Stand-up comedian Paula Poundstone visited Fairbanks last August with the cast and crew of NPR’s news quiz show, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She liked it so well that she’s coming back to Alaska in March, with shows in Juneau (March 15), Anchorage  (March 16), and Fairbanks (March 17).

Appearing on stage with a stool, a microphone, and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula Poundstone is famous for her razor-sharp wit and spontaneity. The Boston Globe said, “Poundstone improvises with a crowd like a Jazz musician…swinging in unexpected directions without a plan, without a net.” Paula is so quick and unassuming that audience members at her live shows often leave complaining that their cheeks hurt from laughter and debating whether the random people she talked to were “plants.”

Poundstone appeared in January at Portland’s Aladdin Theatre.  In advance of her concert there, Aimee Genter of Oregon’s LGBTQ newsmagazine just out leapt at the chance to write about her:

As a baby dykeling, I was obsessed with my holy trinity of stand-up royalty: Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Paula Poundstone. Now, you may see Ms. Poundstone in my holy trinity and jump to an assumption or two. And who would blame you? Those ties. Those gaudy suits. Her liberal political humor. They all point to one conclusion.

But you know what happens when you assume, right?

“I’m totally an asexual human being. I haven’t dated anyone,” Poundstone told the Dallas Voice in 2007. In her memoir, There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say, she wrote, “The idea that I’d get to my bed and there’d be someone in there with whom I was supposed to have an activity is horrifying to me. It’s a safe bet that I’m not good at sex, that I do it wrong.”

How, then, did she become a gay icon?

Most likely it is her masculine fashion sense, mixed with a sardonic sense of humor. I, personally, pick my gay icons based on who makes me tingle. It’s not scientific, but it’s right 9 out of 10 times. Paula Poundstone is the anomaly—the woman who lives her life as she wants to, not as she thinks people want her to be.

Her concerts run approximately 2 hours without intermission.  Get your tickets!

Juneau

• Date/time: Thursday, March 15. Doors open 6:30 PM; show begins 8:00 PM.
• Location: Centennial Hall Convention Center, 101 Egan Drive, Juneau (see map)
• Cost of admission: $30 advance/$35 day of show & door. $5 from each ticket sold will be donated to KTOO Radio. Purchase tickets at fla.vor.us
• Age restriction: Must be 21 years or older, or with legal parent. Alcohol will be served.

Anchorage

• Date/time: Friday, March 16, 7:30-9:30 PM
• Location: Sydney Laurence Theatre, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, 621 West 6th Avenue, Anchorage (see map)
• Cost of admission: $36.50. Purchase tickets at Centertix

Fairbanks

• Date/time: Saturday, March 17, 7:00 PM
• Location: Davis Concert Hall, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission: Adults: $25; Children/Military/Seniors/Students: $15 (ID required for military/students and may be requested for children/seniors). Purchase tickets through UAF Summer Sessions (see webpage for details).

Photo credit: Paula Poundstone, 2 February 2008 by Phil Konstantin via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed to the public domain.

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