She’s quick, sarcastic and so relatably funny, Paula Poundstone creates an instant connection with her audiences everywhere. Whether she’s making you laugh or making others laugh at you, it’s all in good fun.
Following last year’s successful show, Poundstone returns to the island for one show only on Saturday, Dec. 7 at The Key West Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m. Late arrivals will be subject to severe and public ridicule.
“I remember last year when I was there I was sort of amazed and a little appalled at the ads on the tables for the injections to cure hangovers,” Poundstone told Keys Weekly during an interview last week. “That just blew me away that people actually make plans to drink so much they’ll need an actual injection to feel better. How does that work?”
A reformed drinker, Poundstone will not lack for material while she’s in Key West. “I’m so glad my good ol’ days are over,” she said. “I hate needles.”
Poundstone is a humorist, author and comedian known for her clever, observational humor and spontaneous wit.
When she isn’t collecting hotel soaps while on tour or paneling on NPR’s #1 show, “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” she hosts the popular podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone,” a comedic field guide to life, complete with taste tests, cats of the weeks and leading experts in everything from beekeeping to ping pong to prosopagnosia — yes, it’s a real thing, a rather interesting thing, too. (Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to Google it.)
Paula’s stand-up credentials are endless. She also famously provided backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and was the first woman to host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
In 2017, Paula released her second book, “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search For Human Happiness,” in which she offers herself up as a guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments. Kirkus Reviews called the book “a deeply revealing memoir in which the pathos doesn’t kill the humor — delivers more than it promises.”
The book debuted at #1 on the Amazon Bestsellers List in Humor, and the audiobook was one of five finalists for 2018 Audio Book of the Year. The book was recognized as one of eight semi-finalists for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, the highest recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States.
Poundstone can be heard on the big screen as “Forgetter Paula” in Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out, winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. She has also starred in her own series on both HBO and ABC, is included on Comedy Central’s Top 100 Comics of All Time and won an American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-Up.
In February 2019, Paula’s stand-up special, “Cats, Cops and Stuff” was named by TIME Magazine and Tig Notaro as one of The 5 Funniest Stand-Up Specials Ever.
Poundstone lives in Santa Monica, California with, honestly, her 14 cats: Clue, Oreo, Luigi, Jem, Belle, Brittle, Mrs. Feziwig, Wednesday, Severus, Tonks, Theo, Sham Wow, Harrison and Hardy.
