Within the first few minutes of her latest album, I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston, Paula Poundstone lays out the groundwork for everything she's all about, comedically: she talks about the difficulties in raising her adopted children and her animals, she touches on her OCD, and, most notably, she picks out a random member of the audience and gets several minutes of material out of their interaction. She makes it all sound effortless and seamless, but this is the work of a comedian who's been at it for more than 30 years.

Beginning her career at open mics in Boston, Poundstone soon moved to San Francisco, which in the late '70s and into the '80s, was the hub for freethinking and unique comedians. People like Dana Gould, Jake Johannsen and Bobcat Goldthwait, among others, would hone their craft at places such as the Holy City Zoo, which was a home for these kind of absurd and original voices. Quickly, Poundstone rose through the ranks, with her quick wit, observational style and masterful crowd work. Like other comedians who have mastered the art of crowd work (like Jimmy Pardo, to use a more recent example), Poundstone is able to make something that takes a lot of skill look completely natural.

"I go out and do two hours, and it's just me and them," says Poundstone. "Every night is slightly different, because a lot of it has to do with who's in the crowd, what's on my mind on that particular night, and what comes up in conversation. ... In the beginning, (I started talking to the crowd) because I would always forget everything I meant to say.

"Even when I was doing the open mic nights, and I just had five minutes, invariably I would go on and forget what I meant to say, and then I would be sort of awash, trying to figure out what my five minutes was. And it would all come from this very nervous place - panic. ... So, in the beginning, I felt like it was this really bad thing to do. It was me not being able to get myself together. I eventually thought, ‘You know what? A lot of really fun stuff happens this way.'

"So, although I certainly have 32 or 33 years of material, I do the time-honored ‘Where are you from? What do you do for a living?' thing with the crowd, and in this way biographies emerge, and that's how I set my sails for what I'm going to talk about or what direction to go in."

Over the years, Poundstone has built a strong fan base with LGBT people, so it's fitting that she should appear in Tacoma during Pride Week.

"(Having a lot of LGBT fans) is not something that I ever actively sought, but I couldn't be more grateful for them," says Poundstone. "They really are a devoted, fun crowd. I don't have as much diversity and mix in my crowd, in every way, as I would like, but that which I have I love."

In recent years, Poundstone has gained a new audience thanks to her regular appearances on the massively popular NPR comedy news quiz show, Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!. Through this greater exposure, Poundstone has found new fans more than a couple decades into her career. Even though the quiz show is mainly a delivery system for jokes, Poundstone admits that she's as competitive as anyone else.

"Oh, I'm really trying to win," says Poundstone. "People don't realize that. I happen to hold the record for losses, but it's not intentional! I won last week, by the way. Let me just say that in my defense. I don't think it was an especially competitive panel, but I did win."

As for what you can expect from Paula Poundstone when she comes to Tacoma?

"No one will get injured; I'm pretty happy about that," says Poundstone. "I talk about trying to keep up with the events of the world well enough to cast a halfway decent vote. Occasionally, I talk about the Hardy Boys, but only where appropriate. ... If at all possible, I would like every audience member, at least once, to fear having an incontinence incident during the show. It's a high bar."

"Have you ever met that bar?" I ask her.

"People don't tell me," Poundstone laughs.

PAULA POUNDSTONE, 7:30 p.m., Friday, July 12, Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, $28-$69, 253.591.5890