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Paula Poundstone delivers an hysterically funny evening at the Moore Theater

Paula Poundstone delivers an hysterically funny evening at the Moore Theater
by E. Joyce Glasgow - SGN A&E Writer Paula Poundstone is hysterically funny! She's incredibly intelligent, philosophical and quick-witted, with an off-beat sense of humor. When you combine these qualities with her uncanny, stream-of-consciousness, spur- of- the-moment gift of gab, you get a one woman comic tour-de-force, who puts on a fantastic two hour show, keeping the audience in stitches from start to finish. Poundstone performed to a large audience at the Moore Theater on April 13th. It was the first time I've seen her act live and I think I'm hooked! I'll be sure to see her again, anytime she comes to town--she is that good--and she had me laughing throughout. Poundstone can make anything funny, from grilling late arriving front row audience members, to reading the directions on a pop-tart box. At one point she lied on the floor, putting her two feet on a stool and gave a funny puppet show with her feet playing audience members, who earlier shared information with her about boundary issues, which she used playfully and the audience roared. She told a joke involving Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, about a man with OCD, who never leaves his house because he has a living room rug with tassels on the end and he spends his whole day straightening out the tassels, over and over, keeping them in perfect order. She made jokes about herself and her quirks. She quipped about her own OCD issues. Poundstone has a way of creating vivid visual pictures in her verbal presentation, which heightens the comedy. She had funny things to say about politics, her three adopted children (she's a single mom), and her eleven cats, dog, rabbit and bearded lizard. She said that every night she goes to sleep to the sound of&and then she made the hacking, coughing sound of a cat throwing up hair-balls and the audience howled in recognition. Poundstone is outspoken. She commented on global warming, with dark humor, saying that corporations would never let polar bears go extinct because they were too important to their product advertising. She talked about her feelings about sex (she doesn't like it and doesn't have any), declared herself a million dollars in debt and said that the architecture of the Experience Music Project building at Seattle Center looked like something which you might expect to see after a nuclear attack. She said that she consumes sixteen cans of Diet Pepsi a day and that with all that liquid that's sloshing around inside her, when she has to have a urine test, sometimes nothing comes out except "powder". Paula Poundstone is wonderfully off-the-wall, with instantaneously fresh material. I can imagine that each of her shows is filled with intensely funny, on-the-spot surprises. It felt so good to laugh so much and have some release in an increasingly stressful world. The group experience of hearing how loudly and often people in the audience were laughing and enjoying themselves was, for me, a big part of the joy of this thoroughly engaging evening. I left the theater elated, endorphins flowing, and marveling at what a great time I had. I recommend seeing Paula Poundstone live whenever you get a chance to. Visit Paula Poundstone at www.paulapoundstone.com.