Paula Poundstone: Stand-Up Legend

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paula Poundstone may have essentially invented “crowd work,” as the process of turning conversations with members of an audience into comedy is known today. But she still hates the term. “If I’m walking down the street and I say hi to somebody, is that street work?” she asks. In this episode, Poundstone opens up about her unlikely path to becoming a comedy icon in the 1980s and ‘90s and how it all nearly came crashing down after her arrest in 2001. She also reflects on her frosty relationship with Johnny Carson, reveals what her own early brush with “cancel culture” made her think about second chances and a lot more.

Follow Paula Poundstone on Twitter @paulapoundstone and Instagram @paulapoundstone

Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter @mattwilstein

Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My guest this week is a stand-up comedy legend with an unmistakable sense of humor.
0:07.3	I'm so afraid of crime because they've legalized it now.
0:11.7	Do you remember, and this was a while ago, but do you remember that 560-pound criminal who was released,
0:16.1	and it was Jojo, who he was released from jail because he had asthma?
0:19.1	So jail was bad for him?
0:23.6	Who made up this rule? I thought that was the whole idea was the jail was at least supposed to be a little bit bad for you.
0:28.6	Apparently not anymore.
0:30.6	Apparently now it's like, sorry, got claustrophobia, can't go. I wish I could. Sorry.
0:35.6	Electric chair, no way.
0:37.8	Even a heating pad gives me a rash.
0:41.5	Then they let Hinkley go, and Sirhan, sir, hand.
0:43.6	The guy who was shot Robert Kennedy, he's up for parole like every year now or something.
0:47.9	Not only that, he told the parole board that he thought, if Kennedy were alive today,
0:52.9	he would speak in his favor and say, let the guy go.
0:56.9	What a tough break, huh?
0:58.9	The one guy who would have supported this guy, and he shot him.
1:05.1	Thank you very much. You guys have been great.
1:07.0	Thank you.
1:14.6	This is the last laugh.
1:19.4	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and that was Paula Poundstone from her 1989 one-night stand special on HBO.
1:23.5	Paula has been a singular voice in the comedy world for just about 40 years now,
1:28.8	from her early stand-up spots on Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the 80s,
	...

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