Why you might find Paula Poundstone hanging out in a Red Wing parking lot

Paula Poundstone has one of the busiest schedules of any veteran comic, which may explain how she’s ended up with three separate appearances in Minnesota over the next six months, starting with a Friday performance at Red Wing’s Sheldon Theatre.

It also explains why she covets sleep whenever she can get it. The 64-year-old comic, best known as a panelist for NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” and serving as a political correspondent for “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” spoke by phone recently from her Santa Monica home about her unglamorous touring rituals and playing rural America.

Q: I think you are booked every weekend through March. Why so busy? Are you trying to make up for the time you lost during the pandemic?

A: If I go too long without working, I forget how to do it. During the pandemic, I forgot everything. I still feel slightly nauseated when I hear the word “Zoom.” I’d do a fundraising show from home, although I would say to organizers, ”You really can’t do stand-up in your living room because you don’t get any response.” And they’d say, “Well, I’ll laugh.” That’s not going to carry the day. During the pandemic, I was watching “PBS NewsHour,” which I watch somewhat religiously, and they did a piece on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s concerts from her living room. Meanwhile, I’m trying to tape “Wait Wait” from my closet. I kind of built up a resentment to Mary and would say so in interviews. Of course, I was kidding. When I got back on the road, I did a theater in Virginia. Backstage was a little bouquet of flowers saying “That’s OK. I love you, anyways.” It was signed Mary Chapin Carpenter. I didn’t really think it was her, but I mentioned it to the audience. Someone responded that it really was her. It was the florist.

Q: One of the things I like about your schedule is that you play a lot of smaller cities that other comedians might skip over.

A: It’s funny. We have a lot of towns that are small but have spectacular theaters. The Bing [Crosby Theater] in Spokane has a particularly great marquee. What’s the Egyptian Theatre doing in Boise? When it was built, it gave people there the feeling that they were visiting another country.

Q: Lots of these towns have conservative residents. How do they react to your liberal point of view?

A: The friction has started to rise. For years, I told jokes about Bush and Reagan and no one ever complained. It wasn’t necessary to pompously storm out. But then this other thing came into the world. But I feel we have far more in common than we have differences. About seven years ago, I was doing a Florida radio talk show and they asked me why I was playing the Villages. I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about. I thought I was doing Orlando. They explained it was this right-wing retirement center. I just laughed and said, “I guess I’ll have my work cut out for me.” I told the crowd that story when I got there and they thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard. I had the best time with those people.

Q: I wonder if one of the reasons you’re on tour so much is that you don’t get invited to the late-night talk shows as much as you used to or get asked to do specials. What happened?

A: I really don’t know. I haven’t pursued it intensely. I just don’t enjoy rejection that much. Years ago, I was talking to Larry Miller and he told me that he did 80 auditions for every job he got. I remember thinking, ”I’ll never really make it. I could be rejected maybe 70 times, but I would crack during the last 10.”

Q: What do you like to do on the road for fun?

A: I sleep. I recently was in Honolulu and my middle daughter asked if she could go with me. So we went to dinner with a friend and went swimming. But if she hadn’t been with me, I would have been asleep until showtime. I’m very familiar with hotel parking lots. You know those lines for the cars to park? I’ll walk to each one, and then walk back, like wind sprints, except I’m walking. I’ll sometimes do that for an hour.

Q: What do you look for in a hotel room?

A: I don’t need anything fancy. Sometimes I’ll check in and they’ll say, “We don’t have a room ready.” I tell them, “I’ll sleep anywhere.” Sometimes I just stay at the airport hotel, which isn’t all that exciting.

Q: I was hoping you’d have some great travel tips, like how to navigate an airport.

A: Here’s my tip: Wait as close to the gate as you can. That way, you can hear your name when they say it. The other day, I lurched awake and realized no one else was there. I ran and got on just in time. The person at the gate said they had called my name three times.

Q: When you are onstage, you stay on for two hours. Why such a long show?

A: Clearly, it’s really just a mental health problem. I used to ask theaters to put a clock onstage, because I have no sense of time. A thousand years ago, I was in Boston doing two shows. The manager comes up, all nervous. He said they need time between shows to change the house so I really needed to stick to time. So I’m onstage, and I see a light go up in the back of the room. I say, “You’ve been a terrific crowd” and leave. The same manager comes up to me, dripping in sweat and says, “Paula, you only did 20 minutes.” I told him I saw the light in the back and he says, “We don’t have a light.” So I walked back out onstage.

Q: In addition to Red Wing, you’re in Duluth in December and St. Paul in March. Any hotel parking lots you’re looking forward to revisiting?

A: Duluth has a nice one by the waterfront. Someday, I might put out a coffee table book of hotel parking lots.

When: 7:30 p.m. Fri.

Where: Sheldon Theatre, 443 W. 3rd St., Red Wing.

Tickets: $25-$48. sheldontheatre.org.

When: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5.

Where: The West Theatre, 319 N. Central Av., Duluth.

Tickets: $57-$65. thewesttheatre.com

The Minnesota Interview is a feature in which we dive deep into the personal side of public figures with special ties to our region and readers.