Pee Wee

Last night we got to see the Pee Wee Herman Show. The venue was nice, we were on the third row in the center. The night began with Pee Wee coming out in front of the curtain with a "Good morning, boys and girls" and then asked us to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance. So great. Then the lights and music started, the curtain opened and the lights came up on Pee Wee's playhouse. The playhouse. The big red zig zag door, Chairry, Globey, Conkey, Clockey all right there, bigger than life. Those images are so imbedded in my mind from watching the show every Saturday morning with my bowl of cereal, that I actually got choked up when it was revealed.

The show was a mix of his original stage show, Pee Wee's Playhouse and new material. So much fun. He is still so delightful, like a bit where he blows up a huge balloon and then slowly, for what felt like 5 minutes, squeezes the air out making all the squeeking balloon noises he can. There was a couple to the left of me at the show and afterwards as we talked about it, I found out she was from another country and had never seen anything Pee Wee before. I asked her what she thought and she seemed so weirded out and mentioned the balloon moment as one she didn't get and didn't like the noise. I guess this is where loving Pee Wee's childlike glee is helpful - it's fantastic seeing him indulge in being irreverent and silly and indulging along with him.

After the show, those who had bought tickets for the show when it was being sold for a shorter run at a different venue and then had to exchange their tickets in a ticketmaster nightmare got to stay for a Q&A with Paul Reubens. This is where I further gained appreciation for Paul. He spent like an hour talking to the group. He took stupid, annoying question after stupid, annoying question, dealt with the fanish, drunks and still came out with humor and genuineness. He really seemed to be trying to connect with the audience and speak sincerely. He told "Hollywood stories" about a Halloween with Prince and several others great little Hollywood memories he had. He made sure to go up to the kids that remained in the audience and ask them what they liked about the show (he took out questionable material, so the show would be appropriate for all ages, by the way). I didn't want to dwell on the negative, but there were the most annoying, loud, drunk idiots next to us in the audience last night, who we had to work really hard to try to ignore. There were also a ton of idiots in the Q&A portion asking the most stupid, fanish, embarassing questions and just generally acting like brainless buffoons. But despite this, it was a great experience.

The last thing he shared with us is that every night standing back stage, he watches the camera monitors as the curtains open and the audience sees the set for the first time and he gets choked up and said he almost feels like he can't go on stage because he's so moved. How rad is that? He said he was sorry for being "corny" as he thanked us, but that he is "corny". I love that. We need more corny in this world. Someone earlier in the audience had asked him why he married the fruit salad (from the tv show back in the day) and he said that people shouldn't think so much, some things are just for fun. Pee Wee is all about creativity and silliness. He is about fun. We had fun. And yes, FUN was the secret word of the day.