Paula Poundstone Presents A Night Of Laughter at Overture

Ready to laugh the night away? Grab your friends and join comedian, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me panelist and podcast host Paula Poundstone on Friday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. in the Capitol Theater. Poundstone is well-known for her smart spontaneous humor. Tickets are available at overture.org.

Appearing on stage with a stool, a microphone and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula Poundstone has one of comedy's most nimble and disarming comic imaginations. In a review of Poundstone's show for the Boston Globe, Nick Zaino III wrote, "She improvises with the crowd like a jazz musician, swinging in unexpected directions without a plan, without a net. You know that she is a great comic the way you know any fine performer when you see onea??there's a disarming ease in her craft, an immediate sense that she's so quick on her feet you need never worry about the possibility of something going wrong."

Paula is the star of several HBO comedy specials. Her HBO special, Cats, Cops and Stuff was listed as one of The 5 Funniest Stand-Up Specials Ever in Time magazine's "Best of" issue in March 2020. She was the first woman to perform stand-up, in its then 73rd year, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. She is the winner in 2010 she was one of a select group voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame.

Also an author, Paula's second book, The Totally Unscientific Study Of The Search For Human Happiness, was 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. The audio book, read by Paula, was one of five finalists for the AUDIE award for Audio Book of the Year.

Paula can be heard weekly on Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, the comedy podcast. It is like an out-of-control adult education class that meets in a treehouse. Paula and a gallimaufry of experts and characters have dropped the rope ladder down for you to climb on up into the treehouse and sit around the fire with them. Uh-oh. She tours regularly, performing stand-up across the country.

Paula is the winner of an American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup Comic and in 2010 she was voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame. She continues to be recognized in innumerable lists, documentaries and literary compendiums noting influential standup comedians of our time.

Paula grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts. She began nurturing her standup comedy talent just out of high school as part of the Boston comedy scene. At age nineteen, eager to expand her horizons, she climbed on a Greyhound bus with nothing but a package of Oreos and a portable cassette player in tow, and travelled across the country, stopping in at comedy clubs and performing at open-mic nights as she went. When she hit San Francisco, the city resonated with her and Paula made it her home. Paula began performing in the politically-correct Haight Ashbury at The Other Café, where audiences booed the dick and take-my-wife-please jokes that were part of the blue-collar Boston comedy scene. At "The Other" audiences connected with smart, aware humor and could ably follow a conceptual comic's intricate imaginings far out onto any limb. Before long, Paula was making a name for herself. Robin Williams, who would frequently drop into the club, spotted her talent and arranged for his managers to see Paula perform. They signed her and the established comedian we know today began to form.

NOTE: At this time, everyone who enters Overture Center must wear a mask and must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours of entering along with a photo ID (children without a photo ID must be accompanied by a guardian). For more details, visit overture.org/health.

Building Hours: Monday-Tuesday, closed; Wednesday-Saturday, 11-6; Sunday, 12-6; and extended hours on event days.

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