Paula Poundstone Creates An Evening Of Laughs

With recent appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" and Garrison Keillor's NPR program, "A Prairie Home Companion," Paula Poundstone is one of the hottest female comedians in the country. Her special way of looking at life, and being a master of improv, will have the audience roaring with laughter on Sunday, February 4 at the McCallum Theatre when the curtain goes up at 7pm.

Few people have the ability to appear on the stage with just a stool and a microphone and captivate an audience for two hours, but it's something Paula Poundstone has been doing for nearly 28 years. Her hilarious one-of-a-kind show reveals her dry wit and her ability to interact with the audience as she turns a simple conversation into a side-splitting dialogue.

Born in Huntsville, Alabama and raised in Sudbury, Massachusetts, Poundstone dropped out of high school to pursue her show business career. She started doing stand-up comedy on open-mike nights in Boston in 1979, then relocated to California. Until she was "discovered" in 1984, Paula did everything from bussing tables to working as a bike messenger.

Her first break was a role in the movie, "Hyperspace" in 1984. By 1989, Paula won the American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand-Up Comic." In 1992, she was the first woman to win a Cable ACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special for her HBO special "Cats, Cops, and Stuff." In 1996 she debuted her second HBO stand-up special, "Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard," which was the only time the elite university has allowed their name to be used in the title of a television show.

Also an accomplished writer, Paula's new book is entitled, "There is Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say," which was just released this past November. With the forward written by actress Mary Tyler Moore, this book is part memoir, part monologue, with a pinch of self-deprecation and a dash of startling honesty.
While she has amassed an impressive list of accolades on stage and in print, Ms. Poundstone is also a single parent with children ages 8, 11 and 14, nine cats, a big dog, a bearded dragon lizard, an elderly bunny, and one doggedly determined ant left from her ant farm.

The Bottom Line magazine is the media sponsor for this evening of side-splitting laughter.

Come prepared to laugh when Paula Poundstone performs at the McCallum Theatre on Sunday, February 4 at 7pm. Tickets are on sale now, prices are $55/35/30/25. -- www.mccallumtheatre.com