Comedian Paula Poundstone has been lending her commentary to NPR’s news quiz show for years, and she’ll be in New Hampshire on Friday for a performance at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth.
NHPR’s All Things Considered Host Julia Furukawa sat down with Poundstone to talk about her career, her experiences on ‘Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!’ and a few things New Hampshire. Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Transcript
Paula Poundstone: I'm so excited to be coming to New Hampshire. It's one of the best places to go. I'm from Massachusetts. I was raised in Massachusetts. And so, you know, when you go anywhere up in that area, there's a coming home feeling to it, coming home without the family.
Julia Furukawa: Without all the stress of that.
Paula Poundstone: Right. Without dynamics of any sort, just coming home to the environment that you belong in.
Julia Furukawa: Well, I hope, you know, I did invite your entire family to your performance at the Flying Monkey.
Paula Poundstone: Wow.
Julia Furukawa: That okay with you?
Paula Poundstone: Boy, would that not go well.
Julia Furukawa: Paula, many of our listeners may know you from 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!' Your job as a panelist is not only to know trivia answers about the week's news, but to come up with commentary along the way to make listeners laugh, even when the news that week has been difficult. How do you think on your feet?
Paula Poundstone: The truth is, I'm really not sure. And sometimes the great thing about 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!' is from the first time I ever did the show -- and at that time we were all in studios closest to our house. There was no live audience. It was taped in the morning, for me anyway in Los Angeles, it was taped in the morning. And what I remember is the director coming on my headset saying, 'Jump in any time, say whatever you want,' which is really the opposite of much of what one is told in showbusiness. And so, it was really kind of a brave show in that way.
Now, the truth is they edit. And so if you said something they didn't want you to say, I guess they would just cut it out. But I think that they set the table for you to be sort of verbally fertile. And the other thing is that with the other panelists, there is a sort of a culture of if Tom Bodett says something that's funny, and then I add something to it, and then somebody else had some-- right? Nobody has a feeling of ownership. So those things, I think, make that possible. And then once we started doing it in front of a live audience, that really just adds the energy to it. So I think those things.
Julia Furukawa: I'd love to ask you if you could pull back the curtain a little bit on your 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!' experiences for some of our listeners who hear it every week, and maybe haven't had a chance to go in person or don't know what happens behind the scenes. Is there a behind the scenes thing that you're willing to divulge or that might be fun for listeners to know?
Paula Poundstone: Oh, yes. And I'm so glad you asked me. And please don't let this go out of New Hampshire, but they cheat, a lot of cheating.
Julia Furukawa: What?
Paula Poundstone: Yeah. No one really knows this, but there's doping. I love talking about 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!,' because I like to clear up the misconception. And this is so important for me to say, yes, I am trying to win. I do hold the record for losses, but it's not because I'm not trying. The others cheat. That's the reason. I feel oftentimes that they were born into the world knowing more about current events than I. And so there's that disadvantage, but also there is doping. Mo Rocca is a juicer. Peter Segal always says that it's exceptionally long when I'm on. That may or may not be true, but he does torment me with that. A lot of what I say gets edited out. They have an editing program that when it hears my voice, [it] cuts.
Julia Furukawa: What's the name of the software?
Paula Poundstone: It's called 'Paula Quiet' software.
Julia Furukawa: Already trademarked, I assume.
Paula Poundstone: Yeah. Yeah. And very popular. Very popular.
Julia Furukawa: All right, you'll have to indulge me. I would love to ask about your wardrobe. Your signature look is a colorful, oversized suit. You often have a tie. Actually, I was able to see you when you came to Concord, and you had this fantastic blue suit you were wearing. What advice would you give to someone who is still working to find their signature look?
Paula Poundstone: You know, I think it's don't listen to everybody else. When I was 23-years-old, I had a management company. It was all men, and they were older. And they were just forever saying stuff about how I looked. You know, they didn't like my hair. They didn't like this. They didn't like that. And in retrospect, I realize that I was stupid to have ever listened to them. I mean, there are topics where somebody may know more than you, but about who you are and how you look, there's nobody who knows more than you.
Julia Furukawa: So here in New Hampshire, we're known by our state motto 'Live Free or Die.' I would love your thoughts on this. Is this a practical approach to life?
Paula Poundstone: It is not. You know, I suppose it depends on your definition of 'free.' And it's interesting, because a lot of people in the political sphere toss that word around. I think that we have to have a new thing in our politics. I think that when someone uses a word like free, for example, that has a million meanings, I think it is incumbent upon the interviewer or the audience that's listening to them to say, 'And how are you defining that?' Because I think that you'll find many people don't even know. They just found a word that activated people in some way. But yeah. So, 'Live Free or Die,' I assume all New Hampshireans are free because every one of them I've met has been alive.
