Mad About Paul: Paul Reiser at The Howard Theatre
Paul Reiser, who became a household name on Mad About You, returns to his stand-up roots
“With a lot of sitcoms, the thing was to go for the joke. We always tried to strike a balance. It was for laughs, but the laughs were never about the jokes.”
Paul Reiser is reminiscing over Mad About You with a rabid fan posing as a reporter. The hit series, which chronicled the life of a New York married couple, played to uncanny, intimate perfection by Reiser and Helen Hunt, ran 7 seasons on NBC until 1999. It was one of those shows that, along with Friends and Seinfeld, was the very definition of “Must See TV.”
“People in sitcoms say things that are snippy and snappy and funny,” Reiser goes on. “But in real life somebody would punch you in the nose if you said that — or you’d at least hurt somebody’s feelings. We never wanted to score jokes at the expense of reality. I could talk about this all day.”
Alas, there are other things to talk about. Such as Reiser’s return to stand-up. (He’ll appear at the Howard Theater this Saturday, Feb. 20.) Many know Reiser from Mad About You, or from Aliens, or from his recent turn on the Amazon series Red Oaks, but stand-up comedy was his launching pad.
“I started as a comedian,” says the 58-year-old. “That’s all I originally wanted to do, but it worked out that I got to do these wonderful things. I find it surprising when people say, ‘I didn’t know you do stand-up.’ In fairness, I had a 20-year absence.” Indeed, the grind of a weekly series and then the joys of raising two sons and authoring three books (Couplehood, Babyhood, Familyhood) got in the way of stand-up, but three years ago, Reiser decided to return to his roots. “I’m still talking about relationships, but it’s a different point of view. Talking about marriage in your fifties is very different from talking about it when you were newly married.” He’s quick to add, in his trademark New York cadence, “A lot of my stuff is not about relationships, so you know.”
Reiser is happy to opine about everything from the Oscar controversy (“I don’t actually think Academy members are sitting there going, ‘Let’s keep this white,’ but when you see 20 white mugs, you can’t help think that it is a shockingly disproportionate representation”) to Donald Trump (“Are people really saying we want him to be our leader? I don’t know that when push comes to shove if everybody will say that”) to the accepting, nonplussed attitude his 15-year-old son had toward a fellow 10th grader.
“My son was talking about a kid who’s transitioning, and he said it matter-of-factly, to him it wasn’t an exciting story,” says Reiser, clearly proud. “It made me think there will be a period not too far where people will go, ‘Really, that was an issue?’ I certainly hope so.”
Paul Reiser appears at The Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW, on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $35 (general seating) to $75 (booth, 4 ticket minimum). Call 202-803-2099 or visit thehowardtheatre.com.
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