# The Wit and Wisdom of Paula Poundstone on Comedy Saved Me

An episode of [Music Saved Me Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1703080557), 13 Oct 2025, 57 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0983c15f-203c-4014-8579-b2e5014b59fa/0d46de16-b9ca-439c-b581-b37001482ca2/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=dfceda02-3624-42c7-b522-b25700f0584c

Join our host Lynn Hoffman with one of the most iconic figures in comedy, the one and only Paula Poundstone. Always authentic and forever bold Paula shares the inspiration behind her work, her influences and how connecting with her audience drives her everyday. She shares her secrets on the power of laughter on this comedian interview podcast. Support the show: https://musicsavedme.net/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Comedy Saved Me. Welcome to Comedy Saved Me, the podcast
[0:06] Speaker 1: where comedians share the moments when laughter became their lifeline.
[0:09] Speaker 1: I'm your host, Lynn Hoffman, and today we are joined
[0:12] Speaker 1: by the incomparable Paula Poundstone, a comedy legend who's been
[0:17] Speaker 1: making audiences laugh for over four decades with her razor sharp,
[0:21] Speaker 1: observational humor and stream of consciousness storytelling. Paula is, let
[0:26] Speaker 1: me just tell you, a master of finding the absurd
[0:29] Speaker 1: in every day, whether she's dissecting the mysteries of laundry,
[0:33] Speaker 1: the politics of family road trips, or the existential crisis
[0:37] Speaker 1: of shopping at warehouse stores. Believe me. She is a
[0:41] Speaker 1: regular panelist on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, has
[0:44] Speaker 1: released multiple comedy albums, and continues to tour relentlessly, bringing
[0:49] Speaker 1: her unique brand of intelligent, improvised comedy to stages across
[0:53] Speaker 1: the country. But before she was cracking jokes about the
[0:56] Speaker 1: absurdities of modern life, Paula was navigating her own challenges,
[1:00] Speaker 1: and today she's here to share how comedy didn't just
[1:03] Speaker 1: become her career, it's quite literally saved her life. So
[1:08] Speaker 1: settle in as we explore the healing power of laughter
[1:11] Speaker 1: with the brilliant and always funny Paula Poundstone. Paula, welcome
[1:16] Speaker 1: to comedy save me. It is such a pleasure to
[1:18] Speaker 1: have you here.
[1:19] Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, thanks for having me.
[1:22] Speaker 1: I want to start at the beginning and ask you
[1:25] Speaker 1: what was your relationship with humor like as a kid?
[1:28] Speaker 1: I mean, were you the class clown or did you
[1:31] Speaker 1: find comedy later in life?
[1:34] Speaker 2: The first sentence of the summary letter written by my
[1:37] Speaker 2: kindergarten teacher, missus Bump and I believe it might have
[1:40] Speaker 2: been May of nineteen sixty four, perhaps it was sixty five.
[1:43] Speaker 2: I don't call said. I have enjoyed many of Paula's
[1:47] Speaker 2: humorous comments about our activities, So I don't remember doing
[1:55] Speaker 2: like a tight five one Plato, but I'm sure I did.
[1:59] Speaker 2: And I remember even before I started in kindergarten, I
[2:05] Speaker 2: was the youngest in my family and uh, my mother
[2:10] Speaker 2: not the happiest person in the world. She used to
[2:13] Speaker 2: get all the other kids off to school, uh, the
[2:16] Speaker 2: older kids off to school, and then she would go
[2:19] Speaker 2: back to bed, and I was just sort of left
[2:22] Speaker 2: to wander. And the truth is, much of the time,
[2:27] Speaker 2: most of the time, I suppose I eventually, you know,
[2:31] Speaker 2: gravitated towards the television, which in those days was not
[2:34] Speaker 2: like in the living room, was down in the you know,
[2:37] Speaker 2: in the in the basement, and I would watch. I
[2:42] Speaker 2: didn't much care for a lot of the children's programming
[2:46] Speaker 2: because this was even this was you know, pre Sessame Street.
[2:51] Speaker 2: Uh So I watched I Love Lucy reruns that were
[2:58] Speaker 2: on in the morning, and the Three Stooges. And I
[3:04] Speaker 2: still say to people that, you know, I was raised
[3:07] Speaker 2: by them.
[3:08] Speaker 1: I find that fascinating. I had Tom Berger on on
[3:13] Speaker 1: the show a couple of weeks ago, and when I
[3:16] Speaker 1: told him that I was a huge fan of the
[3:18] Speaker 1: Three Stooges, he said that he's never met a woman
[3:21] Speaker 1: that admitted that that they were a fan of the
[3:23] Speaker 1: never no one's ever told him that.
[3:26] Speaker 2: Okay, but how often hasn't come up?
[3:28] Speaker 1: Right?
[3:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's just uh. I wish I could
[3:32] Speaker 2: remember Rachel Mattaw was interviewing somebody one night and they
[3:38] Speaker 2: were like, oh, damn it. I wish I could remember
[3:42] Speaker 2: the role that they had. But it was like the
[3:46] Speaker 2: second in command at the Department of Interior or something
[3:50] Speaker 2: like that. Something a little archaic like that. And she's said,
[3:54] Speaker 2: I don't know anybody who doesn't you know, who doesn't
[3:58] Speaker 2: admire the second command at the at the uh at
[4:03] Speaker 2: the you know, I think the warm the interior, and
[4:05] Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, But how often does it come up?
[4:08] Speaker 2: I mean, do people introduce themselves that way? Do they go, Hi,
[4:11] Speaker 2: Rachel's so nice to me, Oh my gosh, I love
[4:14] Speaker 2: the second and commander of the Department of Material And
[4:16] Speaker 2: in the same way I would say to uh uh
[4:19] Speaker 2: uh mister Burger on that. Uh, probably the subject just
[4:25] Speaker 2: doesn't come up. There's tons of women that like the
[4:28] Speaker 2: Three Stooges, probably, you know, not as many as you
[4:33] Speaker 2: know as man, and we probably see something different money
[4:37] Speaker 2: in it. I mean, I even as a kid, I
[4:40] Speaker 2: didn't particularly like it. I you know, I didn't want
[4:43] Speaker 2: I didn't want them to get hurt. Yeah. By the way,
[4:47] Speaker 2: one of the.
[4:47] Speaker 1: Scenes, don't tell me the one on the train where
[4:51] Speaker 1: Curly was came back from a stroke.
[4:55] Speaker 2: No one of them. One of the scenes they were
[4:58] Speaker 2: climbing up and they had put like a table on
[5:01] Speaker 2: top of a table, and then they were climbing up
[5:03] Speaker 2: on top of that, right, trying to reach something up
[5:05] Speaker 2: high and it was all three of them and uh,
[5:08] Speaker 2: it was mud and of course they fall right. Yes,
[5:11] Speaker 2: it was long and they all and they all come
[5:14] Speaker 2: crashing down and Mo broke like three ribs or something
[5:18] Speaker 2: in real life doing this. And they just kept going, Yeah.
[5:24] Speaker 1: Have you ever done that? Have you ever broken a
[5:25] Speaker 1: bone and then had to perform on stage while you
[5:28] Speaker 1: were still in pain?
[5:29] Speaker 2: Well? I have, Actually you have. I didn't. Yeah, I
[5:33] Speaker 2: mean I break the bone on stage. I I broke
[5:37] Speaker 2: a rib coughing years ago, and I functioned with it
[5:42] Speaker 2: for for a while. I mean, the truth is, and
[5:45] Speaker 2: I find this kind of interesting. They I went to
[5:50] Speaker 2: you know, I went to an urgent care eventually when
[5:52] Speaker 2: the pain didn't go away, and I thought, you know what,
[5:54] Speaker 2: I think I have a broken rib. To go to
[5:57] Speaker 2: urgent care. And the doctor this urgent care says to me,
[6:01] Speaker 2: so what are you here for? Like, because they had
[6:04] Speaker 2: that kind of bedside manner and I saw, I think
[6:07] Speaker 2: I broke a rib. She goes, how do you think
[6:08] Speaker 2: you're broken rib? And I said one non profession for
[6:13] Speaker 2: you have going into ma'am, I said, uh, coughing, and
[6:17] Speaker 2: she goes, you can't break a rib coughing, which isn't
[6:20] Speaker 2: true at all when even I knew that. But so
[6:24] Speaker 2: they do an x ray and she comes back and
[6:27] Speaker 2: she goes, you know, we looked in the x ray
[6:29] Speaker 2: you don't have a broken rib. And I was like, oh, okay,
[6:33] Speaker 2: all right, thanks, and I apologize because I always he
[6:36] Speaker 2: wasting people's time. And I go away. I even worked
[6:40] Speaker 2: out that days I recall and the following morning, the
[6:43] Speaker 2: same doctor calls and says, yeah, we showed you xtra
[6:46] Speaker 2: ray to a rabio. Just you do you have a
[6:49] Speaker 2: broken rib? She said, And she said it's broken off
[6:53] Speaker 2: the rib cage and she said the gooddows is it's
[6:57] Speaker 2: not headed towards the lung.
[7:00] Speaker 1: Thankfully.
[7:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm like, well that is good news, thank
[7:04] Speaker 2: you for calling. And uh. But they they recommended they
[7:08] Speaker 2: go to orth and Pede. I went to the orthan
[7:10] Speaker 2: Pede and he's like, he was like, you know what,
[7:12] Speaker 2: it'll heal, don't worry about it's fine, and he said,
[7:17] Speaker 2: we really don't do anything for that anymore, which I
[7:21] Speaker 2: find really interesting. In the old Sea, they used to
[7:25] Speaker 2: tape people.
[7:25] Speaker 3: Do you remember that They used to takee people like
[7:27] Speaker 3: around the ribcakes when they broke a rib cake when
[7:30] Speaker 3: they broke a rib. But they don't anymore. And I'm
[7:33] Speaker 3: sharing this because I think it's important information for people
[7:36] Speaker 3: to have. Okay, they don't anymore.
[7:39] Speaker 2: Because when people's ribcage is taped, they can't take deep breaths,
[7:45] Speaker 2: and deep breaths are an important part of healing. I
[7:49] Speaker 2: always thought stuff like that was kind of whooo. You
[7:52] Speaker 2: know when people, you know, he said, people go, well,
[7:54] Speaker 2: breathe deeply. They sounded sounds like you come from the
[7:57] Speaker 2: nutty wellness community, breathe deep. But there's something to the
[8:02] Speaker 2: It turns out it is important to it. Wasn't want
[8:06] Speaker 2: to breathe to begin with, because without it.
[8:10] Speaker 1: This would be an interesting conversation.
[8:13] Speaker 2: I'm this close to being the head of HHS. Honestly,
[8:17] Speaker 2: my body of medical knowledge already beyond that of Robert
[8:23] Speaker 2: Kennedy Junior running for the hialth.
[8:25] Speaker 1: All right, well, you've talked about growing up as a
[8:27] Speaker 1: kid in school kind of being silly and funny. But
[8:30] Speaker 1: you had a huge family, had like seven kids.
[8:33] Speaker 2: No, I didn't have seven kids. No, I lived with
[8:35] Speaker 2: a family with seven kids, but no, my family was
[8:41] Speaker 2: a family of four, okay, and they were it wasn't.
[8:44] Speaker 2: It didn't feel like a It didn't feel like a
[8:46] Speaker 2: full rich uh not. I don't mean rich monetarily, but
[8:50] Speaker 2: it didn't feel you know, it didn't have a There
[8:52] Speaker 2: weren't a lot of storylines, you know, like in The Waltons,
[8:55] Speaker 2: which is one of my favorite shows growing up, there
[8:57] Speaker 2: were a lot of storylines because they had a bunch
[8:59] Speaker 2: of kids and every week it could now it could
[9:01] Speaker 2: be Elizabeth's problem or or you know, I don't know
[9:04] Speaker 2: Mary Kate's who. But our house had very limited storylines.
[9:09] Speaker 1: There was no good night, John Boy or survive any Oh.
[9:12] Speaker 2: Actually we did do that sometimes put only kidd No,
[9:15] Speaker 2: there was none of that. No, there was a lot
[9:18] Speaker 2: of don't make me have to come in there, don't
[9:21] Speaker 2: make me get your father.
[9:23] Speaker 1: Oh that's funny. So did you try to like joke
[9:25] Speaker 1: your way out of things with your parents ever?
[9:29] Speaker 2: Not in that way. I mean, you know, you know,
[9:36] Speaker 2: me and my sisters did kind of make fun of
[9:37] Speaker 2: my mother. Not not. We weren't so much joking our
[9:40] Speaker 2: way out of anything. But because at a certain point,
[9:44] Speaker 2: you know, you just like, okay, last or cry, yeah exactly,
[9:49] Speaker 2: let's just call out the absurdity. But yeah, No, it
[9:53] Speaker 2: wasn't one of those things where no, I'll tell you
[9:55] Speaker 2: there were certainly times. I remember when I was in
[9:58] Speaker 2: high school. I was in this typing class and you know,
[10:02] Speaker 2: you know by high school you were in you could
[10:05] Speaker 2: be a freshman in a class with a senior, you know,
[10:08] Speaker 2: it just depended what class it was. And so it's
[10:11] Speaker 2: in this typing class and there were these two girls
[10:14] Speaker 2: that were, you know, older than me, and they were scary,
[10:18] Speaker 2: and they they they were purposely scary, and they knew
[10:25] Speaker 2: I was scared of them, and so they would do
[10:28] Speaker 2: stuff like drop their paper on the floor and tell
[10:31] Speaker 2: me to pick it up, and I would pick it up.
[10:34] Speaker 2: And then one day I think I made a joke
[10:39] Speaker 2: about it or something like that, and I wasn't a
[10:42] Speaker 2: joke about the It was a joke about something in
[10:44] Speaker 2: this dynamic, and they thought it was funny, and all
[10:50] Speaker 2: of a sudden, all the bullying just went away. It
[10:53] Speaker 2: was great. It was like a you know, could have
[10:55] Speaker 2: been like in a in a television show.
[10:58] Speaker 1: That's so cool. I can't I have to tell you,
[11:02] Speaker 1: I'm HARKing an experience same similar They were like the
[11:05] Speaker 1: tough kids. They wore the leather jackets smoke the cigarettes
[11:08] Speaker 1: and you like it was afraid of and that, Yeah,
[11:12] Speaker 1: how do I win these people over? And one day
[11:14] Speaker 1: I was in some play I can't remember. I think
[11:17] Speaker 1: it was like Reno Sweeney and anything goes and I
[11:19] Speaker 1: had to like make this grand entrance to the stage.
[11:22] Speaker 1: And I was so scared because all these kids were
[11:24] Speaker 1: sitting and they were going to judge me, and he
[11:26] Speaker 1: all came up to me. They were the loudest people
[11:28] Speaker 1: clapping for me in the audience, and I was like,
[11:31] Speaker 1: I won them over.
[11:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't that cool?
[11:34] Speaker 1: Yeah? Very cool.
[11:35] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[11:37] Speaker 2: My son when he was in the fifth grade, I
[11:39] Speaker 2: think it was you know, you know, he didn't fit
[11:42] Speaker 2: in very well socially growing up and I and it
[11:45] Speaker 2: was a you know, it was hard for him. But
[11:47] Speaker 2: he they had a talent show one time in the
[11:50] Speaker 2: fifth grade and he he came out and did a
[11:56] Speaker 2: routine on the mushroom, which is the training device for
[12:00] Speaker 2: the pommel horse, and he had we had a mushroom,
[12:06] Speaker 2: like a training one, not a not a fish, you know,
[12:09] Speaker 2: a training one. And all these girls lined the front
[12:15] Speaker 2: of the stage and were cheering and bought a lunch here,
[12:19] Speaker 2: like okay, it was a lot easier to make jokes,
[12:22] Speaker 2: is my point. Oh yeah, because burning that mushroom, learning
[12:26] Speaker 2: the pump horse is like a god awful experience.
[12:29] Speaker 1: You don't want to do that.
[12:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, but it works for him for at least for
[12:32] Speaker 2: that afternoon.
[12:35] Speaker 1: Well, that explains why guys like to be rock stars,
[12:37] Speaker 1: because you know, the girls love the rock stars.
[12:40] Speaker 2: So you know, Moe said in his book Mo Howard
[12:45] Speaker 2: in The Three Stooges, he said that Curly became an alcoholic,
[12:51] Speaker 2: and most said that the reason was that he couldn't
[12:54] Speaker 2: get women. And I got to tell you from being
[12:57] Speaker 2: on the road when I was younger, I was on
[13:02] Speaker 2: the road with the skevest guys. Right, you had to
[13:06] Speaker 2: stay in the apartment with them for the clubs. Would
[13:10] Speaker 2: they were gonna have a middle act MC and a
[13:13] Speaker 2: headliner in for the week. What they did was they
[13:16] Speaker 2: rented an apartment and it was only going to be empty,
[13:19] Speaker 2: like one night a week. And that way there they
[13:21] Speaker 2: didn't have to pay for hotels. And so you're stuck
[13:27] Speaker 2: not just working with some of these guys, but you know,
[13:29] Speaker 2: stay in the same apartment with them. And I mean
[13:32] Speaker 2: they were gross. Many of them weren't particularly good comics
[13:39] Speaker 2: to begin with, but also just just gross and they
[13:45] Speaker 2: always they always had women after the show always. So
[13:51] Speaker 2: you know what, Mo, that's not why Curly became an alcoholic.
[13:57] Speaker 2: And by the way, I don't think you become an
[13:59] Speaker 2: alcoholic because of a problem to begin with. But also, no, no, Curly,
[14:06] Speaker 2: for whatever reason, maybe didn't hook up with women. But
[14:09] Speaker 2: it's not Ma was saying, it's because, you know, he
[14:12] Speaker 2: shaved his head to be Curly, and that he you
[14:16] Speaker 2: know that it was because of this role he played.
[14:19] Speaker 2: Oh no, no, he could. First of all, Curly was great.
[14:23] Speaker 2: And second of all, Curly could have not even been
[14:26] Speaker 2: good at being Curly, and he still would have had
[14:28] Speaker 2: women that would have thrown themselves at him.
[14:31] Speaker 1: Grown at. I got to tell you, even as a
[14:33] Speaker 1: little kid, my parents were a little concerned with me
[14:35] Speaker 1: because I had a crush. These are the guys that
[14:37] Speaker 1: I had a crush on growing up on television, like
[14:41] Speaker 1: when you were watching TV, Harvey Corman, Tim Conway, Gene
[14:46] Speaker 1: Wilder and Curly, the three stooges, Like I'm little little yeah,
[14:54] Speaker 1: you know, apparents this close to going to the Jordan
[14:56] Speaker 1: Marsh charm School. Yeah.
[15:00] Speaker 2: My mother, My mother said to me, I forget how old,
[15:03] Speaker 2: he said. I think I was like a teenager. And
[15:06] Speaker 2: she said, the biggest mistake of her life. And this
[15:10] Speaker 2: is somebody who was, you know, married a few times,
[15:12] Speaker 2: and you know, we all have lives full of errors,
[15:16] Speaker 2: and you know, some of hers were bigger than others.
[15:19] Speaker 2: But she had a fair speed of ones that you
[15:22] Speaker 2: could point to if you chose. But she said the
[15:26] Speaker 2: biggest mistake of her entire life was not sending me
[15:30] Speaker 2: to charm school. I'd just say, I think she had
[15:36] Speaker 2: overinflated an unrealistic idea of what could be done through
[15:40] Speaker 2: a charm school.
[15:41] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:42] Speaker 2: They don't have stuff like that anymore, do they.
[15:44] Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't even think. No, there's
[15:46] Speaker 1: no Civis, there's no charm school. It's all gone.
[15:49] Speaker 2: I believe the store Jordan Marsh. I'm fairly certain that
[15:54] Speaker 2: the store Jordan Marsh had a charm school associated with it.
[15:58] Speaker 2: And it was a you know, it was a clothing
[16:00] Speaker 2: store and Jordan Marsh was that exclusive.
[16:02] Speaker 1: For Boston because I remember that growing up.
[16:05] Speaker 2: It was in the the Jordan Marsh was in the
[16:07] Speaker 2: Framingham Shoppers World, the one with.
[16:11] Speaker 1: The little train you drive around the Shoppers World.
[16:14] Speaker 2: Native Shoppers World in the in the center it was
[16:17] Speaker 2: a it was an outdoor mall. It wasn't enclosed. I
[16:24] Speaker 2: mean there were roofs on the stores, but it had
[16:28] Speaker 2: a in the center of it. It was like a courtyard, right, yes.
[16:32] Speaker 2: And there was at one time a like amusement park
[16:36] Speaker 2: park Grides that was so.
[16:38] Speaker 1: Smart when you think about it. And then obviously it
[16:40] Speaker 1: grew up to the Mall of America, which is like,
[16:42] Speaker 1: you know, a roller coaster inside the mall while you're
[16:46] Speaker 1: your shopping.
[16:47] Speaker 2: You can actually on the Mall of America, you can
[16:49] Speaker 2: ride on a roller coaster and grab a product off
[16:52] Speaker 2: a shelf as you go, and then pay for it
[16:54] Speaker 2: when you get off the road coast.
[16:56] Speaker 1: Nowadays you don't even have to. You just got your
[16:57] Speaker 1: phone on you. It charges, you know, just as soon
[16:59] Speaker 1: as you tie it's yours.
[17:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, a good point.
[17:02] Speaker 1: It's all over.
[17:02] Speaker 2: Probably where all my money's going is. I probably just
[17:05] Speaker 2: keep touching the wrong things on my phone and it
[17:07] Speaker 2: just keeps taking money off.
[17:09] Speaker 1: Well, when we come back, we're going to find out
[17:12] Speaker 1: exactly how comedy saved Paula Poundstone stay with us. Comedy
[17:24] Speaker 1: saved me all right, Paula. The premise of our show
[17:27] Speaker 1: is that comedy has saved our guests in some way.
[17:31] Speaker 1: Can you pinpoint an exact or specific moment or a
[17:34] Speaker 1: period in time during your life when you realize comedy
[17:37] Speaker 1: wasn't just something that you did, but it was something
[17:39] Speaker 1: you needed to do.
[17:41] Speaker 2: You know what? I fell for your even I have
[17:44] Speaker 2: a podcast and we say we're going to take a break,
[17:45] Speaker 2: and then we don't take a break because because the
[17:48] Speaker 2: break is put in afterwards. But when you said we're
[17:51] Speaker 2: going to take a break, you said it so professionally, yes,
[17:54] Speaker 2: that I really didn't think you were taking a break.
[17:57] Speaker 1: Thank you.
[18:00] Speaker 4: At one point when I was in excuse me, I
[18:01] Speaker 4: looked on the screen even there because I have a
[18:04] Speaker 4: you know, phone on the wall, like like how it's
[18:07] Speaker 4: supposed to be, and it has an answering machine attached
[18:11] Speaker 4: to it, and I thought that, you know, I could
[18:14] Speaker 4: put up with the phone ringing.
[18:15] Speaker 2: But then I thought there was going to be a
[18:16] Speaker 2: message left, so I thought we'll all go stop it,
[18:19] Speaker 2: but it stopped by itself, and therefore I sat back
[18:22] Speaker 2: down again.
[18:23] Speaker 1: Well, thank you for that, and also thank you for
[18:25] Speaker 1: having a wall phone, because that just warms my mind.
[18:27] Speaker 2: Yes, that's yeahs.
[18:29] Speaker 1: I have the cord on the wrapping chord.
[18:32] Speaker 2: I have one in the kitchen, one in my bedroom.
[18:35] Speaker 1: I love that.
[18:36] Speaker 2: You know, there's obviously great conveniences to having cell phones,
[18:39] Speaker 2: and I have cell phones, but in a way, I
[18:42] Speaker 2: miss the phone on the wall. I missed people not
[18:48] Speaker 2: being able to you know, now, if somebody calls you,
[18:53] Speaker 2: or you know, text you or whatever. I mean, I
[18:55] Speaker 2: don't text, but if now, if somebody calls you and
[18:58] Speaker 2: you don't answer the phone, they're just perplexed. You know.
[19:04] Speaker 2: It's not a law. You don't have to. I miss
[19:09] Speaker 2: answering the phone when it's convenient to me to talk
[19:13] Speaker 2: because I'm in my room and the phone rang and
[19:15] Speaker 2: I got the phone. I kind of hate I hate
[19:19] Speaker 2: being tethered to the cell phone the way that one is.
[19:22] Speaker 2: If somebody doesn't get you, they'll call me back five times.
[19:25] Speaker 2: What the fuck is that?
[19:27] Speaker 1: It's so true?
[19:28] Speaker 2: You know, listen, I don't want to run up against
[19:32] Speaker 2: the theme of your whole show. I you know, I
[19:35] Speaker 2: wish I could tell you that there was a you know,
[19:38] Speaker 2: a moment, and that there was a little like a
[19:40] Speaker 2: little sound effect that went with it, and maybe I
[19:42] Speaker 2: saw a bright light. I'm not sure. I'll tell you. Wait,
[19:48] Speaker 2: I'll tell you one thing, all right, okay, prior to
[19:54] Speaker 2: the stay at home order, prior which was you know,
[19:58] Speaker 2: obviously you know, trying to uh stop the spread of COVID.
[20:04] Speaker 2: Prior to the state stay at home order, I may
[20:07] Speaker 2: have and I'm saying I may have sometimes and certainly
[20:12] Speaker 2: not frequently, if at all, I may have complained about
[20:18] Speaker 2: traveling for my job.
[20:20] Speaker 5: Uh.
[20:20] Speaker 2: And then along came the State at home order, and
[20:23] Speaker 2: there was I don't know how everybody else for me.
[20:28] Speaker 2: I had no way of knowing that we would ever
[20:32] Speaker 2: be able to gather in the kinds of groups that
[20:35] Speaker 2: you do in the theater, like so Audie and says
[20:39] Speaker 2: that a performer can and and the thing is, at
[20:42] Speaker 2: that time, this is when you know zoom attacked us.
[20:48] Speaker 2: You know, is a gallery review or portrait view by
[20:53] Speaker 2: There were all these organizations that that I have many
[20:58] Speaker 2: times done fundraise for em seed their fundraisers, and they
[21:02] Speaker 2: tend to happen in the spring. I don't exactly know why,
[21:05] Speaker 2: but they tend to happen in the spring. These events
[21:08] Speaker 2: and for multitude of organizations, all of which are terrific
[21:13] Speaker 2: and all of which, you know, I do what I
[21:15] Speaker 2: can for But as the year goes by, and they
[21:20] Speaker 2: would call me and say or email me and say,
[21:23] Speaker 2: you know, can you em see our fundraiser on the
[21:25] Speaker 2: blah blah blah night, and I would look at my
[21:28] Speaker 2: calendar and go, oh, I'm sorry, I'm not going to
[21:30] Speaker 2: be able to do this year because I'm on the
[21:31] Speaker 2: road that night. Well, when this stay at home order hit,
[21:37] Speaker 2: they all knew I was home every bloody day. You
[21:41] Speaker 2: can emails and phone calls saying will you do our fundraiser?
[21:48] Speaker 2: We're doing it online, We're doing it via zoom. It's
[21:51] Speaker 2: going to be a virtual gala, they all said. And
[21:54] Speaker 2: they were very excited about this idea, and and you know,
[21:58] Speaker 2: good for them, for you know, it can lemonade out
[22:01] Speaker 2: of lemons. But uh, what was in everyone's head was
[22:06] Speaker 2: that I was going to do stand up from my
[22:09] Speaker 2: living room via zoom. And at first I guess I
[22:14] Speaker 2: thought maybe I could. But let me tell you, once
[22:19] Speaker 2: you try that one time, it's you know, never again.
[22:25] Speaker 2: And the problem is what people understand. If I was
[22:28] Speaker 2: a musician or a poet, I could I can practice
[22:35] Speaker 2: what I'm doing at home by myself until I am
[22:38] Speaker 2: red hot at it, and then I can and then
[22:41] Speaker 2: I can present it anywhere I want. And I don't
[22:45] Speaker 2: need what I prefer to have an audience feedback, Sure,
[22:48] Speaker 2: but I don't need it. Stand up is different. It's
[22:52] Speaker 2: different than any other form of art. You simply must
[22:56] Speaker 2: have an audience, at least at least certainly the way
[22:59] Speaker 2: I work. I can't do it without it, and that
[23:05] Speaker 2: during the state of Home Order, when it dawned on
[23:07] Speaker 2: me like, okay, I have no way of taking stand
[23:12] Speaker 2: up and making it into something that I can do,
[23:17] Speaker 2: you know, in this sort of new world of zoom
[23:21] Speaker 2: and not knowing if we would ever be able to
[23:23] Speaker 2: gather in theaters again was terrifying, partly for economic reasons obviously,
[23:30] Speaker 2: but also because I could do like characters and make
[23:34] Speaker 2: videos that way, which I did, but I couldn't interact
[23:39] Speaker 2: with an audience and the loneliness of that. You know,
[23:46] Speaker 2: I guess it's kind of screwed up to say this,
[23:48] Speaker 2: but the audience is kind of my best friend all
[23:51] Speaker 2: these years, and I just found myself for all those
[23:55] Speaker 2: months just wanting to Snoopy cry. Remember how we cried?
[24:01] Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, the tears will come.
[24:04] Speaker 1: Out flying everywhere.
[24:10] Speaker 2: That was.
[24:10] Speaker 1: That was a cross between Pee Wee Herman and Snoopy cry.
[24:13] Speaker 2: It's just one of the saddest things you can see.
[24:15] Speaker 2: There's there's Snoopy crying and there's Kim Weschler crying on
[24:20] Speaker 2: the bus in Better Call Saul. That was. That was unbelievable, right, God, yeah,
[24:27] Speaker 2: well Snoopy does an ugly cry.
[24:29] Speaker 1: It's just yeah, and it's very sad.
[24:32] Speaker 2: Years ago, met and Tom posting I forget why. We
[24:36] Speaker 2: were at some sort of fundraising everything in Orlando and
[24:42] Speaker 2: we were at disney World and they're like, oh, you know,
[24:46] Speaker 2: take a picture with Mickey Mouse. And of course Tom
[24:48] Speaker 2: and I were like, fantastic, Great, we'll do that, you know,
[24:50] Speaker 2: and so we both go stand and Mickey Mouse in
[24:52] Speaker 2: the center, and you know, have this picture taken. There's
[24:57] Speaker 2: the worst photograph because you know, Tom was a little patchy,
[25:04] Speaker 2: and I, you know, I you know, I'm not patchy,
[25:07] Speaker 2: but I'm Here's the thing, Mickey Mouse, the character that
[25:13] Speaker 2: walks around the park is the way they've painted him
[25:19] Speaker 2: is perfect for photographing, right anybody standing beside him.
[25:26] Speaker 1: Is that he doesn't need to be touched up, and
[25:28] Speaker 1: I don't.
[25:28] Speaker 2: Care how gorgeous you are. You could even probably have
[25:32] Speaker 2: on tons of makeup and you're still not going to
[25:36] Speaker 2: be perfect for the camera the way Mickey Mouse is
[25:39] Speaker 2: because he's designed that way. So Tom and I just
[25:42] Speaker 2: looked horrible and Mickey Mouse looks fantastic. I think Mickey
[25:45] Speaker 2: Mouse used that picture for his headshot. Yeah, to get work.
[25:49] Speaker 1: I would have to agree with that. Well, nowadays you've
[25:53] Speaker 1: got that, you know what, you can be perfect.
[25:56] Speaker 2: The idea of a I just nauseates me. And we're
[25:59] Speaker 2: marching down this path, you know, like, oh, it's a
[26:03] Speaker 2: good thing, and everything so far indicates that it's not
[26:06] Speaker 2: a good thing. That it's caused all sorts of problems already,
[26:09] Speaker 2: and the last thing we need is one more way
[26:12] Speaker 2: to fool the public. It's just stupid.
[26:14] Speaker 5: What and the reason we're doing it is because China
[26:17] Speaker 5: is so if we you know, we don't want to
[26:20] Speaker 5: let another country get ahead of us in Ai, why
[26:23] Speaker 5: don't we wait till China destroys ourselves?
[26:26] Speaker 1: I like that idea. I like that idea.
[26:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Why don't we have to be why do
[26:31] Speaker 2: we have to be at the head of the path
[26:33] Speaker 2: it's like we're gonna make you know, just it's a
[26:36] Speaker 2: horrible idea. So anyways, in answer answer to your question, okay,
[26:43] Speaker 2: well that that surely is a point at which is
[26:47] Speaker 2: although when I got back out on the road again
[26:51] Speaker 2: after the Stay at Home Order, the rules in the
[26:56] Speaker 2: theater again trying to prevent this spread of COVID, the
[27:02] Speaker 2: rules in the theater were so so ridiculously stacked against
[27:06] Speaker 2: a performer, like, Okay, normally, if I'm doing a show
[27:10] Speaker 2: and say we don't sell a lot of tickets, say
[27:14] Speaker 2: there's a you know, a lot of spaces in between
[27:16] Speaker 2: audience members, you know, it might be that somebody who
[27:20] Speaker 2: who runs a theater or something would go out on
[27:23] Speaker 2: stairs say, you know what, we got plenty of rooms
[27:25] Speaker 2: down front with some of the people in the backroom
[27:27] Speaker 2: down front, right, because you want to collect that energy
[27:31] Speaker 2: into one place. It makes for a better show. Yes,
[27:35] Speaker 2: But this ended up being the opposite. When we got
[27:38] Speaker 2: back into the theaters after the and the clubs, after
[27:44] Speaker 2: they were pulling back to the stay at Home Order,
[27:48] Speaker 2: they would still insist that people sat like feet away
[27:53] Speaker 2: from each other, so be like and they would let
[27:55] Speaker 2: they would let you know, ticket buyers that came together stated,
[28:00] Speaker 2: but so there would be two people over here and
[28:03] Speaker 2: then this huge on a space before you got to
[28:06] Speaker 2: three people over here, and you know, it was just
[28:09] Speaker 2: and they weren't allowed to have the place to capacity.
[28:12] Speaker 2: So it wasn't even like, oh I couldn't sell tickets.
[28:14] Speaker 2: It was you weren't allowed to sell to capacity. And
[28:17] Speaker 2: oh my gosh, was it hard to do not to
[28:20] Speaker 2: mention that I hadn't performed in you know, what, was
[28:23] Speaker 2: it a year and a half by then, And it
[28:25] Speaker 2: does make a difference.
[28:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, So obviously what you're describing to me, at least
[28:32] Speaker 1: it sounds like and I'm not a doctor, but it
[28:34] Speaker 1: sounds like comedy is also a therapeutic for you.
[28:39] Speaker 2: Is therapeutic for everybody in a big way. I also felt,
[28:41] Speaker 2: you know, my friend Nils Lofgren one night posted just
[28:46] Speaker 2: a pitch just to assume me, a video of a
[28:49] Speaker 2: uh he plays with Bruce Briinstein a lot, and he
[28:52] Speaker 2: just posted a video from a long time ago, not
[28:55] Speaker 2: not a current because it was during the Stay at Homeowner,
[28:57] Speaker 2: but a video of you know, Bruce Springsteen performance and
[29:05] Speaker 2: Mills's performance, and at the camera kept showing the audience
[29:11] Speaker 2: and you know what a great time they were having.
[29:16] Speaker 2: There is something about experiencing a performance, be it a
[29:23] Speaker 2: movie or a you know, it could be a play
[29:26] Speaker 2: or a ballet, or an opera or a comedy show
[29:29] Speaker 2: or whatever, some sort of performance, when you're in an
[29:32] Speaker 2: audience collectively and you're having this shared emotional reaction, whether
[29:38] Speaker 2: it's it's something that's scary or suspenseful or said or funny,
[29:43] Speaker 2: you're having this shared emotional reaction and it reinforces that
[29:49] Speaker 2: you're a human being. When you're having the same, you know,
[29:53] Speaker 2: the same emotion as everybody else is, there's something about
[29:59] Speaker 2: that that can not be replicated. You know, almost anytime
[30:02] Speaker 2: somebody types lo l into their phone, they're lying. You
[30:06] Speaker 2: don't generally laugh out loud when you're alone. When I
[30:10] Speaker 2: watched The Three Stooges by myself, I never laugh out loud.
[30:13] Speaker 2: I acknowledge in my head that I think it's funny.
[30:16] Speaker 2: But when I used to watch I used to show
[30:18] Speaker 2: them to my kids, and a couple of times we
[30:21] Speaker 2: went to Three Stooges film festivals. Oh my god, is
[30:25] Speaker 2: that fun? Because you're in a whole audience of people
[30:28] Speaker 2: who love the Three Stooges, and so it's already this
[30:33] Speaker 2: powerful reaction from the audience, and.
[30:36] Speaker 1: Is everyone walking around like this.
[30:40] Speaker 2: Moe used to talk about maybe it was Del Lord
[30:44] Speaker 2: who said, no, it was a bunch of guys that
[30:47] Speaker 2: were that were of that, you know, helped make the
[30:50] Speaker 2: Three Stooges, that's what it was. And one of them said, I,
[30:54] Speaker 2: you know, I made him what they were. He says,
[30:55] Speaker 2: I gave him this, and he did the two finger thing,
[30:58] Speaker 2: and the other guy goes, yes, but I gave them this.
[31:02] Speaker 1: I love that. I didn't even know you were going there.
[31:04] Speaker 1: I just all I could think of was there a
[31:06] Speaker 1: big group of fans of Three Stooges, and there's probably
[31:09] Speaker 1: a lot of black and blue people leaving that party,
[31:11] Speaker 1: but unintentionally. Of course.
[31:13] Speaker 2: The thing is, when we watched with the audience that
[31:16] Speaker 2: was there for this, there were waves of laughter. There
[31:20] Speaker 2: were you were children, you were you were like gasping
[31:23] Speaker 2: for air, laughing over stuff. And that's not how I
[31:28] Speaker 2: had ever experienced it before, because before I watched by myself,
[31:35] Speaker 2: you were home, and there's a big difference. So I
[31:39] Speaker 2: so I would argue that comedy is therapeutic for everyone,
[31:47] Speaker 2: not just the performer, although certainly that's true, but for
[31:51] Speaker 2: the audience too.
[31:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, especially for the breathing part of that. And of
[31:57] Speaker 1: course when you don't have a broken rib. Let's talk
[32:00] Speaker 1: about bombing though, because you I can't imagine this has
[32:04] Speaker 1: happened to you often at all, because you're just so
[32:07] Speaker 1: funny naturally anyway, But every comedian has those moments where
[32:11] Speaker 1: they just couldn't get the audience to see what they
[32:14] Speaker 1: were doing was funny. How do you bounce back? And
[32:17] Speaker 1: has that ever happened? I should ask you first? Has
[32:19] Speaker 1: that ever happened where everything just went side?
[32:21] Speaker 2: Podcasts? Those moments where they couldn't get the audience to
[32:24] Speaker 2: see that what they were doing is funny. Well, it's
[32:27] Speaker 2: an objective thing, isn't it the And so that's the word,
[32:32] Speaker 2: subjective thing. Whether something is funny or not, who knows,
[32:35] Speaker 2: you know. Sometimes I have had arguments with uh, you know,
[32:39] Speaker 2: either people that are producing the show or say, uh
[32:45] Speaker 2: is somebody. There are situations where I might have written
[32:48] Speaker 2: something for a show and somebody will look it over
[32:52] Speaker 2: and want to rewrite it, you know, or add in
[32:56] Speaker 2: something or do tell me what to do, and it's
[33:00] Speaker 2: not it's not I don't feel like, oh, I know everything,
[33:04] Speaker 2: and so you can't tell me. That's not how I
[33:06] Speaker 2: feel at all. What I feel is, since it's me
[33:12] Speaker 2: on stage, I'm gonna be held responsible for what gets set.
[33:18] Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be able to, you know, say something
[33:20] Speaker 2: to that. Go, well, that wasn't mine. So so and
[33:23] Speaker 2: so made me say that. All right, I thought it
[33:25] Speaker 2: was better this way. You know, in the end, the
[33:27] Speaker 2: buck stops here, and so I do as And I
[33:34] Speaker 2: always say to people, I go, I couldn't. I'm not
[33:37] Speaker 2: gonna argue that I know what's funny. I'm just gonna
[33:40] Speaker 2: argue that since I'm the person that's gonna take the
[33:44] Speaker 2: heat for it one way or the other, then I
[33:47] Speaker 2: get to choose, simple as that.
[33:50] Speaker 1: That's fair. I like that.
[33:52] Speaker 2: As to what's funny, I couldn't possibly tell you. I
[33:55] Speaker 2: really don't know. Silly. I like silly, but I like
[33:59] Speaker 2: some both. Uh. I'm a breath mint and a cannyman. Uh.
[34:07] Speaker 2: And how I bombed? Yeah, I bombed many times? Oh
[34:10] Speaker 2: my god.
[34:11] Speaker 5: Uh.
[34:11] Speaker 2: Okay, So I I was invited years ago to perform
[34:18] Speaker 2: at farm Aid. They were doing uh you know, supposedly
[34:21] Speaker 2: they were doing a partnership with comic relief, which is
[34:24] Speaker 2: how they got to me because I used to comic relief.
[34:28] Speaker 2: Supposedly that's what they were doing, but in fact it
[34:32] Speaker 2: was it was farm Aide and there were I think
[34:37] Speaker 2: two comedians. It was me and another guy, and uh
[34:42] Speaker 2: it was at the super Dome in oh in New
[34:48] Speaker 2: Orleans and they were using like half of it, and uh,
[34:52] Speaker 2: I you know, I agreed to do it because I, well,
[34:59] Speaker 2: a was Willie Nelllson's event, and I love.
[35:02] Speaker 1: Will How can you say no to Willie?
[35:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we'd never met. He didn't ask me personally,
[35:07] Speaker 2: but I thought it was a Willie Nelson thing. I thought,
[35:09] Speaker 2: you know, like, crowd's got to be really cool if
[35:12] Speaker 2: you know it's a Willie Nelson thing, right, And and
[35:16] Speaker 2: also the Neville Brothers were playing, and I'm you know,
[35:18] Speaker 2: I honestly I would walk across Hot Stones to hear
[35:23] Speaker 2: the Neville Brothers or to see them. So my manager
[35:27] Speaker 2: comes with me, because you know, she wants to see,
[35:29] Speaker 2: and we fly down. We get to get the show
[35:33] Speaker 2: is already because it's a few hours shows. It's only
[35:35] Speaker 2: a six hour show or something, so it's already up
[35:37] Speaker 2: and running when we get there. And and she had
[35:40] Speaker 2: argued that I had to go on like towards the
[35:43] Speaker 2: end or something like because it was somehow prestigious. Uh
[35:47] Speaker 2: or maybe it wasn't even that, maybe they already knew
[35:50] Speaker 2: where they wanted. Because here's the thing. I went on
[35:53] Speaker 2: in between Chris Christofferson and Neil Young and so I
[36:00] Speaker 2: they introduce. And the other thing is, so we're walking
[36:02] Speaker 2: around this crowd before, you know, before I go on,
[36:06] Speaker 2: walking around, you know, listening to music, but walking around
[36:08] Speaker 2: the crowd, well, I what I hadn't thought about before
[36:11] Speaker 2: was there's beer kegs everywhere, and uh, you know a
[36:15] Speaker 2: lot of people have on like John Deere Windbreakers, and
[36:19] Speaker 2: uh it is by the time if it go on
[36:23] Speaker 2: later in the show, well they're more drunk. And that
[36:29] Speaker 2: that does not serve me. Uh So it's fine. And
[36:35] Speaker 2: as we're walking around and I'm beginning to see what
[36:39] Speaker 2: I'm up against, I was already like, okay, this is
[36:43] Speaker 2: not gonna be good. So I, you know, Chris Christofferson
[36:49] Speaker 2: finishes and uh you know, and by the way, same
[36:53] Speaker 2: dynamic here, which is as a musician, you can play
[36:57] Speaker 2: while people you can play while people are talking. Right,
[37:01] Speaker 2: I'm sure do they want to. Probably not, they'd probably
[37:05] Speaker 2: rather everybody stopped talking and just listen to them, probably,
[37:08] Speaker 2: But you can do it as a comic, you really can't.
[37:13] Speaker 2: So Chris christoffers and finishes, but you know, big, big applause,
[37:18] Speaker 2: And now I come on, somebody introduces me. Now most
[37:23] Speaker 2: of the crowd has no interest in seeing me, no
[37:25] Speaker 2: idea who I am, and and so you know, the
[37:29] Speaker 2: noise level rises right away with people just engaged in conversations,
[37:33] Speaker 2: just just checking out, just not paying any attention to me.
[37:36] Speaker 2: And I start to do right thing, and I've you know,
[37:40] Speaker 2: tried really hard, and behind me, I can hear very
[37:45] Speaker 2: loudly Neil Young's bands tuning up, so they were her.
[37:50] Speaker 2: So I'm barely able to talk loud enough to you know,
[37:54] Speaker 2: overcome the noise level in the room to begin with,
[37:57] Speaker 2: and now behind me there's I just couln't believe it.
[38:02] Speaker 2: And then I realized, Okay, that's what I'm here for.
[38:05] Speaker 2: I'm here to kill time while Neil Young warms up
[38:10] Speaker 2: and had nothing to do with them wanting me to entertain.
[38:14] Speaker 2: So now it's just it's really really bad. And my
[38:20] Speaker 2: manager is over on the side. She doesn't usually come
[38:23] Speaker 2: with me to it shows, there's no.
[38:27] Speaker 1: But it's a Superdoman's farmte it was a big deal.
[38:30] Speaker 2: It was a big deal. But you know, for the
[38:31] Speaker 2: most part, there's no reason for herticum with me to
[38:34] Speaker 2: a show. But in this case, she's standing watching from
[38:37] Speaker 2: from the side of the stage, and I'm you know,
[38:42] Speaker 2: as far as I'm concerned, I'm done right. If people
[38:45] Speaker 2: don't want to listen to me, why am I there?
[38:47] Speaker 2: That's okay. I don't need to force myself on that.
[38:50] Speaker 2: It's fine. But I don't know. I look over to
[38:53] Speaker 2: the side and there she is, and she's making the
[38:56] Speaker 2: stretch sign.
[38:59] Speaker 1: Oh go longer, I'm.
[39:01] Speaker 2: Going believe it?
[39:03] Speaker 1: Did you?
[39:05] Speaker 2: And I said, what the fuck are you talking about?
[39:09] Speaker 2: And she and she kind of came out a little
[39:12] Speaker 2: bit and she goes, they want you to stretch? And
[39:15] Speaker 2: I said, you come out here and tell me that.
[39:20] Speaker 5: Did she?
[39:20] Speaker 2: Did you watch stretch? And I don't know how many
[39:25] Speaker 2: people in the audience got how fucking funny that was.
[39:27] Speaker 2: I don't know if I convinced them that that was funny.
[39:31] Speaker 2: But as I'm standing there, people some people in the
[39:35] Speaker 2: crowd start to go.
[39:36] Speaker 1: Neil, Neil, no, No, I know.
[39:43] Speaker 2: That a lot of those people, you know, really were
[39:46] Speaker 2: done with me already and just wanted Neil Young to
[39:49] Speaker 2: come out. But this crowd was so drunk that I
[39:53] Speaker 2: also believe many of the people yelling Neil thought I
[39:57] Speaker 2: was Neil Young. No, they were messed up. So there,
[40:03] Speaker 2: that's a great bombing story. Huh wow.
[40:07] Speaker 1: Well, I guess the positive is that you got to
[40:09] Speaker 1: open for Neil Young regardless, which is kind of really
[40:13] Speaker 1: historic in and of itself.
[40:14] Speaker 2: By the way, YE found a new song, and it's
[40:16] Speaker 2: a good new songs. I haven't heard a big crime.
[40:20] Speaker 2: Maybe it is a it's a song about what's going
[40:25] Speaker 2: on in Washington, and it's got that you know, old
[40:28] Speaker 2: sort of rock and roll.
[40:31] Speaker 1: Classic Neil Young.
[40:32] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got the you know, the the protest Neil Young.
[40:37] Speaker 2: It's a good song. I put on my flat thing.
[40:41] Speaker 6: We'll be right back with more of the Comedy Save
[40:43] Speaker 6: Me Podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Saved Me Podcast.
[40:54] Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, you've been very open about your struggles with alcohol.
[40:57] Speaker 1: Since we're talking about people who are thinking that you
[41:01] Speaker 1: were Neil Young when you were at the super Dome
[41:03] Speaker 1: because they had their beer goggles on. But can you
[41:07] Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about how addiction affected maybe
[41:09] Speaker 1: your comedy and conversely, how comedy maybe played a role
[41:13] Speaker 1: in your recovery.
[41:16] Speaker 2: Well, I don't think it's anything particularly unique to my experience.
[41:20] Speaker 2: But here's something about alcohol in general. It gets there's
[41:27] Speaker 2: such myths surrounding it. There's such myths about what a
[41:34] Speaker 2: good time people have, you know, when they're oh, they
[41:38] Speaker 2: have a good time. If I had my life to
[41:42] Speaker 2: do over again, I would never have picked up at all,
[41:45] Speaker 2: because I cannot, as I look back, remember so much
[41:48] Speaker 2: as one experience, not one where it made things better
[41:51] Speaker 2: in any way. And I think that's part of the
[41:54] Speaker 2: reason I kept going as a drinker, is because I
[41:58] Speaker 2: was like, I just haven't done it right yet, you.
[42:02] Speaker 1: Know, Oh, you were practicing achieved.
[42:05] Speaker 2: I haven't achieved. Like, it's not that oh you know what,
[42:09] Speaker 2: As it turns out, it really that's all advertising, and
[42:13] Speaker 2: it's it's advertising, and it's people who don't want to
[42:16] Speaker 2: It's people who don't want to admit it's the emperor's
[42:19] Speaker 2: who close. It's people don't want to admit that that
[42:22] Speaker 2: that the emperor is naked, that alcohol really didn't make
[42:25] Speaker 2: anything better for them, even though they wasted tons of
[42:27] Speaker 2: time and money on it, and so, uh so there's that.
[42:33] Speaker 2: Uh yeah, it's I don't have a lot to say
[42:37] Speaker 2: about I mean it obviously because it's never made anything
[42:41] Speaker 2: better even once. Ever, uh it it didn't, And.
[42:47] Speaker 1: You can't think of one did you. Were you ever afraid, Paula,
[42:51] Speaker 1: that when you quit all of that, that you weren't
[42:54] Speaker 1: going to be.
[42:56] Speaker 2: No, I was funny in kindergarten and I didn't drink.
[43:00] Speaker 2: Uh in my craft's box, in my in my velveda
[43:05] Speaker 2: box that had my crayons, I didn't.
[43:08] Speaker 1: I didn't have a There was no like little.
[43:13] Speaker 2: No. I didn't think that at all, ever, not once.
[43:17] Speaker 2: I wasn't a little concerned that I wouldn't play ping
[43:19] Speaker 2: kong as well? And that might Are you a good
[43:22] Speaker 2: ping pong?
[43:23] Speaker 3: Well?
[43:23] Speaker 2: I thought I was. I was a good backyard ping
[43:26] Speaker 2: pong player. I was a good basement ping pong player.
[43:29] Speaker 2: Was not ever an Olympic quality but uh but no,
[43:34] Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't think it had any even when
[43:39] Speaker 2: I was, you know, stupid enough to be a drinker.
[43:42] Speaker 2: I didn't think that it enhanced my performance. I knew
[43:46] Speaker 2: that it did.
[43:46] Speaker 1: Not. Well, I'm glad that you knew that you were
[43:50] Speaker 1: funny without it, because I would imagine that if you
[43:53] Speaker 1: were afraid it may have stopped you from getting back
[43:55] Speaker 1: into it would all be no, not not as happy.
[43:58] Speaker 2: I mean, I wasn't you know, I wasn't sure what
[44:03] Speaker 2: was going to happen. But uh no, you know, my my,
[44:10] Speaker 2: my life, you know, my life improved. I would say
[44:16] Speaker 2: one thousand percent, but that would be Trump mask. So
[44:23] Speaker 2: I'll just I'll just stick with one hundred percent as
[44:28] Speaker 2: a result of giving up the devil drink.
[44:31] Speaker 1: Well, all right, So now that we have got all
[44:33] Speaker 1: of this under our belts and accomplished, I want to
[44:35] Speaker 1: tell you that a couple of weeks ago I spoke
[44:38] Speaker 1: with a comedian and her name is Wendy Leep and
[44:44] Speaker 1: she loves you, apparently because she was talking about you
[44:47] Speaker 1: in our interview and I said I was going to
[44:49] Speaker 1: have you on and would you like to ask Paula
[44:53] Speaker 1: a question? And she actually had. She had one thing
[44:56] Speaker 1: she wanted me to tell you, and a question. Can
[44:58] Speaker 1: I play that? Su All right? Here we go? All right,
[45:16] Speaker 1: So inquiring minds want to know, including Wendy Leidman, why
[45:19] Speaker 1: do you talk to a chair?
[45:20] Speaker 2: Okay? I don't talk to a chair. I have no
[45:22] Speaker 2: idea where Wendy got the idea that I talked to them.
[45:25] Speaker 2: Come on, for real, I don't talk to the chair.
[45:29] Speaker 2: I take a picture of a chair. Uh. And I
[45:32] Speaker 2: think it started because you know a lot of times
[45:35] Speaker 2: people are like, uh, you know, I'll get like a message,
[45:41] Speaker 2: you know that somebody wants to come backstage. You know,
[45:44] Speaker 2: somebody wants to know if they can meet me backstage.
[45:47] Speaker 2: And I don't mean like another performer, I mean like
[45:50] Speaker 2: a you know, an audience member wants to know if
[45:52] Speaker 2: they can. You know, it's somebody's birthday working to come backstage.
[45:55] Speaker 2: You know what, why does everybody want to come backstage?
[45:58] Speaker 2: It is so unglamorous, It is so it is. It's
[46:02] Speaker 2: this cement room and and a lot of the older theaters,
[46:07] Speaker 2: you know, there's just very little comforts in that room
[46:17] Speaker 2: or else the hotel, excuse me, or else the theater
[46:20] Speaker 2: will want me to come from the hotel like an
[46:23] Speaker 2: hour early because it makes them more comfortable to know
[46:26] Speaker 2: that I'm there.
[46:29] Speaker 1: And they put you in this.
[46:31] Speaker 2: Exactly. And I mean I'm not I'm not complaining. I'm
[46:35] Speaker 2: not suggesting for a moment that I need something more
[46:38] Speaker 2: than that little cement room. I do not. I am
[46:40] Speaker 2: perfectly comfortable in that little cement room. I don't need
[46:44] Speaker 2: to be there for an extra hour. I'd prefer to
[46:46] Speaker 2: be in the hotel room. But so originally I started
[46:52] Speaker 2: taking pictures of the chairs sort of to say like, Okay, look,
[46:56] Speaker 2: this is what it is. It's not fancy, meanly in
[47:01] Speaker 2: the lobby. If you want to talk to me, come
[47:03] Speaker 2: to the lobby. Don't come backstage. It's gross. So that
[47:07] Speaker 2: I believe that that was what motivated me in the
[47:10] Speaker 2: beginning to take a picture of a chair before I
[47:12] Speaker 2: went on. And I don't know at what point I sorry,
[47:15] Speaker 2: I would take a picture of a chair, and then
[47:16] Speaker 2: I say and I post. I say, I'm about to
[47:19] Speaker 2: tell them in and I tell the name of the
[47:21] Speaker 2: city that I'm in. And I don't know when I
[47:26] Speaker 2: started doing it, but it was a long long time ago.
[47:29] Speaker 2: And now if I don't post a picture of the chair,
[47:32] Speaker 2: people complain.
[47:34] Speaker 1: Really, it's become a thing, a thing.
[47:37] Speaker 2: It's an odd thing. I think people. Clearly Wendy created
[47:43] Speaker 2: this whole story around it in her own mind, so
[47:46] Speaker 2: I think everybody has a different idea of why I
[47:49] Speaker 2: post the picture of the chair, but to the best
[47:52] Speaker 2: of my memory, that's how I started posting the picture
[47:54] Speaker 2: of the dear. What's really funny is there are venues
[47:58] Speaker 2: that have gone out and found a fancy chair just
[48:02] Speaker 2: for you. Snug their chair. When I posted they can
[48:06] Speaker 2: be it? Can it conveyed them in glory? Wow, that
[48:11] Speaker 2: is so cool.
[48:11] Speaker 1: I like the story behind that, and yes, I agree
[48:13] Speaker 1: with you one hundred percent. I never once I went
[48:15] Speaker 1: backstage working in this industry and saw what was going on.
[48:19] Speaker 1: I was like, why do people want to come back here?
[48:21] Speaker 1: There is nothing going on back here. It's not pretty
[48:24] Speaker 1: and usually it's dark. I mean Joan Rivers room, and
[48:28] Speaker 1: I remember it was in the basement of a comedy club,
[48:31] Speaker 1: in a little cement room like two by four and
[48:34] Speaker 1: there was nothing in there. I'm like, Joan, what, how
[48:37] Speaker 1: is this possible? She's like, yeah, we don't care.
[48:40] Speaker 2: Like even the Tonight Show the first time I ever
[48:42] Speaker 2: did The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, right, you know,
[48:45] Speaker 2: growing up watching that show, it all looked so glamorous
[48:51] Speaker 2: and you get there and it's just like this is
[48:53] Speaker 2: what it looks like. So small, it's it's small, it's
[48:59] Speaker 2: it's it's just it's just not glamorous. It really is
[49:05] Speaker 2: the magic of television, you know. There's a way that
[49:07] Speaker 2: they light things and what they do with the camera
[49:10] Speaker 2: that makes puts out a particular image. And uh, and
[49:14] Speaker 2: good for them, I mean that's brilliant. But the dressing
[49:17] Speaker 2: room was like, it's a teeny little maybe it's not
[49:22] Speaker 2: cement at the tonight, I can't remember anymore, but I
[49:25] Speaker 2: remember it was very small. Uh, it's it's got it's
[49:31] Speaker 2: not it's not decorated. It's just there. It's just a
[49:36] Speaker 2: room you dress, you know, and big on big. You know.
[49:41] Speaker 2: I think they used to have a big liquor thing
[49:43] Speaker 2: in there. But that that never interested me one way
[49:46] Speaker 2: or the other, even when I started. We're gonna say,
[49:50] Speaker 2: oh oh. So one time I was in Lake Tahoe
[49:53] Speaker 2: and I think I was working somewhere, but also, uh,
[49:58] Speaker 2: I was with some friends. We stayed a couple extra
[50:01] Speaker 2: nights or something, and I think Mahamo's Hairs or something,
[50:05] Speaker 2: and Liza Minelli was working there. So before the show,
[50:11] Speaker 2: I take a napkin and I write a note to
[50:14] Speaker 2: Liza Minnelli, who doesn't know me from Adam, but I
[50:17] Speaker 2: write this note and I go, you know, I'm here
[50:18] Speaker 2: with my friends and I'm a you know, my performer.
[50:21] Speaker 2: My name is Paul Poundstone. I said, we wanted to
[50:23] Speaker 2: know if we can come backstage, and I don't know
[50:28] Speaker 2: at that point, I'd never been backstage there. I really
[50:32] Speaker 2: was expecting, you know, it's e Liza, It's going to
[50:34] Speaker 2: be glamorous, right, And I couldn't believe when whoever I
[50:39] Speaker 2: gave the note to, like a security guy or something,
[50:41] Speaker 2: and he comes back and he says, yes, you know,
[50:44] Speaker 2: come this way, you and your friends come this way.
[50:46] Speaker 2: You know Liza will you know, Lisa will meet with
[50:48] Speaker 2: you backstage. I couldn't believe it. So we go into
[50:52] Speaker 2: I can't remember. Maybe it wasn't it wasn't even the
[50:54] Speaker 2: dressing room might have been the bigger room, the green room,
[50:57] Speaker 2: but the green room also very like just on just
[51:02] Speaker 2: not interesting in any way. And so we come back
[51:06] Speaker 2: and she couldn't have been more gracious. She meets my friends,
[51:09] Speaker 2: she meets me, We sit around and chit. Yet and
[51:13] Speaker 2: later I thought about it, I was like, Okay, why
[51:15] Speaker 2: would she have done that? And I think it's because
[51:19] Speaker 2: it was depressing for her back there too. So she's
[51:22] Speaker 2: just like green room was so total strangers want to
[51:26] Speaker 2: come back, and I'm sure they made her be at
[51:28] Speaker 2: that place, you know, like you know, an hour and
[51:31] Speaker 2: a half early, and she was bored out of her mind.
[51:33] Speaker 2: So she was like, yeah, sure, come on back.
[51:35] Speaker 1: I do want to tell her that's so funny. Yeah,
[51:38] Speaker 1: green room is just that, it's a room that's green
[51:40] Speaker 1: and sometimes it has have I have one more thing
[51:45] Speaker 1: when you want to share, thank you for your time,
[51:49] Speaker 1: and here's this all right, so you ready for this one?
[52:06] Speaker 1: This is this first of all? Is that true? Yes, okay,
[52:12] Speaker 1: she wanted me to let you know that her husband,
[52:15] Speaker 1: when he was seven years old, his parents used to
[52:17] Speaker 1: write music for movies, soundtracks and stuff, and he went
[52:22] Speaker 1: to school. When he came home from school, he told
[52:23] Speaker 1: his father that they gave him medicine in school. And
[52:26] Speaker 1: his father said, they gave you a shot, and he said,
[52:29] Speaker 1: oh no, no. They put the medicine on a spoon
[52:32] Speaker 1: and put a little sugar cube on it, and they
[52:34] Speaker 1: gave it to me that way. And the next day
[52:37] Speaker 1: her father in law and mother in law I think
[52:40] Speaker 1: or both wrote Spoonful of Sugar for Chitty Chitty Bank Bank.
[52:44] Speaker 2: Well, noan it was a spoonful of sugar from Mary Poppins.
[52:49] Speaker 1: I mean Mary Poppins. Sorry, I'm sorry, yes, wow, Sorry Wendy,
[52:52] Speaker 1: I screwed that up.
[52:54] Speaker 2: So her husband because it was the Sherman brothers who
[52:58] Speaker 2: wrote that song, so.
[53:00] Speaker 1: Maybe her her husband's father was one of the short.
[53:04] Speaker 2: Wow I could have.
[53:05] Speaker 1: Well, we'll have to get down to that wow.
[53:08] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[53:09] Speaker 1: Either way, Wendy was a huge fan and I just
[53:12] Speaker 1: didn't want to waste a moment if I could at
[53:14] Speaker 1: least connect the two of you, and yes, two amazingly
[53:17] Speaker 1: talented women in this industry that is so difficult. Before
[53:22] Speaker 1: I let you go, you've maintained a career for over
[53:24] Speaker 1: forty years and notoriously difficult industry. What keeps you going
[53:29] Speaker 1: and what still excites PAULA Poundstone today?
[53:32] Speaker 2: Well, again, as a result of that period of time
[53:36] Speaker 2: during the stay at home warder, I really know that
[53:42] Speaker 2: you know how awful it feels to not get to
[53:44] Speaker 2: do this, So I am genuine You know, travel does
[53:49] Speaker 2: get you after a little while. The cement rooms gets
[53:53] Speaker 2: you after a little while. But boy, the part of
[53:55] Speaker 2: being in front of an audience and just talking over everything,
[54:00] Speaker 2: you know, what's going on in the world, just talking
[54:04] Speaker 2: to individuals in the crowd and finding about finding out
[54:08] Speaker 2: about the you know, the area that you're in or
[54:10] Speaker 2: a job that somebody does, and having that. I always
[54:16] Speaker 2: say that I'm a proud member of the endorphin production
[54:19] Speaker 2: industry because that's what we do for a couple of
[54:22] Speaker 2: hours a night, is produce endorphins for me and for
[54:27] Speaker 2: the people in front of me, and it is. It's
[54:30] Speaker 2: a joy.
[54:31] Speaker 1: Paula. Thank you so much for your honesty and your
[54:35] Speaker 1: humor and for everything that you do. And I'm so
[54:38] Speaker 1: glad that you are still is so much excited as
[54:41] Speaker 1: you were even back in the data still continue to
[54:44] Speaker 1: go out there and entertain people and make them happy.
[54:46] Speaker 1: And Lord knows we need a lot of it right now.
[54:49] Speaker 1: I mean a lot of laughter is.
[54:51] Speaker 2: We donate a lot of it. And as we've seen,
[54:55] Speaker 2: comedians are telling truths right now. And I mean, I
[55:01] Speaker 2: can't swear that every single comedian is telling truth But
[55:06] Speaker 2: I recently got a kitten and I named him Colbert,
[55:10] Speaker 2: and I wrote to I tweeted out a picture of
[55:13] Speaker 2: him and I tagged Colbert Show, and I said, this
[55:17] Speaker 2: is not because you've had me on I said, because
[55:20] Speaker 2: in fact, I don't think you've had me on enough.
[55:23] Speaker 2: I name my kitten Colbert because Stephen Colbert is a
[55:26] Speaker 2: goddamned American hero and because he's said, you know, he's
[55:31] Speaker 2: telling truths.
[55:33] Speaker 1: I love it. And one other thing, wait, wait, don't
[55:37] Speaker 1: tell me. We can hear you there often on npr S.
[55:40] Speaker 2: That is correct, all right? And also where I have
[55:44] Speaker 2: a podcast called Nobody listens to Paula Poundstone.
[55:47] Speaker 1: I was just going to say, where else can we
[55:49] Speaker 1: find more of Paula.
[55:51] Speaker 2: I'm also doing a series of videos that you can
[55:56] Speaker 2: find on YouTuber, Instagram or any of those kinds of places,
[56:00] Speaker 2: but certainly YouTube is an easy to find. We're mostly
[56:05] Speaker 2: called hey Donald Trump, and they're just a couple of
[56:08] Speaker 2: minutes each or if that, and it's me talking to
[56:13] Speaker 2: Donald Trump, not oh boy, he's not in fact in
[56:16] Speaker 2: front of me. But that's the premise. The premise is
[56:19] Speaker 2: that I'm talking directly to Donald Trump. And they've been,
[56:24] Speaker 2: you know, fun to do, and I try to make
[56:27] Speaker 2: sure I'm working with facts.
[56:29] Speaker 1: Listen, there's nothing better when you can just turn things
[56:34] Speaker 1: into comedy, regardless of facts, just just making people laugh.
[56:38] Speaker 1: If it's funny, it's funny Paula, right, I mean, it's
[56:40] Speaker 1: not meant to hurt anybody, it's just meant to make
[56:43] Speaker 1: you laugh.
[56:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, good to have some facts in there.
[56:47] Speaker 1: Yeah, occasionally Fall of Fownstone. Thank you so much. I'm
[56:52] Speaker 1: sorry I had you talk so much. You're choking at
[56:54] Speaker 1: the end of that. Did not intend to do that.
[56:57] Speaker 1: But best wishes to you and all of the future
[57:00] Speaker 1: your endeavors, and I hope that maybe our pass will
[57:02] Speaker 1: cross again. And thanks for spending so much time chatting
[57:05] Speaker 1: with me about comedy and your life and just being
[57:08] Speaker 1: so available and wonderful.
[57:11] Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
[57:12] Speaker 1: I I don't want to let you go.
[57:14] Speaker 2: I said, I had a great time. I appreciate it.

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