You can hear comedian Paula Poundstone joke about the week’s news on NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” You can hear her talk about all sorts of subject on her new podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone” with her “Wait” cohort Adam Felber. You can read her writing about happiness in her 2017 book “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness.”

But, really, there’s no better way to experience Poundstone than live in concert, and you can do that Friday at the Garde Arts Center.

Poundstone does have very funny scripted material in her standup, sure, but things really fly when she simply asks audience members where they are from and what they do — and then Poundstone improvises based on what they say. So. Damned. Funny. Is it too much to suggest she’s a comic genius? Nope, I don’t think so. Go Friday to the Garde and see if you don’t agree.

Paula Poundstone, 8 p.m. Friday, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; $28-$45; (860) 442-7373, gardearts.org.