{"id":11114,"date":"2015-10-30T12:24:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11114"},"modified":"2015-10-30T12:28:15","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:28:15","slug":"shes-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/shes-all-that\/","title":{"rendered":"She’s All That"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 2015 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Paula Poundstone’s sincerity keeps showing behind all the joke-cracking. See why she’s a perennial favorite at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit November 28.<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Interview by Nina Livingstone<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dec15-Poundstone\"<\/a>I\u00a0 <\/span>lost my sight ten years ago, and I also have a hearing loss. I guess you could say I am a \u201cdeaf blind journalist.\u201d How would you describe yourself to me?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have kind of high cheek bones; my head’s sort of squaring out over the years. I’m about five seven but I have terrible posture so I look shorter.<\/p>\n

Yeah, and let\u2019s see, what else\u2026 I have blue eyes that are usually red now, because I have glaucoma and I take those stupid drops.<\/span><\/p>\n

You have glaucoma?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I do, and the drops make your eyes red. And I\u2019m in the midst of a bunch of eye stuff now.<\/span><\/p>\n

When did you first feel you had it in yourself to become a comedian, and that you had a gift of humor?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s such a thing as talent, exactly. In Outliers,<\/em> Malcolm Gladwell dispels the myth of talent, and I really agree with him. If you get to be good at something, it\u2019s because you love it. It\u2019s not just practice, it\u2019s a particular attitude, also access and opportunity. He says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert at something. I don\u2019t know if I have 10,000 hours on stage\u2013 I would doubt it, because I\u2019m not putting in eight hours a day on the stage, or 10 or whatever, so I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve practiced enough in that regard. I was lucky enough to be living in Boston in 1977 when the stand-up comedy renaissance took place. The scene started up, and I kind of jumped in and joined up with that. There were places to go work; there weren\u2019t a lot of us performing at that time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever it is, did it come to you naturally?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved making people laugh. In May of 1965, my kindergarten teacher said, \u201cI have enjoyed many of Paula\u2019s humorous comments about our activities.\u201d So at least in Mrs. Bump\u2019s eyes I was what I aspired to very early on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you have a lot of support<\/span> after that?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not exactly. I started when I was 19, and people used to say to me, \u201cWell, what do your parents think? Do your parents like it that you\u2019re a stand-up comic?\u201d And I used to say, \u201cI have no idea\u2013I didn\u2019t ask them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Where do you feel you found your strength and your courage to be up there?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, the great thing about stand-up comedy is, it\u2019s an endorphin producer, both for the audience and the performer. So you literally get a chemical boost from doing it. It\u2019s something I thought I\u2019d like, and boy, once I did it, once you taste that elixir, it\u2019s hard to go back. I\u2019m a stand-up comic through and through.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in New England, where\u2019s your secret place? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the family I lived with when I was a teenager living in Manchester, Mass.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your connection with Maine\u00a0and Jonathan\u2019s? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I did Jonathan\u2019s for the first time, gee, like 10 years ago or something. The first time he picked me up at the airport, I fell in love with him the minute I met him. He\u2019s just a salt-of-the-earth maniac\u2013a great guy, funny and practical. Jonathan\u2019s itself has been there for a very long time; it\u2019s a family-owned business. It has great food and a lovely atmosphere, a great venue. He mostly has music, and then occasionally he\u2019ll have somebody like myself. The thing is, Maine crowds are so much fun to work to; the combination of the two makes it one of my favorite jobs I do all year. I always say when I work in Maine, I look out over a sea of gray hair sometimes, and it\u2019s not because they are any older than the people I work to in other venues in other states, but I think that people for the most part don\u2019t dye their hair. So there\u2019s something about them that\u2019s very real. And I don\u2019t dye mine often enough, so there\u2019s always a gray streak down the middle. I\u2019m not fooling anybody.<\/p>\n

After my shows, I come out and take pictures and hug people and talk and hang out. I don\u2019t do it every time, but I do it at Jonathan\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all the experiences you\u2019ve had over the past decade, tell us a highlight. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, this last year, I voiced a character\u2013a \u201cforgetter\u201d named Paula\u2013in the movie Inside Out<\/em> from Pixar, because I love Pixar. They are a remarkably brilliant movie-making company. I got to work with Pete Doctor, who is a genius\u2013he\u2019s a writer and director. It was pretty delightful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am an atheist, a devout atheist. Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking if you\u2019re not Catholic or Christian or Jewish or a Muslim or whatever, your beliefs are not strong or important to you. I feel as strongly about atheism as somebody else might feel about Catholicism. I believe in you, I believe in us, and that alone. I don\u2019t need a God illusion to tell me it\u2019s important to take care of one another and to take care of the earth. I thought the Pope\u2019s visit was lovely\u2013I don\u2019t have a bad thing to say about it\u2013but I think it\u2019s a little embarrassing we need a Pope to come over from Italy to tell our Congress we\u2019re supposed to work together to take care of one another and take care of the earth. I assumed they knew that already. I mean, if they didn\u2019t, then that\u2019s an American tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you hope to accomplish in the next 10 years? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d love at some point to do more comedy acting, but you know what, if I never did anything but what I do right now, I\u2019d consider myself the luckiest performer in the entire world. I love my job\u2013it\u2019s so much fun. Especially now, when I feel like the entire world is in a mental health crisis, it just feels really great to be a part of why people are having a good time. Certainly it\u2019s a good time for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite season in New England?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, my favorite has always been fall. It\u2019s a beautiful time of the year. It\u2019s comfortable, you know; you\u2019re not trying to get in or out of the heat or cold.<\/span> Fall is really the beginning of the year. People say it\u2019s January first, but in truth, back-to-school season dominates the beginning of the year, even when you\u2019re not a student anymore. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nina Livingstone is a Boston-based freelance writer and novelist. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\r\n

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