After criss-crossing the country for more than three decades, and spending 15 years as part of NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Paula Poundstone has gone from Greyhound bus terminal cafeterias in the 1980s to the Comedy Hall of Fame. Now, she’s back in Michigan.
Poundstone will be performing at the Kalamazoo State Theater on Sunday, April 24 and she joined Stateside to talk about her “unending tour” and what fans can expect.
“There’s no particular theme [for this tour],” said Poundstone. “I talk about raising a house full of kids and animals. I talk about trying to pay attention to the news well enough to cast a halfway decent vote, which we all know is not an easy trick at all. My favorite part of the night is just talking to the audience.”
Poundstone’s conversations with the audience – “Where ya from, where do you do for a living?“ – make each show unique and help her set her sails for her performance.
It's a joyous job. I'm the luckiest person in the entire world. To be in a room full of people who have come out to laugh for the night. It's kind of magical.
After more than 30 years in the business of making people laugh, Poundstone hasn’t lost the love for the job and is thankful that people still come out to see her.
“It’s fun. It’s a joyous job. I’m the luckiest person in the entire world,” said Poundstone. “To be in a room full of people who have come out to laugh for the night. It’s kind of magical.”
Listen to the full interview at 3 p.m. on Stateside to hear Poundstone talk about what she calls a “disturbing” 2016 Election, the early days of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, and learn how, like Michiganders, she uses a part of her anatomy to tell people where she’s from.
