{"id":16380,"date":"2025-09-25T17:44:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T23:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/paula-poundstone-hopefully-my-show-is-an-animated-spaceship\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:36:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:36:49","slug":"paula-poundstone-hopefully-my-show-is-an-animated-spaceship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/paula-poundstone-hopefully-my-show-is-an-animated-spaceship\/","title":{"rendered":"Paula Poundstone: \u2018Hopefully my show is an animated spaceship\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Comedian
Comedian Paula Poundstone will return to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Oct. 2. (Facebook)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The last time comedian Paula Poundstone performed in Durango, the world was still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and all that it had wrought. We were all still trying to figure out what the world was going to look like \u2013 including how society got back to things such as shows and concerts.<\/p>\n

Poundstone, a legendary comedian, author, podcaster and longtime panelist on NPR\u2019s \u201cWait Wait \u2026 Don\u2019t Tell Me!\u201d was, according to a news release from the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, was named by Time Magazine as one of the \u201c5 Funniest Stand-Up Specials Ever\u201d for her HBO special \u201cCats, Cops and Stuff.\u201d She was the first woman to perform at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner and the first female stand-up to win the ACE Award for Best Comedy Special on cable.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll return to Durango on Oct. 2 to perform at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

WHAT: <\/strong>Comedian Paula Poundstone.<\/p>\n

WHEN:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

WHERE:<\/strong> Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.<\/p>\n

TICKETS: <\/strong>$22.50 to $40.<\/p>\n

MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Visit durangoconcerts.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We recently caught up with Poundstone and chatted about a whole host of topics, including what she\u2019s been up to since she was here last, Monty Python and \u2026 Ring Dings.<\/p>\n

The following Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n

Q: The last time we spoke was in 2023, and we were still getting out of the pandemic. What have you been up to since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Prior to the pandemic, I had started a podcast because I\u2019m a human being, and we all have podcasts now. It\u2019s like now when you register to vote, they\u2019re going to make you show your passport or your birth certificate, and they\u2019re going to ask you about your podcast, because you have to have one, or you\u2019re not only not an American, you\u2019re not a human being. I started that once a week, and I worked the road.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve recently started \u2013 since there was the technological capability for someone like myself \u2013 to make videos, dropping one a day. I call them, \u201cHey, Donald Trump\u201d videos. You know, I worship at the feet of Heather Cox Richardson, the historian who every day writes a thing called \u201cLetters from an American,\u201d and they\u2019ve been so helpful to me. She also reads them aloud, in addition to printing them. She also does a thing called \u201cPolitics Chat,\u201d where people write in their questions on Facebook or whatever. Those are more like 40-minute sessions, and I listen to those, and people often write, \u201cWhat can we do?\u201d Everyone feels so helpless. One of the things she said one day was, \u201cYou know what? Get your voice out there.\u201d And that\u2019s why I started doing them.<\/p>\n

Then, like an idiot, I felt the compulsion to do one a day. \u2026 But what I enjoy, and this is kind of what ball and chains me to the podcast, what I really enjoy is people, right? And they go, \u201cOh my gosh, you\u2019re getting me through this and that.\u201d That\u2019s heady stuff, to feel like you somehow help someone while you\u2019re doing this thing that you probably would do anyways. You know, if they said to me, \u201cWhat would really get me through is those Ring Dings, Drake cakes that your friend in Maine gave you. If you would send me those that would get me through.\u201d That I would be more reluctant to do.<\/p>\n

I really am a Ring Ding person. You know, in a pinch I\u2019ll do a Yodel because that\u2019s close enough. But Funny Bones? No, stop it with your peanut butter badness.<\/p>\n

Q: Is this still fun for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong>Yes. You know, the travel certainly isn\u2019t as much fun as one might think. I was just coming home from Boston the other night on a 6 p.m. flight, and, oh, darn if there\u2019s not a delay. And it was delayed and delayed and delayed. Finally, they go, OK it is going to take off, but 11:30 tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

Well, some people that I worked for in Maine had given me these two big boxes of Ring Dings, and they were in my suitcase. I have a really terrific travel agent, and she got me on another flight that left at 6 a.m. that morning, so she saved me a few hours anyway. It was a different airline, so I had to go get my bags so I could check them on the airline that I was going to fly.<\/p>\n

The great thing is I can actually sleep comfortably on top of my suitcases; I\u2019m like a service dog; I can fold myself in anywhere. I\u2019m a gifted sleeper, so, I was sort of excited to get my bags to sleep on top of them. Then I realized one of my suitcases is soft-sided, and I\u2019m like, wait a minute, the Ring Dings are in there. So I took them out and created a nightstand beside my suitcases with the Ring Ding boxes. It was decorative. It was comforting. And I\u2019m like, OK, but if I squish those, I\u2019m going to be so upset. I would rather sit awake in a chair than smoosh those Ring Dings.<\/p>\n

So the travel part, I have to say, gets a little old after a while, but the part of being on stage, I mean, selfishly, it\u2019s really healing. No matter what\u2019s going on, my hope is that it\u2019s the same for the audience in front of me, which is kind of transporting.<\/p>\n

It reminds me sometimes of that scene in \u201cLife of Brian,\u201d one of the most brilliant movies ever made, when Brian\u2019s running from the Roman soldiers and they\u2019re chasing him and all of a sudden he sees an animated spaceship, and he gets into the animated spaceship, and it takes off, slides them all the way around the Earth, and lands right back where he was, and he gets out, and he\u2019s running from the Roman soldiers. So hopefully my show is an animated spaceship: It\u2019s not gonna solve everything. It\u2019s not necessarily even gonna move us forward. But by God, it\u2019s a couple of hours of the Roman soldiers not chasing you.<\/p>\n

Q: What kind of show are you giving us? What can people expect?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> A lot of silliness. I do talk about politics here and there. I do not consider myself a political comedian. I\u2019m a voter. I\u2019m a citizen, and it certainly is a big part of my focus in my regular life right now. I can\u2019t help but talk a little bit about travel, because it\u2019s a third of my life. My act is largely autobiographical \u2013 I talk about raising a house full of animals and various experiences that I\u2019ve had. I don\u2019t have a an act, per se. My favorite part of the night is just talking to the audience. I do the time honored \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d \u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d And in this way little biographies emerge, and I use that from which to set my sails. I like to find out about the area from the audience in front of me. Sometimes people think I researched it before I got there. I would argue that that would require the E word \u2013 effort \u2013 and I\u2019m just not likely to do that. I mostly just find stuff out when I\u2019m there. You talk to people; everybody has great stuff to tell you.<\/p>\n

Q: You must like Durango. You\u2019ve been here a bunch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: <\/strong>I do. Colorado is a beautiful, beautiful state. And you know, Durango makes me feel like I\u2019m on one of those travel shows.<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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