Fast Chat: Paul Reubens is more than Pee-wee

Paul Reubens can't do stand-up comedy. Or, at least, not very well. Or, at least, that's what he thought, back in Los Angeles in 1981, when the Groundlings improv troupe to which he belonged decided to do a one-night-only performance with a comedy club theme. What to do, he thought, if you can't remember the punch lines? So he dreamed up an oddball beanpole of a chap - Pee-wee Herman - borrowed a too-tight gray suit and red bow tie, and an American pop-culture icon was born.

Pee-wee's one-night gig turned into a five-month run at a nearby theater, an HBO special, two feature films and, finally, "Pee-wee's Playhouse," a CBS children's series that won multiple Emmys in its five seasons.

It all came to a halt after Reubens' 1991 arrest in an adult-movie theater in Florida, after which he (and Pee-wee) faded from view. He scored an occasional non-Pee-wee role (in films like "Batman Returns" and Todd Solondz's "Life During Wartime," and sitcoms like "Murphy Brown").

Now, the 58-year-old has again donned his shrunken suit for a comeback - on Broadway - in "The Pee-wee Herman Show," at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre through Jan. 2. Reubens took time out to chat with Newsday contributor Joseph V. Amodio.

How did you know that Pee-wee was The One - the character you'd live with for decades?

The reaction to that character was so different from the reaction to all my other characters. I just decided - it meant something, and I should pay attention to that.

It must be a heady experience, hearing Broadway audiences scream and cheer after all this time.

It's unbelievable. I go out and talk to the fans at the stage door, and there are a couple hundred fans waiting every night. And I say the same thing every single night: "It means something to me." And I don't take it for granted. It has a strong, unbelievable impact on me. I take it home every night. I've never had an experience like this.

There are people of all ages in your audience - including kids - brought there by parents who clearly don't care about all the tabloid craziness that went on in the past. Does this feel like a huge vindication for you?

I'm just happy to be here and happy people are responding positively.

The technical aspects of the show - all the puppets and special effects - are pretty impressive.

Doing the show every night, I'm caught by moments where I'm just going, "Wow, this is incredible." When we were shooting the CBS show on a soundstage with no audience, it took us 10 days to do a 22-minute episode. So if we had Pteri, my pterodactyl, pick up a box of flange heads and fly it up to a character on the ceiling, that would've taken us a day and a half. It happens live onstage every might, in seconds. It's very different.

What about your non-Pee-wee roles? Any favorites?

I haven't done that much outside of Pee-wee. Anything that's not Pee-wee was a labor of love. I recently worked on Todd Solondz's movie, the sequel to "Happiness," and that was a fantastic experience. I pretty much don't do anything I don't want to do. I've always been like that, and always tried to make my life and overhead low enough to just say no to things and do what I want.

You've always been that way?

Yeah. It's just a state of mind, really. I think anyone can be like that. It just requires some . . . resolve.

Don't you get tired playing the same character?

But every day's completely different - not in a stage production, but in TV and movies. When shooting "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," I was in a different location every day for six weeks, doing something different. It never gets boring.

What's next - you're collaborating on a film with Judd Apatow?

We're in the process of writing it now - the next Pee-wee movie. I'm not really at liberty to say much about it yet, but it's a full-on road picture, an adventure story.

Any non-Pee-wee projects?

There's a couple of super-exciting things, but they're not announced yet . . . and I've been sworn to secrecy.

It's like we're witnessing a rebirth . . . not of Pee-wee, more of Paul Reubens.

It's weird, I have to say - uncanny. And wonderful and also odd. I didn't really see this coming. I made a decision to do this. But it's kind of in that "Be careful what you wish for" vein. I wasn't really thinking it through, and here I am - back. So . . . it's good.