Sat. Aug. 25

Good comics have off-kilter visions of the world and when they’re on, they convince you that they are totally right. You even think: Why didn’t I think that before? Paula Poundstone, who plays Stoneham Theatre Saturday Aug. 25, is that kind of  observational/policical comedienne. What does she dislike most about what she does? Self-promotion. Like interviews. Like, no offense, but what she’s doing now talking to JSink. (Disclosure: She and I have done interviews before and know each other a bit. JSink is no threat.) “That’s what I loathe. It’s my least favorite part of my job. I have OCD.  I have a hard time shutting up. When I’m doing my act, I feel more in control of what I’m doing. There’s a certain magic in a room where people come to laugh. A shared something that makes things generally fall in the right place. When they don’t, that’s part of the funny, too.”
The L.A.-based Poundstone was born and raised in the Boston 'burbs and she was hot on the Boston comedy circuit of the '80s. She recently was a guest on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” where generally, a comic or actor joins a prominent writer or politician and a token right-wingish foil for a discussion, mostly, of the failed Bush era. “It was not an easy job by any stretch,” says Poundstone. “I really respect the risk Bill Maher is taking, doing that at all, although I don’t care about a bunch of celebrities opinions one way another. I don’t care about my own. But this has people with informed opinions. Somebody like me, my job is to entertain, I don’t consider myself an expert on any topic. What Bill’s doing which is helpful, is bringing into public discourse topics that are really important. If you get there with a spoonful of sugar, so be it. I’m more the sugar. I feel outclassed intellectually and information-wise – I can so easily be trumped – but I enjoy politics.”

Poundstone – who used to write for Mother Jones and is now on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” – says she’s not much of a reader. Mother Jones would bring her a topic. “I’d say ‘You have to tell me what I’m writing about. Then I will research, investigate and find a path to knowing about that thing.’ Days will go by where I don’t read. Maybe we were better off when news came to us via the Mayflower. Just not knowing. How much am I in a position to do anything about anything? How much is making me feel bad? It's hard to sift through. I would be ready to blow my brains out every day if I read the news and understood the news like Jim Lehrer.”

In her show – which starts at 8 pm and costs $42 – she will discuss her usuals: children, animals, politics. And she will spend a long time chatting with audience, asking about jobs and hobbies. With most comics, that’s time to head for the exit. They’re out of material. With Poundstone, it’s not. The key,  she says, is that she’s not going for “fireworks.” She lets a story play out and find the humor in what she calls a “lopiing” manner. She says she will, however, stumble when someone says they work in computers. She doesn’t get it and just feels sorry for them.

395 Main St., Stoneham, 781-279-2200 www.stonehamtheatre.org