Fun Size Bytes (from @Tj)

Paula Poundstone, an unpaid endorsement

I’ve been meaning to write this up for days.

The other day Paula Poundstone wrote:

“My son and I are flying to Maine, to get away from the bunny.”

And I thought to myself, “Huh, that’s funny, we’re going to Maine too.” My mom had made plans to go away for the weekend. I didn’t really think anything of it.

Until I walked into the hotel lobby and saw a poster that Paula was performing in that same town, that same night. I jumped on my MacBook and grabbed what may have been the last two seats available for the show.

She was fantastic. I’d watched her stand-up for as long as I can remember, and she did not disappoint. We both left with our cheeks sore from laughing so hard.

It’s hard to describe the difference between someone who tells jokes and a true comic, but it’s like pornography — well, without the nudity — what I mean is “you know it when you see it.”

She handled a very drunk woman in the audience with grace and aplomb, responding to her only as much as necessary to keep her from derailing the evening —culminating with the woman yelling out one last time as Paula was saying goodnight, at which point she turned her head very quickly towards her and said “Fuck you, ma’am, goodnight everyone!” which made the audience applause double (we had all had more than enough of the drunken asshole by that point.)

Her interactions with the rest of the crowd went really well, especially the weird parts. Every time she asked someone a straightforward question, they would respond with some additional piece of information which was completely unnecessary. For example she asked the owner of the club how he got the giant piano up to the room (on the second floor) and he said something like “With a crane, and a loan.” See, he was making a little joke there that it was an expensive piano, which we all knew already. Someone else said they were a retired investment banker “before they became bad people.” See, she was making a joke about the global financial crisis. There were several others.

Tip: when you are at a comedy show and the comic talks to you, don’t try to be funny. Most of the time, you’re going to sound lame. Now most of you think you’re the exception, which is exactly the problem. Your job is to be the “straight man” (or woman). The comic’s job is to be the funny one. He/she is being paid to be funny. You are not. There’s a reason for this.

Paula is on Twitter, and she does pretty well (unlike some other comics who are booooooring), but she’s much funnier in person. She tends to tell stories more than jokes. Twitter obviously isn’t great medium for stories, but her show is.

My favorite thing she talked about was trying to write a book about her life.

She found that when she tried to write about herself, she had nothing to say.

Then she realized she had a terrible habit: whenever someone started to talk about themselves, she always interrupted them to say that whatever they had said reminded her of a story of something that happened to her.

So she decided to try to write about other people, which would then inevitably lead her to talk about herself. For example, she started to talk about Abraham Lincoln, and said “What do I have in common with Abraham Lincoln? Well, I’ve never emancipated slaves, but when I have a babysitter I try to come home early.”

Helen Keller? “Well, my daughter has an astigmatism and doesn’t listen…”

She is currently on tour and frequently on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (iTunes link to podcast).

She also has an aforementioned book There’s Nothing in This Book I Meant to Say (it’s available as an audiobook, but it’s abridged, which I am forbidden from linking to because I think abridging is stupid… but it is linked to the Amazon.com page linked above) which I’ve added to my “To Read” list.