June 20 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Paula Poundstone on touring, napping and memory loss

By all appearances, Paula Poundstone has been on tour for 40 years. The stand-up comedian hits the road most weekends, keeping up a consistent schedule of shows month after month.

“I don’t have a tour like on the back of a sweatshirt tour,” she jokes. “It’s just me wandering around the country.”

When she’s not touring the country, Poundstone is busy hosting her podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone,” or most recently, reprising her role of Forgetter Paula in Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.” The only person to wear more hats is Poundstone herself, whose signature “off-hours” look is a baseball cap to keep “my brains in my head.”

From Maryland then to Vacaville on June 28, Poundstone’s secret to maintaining her energy is napping a lot. But not in places you might expect.

“I try to stay away from any kind of physical comfort,” said Poundstone. “I sleep on the floor in my bedroom-slash-office, and I usually go to the trouble of putting a sheet down first.” Poundstone sees this as the key to her performance and a helpful alternative to staying in bed too long.

While foregoing a mattress hasn’t been a problem, the irregular sleep schedule and 4 a.m. call times give Poundstone pause. “You know how they’re always guessing what factors might lead to dementia? That’s one of them,” said Poundstone. “Hopefully something else will take me out before that.”

This isn’t the first time memory loss has been on Poundstone’s mind. “I’ve had memory problems for years,” she says. Aside from annoying her kids who would need a slip signed or an item retrieved, Poundstone’s inability to remember things inadvertently helped her find her comedic niche — crowd work.

“You were supposed to do these five minutes and write your little jokes down,” said Poundstone, recalling her early days in comedy. “I tried like hell to memorize stuff but it’s not my strength for sure.”

It turned out that not having a steel trap was an asset for Poundstone, who instead turned to the crowd for a more ad lib show. “The part where I was just talking to the audience felt magical.”

Years later when the “Inside Out” script landed on Poundstone’s desk for the role of “female forgetter,” she couldn’t help but marvel at the irony. “My kids got such a kick out of the idea that they’d chosen someone with no memory at all to do the forgetting for the Riley character.” The character would even come to resemble Poundstone by sharing her name and wearing a baseball cap.

Despite her various roles on radio, stage and screen, Poundstone refuses to watch herself. The decision came very early on in her career when it was common practice among comedians to record a set to later analyze. Of course, Poundstone explained, she first had to remember to hit record. “Every time I tried to listen to any recording that I successfully made I would fall asleep right away, because it was just too painful,” she laughs.

“To listen in order to criticize myself is just not a helpful function for me,” said Poundstone. “I already know I suck.”

This is not to say some jokes don’t stand the test of time. Poundstone performs a few jokes that are nearly 45 years old. But for the most part Poundstone relishes each show’s unique audience and the new material a single conversation can yield. “Everybody is kind of fascinating and mad as a hatter,” said Poundstone.

Her fascination with people’s stories comes in handy as a podcast host. Self-deprecatingly titled “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone,” she reflects on how true that is and how liberating she finds it. That’s not to say the podcast has no listeners. In fact, many come to her live shows wearing hats labeled “Nobody.”

The title rings true for Poundstone because the conversational format often means her jokes aren’t heard at all. It makes the whole thing daunting and a little freeing. “It’s a little bit like performing in your closet or singing in your shower,” said Poundstone, explaining that she tries voices and impressions she would never do on stage. The daunting part comes in because “you almost never know how it lands,” she said.

While comedians are increasingly using social media to show off their their crowdwork, Poundstone isn’t at that stage yet. “If I could figure out a way to do it well …” Poundstone laughed.

Technological savvy aside, Poundstone’s primary concern is how filming would detract from the show.

“What happens in the theater stays in the theater,” said Poundstone. “There was this moment between me and the audience. I don’t want to do anything to mess that up. Another moment will come up, that’s my theory. It doesn’t have to be immortalized.”

IF YOU GO:

• WHAT: Paula Poundstone
• WHEN: June 28, 7:30 p.m.
• WHERE: Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre, 1010 Ulatis Drive, Vacaville.
• TICKETS: 18 and up, $56 online at vpat.net