Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, April 27, 1996

Paula Poundstone is a humorist of the stage and of the written word. She is a contributing editor for Mother Jones magazine, where she writes "The Poundstone Report" for each issue. Her writing has also been published in scads of other places, including the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Buzz magazine, the Rolling Stone Book of Comedy, and another book, Comedy Explosion. Poundstone's career as a standup comic keeps her constantly on the move-she performs tour shows for 45 weeks each year, at concert venues and colleges across the country. In 1989, her razor-sharp wit and impeccable timing earned her an American Comedy Award for Best Female Stand-Up. She's also received two ACE awards-cable television's highest honor-one for her HBO special, Cats, Cops and Stuff, and the other for her HBO limited-run talk show, The Paula Poundstone Show. During the presidential elections of 1992, Poundstone served as The Tonight Show's "Official Correspondent," reporting live from the Democratic and Republican conventions. That same year, Poundstone became the first woman to headline at the prestigious White House Correspondents Dinner, where she entertained journalists, members of Congress, Cabinet officials, and President George Bush. Her newest HBO special was filmed at Harvard University last fall-it's called Paula Poundstone Goes To Harvard. A native of the Boston area, Poundstone now lives in L.A. with two young foster daughters, six cats, and two rabbits.

Roy Blount, Jr. is a humorist, sportswriter, poet, performer, lecturer, dramatist, and the author of 12 books. Blount grew up in Decatur, Georgia, received his bachelor's from Vanderbilt and his master's from Harvard. After a brief stint in the Army, he was a reporter, columnist, and part-time English instructor in Atlanta before becoming a writer and editor for Sports Illustrated, where he worked from 1968 until 1975, when he became a freelancer. He is currently a contributing editor for The Atlantic and Men's Journal, and he tells us that his pieces have been published in 111 different publications, including (the old) The New Yorker, Playboy, Vanity Fair, GQ, Life, TV Guide, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, and Organic Gardening. His work has also appeared in 104 books, including The Best of Modern Humor, The Elvis Reader, The Ultimate Baseball Book, and The Sophisticated Cat. In 1992, Blount covered both major party conventions for Comedy Central-he reported on other television coverage, live from a Barcalounger. For various other media, he's covered the Civil Rights movement, the Ku Klux Klan, Saturday Night Live in its prime, and Elvis' funeral, work that's taken him to every U.S. state except three and to China and Uganda. He has also made forays onto the stage. His one-man show at the American Place Theatre was described by The New Yorker as "the most humorous and engaging 50 minutes in town" and it was later expanded into Roy Blount's Happy Hour and a Half. In films, he has portrayed himself as reporter, Truman Capote, and an irate grocer shopper. His most recent book is Roy Blount's Book of Southern Humor, a compendium of Southern writing.

Pat Donohue is a National Fingerpicking Guitar Champion and a regular member of The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the house band for A Prairie Home Companion. He's also toured widely: last year, during a stop in southern California, the Los Angeles Times said that Donohue "inhabits his songs, informing them with equal parts skilled technique and raw emotion." When he's on the road, it's often for performances at folk festivals-in the past few years, he's played at the Newport Folk Festival, Telluride Festival, and the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. Donohue's songs have also been heard across the nation, as recorded by Chet Atkins, Suzy Bogguss, Loose Ties, and others. His latest recording, Big Blind Bluesy, is a collection of classic country blues and Donohue originals in a blues style.

Although he's also known for his performances on piano and other instruments, Howard Levy is best known for his work on the harmonica. The London Observer said that "it is hard to believe he is playing only a harmonica, for he has the expressive range and depth of a saxophonist." Levy studied piano and theory at The Manhattan School of Music for four years, then studied pipe organ for two more years. He went on to perform with big-name groups-he was a member of the jazz group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (1989 to 1992), toured with Kenny Loggins (1993 and 1994), and played with Dolly Parton, Styx, John Prine, Paquito D'Rivera, and others. Levy has collaborated on several international projects, including The Music of Jimi Hendrix concert at the 1995 Stuttgart Jazz Open. His harmonica is the featured instrument on the score for A Family Thing, a new film with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones. A CD for the Blue Note label is in the works.