Paula Poundstone coming to PAC

Paula Poundstone’s voice is low and husky on a good day. This day in early June, on the phone from her home in Santa Monica, California, the illness sweeping through her family has hit the comedian hard, taking the voice down an octave and adding a rough edge.

Sneezing and wheezing, she expressed hope that it was the much dreaded swine flu—for the comedy that can be mined from it.

“We have something in common with people all over the world—Muslims have it, Baptists have it,” said Ms. Poundstone. “Whatever brings us together.”

She tells her two daughters, both ill, that they’re part of a global pandemic: “You know, you’ll be able to tell your children ...” And her son, who had so far dodged the virus? He was the only one of the three kids well enough to attend school that day—“and he’s dripping with jealousy.” She said she hoped he’d catch it, simply because he’s more docile and compliant when ill.

Ms. Poundstone, who will perform stand-up at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Friday, July 3, bases much of her act on life in her nontraditional family: she is a single mom raising three adopted children, 18-year-old Toshia, 15-year-old Allison, and 11-year-old Thomas E. The household also features 12 cats, a puppy, a bearded dragon lizard, and a rabbit.

But while her act is, “in the main, autobiographical,” she also touches on politics and other current events, everything viewed through her quirky optic. And the 30-year stand-up has always stood apart from the crowd because she has no fear of working without a net: She regularly spends a great deal of time talking with the audience, riffing on their lives, using her notoriously quick wit to customize each routine for its audience, often in hilarious fashion.

“For me, when I have a good night, what was good about it was the audience in front of me,” Ms. Poundstone said, comparing her role to an orchestra conductor, rather than a performer. “It’s sort of this symphony ...” she mused.

The Boston Globe once compared her to a jazz musician “swinging in unexpected directions.” For the most part, the interactions start simply enough, with her trademark “Where ya from? Whattya do for a living?” The answers, she said, usually offer plenty to work with.

She said the technique sprang from her personal style, and her comedic rhythm. “My act has a very, kinda, loping pace to it,” she said. She marvels at comedians who scramble around the stage, frenetically stirring up the crowd: “I tried like hell to do that, and I can’t do it for the life of me.” She honed her talent early on, taking difficult gigs and working the least coveted spots at comedy clubs: “There’s nothing harder than working to a really small crowd in the middle of the night. I’ve done that effectively for many years of my life.”

Ms. Poundstone’s unique style—typically, she performs in masculine attire, with only a stool, a microphone and a can of Diet Pepsi—has changed little since her early days in the Boston comedy scene. She grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and was performing in comedy clubs at 19, having first made an impression on her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bump, who once sent a letter home to Ms. Poundstone’s parents noting her “humorous comments about our activities.”

She later moved to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles, adding several HBO comedy specials along the way, and was the first woman to win a Cable ACE award for best stand-up comedy special. She won another Cable ACE award for her interviewing skills when she was featured in a self-titled talk show on HBO in the 1990s. She later covered the 1992 presidential election for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” had a show on ABC, and became the first woman to perform at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Ms. Poundstone’s stand-up work continued, and for the last eight years she has served as a regular panelist on the NPR show “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me,” a combination comedy and quiz show taped before a live audience—the perfect place to showcase her nimble mind and improvisational skills. Her resume includes numerous other appearances and voice work on numerous children’s shows.

A CD, “I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Maine,” was just released. It was recorded at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine—a “really nice crowd,” she recalls. Surprisingly, despite three decades at or near the top of her field, it is her first audio recording. “I think it’s just because I’m constantly in a state of overwhelm,” she explained. “Every little thing seems too much to do for me.” It took her eight years to write her first book, “There’s Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say,” published in 2006.

Today, she keeps her touring schedule in check so that she never spends more than two nights away from her children. “Somehow, a third night is like an extra year away from home,” she said. “Two are somehow doable, but you get to three, you move into the misery phase of work.”

The Westhampton Beach PAC can expect some discussion about the area, but Ms. Poundstone admits that she rarely has time to do any real research: Because of her family commitments, she takes a late flight in, an early flight out, and her familiarity with the community she performs in is limited to the stretch from the hotel to the theater. But, as usual, the audience comes to the rescue. She noted that by talking to the crowd, a performer can usually “get a sort of a sketch of where you are.”

On nights when the audience is tight, Ms. Poundstone said she is willing to work hard to get them loosened up and participating in the show. Sometimes the audience comes ready and willing to interact. Regardless, she said, the experience is exhausting, and exhilarating: “To me, there’s just magic in a roomful of people who came out to laugh.”

The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center will present stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone on Friday, July 3, at 8:30 p.m. The show contains some mature content and is for adults only. Tickets are $40, $50 or $60. For more information, stop by the Arts Center box office at 78 Main Street, call 288-1500, or visit WHBPAC.org.