BEST BET: Wait wait … it’s Poundstone at the Englert

By Diana Nollen

Paula Poundstone has built her career around just talking to her audiences, storing a wealth of material in “the Rolodex” inside her head.

 “My act is like a really good cocktail party,” she says, “where you talk about how rough the drive was, then current events, then you tell that story you told years ago, then someone on the other side of the room spills a drink and you have to mock them.”

She'll be bringing her conversational style to the Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City at 8 p.m. Saturday.

She finds humor in everyday surroundings.

“Nothing has ever made me laugh harder than toilet paper stuck on the bottom of somebody's shoe, so it's not intellectual humor” that makes her laugh, she says in a recent phone interview from her kitchen in Santa Monica, Calif. “I enjoy the silly as well as clever. I always enjoyed Woody Allen films growing up.”

She's admired many comedians over the years, too.

“My parents had Bill Cosby albums. I stole all 11 when I left,” she says. “I loved ‘Laugh-In' and Lily Tomlin. She's still just great. She's really funny and makes me feel better about anything. She's a few years older than me and hasn't lost any of her spark.”

Age is on Poundstone's mind just a bit, as she inches toward 50 on Dec. 29.

“The other day I was making a sandwich, using this off-brand mayo that said ‘best before Dec. 28.' Oh man, I hope that's not true for me,” she says.

She's survived the worst of times in her 40s, placed on probation for five years and ordered into rehab for driving drunk with her children in the car. “In 2001 it all fell apart,” she says. “It's been five years since it's been off the paperwork.”

In the beginning, she spoke candidly about her problems on talk shows, in her act and in her book, “There Is Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say.”

“Every day that passes works to my advantage,” she says. “I do reference (the legal woes) occasionally, but not too much anymore. It's not in my head anymore.”

These days, her life is filled with raising the three children she adopted - daughters ages 18 and 15 and a son, age 11 - and a veritable menagerie of 13 cats, a German shepherd mix dog, a bearded dragon lizard named Daisy and a new bunny that recently “mounted an escape” by hopping out of its pen.

She's in a good place now, with a good gig on NPR's weekly news quiz show, “Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me,” a new CD, “I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Maine,” plans for another CD, just enough standup gigs to make a living, and another book in the works, loosely titled “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness.”

That search is ongoing.

“My daughter asked the other day what I want. I said I want for my children to grow to be adults that have lots of opportunities and are happy. A couple days later, I said I'd also really like Ted Kennedy's autobiography, if we're getting into more of an item kind of thing.”

FAST TAKEInformation: www.englert.com or http://paulapoundstone.com/

What: Paula Poundstone

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14

Where: Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City

Tickets: $30 to $40 reserved seating, through the Englert box office, (319) 688-2653, or www.iowatix.com