Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, well known for her quiet, self-deprecating style and her masculine dress sense.

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Life

Poundstone was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and her family moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts, when she was young. ^[1] She adopted her first child, Thomas, in 1993. In 1997, she adopted two girls, Toshia and Allison. Later, she adopted another son, to whom she refers as "Thomas E." ^[2]

Poundstone was a foster mother to several other children until 2001, when she was barred from the foster care program following a conviction of child endangerment for driving under the influence with child passenger. ^[3] She uses the incident — and the publicity surrounding it — as the source for some of her comedic material.

Despite rumours that she might be a lesbian, caused by her masculine appearance and demeanour , Poundstone characterizes herself as asexual. ^[4]

Career

Poundstone attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, but dropped out to pursue a show business career. Her jobs have included bussing tables and working as a bicycle messenger. She started doing stand-up comedy on open-mike nights in Boston in 1979 and then relocated to California. In 1984, Poundstone was cast in the movie Hyperspace but she did not follow through on a potential acting career. Instead she became better known as a comedian and began appearing on several talk shows. In 1989, she won the American Comedy Award for "Best Female Stand-Up Comic." In 1990, she wrote and starred in an HBO special Cats, Cops and Stuff and subsequently won a CableACE Award for the show. She worked as a political correspondent for the Tonight Show during the 1992 Presidential campaign and did the same for The Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1996.

In 1993, Poundstone won a second CableACE Award, began writing a regular column "Hey, Paula!" for Mother Jones magazine (1993-1998), and had a variety show The Paula Poundstone Show on ABC (which lasted only two episodes). She was a regular panelist for the game shows Hollywood Squares and To Tell the Truth.

Poundstone voiced Judge Stone on Science Court , an edutainment cartoon series done in Squigglevision shown on ABC Kids in 1997.

She was the original voice of Paula Small for the first five episodes of the cartoon series Home Movies, which aired on UPN, but she left the show when it moved to Cartoon Network and was replaced by Janine Ditullo. The character's name and appearance were modeled after Poundstone.

She is number 88 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time, and number 7 on Maxim's list of "Worst Comedians of All Time". ^[5]

She had her own Bravo special as part of their three-part Funny Girls series, along with Caroline Rhea and Joan Rivers. It was entitled, "Look What the Cat Dragged In."

Around the same time as her Bravo special, Poundstone also released her first book entitled There Is Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say . Described as an autobiography that is "part memoir, part monologue," the book intertwines historical biographies with anecdotes from her own life story.

She replaced Kevin Nealon at the 2006 Public Library Association convention in Minneapolis.

Most recently, she has appeared frequently as a panelist on the radio news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on National Public Radio. ^[6] Also, she is a regular guest on A Prairie Home Companion , often appearing in shows in Los Angeles or at joke shows.

Arrest

In 2001, Poundstone was arrested on a felony warrant for three counts of committing a lewd act on an unidentified girl under the age of 14. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office also stated that Poundstone was charged with endangering two other unidentified girls and two boys. ^[7] Few details were released, but the prosecutor indicated that the charges were a result of an incident in which Poundstone was driving her children while intoxicated. She accepted a plea agreement and pleaded "no contest" to felony child endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of inflicting injury on a child. In exchange, the three charges of lewd conduct were dropped by prosecutors. ^[8]

Poundstone was sentenced to five years probation and 180 days in an alcohol rehabilitation program. Following completion of the program, she was granted full custody of her adopted children but permanently lost custody of two other children who were in Poundstone's home as part of the foster care system. ^{[9] [10]}

Poundstone's troubles were referenced in the South Park episode "Super Best Friends" and in the Family Guy episodes "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter" and "Ocean's Three and a Half".

References

1. Paula Poundstone - Notable Names Data Base
2. There Is Nothing in this Book That I Meant to Say
3. The Hard Road Back For Paula Poundstone from ''The New York Times''
4. Back From The Edge Paula Poundstone's "Unauthorized Biography" Published 11.19.03 By Sam Boykin - Creative Loafing Charlotte
5. The Worst Comedians of All Time on Maxim
6. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
7. CNN.com - Comedian Poundstone charged with molesting child - June 28, 2001
8. Paula Poundstone avoids trial (retrieved 6 February 2009)
9. CNN.com - Paula Poundstone custody battle on hold - Nov. 2, 2002
10. CNN.com - Comedian Poundstone gets custody of children - Dec. 11, 2002