Video of the Day: Paula Poundstone's Back in the Bay

By Brandon R. Reynolds Wed., Dec. 12 2012 at 8:30 AM

Categories: Comedy, Events

If names are any kind of predictor of one's fate, you have to sort of boggle at the success of someone like Paula Poundstone. While one might think going through life with a name reminiscent of an exotic dancer on The Flintstones would hold you back, it certainly hasn't slowed down Poundstone, who's talked about showering in front of cats at Harvard, who was the first female performer at the White House Correspondents Dinner, who's written math books for kids and a column for Mother Jones, and sits among the intelligentsia on NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me.

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She also (you heard it here first) basically invented the Cinnamon Challenge in her 1990 HBO stand-up special. Sure, she got into hot water for driving under the influence with her adopted kids in the car, but that's all been worked out, it seems. And according to the trusty old Internet, Poundstone is asexual, an item of note for the abundantly sexed citizens of San Francisco, who may find this aspect of her life the hardest to fathom of all.

Paula Poundstone performs Saturday, Dec. 15 at 8 p.m. at The Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon (at Bay), S.F. Admission is $37.90.

Please enjoy this very early '90s video clip of when Poundstone performed in San Francisco: