Paula Poundstone wants people to know that she really is trying. "Yes, I do want to win," the comedian said of her gig as a panelist on NPR's weekly news quiz show, "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me.""It seems to be an urban legend that I'm attempting to lose," she added, talking on the phone from her home in Santa Monica, Calif. "Apparently my losses are so dominant that I'm the agony of defeat of public radio. I do study up, but my children and my cats interrupt my training."
So how much prep does Poundstone do before each taping of the radio show?
"Well, I sort of collect newspapers during the week, and then on the flight to Chicago, I cram," she said. "Some weeks I have great success at being well-apprised and others just not at all."
The comic does have a theory on how her fellow panelists consistently achieve victory. "I do feel that the others cheat," she joked. "They were simply born into the world knowing more about current events than I, and if they want to play on that uneven playing field, I'm not going to be a bad sport about it."
Known for her off-kilter sensibility and razor-sharp wit, Paula Poundstone balances her radio duties with an active stand-up schedule. On Sunday, she brings her act to Newport News for a performance at the Ferguson Center for the Arts.
The youngest in her family, Poundstone was introduced to comedy quite young. "When the other kids went to school, my mother would make them breakfast and then she would go back to bed for an hour, so I was sort of baby-sat by television," she noted.
As fate and TV scheduling would have it, that hour spent watching the tube would play a pivotal role in Poundstone's development. "My relationship with the Three Stooges started very early," she said. "I've seen each episode literally hundreds of times."
Clearly, Larry, Moe and Curly made a big impression.
"I have a very silly sense of humor," admitted the 52-year- old funnywoman. "I've never laughed harder in my entire life than seeing someone with toilet paper stuck on the bottom of their shoe. I do love clever and witty, but I think that the Three Stooges were geniuses."
By age 19, Poundstone was a regular on the comedy club circuit. She's since hosted her own TV show, written a comedic memoir, won an Emmy award and two Cable Ace awards.
As achievements go, it adds up to a pretty nice resume, but Poundstone says an honor bestowed to her several years ago remains a personal favorite.
"A while back, the Chicago Tribune did an article on the history of the Pop-Tart, and my face was pictured on the timeline. I am very proud of it. I had it laminated, and it's hanging on my office wall."
The comic's relationship with the toasted pastry is one of her best-known gags. She attributes her love of them to a self-diagnosed "riboflavin deficiency." Just don't get her started on Pop-Tarts' ever-changing packaging.
"They keep adjusting the toasting directions," she explained."The truth is, the way you toast a Pop-Tart has not changed since they were invented, but they keep changing the way they articulate it. It's like, 'How else can we say, remove the pastry from the pouch?' It must be coming from their legal department. That would be the only reason to keep investing that kind of money in retooling the packaging. My guess is they're being sued over yet another facial disfiguration from someone who looked into the toaster while the packaging was still on and it burst into flames."
Observational humor about life's little absurdities has long been Poundstone's trademark. Take, for instance, her view on the tendency of TV meteorologists to report outside during inclement conditions.
"Why would you want to get the weather from someone who's not smart enough to come inside from a rainstorm?" she joked.
Poundstone's home life has also provided the Comedy Hall of Fame inductee with plenty of fodder. The mother of three is also the caretaker of two dogs and 16 cats. Her felines' foibles are well documented.
"My old assistant did not like animals, and she was always bellyaching about my cats," Poundstone said. "Finally I said to her, those cats have written half of my act, so get over it - you pretty much work for those cats."
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