It’s impossible to attend a Paula Poundstone performance without marveling at her ability to interact spontaneously with audience members. In conversations bound to garner riotous laughter. Armed with nothing but a stool, a microphone and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula’s ability to create humor on the spot has become the stuff of legend. Little wonder people leave Paula’s shows debating whether the random people she talked to were “plants” – which, of course they never are, and complaining that their cheeks hurt from laughter.

Paula’s spontaneity and razor-sharp wit have made her one of the most popular panelists on NPR’s hilarious weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me. (2008 winner of the prestigious Peabody Award for Broadcasting excellence). Paula’s commentaries can be heard on NPR’s Morning Edition and read on the Huffington Post and comedy site: 23/6. Her first book, There’s Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say, (with a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore) was published by Random House and she is hard at work on her second for the same imprint. She also just released her first comedy CD: I HEART JOKES: Paula Tells Them In Maine, 60 minutes of hilarious comedy recorded live at the sensational Stone Mountain Arts Center – because as Paula says, “It’s very hard to do it any other way.”

Paula has had several solo specials on HBO and most recently, BRAVO. She was the first woman to win an ACE (the Cable EMMY) for Best Standup Comedy performance and the first woman to be invited to perform at the distinguished White House Correspondents dinner where those in attendance included the President. Paula has made frequent TV appearances including Letterman, Leno, Craig Ferguson, as well as Garrison Keillor’s, A Prairie Home Companion.