

I try to leave it all on the field. There’s plenty of times when I don’t win, by the way. Plenty of times. It’s a weekly comedy news quiz show and you get points for knowing the answers to questions about the week’s news. I lose pretty much on a regular basis, but that’s where I have the others outsmarted. I should know all the answers but I don’t always.

It says on your website that you’re a big reader. Do you also have to read a lot for “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me”?

I try. I read too slow. I tried to read the New York Times for a little while and I said “OK, here’s what I’ll do. I’ll only get Section A.” What happened I was only going to read Section A because to read the whole paper would take way too long and I couldn’t possibly do it. So I would strip the paper right when I got it, only holding on to Section A thinking this was such a brilliant move. Slowly but surely it just stacked up. The New York Time Section A reminding me of what a loser I was. Eventually I had to give up even that.

How about books? Read any good books lately?

I listen to more than I read. Because I interview, not infrequently, authors on my podcasts, that’s a lot of what I end up listening to. I just interviewed Andrew Weissman who just wrote a book called “Liar’s Kingdom” and it’s great. The week before that I did Barbara McQuade and her book “The Fix,” which is also just terrific. So I’ve been listening a lot.

Any favorite authors?

I’m a big Charles Dickens fan but I don’t think any new stuff is coming out though.

You tour a lot. Do you still enjoy it?

I do, yup, and you know what? It remains the greatest job in the world. I wish that I was Samantha on “Bewitched” and I could just wiggle my nose and blink and just be where I was going. But even with the travel, it’s still the greatest job ever.

Paula Poundstone performs on Aug. 8 at 8 p.m. at Infinity Hall, 32 Front St., Hartford. $70.62-$100.31. infinityhall.com.