Paula Poundstone can’t seem to get grocery shopping right. If she writes a list, she forgets it at home, if she buys the peanut butter, she forgets the jelly. Luckily she won’t be giving a tutorial on grocery shopping on July 1 at the Old Whaling Church. Instead, she will be doing what she does best, putting on a comedy show. And comedy, she can get right.
Ms. Poundstone brought her specific brand of humor to the Vineyard once before in the early years of her career, 37 years ago. Now, as a part of the inaugural season of the Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series, she joins Alan Cumming, David Sedaris, Amy Goodman, Chadwick Stokes and more to populate July and August with comedy, songs and storytelling.
Paula Poundstone will perform on Friday, July 1, at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
As a young person, like many young people, Ms. Poundstone thought her life experiences were totally isolated. Then, at 19, she began doing stand-up comedy in Boston and around the country, traveling by Greyhound bus to open mic nights. Suddenly, standing in front of a microphone, those isolated experiences of childhood were shared, relatable and funny.
“When I was younger I mistakenly believed that I was a freak or I was the only one,” she said in a recent phone interview. “[As a stand-up] you tell people stories and there is a laugh of recognition. That’s part of the joy of the whole job.”
Relating to and engaging with the audience is a cornerstone of Ms. Poundstone’s shows. Though she uses a mix of old and new material, each show is unique because it reacts to the particular group of people who attend.
“I talk to the audience a lot,” she said. “Where are you from? What are you doing? No two nights are the same.”
Ms. Poundstone doesn’t write her jokes out beforehand, preferring a show to be malleable to a specific audience. Instead she takes notes throughout the day on scraps of paper or a notebook tucked into her jacket pocket.
This year has been fruitful for material with the presidential election. A frequent panelist on the NPR comedy news quiz show Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!, Ms. Poundstone is known for political comedy, but it’s just another tool in her belt of observational humor.
“I’m not an analyst, not a historian, not an expert, but when I have the microphone, I say what I think,” she said. “It’s kind of autobiographical. We’re living through this time and you can’t help reflecting on what you see.”
One candidate in particular makes it easy for comics, she said.
“Trump cries out to be mocked, you don’t have to think of a lot of jokes, you just say what you saw,” she said.
But it’s not all politics. For Ms. Poundstone, everyday life is a treasure trove of material, including the excessive amount of travelling she does for her job as a performer.
“Most comics are somewhat embarrassed of that fact, but I’m the master of the airplane joke,” she said. “It’s a huge part of my life.”
Laughing at life is a key to keeping sane, she said. Another source of constant material is motherhood. Ms. Poundstone has three children and readily admits she drives them crazy just as much as they do her. One recent day, shifting through a pile of papers in her room, she uncovered a full range of emotions.
“Every third is a note of apology for a tantrum, every fourth is a scribble saying how much he hates me, every other is a note saying he loves me,” she said. “Thank goodness I don’t base my personal feelings on what the children feel.”
Though there are no guarantees which jokes she will bring to the Vineyard, Ms. Poundstone promises to bring a lot of energy. Even after 37 years in the game, her zeal for performing remains strong.
“The audience is my best friend, which I’m sure is a therapist’s treasure trove, but I don’t care,” she said.
Paula Poundstone performs at the Old Whaling Church on July 1 at 8 p.m. Tickets and more information about the MV Concert Series are available at: mvconcertseries.com.
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