Communiqué
“Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me’s” Paula Poundstone Riffs on Many Topics
< < Back toComedienne Paula Poundstone, a regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” spent 30 minutes with WOUB’s Tom Hodson stating her opinions on multiple topics from computers, to writing, to her style of comedy, to unusual dog breeds.
Poundstone is appearing in a Valentine weekend stand-up performance on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the People’s Bank Theater in Marietta, Ohio.
Besides being a Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me regular, Poundstone had a role in last year’s Pixar movie “Inside Out.” She also is currently writing her second book to be published by Algonquin next January.
While doing all that, she still travels the country doing her unique form of stand-up. She said in every show about one-third of it is improvised with interactions between her and her audience.
“I never do the same show twice,” Poundstone said. “Every performance is different and unique. It is very interactive.”
Poundstone joked that she has the worst record on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me quizzes because her competitors “cheat” and are on “steroids.” She says her preparation for the show is in direct relationship to the upheavals at her home in a given week. If things are in turmoil then she doesn’t prepare as much as when things are going smoothly, she added.
On a serious note, she decries the use of computers in elementary schools and says that we have become “addicted” to electronics. She says that this reliance has a negative impact on children and their brains. Recently, she did a commentary about this for CBS Sunday morning. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paula-poundstone-electronics-and-kids-brains-dont-mix/
Poundstone also described her writing technique and how writing a book is different and much more difficult than writing comedy routines.
Poundstone has had an illustrious career. She was the first woman to win the cable ACE Award for Best Stand-up back in 1992 and in 1993, she was the first woman to perform standup at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
She has been recognized as one of Comedy Central’s 100 greatest stand-ups of all time and in 2010, she was selected for the Comedy Hall of Fame.