Паула Паундстоун: Американская стендап-комик и телеведущая

American stand up comedian

Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand up comedian, author, actress, interviewer, and commentator. Beginning in the late 1980s, she performed a series of one hour HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She is the host of the podcast Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, which is the successor to the National Public Radio program Live from the Poundstone Institute. She is a frequent panelist on NPR's weekly news quiz show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and was a recurring guest on the network's A Prairie Home Companion variety program during Garrison Keillor's years as host.

Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the daughter of Vera, a housewife, and Jack Poundstone, an engineer. Her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts, about a month after her birth.

Poundstone started doing stand up comedy at open mic nights in Boston in 1979. In the early 1980s, she traveled across the United States by Greyhound bus, stopping in at open mic nights at comedy clubs en route. She stayed in San Francisco, where she became known for improvisational sets at Holy City Zoo on Clement Street and The Other Café comedy club in Cole Valley. In 1984, Robin Williams saw her act and encouraged her to move to Los Angeles. She performed her act when Williams hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. That year, Poundstone was cast in the movie Gremloids. She continued as a comedian and began appearing on several talk shows. In 1989, she won the American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand Up Comic". In 1990, she wrote and starred in an HBO special called Cats, Cops and Stuff, for which she won a CableACE Award, making her the first woman to win the ACE for best Standup Comedy Special. In March 2019, comedian Tig Notaro named "Cats, Cops and Stuff" one of The 5 Funniest Stand Up Specials Ever for TIME Magazine. Poundstone went on to another first with her second HBO stand up special, Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard, taped on campus in Sanders Theatre. Poundstone had her own Bravo special in 2006 as part of their three part Funny Girls series, along with Caroline Rhea and Joan Rivers, titled Paula Poundstone: Look What the Cat Dragged In. Poundstone worked as a political correspondent for The Tonight Show during the 1992 US Presidential campaign and did field pieces for The Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1996. In 1993, Poundstone won a second CableACE Award for "Best Program Interviewer" for her HBO series The Paula Poundstone Show. She was then featured in her own variety show, The Paula Poundstone Show, on ABC (which lasted two episodes). She also appeared on Hollywood Squares and was a regular panelist for the remake of To Tell the Truth. Poundstone had a recurring role in Cybill Shepherd's TV series Cybill (1997). In the mid 1990s, she was featured in a series of instructional, hybrid animation shorts that were called "Another Pointer from Paula Poundstone." These were used as bumpers for PTV Park, a PBS children's programming block that was the precursor to PBS Kids. These were directed by Francesca Rizzo and animated by Gene Mackles. Poundstone has also worked as a voice actress. She voiced Judge Stone on Science Court (also known as Squigglevision), an edutainment cartoon series done in the Squigglevision style that aired on Saturday mornings, on ABC Kids in 1997. Staying with the makers of Science Court, Tom Snyder Productions, she was the voice of the mom, Paula Small, in the cartoon series Home Movies for the show's first five episodes, which aired on UPN. Between the show's 1999 UPN cancellation and 2000 revival on Cartoon Network, Poundstone chose to leave the show and was replaced by Janine Ditullio. The show's character, Paula Small, was named and loosely modeled on Poundstone. Poundstone is a frequent panelist on National Public Radio (NPR)'s weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. In 2017, she launched a new science comedy interview program on NPR called Live from the Poundstone Institute that released episodes weekly, then stopped suddenly, saying “the semester is over”. In July 2018, Poundstone began hosting the information based, comedy podcast "Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone" with Adam Felber, who appears on every show. Poundstone tours the country extensively, performing stand up comedy in theaters and performing arts centers. She is known for never doing the same act twice and spontaneously interacting with the crowd. Writes Nick Zaino III of the Boston Globe, "Her crowd work has always been unusual—her natural disposition, curious and ever perplexed, allows Poundstone to aggressively question audience members without ever seeming threatening. And no one does the callback better." She has released three comedy CDs: I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston on April Fools' Day 2013; North by Northwest: Paula Poundstone Live! (her first double album) in June 2016; and I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Maine in January 2009. Poundstone is No. 88 on Comedy Central's 2004 list of the 100 greatest stand ups of all time. In 2023, she performed at Comedy Day in San Francisco alongside Marga Gomez.

Poundstone began serving as a foster parent in the 1990s. She has fostered eight children, and eventually adopted two daughters and a son. Poundstone identifies as asexual and an atheist.

Year Title Role Notes1988 Poison Writer, television film1989 It's Garry Shandling's Show Herself Episode: "Save Mr. Peck's, Part 2"1989 Not Necessarily the News Commentator 1 episode1993 Reasonable Doubts Betty Tannebaum Episode: "Thank God, It's Friday"1993 The Paula Poundstone Show Herself/host 3 episodes1995 Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman The Computer Episode: "Virtually Destroyed"1996 Adventures from the Book of Virtues The Djinn Voice, episode: "Work"1997 Cybill Minni Arbogast 2 episodes1998 Hercules Armageddon Bow Voice, episode: "Hercules and the Secret Weapon"1997 99 Science Court Judge Stone Voice, 29 episodes1999 Home Movies Paula Small Voice, 5 episodes2013 Wanda Sykes Presents Herlarious Usher 4 episodes2015 The HOA Lorraine Television film2016 Major Crimes Herself Cameo, Season 5 Episode 42019 Summer Camp Island Paulette Voice, 4 episodes2020 The Fungies! Queen Antagonista Voice, episode: "The Twins Bug Seth"

Year Title Notes1983 The 8th Annual Young Comedians Show Comedy special1984 The Merv Griffin Show 1 episode1987 On Location: Women of the Night Comedy special, VHS1981 88 An Evening at the Improv 2 episodes, stand up compilation VHS/streaming1989 Comic Relief III Charity comedy special, VHS1989 Comic Relief '90 Charity comedy special, VHS1984 90 Late Night with David Letterman 13 episodes1986 92 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 14 episodes1992 Kellogg's Pop Tarts Comedy Video Comedy special VHS1992 Comic Relief V Charity comedy special, VHS1994 Comic Relief VI Charity comedy special, VHS1995 Comic Relief VII Charity comedy special, VHS1992 97 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno 15 episodes1997 98 The Rosie O'Donnell Show 4 episodes1998 Comic Relief 8 Charity comedy special, VHS2003 Best of the Improv 2 Stand up compilation VHS2005 Just for Laughs 1 episode, streaming2006 15 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson 17 episodes2019 William H. Macy: Comedy Ambassador Comedy special, streaming2020 Bring Back Laughs Charity comedy special, streaming

Year Title Label Formats2009 I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Maine CD Baby/Lipstick Nancy CD/download/streaming2013 I Heart Jokes: Paula Tells Them in Boston CD Baby/Lipstick Nancy CD/download/streaming2016 North By Northwest: Paula Poundstone Live! Vol. 1 & 2 HighBridge Audio 2xCD/download/streaming1990 Cats, Cops and Stuff Clown Jewels download/streaming

Year Title Label Formats1988 Women of the Night: A Comedy Album A&M Records LP/Cassette/CD1989 The Best Of Comic Relief 3 Rhino Records Cassette/CD1990 The Best Of Comic Relief '90 Rhino Records Cassette/CD1994 Comic Relief VI Rhino Records CD1996 Comic Relief VII Rhino Records CD2000 A Prairie Home Companion: Pretty Good Jokes HighBridge Audio 2xCassette/2xCD2013 Laughter Therapy: A Comedy Collection For The Chronically Serious NPR/HighBridge Audio 2xCD2018 Just for Laughs The Archives, Vol. 36 JFL CD/download/streaming