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When Paula Poundstone performs in Salt Lake City on Friday, it will be a performance unlike any other she has ever delivered.
Because all of her performances are unique.
"My favorite part of the night is talking to the audience," Poundstone said in a phone interview. "I do the time-honored 'Where are you from? What do you do for a living?' And in this way, little biographies of audience members emerge from which to set my sails. And, therefore, no two shows are the same."
Not the same in content, but certainly the same in attitude. For almost four decades — since she was a mere 18 years old performing at open-mic nights — Poundstone has perfected an everywoman, observational style with a deadpan delivery.
It's the same sort of humor she shares on Twitter, with tweets like: "I've always wanted to have quiet dignity. I thought I had it once, but it turned out I was asleep."
And she's never better than when she's interacting with an audience.
"It really is the fun part," she said. "I mean, I have 37 years of material. But the real joy of the night is the magic of a room full of people who've come out to laugh.
"I think people love the idea that that particular show is unique to them, although there's certainly things I repeat from night to night. But probably about a third of the evening is stuff that I didn't say before and I won't say again."
And interacting with the audience is a chance to share parenting stories.
"Despite how decidedly different from our neighbors we feel we are right now, in truth we all have far more in common that we do differences," Poundstone said. "Raising children is challenging. It's a walk through a mine field of self-doubt. And I think it's equally challenging no matter who you are, if you take it the least bit seriously, and I think most people do.
"I talk about having a house full of kids and animals. I talk about trying to pay attention to the news well enough to cast a halfway decent vote."
And pay enough attention to the news to be a frequent panelist on a popular National Public Radio program.
"I have a wonderful audience that comes out because they are 'Wait, Wait … Don't Tell Me!' fans," Poundstone said. "I also have fans that have never even heard of it. And then there's 'Wait, Wait' people who had no idea that I was a standup comic, and when they come to the show they're kind of surprised that I'm not answering questions about the week's news."
Poundstone isn't exactly a red-hot political firebrand, but doing political humor is almost unavoidable at this point. Like this recent line: "Rubio says it is not God's plan that he be president. You'd think God could have let him know before he spent all that money."
"You can't help it," she said of political jokes. "It's so glaring. It's so everywhere you look. And it's, honestly, so frightening that, to some degree, I feel like it's my responsibility to say something."
She recently did something she's rarely done before — she apologized on Twitter for making jokes about Donald Trump.
"All the years I've been doing Twitter, I pride myself in writing jokes," Poundstone said. "I've written probably about 10 serious things. And recently, I printed a retraction. I used to think he was funny, and I take it back. In the beginning, there was something sort of funny about him, but it's less and less so."
When Poundstone isn't performing, she's home with her three children and 13 cats — down a bit from the 16 cats she used to have.
"Our census is down this year," she said. "Hopefully, it will stay down. Although kitten season always gets me excited.
"I have two big dogs, too. If you don't have dogs, then you seem like a crazy cat lady. If you get a couple dogs in there, you're an animal lover. So the dogs are beards, really."
Like most parents, she finds that her children aren't overly interested in what she does for a living.
"When my kids were real little, sometimes we'd bump into somebody who was familiar with my work and they would say, 'Isn't your mommy funny?' And my kids would look at them like they had two heads. I was the heavy. I was the hammer-dropper. They didn't find me all that amusing.
"But raising kids is somehow funny when I'm onstage."
Twitter: @ScottDPierce —
Paula Poundstone in Salt Lake City
When • Friday, April 1, 7:30 p.m.
Where • Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center/Jeanné Wagner Theatre, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $46; artsaltlake.org or 801-355-2787