Chatting with comedian and author Paula Poundstone for her upcoming Reno show is delightful. She is witty, quick and engaging. A guest regular on National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” Poundstone holds the record for most game losses on the show.
June 3 | 8 p.m.
Pioneer Center | Reno, Nev.
“Everyone else cheats,” she says.
Poundstone is currently on tour and has a new book entitled, “The Totally Unscientific Story of the Search for Human Happiness.”
“The book is memoir of sorts — because I am not dead yet. It looks at what it’s like raising kids, being a comic and what it’s like to be me for 24 hours a day,” she says.
The book documents numerous experiments that either Poundstone or others thought might bring happiness.
“I was a human guinea pig so to speak,” she says. “The book explores the questions: What could I do that would have a lasting umbrella, what are things I can bring back into my regular life that would make a difference?”
Replete with field notes, each chapter offers her hypothesis, conditions and variables for each experiment she undertook laced with humor and authenticity.
In one chapter, Poundstone drives a Lamborghini around late at night with her son. She says there was no lasting joy but it was fun. For her “get fit” experiment, she enrolled in Taekwondo classes, enlisted a personal trainer and worked out.
“It was grueling,” she says. “Five hundred jumps with a jump rope is a grueling workout. I wasn’t not happy doing the workout, but enjoyed the results. I was carrying 30 pounds of cat litter and waste one day when it dawned on me I felt great. It wasn’t the kitty litter; I’d been doing that for years. Losing weight and waking up feeling filled with possibilities were some of the results from this chapter.”
“I get to go on stage and tell people what I feel is funny. I love the sound of laughter. I love seeing things through that prism.” -Paula Poundstone
Poundstone wondered why doing the things that are good for you are so hard to do. “I never feel like doing it. Why do I need to be with my private trainer? Why can’t I work out on my own?” she asks.
The “get wired” chapter was another illuminating journey for Poundstone, who came late to the world of computers and decided it was time to learn how to use one.
“I got a laptop so I could go door to door and ask for help,” she says. “It was compulsive, checking Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. I found myself constantly checking. It was addictive. And it screwed up my sleep schedule. It was a total sleep disruptor. I am better now.”
Poundstone also wrote a chapter on volunteering, which “offered a sense of purpose, contributing to the whole and felt really important, connecting and making me feel like a better person.” She says she volunteered at a nursing home and continues to do so.
“The book’s No. 1 job is to be funny,” says Poundstone, who acknowledges that she deals with the current state of our world with humor.
“I am not sure what I am supposed to do. Living in Southern California our congresspeople and senators are doing a terrific job,” she says.
Keeping up on politics is important to Poundstone and admits that watching shows such as MSNBC can become obsessive.
“It’s like watching a train wreck and not able to take your eyes off of it. Eat, sleep and breathe, it’s difficult not to talk about politics,” she says.
Poundstone loves the comedy greats who came before her: Bob and Ray, Abbott and Costello and everyone on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
“I worship the ground [Carl Reiner, producer, writer and actor of the show] walks on,” she says.
She mentions Malcolm Gladstone’s book “Outliers: The Study of Success,” and explains that access, attitude and 10,000 hours of practice have helped her hone her craft.
Poundstone will be in Reno at the Pioneer Center for a one-night standup show where she’ll dish on politics, life and things that make people laugh.
“I get to go on stage and tell people what I feel is funny. I love the sound of laughter. I love seeing things through that prism,” Poundstone says. |
To purchase tickets, visit pioneercenter.com.
