Paula Poundstone

Proudly sponsored by WQCS/88.9 NPR for the Treasure Coast

Beloved at The Lyric and around the world, Paula Poundstone returns for another memorable performance. Heralded as one of our country’s foremost comics, Poundstone has a long history on the comedic stage. Known for her incredible ability to engage audiences with quick wit and responsive humor, Paula’s interchanges with the audience are never mean or done at a person’s expense. Her ability to come up with jokes on the spot is celebrated by audiences and critics alike.

Aware of her calling at an early age, Paula Poundstone dropped out of high school to pursue her comedic career. The gamble paid off, and Poundstone quickly became recognized as one of the leading comedians of her generation, highlighted for her ability to capture and maintain her audience’s attention again and again. The veteran comedian is a regular panelist on NPR’s weekly news quiz show Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me, where she holds the record for game losses. “The others cheat,” she says magnanimously, “you wouldn’t think NPR would put up with that.” Paula Poundstone became the first woman to win the CableACE Award for Best Standup Comedy Special in the 1990s, and then received the honor of first woman to perform standup comedy at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, a role not until then offered to a woman in its seventy-two year history.

In addition to her roles on radio and the stage, Paula Poundstone has also starred in television specials on networks including HBO and Bravo. The comedienne has won an Emmy Award and also served as “official correspondent” for the Tonight Show’s coverage of the 1992 presidential race. In 2016 she was in the Academy Award-winning Pixar animated film Inside Out as “Forgetter Paula”. Named one of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Standups of All Time, Poundstone has also been inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame in 2010.

In 2016, Paula Poundstone’s first double-live CD North by Northwest: Paula Poundstone Live! debuted at #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Nonfiction and Comedy. That same year, Poundstone appeared on the hit television drama show Major Crimes. Following her book There is Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say, the comedy genius’ second hardcover book will debut in May of this year. The talents of this brilliant humorist extend beyond standup comedy, but stop short of yodeling.