Goes to Harvard

Paula Poundstone has never relied on tightly wound setups and punchlines. Her act functions more like an amiable, mildly bewildered deposition, paced around an open can of Diet Pepsi and anchored by relentless curiosity about strangers.

Dropping that approach inside Sanders Theatre creates an immediate contrast. Instead of attempting an intellectual routine for the university crowd, Poundstone wanders the stage in an oversized suit, questions audience members about their academic concentrations, and detours through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Marble Faun and the grim aesthetics of prison furniture.

Director Bruce Gowers filmed the 58-minute set on campus at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard gave formal permission to use its name in the broadcast title, an uncommon concession for a television production.

The hour followed Poundstone’s high-visibility work in the early nineties, including a run as a political correspondent for The Tonight Show during the 1992 presidential race and the swift cancellation of her experimental 1993 variety show.