Paul Reiser is promising an evening of politics-free, feel-good comedy when the actor/comedian brings his standup act Friday, Oct. 17, to College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn.
Reiser has recently starred on the Netflix shows “Stranger Things” and “The Kominsky Method,” for which he received an Emmy nomination, but he’s perhaps best known as Paul Buchman in “Mad About You,” the award-winning comedy series that ran from 1992 to 1999. But don’t expect to hear a lot about his acting career during his set; his first love will always be standup comedy, he said.
“Somebody said to me, ‘How do you describe your show?’ And I’ve never been able to answer that intelligently,” Reiser said. “The only thing I have come up with is, I ask people, have you seen Cirque du Soleil? And if you have, my show is the opposite of that. Whatever you might hope for in a Cirque du Soleil show, you will not get it. There will be no leaping, no bizarre music, no words made up.
“But it will be a very fun evening. I tell people if they’re not fully satisfied and if they don’t have a great time, I will come back next year and take them to see somebody funnier.”
He’s never had to make good on that pledge.
Audiences will hear stories from his home life and about his wife of 36 years. They have two sons, ages 30 and 25.
“I only tell people what happens in my house and what’s going on with me, and fortunately, it turns out it’s not just me,” he said “Any ridiculous arguments that I have at home with my lovely wife or my spectacular children, turns out people go, ‘Yeah, that sounds like my house.’ People like company, they like knowing they’re not alone. As do I. So when they laugh, I feel much better. I feel comforted.”
And perhaps best of all, he assures audiences up front there will be no talk about politics or any hot-button topics of the day.
“There’s so much going on and things are so edgy and here I am talking about silly, fun things. I said, ‘Just to let you know, I’m aware, I watch the news, but I’m not going to talk about any of that,’” he said. “And to my surprise, people started clapping. People were like, ‘Thank you. Can we just have an hour and a half of fun and good times and uplifting stuff and you’re not going to bring up anything that makes us depressed.’ That, I can assure you. They will go home happy. They can turn on the news when they get home.”
Reiser will be seen in the limited-series Netflix cryptocurrency drama “The Altruists,” starring Julia Garner and Anthony Boyle. He plays the father of Boyle’s character.
Additionally, he just finished co-writing a pilot for for Fox with writer Adam F. Goldberg (“The Goldbergs”) and Reiser’s own son, Leon Reiser. It’s been turned in, so now the wait if for whether it gets picked up, Reiser said.
He’s hopeful it will happen because writing what you know — in this case, the father-son dynamic — hasn’t let him down yet, he said.
“I remember years ago, when we pitched ‘Mad About You.’ (We) would describe what the show was going to be about and every network exec said, ‘Oh, let me tell you about my mother-in-law. Let me tell you about my wife,” he said. “Everybody couldn’t wait to tell the stories of their personal nightmares. And I said, I think we’re going to have a hit here, because this seems pretty relatable.”
As for whether fans will see him in the final season of the mega-hit series “Stranger Things,” the fate of Dr. Sam Owens was unclear at the end of season four. When pressed about his return, the first volume of which begins Nov. 26, his lips were firmly sealed.
“I am not allowed to discuss,” Reiser said. “I can tell you this — there will be some mayhem, there will be some scares, and there will be some young people navigating through some problems. The Duffer Brothers are quite clever and I’m confident people will be satisfied by the ending.”
Regardless of what happens with his acting career, nothing will dim his love of standup, he said.
“It’s not easy, but it’s not complicated,” he said. “Just the idea of being in a room with other people and seeing actual faces — you don’t have to wait six months to find out if it’s funny. You know right there. … To me, there’s nothing like it. I have the most fun onstage.”
Tickets to Reiser’s 7:30 p.m. show cost $70 to $80 and can be purchased by going online at atthemac.org or calling 630-942-4000;
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
