9 Crazy Things We Learned From Pee-wee Herman’s 92Y Event
Paul Reubens, the actor-comedian behind everyone’s favorite gray-suited manchild Pee-wee Herman, may be the worst person to ask about the character’s legacy. Before a rare public screening of Pee-wee’s Big Holiday at New York’s 92nd Street Y Tuesday night, the writer-actor sat down with film critic Joe Neumaier to discuss his career arc from his early days with improv legends the Groundlings to TV icon and film star. A talk with the affable Reubens is more of a free-association, meandering conversation than a standard Q&A, as the hour-long chat found him peppering answers to questions with long, hilarious stories of his past.
But Reubens demurred when any talk turned to influence, legacy or process, as the man behind Pee-wee prefered to let the work speak for itself. “I can’t answer any of that stuff,” he genially told Neumaier when asked about the subversive nature of his comedy. “I can’t view it like that in any way. The minute I feel like I start to look at my place in history, I just feel like I kill it all for myself.” No complaints from the audience, as it gave Reubens more time to discuss hilariously disastrous stints on The Gong Show, the depths of Pee-wee’s Big Holiday producer Judd Apatow‘s fandom and why we’ll probably be seeing much more of Mr. P.W. Herman in the future. Here are nine things we learned during Reubens’ illuminating chat.
1. I Love Lucy made him want to be an actor
“I was obsessed with I Love Lucy when I was a kid,” Reubens explained when asked how he first got the acting bug. “I wanted to be little Ricky. I would sit on the floor in Oneonta, NY as a four-year-old and think, ‘How am I getting to Hollywood? What am I doing here?’ When I went to college, I wanted to be ‘avant garde’ and ‘weird.’ I got some of that going.”
2. A Pee-wee’s Big Holiday star helped kickstart his career 40 years ago
Patrick Egan, the actor who plays an affable traveling salesman in Holiday, worked with Reubens when the latter was performing at a Florida repertory theatre in high school in the late Sixties. Years later, Egan moved to Los Angeles — coincidentally right near the future Pee-wee — and reunited with the fledgling performer. It was the actor’s friend who suggested to Reubens that he check out a Groundlings show and consider auditioning. “It was a combination I had not experienced before,” he said. “It was really talented people who were really nice. This was attractive to me.”