Surprise fitness guru Poundstone pumped to be back
One unexpected development of the pandemic was comic Paula Poundstone becoming a fitness guru.
Poundstone, who will perform Thursday at the Charline Mccombs Empire Theatre, started tweeting her fitness routine a little ways into the pandemic, noting the moves she was doing and how many reps. Some followers tweeted attagirls; others asked for advice.
“It’s the goofiest thing in the world, huh? People write to me like I’m Jack Lalanne,” she said in a telephone interview.
Before the pandemic, Poundstone took taekwondo and kickboxing classes a few days a week, depending on her travel schedule. When those classes were canceled as part of efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, she started working on a routine she could do at home.
“At the very minimum, I wanted to be able to do real pushups,” she said. “And so I started with 10 pushups on my knees twice a day. And then I added in all these other things. And I don’t know what possessed me to post it, other than maybe because I thought it was silly, and somewhere along the way, I think … people have decided that it’s really something.
“My main premise is this idea that you build. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small and build. And I think that’s the part that people have appreciated. It’s hard to get up in the morning if you know you have to do 50 pushups, so I’ve tried to make it livable. It’s something I can do, and I actually do feel good about.”
The responses she’s gotten on Twitter have made her fitness routine into a group project, she said. In addition to folks seeking advice, she has heard from trainers who suggested modifications to make the routine, which she calls her improvements, more effective. Her current lineup involves jumping jacks, pushups, squats and planks, all done twice a day.
Poundstone posted videos of the routine on the RX Laughter page of her website, paulapoundstone.com, in which she told jokes and interacted
with her pets while working out. They were part of a series of videos she made when she wasn’t able to play to live audiences.
In other videos, she played characters: Miss Nancy, a firstgrade teacher leading online classes in her bathrobe, and Rhonda, who hosts a microwave-centric cooking class for beginners in her kitchen.
“In the beginning, my goal was just to help people get through,” she said. “I read the comments religiously because it was so uplifting to hear that I had gotten somebody through an otherwise very difficult time.
“What’s funny about the response to the Miss Nancy character is how many teachers
wrote to me and said, ‘That’s just what it’s like!’ And so it just felt so good to have offered a little something to help.”
Each of the videos includes a link to a tip jar. There’s also a request for tips attached to her virtual game show “Nobody Asked You.”
“When I realized, uh-oh, I have no income, and I don’t know when I’ll work again, then I reluctantly put up the thing that said, ‘Hey, if you liked the video, can you toss me a dollar?’ ” she said. “That’s also when I started doing the game show, and right from the start, I would say, ‘Look, if you enjoy it, give me a dollar.’ And so many people did respond so kindly. But what a pickle to be
in, huh?”
She got requests to do virtual stand-up performances, similar to the living room concerts that musicians were doing, but that just doesn’t work, she said.
“Stand-up comedy is not effective in your living room,” she said. “And so many people just assumed that it would be. The ‘Newshour’ on PBS did at least two stories on Mary Chapin Carpenter doing intimate concerts from her living room. I started to hate Mary Chapin Carpenter.
“All these people that wanted talent for their thing said, ‘You can do it from your living room; people will love it.’ Well, it’s not the same thing at all. I had to figure out different ways of presenting comedy that didn’t require an audience responding. And now the upshot of all that is that I just don’t like Mary Chapin Carpenter. She’s my Black Bart.”
Poundstone got back on the road in June and was thrilled to play for live audiences again.
“It was amazing,” she said. “Mostly because none of us, I would think, had been in a room with one another in a long, long time. And the audience is my best friend, which I’m sure is a really mentally ill thing to say, but, by God, I own it. They really are. It’s just nice to be back with them.”