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Paula Poundstone

 
Who2 Biography: Paula Poundstone, Comedian / Writer
 
Paula Poundstone
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  • Born: 29 December 1959
  • Birthplace: Huntsville, Alabama
  • Best Known As: The stand-up comedian who was accused of child endangerment

After years as a stand-up comedian, Paula Poundstone took her wry observations about life and her liberal political perspective to TV in the 1990 HBO special Cats, Cops and Stuff. The show won a Cable ACE award and Poundstone became a steady comedy presence on cable and network TV throughout the 1990s. She was never quite a regular -- her 1993 series The Paula Poundstone Show was cancelled after only a few episodes -- but she was a popular guest on programs like The Rosie O'Donnell Show, where she often covered political topics while wearing her signature gaudy neckties. She also appeared in the short-lived TV series Science Court (1997) and Home Movies (1999) and was a panelist on the game shows Hollywood Squares and To Tell The Truth. Poundstone also wrote a regular column for Mother Jones magazine from 1993-98. An adoptive mother of three children, she became a prominent advocate for foster children. Poundstone's career took a nosedive in June of 2001 when she was arrested and charged with drunk driving with her adopted children in the car, along with "lewd acts on a minor." The latter charge was later dropped and she pleaded no contest to a felony charge of child endangerment and misdemeanor charges. She was sentenced to five years' probation and six months of drug treatment. She has since continued to tour with her stage act, and in 2006 published the book There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say.

Poundstone grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, but was born in Hunstville, Alabama.

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Artist: Paula Poundstone
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  • Born: December 29, 1959, Huntsville, AL
  • Genres: Comedy
  • Instrument: Performer, ?

Biography

Comedian Paula Poundstone was one of several talented female comics to rise to prominence in the late '80s (Roseanne Barr, Ellen DeGeneres, Judy Tenuta, Rita Rudner, etc.), and while her career continued to flourish with TV work throughout the '90s, a shocking allegation threatened to derail her career in 2001.

Born on December 29, 1959 in Huntsville, AL, Poundstone caught her big break in the mid-'80s when she appeared on several HBO comedy specials. By the early '90s, she had turned her focus to TV, during which time Poundstone won CableAce Awards for Best Stand Up Special in 1992 for her comedy special Cats, Cops, and Stuff, and another a year later for Best Program Interviewer on the short lived Paula Poundstone Show.

Poundstone also provided backstage commentary for the 1993 Emmy Awards telecast, almost stole the show at the pre- and post-shows for the 1994 Oscar Awards, and served as an "official correspondent" for The Tonight Show during the 1992 Presidential race. In the late '90s, she appeared on Hollywood Squares. In addition to her comedic talents, Poundstone also served as a producer and narrator on an award-winning children's audio book project titled Completely Yours, which featured a story about foster parenting called "A Mother for Choco" (a topic that Poundstone knew quite a bit about, since she was a foster parent herself). But in June 2001, the world was shocked to learn that Poundstone was arrested on charges of "committing lewd acts on a girl under age 14," and on charges of "endangering two other girls and two boys." Shortly afterward, Poundstone checked herself into a rehab facility for alcoholism, and in September of the same year, pleaded "no contest" in court to the reduced charges of "one count of felony child endangerment and one misdemeanor count of inflicting injury on a child," after prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against her. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
 
Quotes By: Paula Poundstone
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Quotes:

"The position of First Lady has no rules, just precedent, so its evolution has been at a virtual standstill for years. If Martha Washington didn't do it, then no one is sure it should be done."

 
Wikipedia: Paula Poundstone
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Paula Poundstone
Born December 29, 1959 (1959-12-29) (age 49)
Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
Medium Stand-up, Television
Nationality American
Years active 1979 – present
Genres Observational comedy, Improvisational comedy
Subject(s) Everyday life, Motherhood
Influences Lily Tomlin, Bill Cosby, George Carlin
Website PaulaPoundstone.com

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.

Contents

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 passengers, and led to her arrest that same year.[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[citation needed], 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,[citation needed] 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

External links


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Paula Poundstone biography from Who2.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Paula Poundstone" Read more