Paula Poundstone April 20, 2013

Paula Poundstone is famous for her razor-sharp wit and spontaneity. She grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts and by the time she was nineteen was traveling on a Greyhound bus across the country – stopping in at open mic nights at comedy clubs as she went. In 1979 Paula began nurturing her standup comedy talent as part of the Boston comedy scene, and then moved to San Francisco where she continued to flourish. By 1990 she’d relocated to Los Angeles and had starred in several comedy specials for HBO, as well as appeared on Saturday Night Live when friend and mentor Robin Williams hosted the show. Paula’s first one-hour HBO special, Cats, Cops, and Stuff made her the first woman to ever receive the Cable ACE for best standup comedy special. She also starred in a self-titled talk show series for HBO (for which she won her second Cable ACE Award for Best Program Interviewer, beating out other, more recognized names in that field.)
In 1992, Poundstone filed memorable field commentary of the Presidential Election for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which led to her own show on ABC, aptly named The Paula Poundstone Show. During this time, she also became the first woman to perform at the White House Correspondents dinner. By the mid-90’s, Poundstone had shifted her performances from comedy clubs to performing arts centers and theatres where her interactions with the crowd became the stuff of legend. In 1996, Paula taped her second hour special for HBO, Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard – the first time that elite university has ever allowed its name to be used in the title of a television show. The Boston Globe also said about Paula, “You know Poundstone’s a great comic the way you know any fine performer when you see one—there’s a disarming ease in her craft, an immediate sense that she’s so quick on her feet you need never worry about the possibility of something going wrong.”