Comedian performs two shows at Anthology
By Morgan M. Hurley | SDUN Assistant Editor
Paula Poundstone is but one character in the large cast she brings to her stand-up routine, which includes not only her three children and her 16 cats, but also each and every audience she finds herself in front of. On Saturday, June 9, that audience will be at Anthology in Little Italy.
Yes, the comedian has 16 cats; one of which Poundstone acquired during a promotion on a local, early morning television news station the first time she visited San Diego for a gig. June 1 will be her fourth visit in four years to the Anthology stage.
“I’m treated very nicely there and the crowds are great,” she said. “[Anthology] is very cosmopolitan and the food is so damn good. They even have a great dressing room, which is unheard of.”
Poundstone may be the star on stage, but her cats star on her website, with a “Poundstone Diner Cam” fixed on their feeding room for fans to view at any time. Her funny quips on a dry-erase board behind the felines add Poundstone’s winsome humor, and when a cat shows up with headgear, it can lead to some unintentional fun.
She both celebrates her feisty felines and uses them as comedic muse during her sets, but she is not afraid to make fun of herself, either. Be aware, too. Her comedy spills into the room; she often does not have a planned set and uses the audience to help develop the show as the evening progresses.
“Talking to the crowd is my favorite part of the show,” she said. If you stay for the second, you are bound to see two different shows. Poundstone performs at Anthology twice: once at 7:30 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m.
Poundstone spends a great deal of time on tour and does a lot of bouncing between coasts. Her most recent string of appearances had her going from California to Virginia, back to California and then across again to Maine. Her latest release, “I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells them in Maine,” was recorded at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine.
Her dry humor has been filling up the stage since the early 1990s. At a time when most stand-up comedians have moved on to hosting daytime talk shows or nighttime game and reality shows, Poundstone remains relevant on the stand-up circuit, commanding the bigger, upscale venues.
One reason for this is her total immersion into social media. Twitter, that is.
“I was not a computer person before,” she said. “I wrote four books by hand.” She even said that in the not-so-distant past, she would have her emails printed out and would then dictate her replies.
She has never done much with Facebook or other sites, but the 140-character format of Twitter completely drew her in. Hard.
“For years I’ve written postcards in my head,” she said. “I reflect on something in a short way. Now I can just put it out there. I bought an iPhone for the sole purpose of tweeting. It makes it so accessible and the format takes [the thoughts] out of your head.”
With close to 70,000 tweets under her belt, it is clearly part of her daily routine.
“I try to keep a good, steady pace, but it’s draining. I am biochemically addicted. I don’t feel good [anymore] unless my thoughts are connected with Twitter,” she said.
Poundstone also said she recognizes the advantages of trying out her postcard-sized thoughts to announce upcoming gigs, but when it comes to marketing purposes, Twitter is probably a bust.
“It is just part of my job,” she said, “but it is impossible to measure its value.”
For information and tickets to Poundstone’s June 9 Anthology shows, visit anthologysd.com or call 619-595-0300. Anthology is located at 1337 India St. and tickets range from $12 to $63.
