Paula Poundstone OLD
11-28-2014
25 years ago Paula Poundstone climbed on a Greyhound bus and traveled across the country - stopping in at open mic nights at comedy clubs as she went. A high school drop-out, she went on to become one of the great humorists of our time. You can hear her through your laughter as a regular panelist on NPR’s popular rascal of a weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. She tours regularly, performing standup comedy across the country, causing Bob Zany of the Boston Globe to write: “Poundstone can regale an audience for several hours with her distinctive brand of wry, intelligent and witty comedy.” Audience members may put it a little less elegantly: “I peed my pants.”
What separates Paula from the pack of comics working today and that has made her a legend among comics and audiences alike is her ability to be spontaneous with a crowd. Poundstone says: “No two shows I do are the same. It's not that I don't repeat material. I do. But my shows, when they're good, and I like to think they often are, are like a cocktail party.”
Her newest comedy CD, “I HEART JOKES: Paula Tells Them in Boston” was recorded live at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston and was released on April Fool’s Day 2013.
Paula has amassed a list of awards and accolades that stretch the length of a great big tall guy’s arm. In the early 90’s she was the first woman to win the cable ACE for Best Standup Comedy Special and the first woman to perform standup at the prestigious White House Correspondents Dinner where she joined the current President. In March, 2013, she joined Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers and several other prominent women in comedy for a feature-length documentary produced by Lions Gate to air on Showtime entitled, "WHY WE LAUGH TOO: Women of Comedy." She has starred in comedy specials on HBO and BRAVO, won an Emmy Award, served as "official correspondent" for The Tonight Show during the 1992 Presidential race, pioneered the art of backstage commentary during an Emmy telecast, steps up to the plate for causes she believes in, and is almost always included in any compendium – be it film, television or print, noting comedic influences of the 20th/21st century, most recently, "We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy." She appears on "Late Night w/Craig Ferguson" about 3 times a year and she'll do an occasional editorial for NPR's "All Things Considered".
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Go to her WEBSITE, brimming over with Paula personality.