Poundstone keeps fans chucling in concert

The Maine Center for the Arts was transformed Monday night into an intimate comedy club, as standup comic Paula Poundstone came to Orono with her intelligent, humorous observations.

The gangly Poundstone entertained the audience of 900 for 90 minutes with her thoughts on a wide range of topics, as immediate as the weather and Christmas and as national as politics and sex education.

Poundstone, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved, white oxford shirt and a red vest, showed that her comedy is cerebral, more likely to yield chuckles than laugh-out-loud reactions. Concertgoers left entertained, but not with sides aching from laughter.

Poundstone was not an active presence on stage. She stayed pretty much in one location, either sitting on a stool or leaning on a mike stand.

However, she paid keen attention to her audience, its movements and remarks, since probably one third of her show is improvisational.

Glancing at the round acoustical tiles on the ceiling of the Hutchins Concert Hall, she quipped, “You guys think of everything. When this building flips over, it becomes a little cafe.”

Talking with one woman in the front row, who admitted to be a lifelong Mainer, Poundstone said, “You’ve got that nuts-and-berries, big sweater, Birkenstock kind of look. On a really big day, do you go shopping to factory outlet stores?”

The gaps in Monday’s shows, however, came when Poundstone tried playing off audience members who didn’t want to play. She would ask a question, and dead silence or nervous giggles would follow, breaking up her flow.

Also, throughout the show, Poundstone would seem to be censoring herself, mumbling “Oh, nothing” at several points.

With Christmas around the corner, Poundstone threw in some holiday material.

On gift giving: “I usually get in fights with everyone right after Thanksgiving, then make up the day after Christmas, since my birthday is Dec. 29.”

Poundstone, a left-leaning Democrat, also did a big segment of political material, focusing on the inanities spouted by Republicans such as Sens. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

“They say that earthquakes are God’s way of punishing California for all the gays,” she said. “So how do they explain those hurricanes that keep hitting the Carolinas?”

Poundstone kept up a steady pace of consistently funny material, and the audience was laughing nearly all the way through. While it wasn’t a perfect show, it’s unlikely many people left unamused either.