I already have my ticket. Want to buy it from me? It’s not for sale FranCIS!
Jealous? I know you are but what am I?
Maybe tickets are still available. Just go to the box office. Tell them Large Marge sent you.
There’s no basement at the alamo, btw.
Never mind that. I want to talk about your big “but.”
This sounds like too much fun. I love seeing movies with an audience who knows and loves every word. I saw “Buckaroo Banzai” at a WorldCon with an audience who shouted “Planet 10!” to the question “Where are we going?” and “Real soon!” to “When”?.
“There’s a lot of things about me you don’t know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand.”
Popping in for a quick hello. Will make a more detailed report later tonight or tomorrow.
I’ll just say that this may have been the greatest film viewing experience of my life. This was a huge theater and it was packed. The audience was enthused and the energy of the room was buzzing.
Paul Reubens intro’d the film then was briefly interviewed afterward, interview followed by a lengthy Q&A.
Wow!
Thanks to you, I had “Tequila” stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks a freaking lot.
OTOH, that’s a cute little outfit you have on.
O.K., as I mentioned- the greatest film viewing experience of my life.
The theater was packed . . . and this was a HUGE theater.
The planned program had him coming out after the screening for a brief interview with the film fest guy, but he ended up appearing briefly before the screening- he said that at a screening about a month ago a friend of his got very angry at him because her 8 year old daughter got scared by one part and has been having nightmares. The entire of the “knowing” audience laughed. Paul went on to suggest that little kids who hadn’t seen it might want to cover their eyes (the crowd is loving this). He explained that there was a lady truck driver and that the scary part came right as she said “. . . and it looked like this.”
Now, let me digress briefly to say that I am pretty sure, though not positive, that this was the first time I’ve ever seen Paul Reubens as Paul Reubens. I’ve seen Paul Reubens as an actor portray characters other than Pee-Wee, I have read interviews with him being himself, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him appear as Paul Reubens ever before.
. . . on to the screening.
I hadn’t seen the movie in probably 10 years, so there were lots of “Oh, yeah, now it’s this part” moments. The audience, as I mentioned, were awesome. Those present who hadn’t seen the movie before definitely missed some parts because of cheering and extended laughter. This really made me realize how fast the jokes come in this movie: that you can miss jokes from laughing at the previous joke.
With as long as Pee-Wee has been out of the public eye, I almost had a sense that we the audience were empowering his revival . . . like Pee-Wee was Tinker-Bell and we were all clapping out hands saying “I do believe!”
When he was so graciously received by the audience after the screening, he was truly humble. It was clear that he doesn’t take the support for granted. He was so appreciative.
The interviewer didn’t really ask anything too interesting, but he really was just there to get the ball rolling and monitor the Q&A and watch the time.
Paul did talk about a new movie. He said, as I had already read in other interviews, that the end goal when he revived the stage show was to land a deal for a new movie. Without naming names he said that, in the first week of the show, he was approached by someone of particular “can make it happen” status. So, he’s got the go-ahead to get developing.
He said he already had two completed scripts: One that he’s “been told not to refer to as ‘the dark Pee-Wee movie’”, and one that would be the “movie version” of Pee-Wee’s playhouse.
He’s now working on a new script. He’s writing with Paul Rust who, chances are, you don’t know at all or you know only from one of two of the modest entries on his imdb page- none of which is especially impressive. However, if you happen to know the work he’s been doing at small comedy clubs in L.A. for the last five years then, like me, you’ll think this is a BRILLIANT collaboration.
One of the audience question-asker just asked him to talk about Phil Hartman. He spent a lot of time on this. He talked about the early days when they were all in Groundlings together, how he, Phil, and John Paragon (Jambi from “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”) would sit in the car after shows, listening to music and fantasizing about actually making a living as actors.
He talked about how he feels he was unfair to his Groundling friends giving them only small parts in the movie, he said that Phil really wanted to play Mickey the escaped convict. But he went on to say that the actor who did play Mickey, Judd Omen, was so great that it would be hard to say that one choice would have been better than the other. Paul had appeared in a play with Judd Omen and was so impressed with him that he said “If I ever find an opportunity to work with you again I am going to make it happen”.
Funny thing, neither Judd Omen nor Phil Hartman were the first choice for the role of Mickey. He wouldn’t say who, but there was a big name actor who he and Phil wrote Mickey for. He said that, as they were working on the character, Phil would to a spot-on perfect impression of this actor- reading Mickey in an impression of this actor was hilarious to Paul and Phil and they knew they had to get him for the part. The actor came in to read for Paul, Phil, and Tim Burton and, even though he was coached about how to approach the part, his reading of the character was nothing like Phil Hartman far superior impression of him reading the character. So, the big name actor for whom the part was written was dropped and Judd Omen was brought in.
Paul also told of how, when he did Saturday Night Live, he was allowed to bring two of his own writers with him. He brought John Paragon and Phil Hartman. This was how Lorne Michaels and Phil Hartman first met. I had never known this. Lorne was so impressed with Phil that he then hired him.
Interesting, he talked about how even before he had a script he knew with strong conviction that he wanted Danny Elfman to do the score. Paul loved the score for Forbidden Zone, based on this he really wanted Danny. So, Paul brought Danny on board making it the first time Danny and Tim would work together- and we all know how that worked out. Interesting, Paul said he asked Danny to mimic the score from 8 1/2 and he was so impressed with how Danny was able to write something so similar that would yet fall short of plagiarism. Now, I had probably seen Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure at least two dozen times before I first saw 8 1/2, and I don’t remember thinking to myself “Hey! The music’s just like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure!” so now I feel compelled to re-watch 8 1/2 with this in mind.
Great that there were kids there asking questions. An adult would never have dared to ask “Will you do the laugh?” (to which he happily complied, to the delight of us all). Another group of three girls about aged 8 or 9 got up to tell him, “We kept telling her (referring to one of their group) before the movie started that you ‘can’t judge a movie by its title’ because she thought it was going to be the worst movie in the history of the world but now she loved it!”
At a Film Fest screening the night before, Paul Reubens had presented Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take it With You. I would have loved to have been at that screening, but couldn’t make it.
All in all, it was a great afternoon at the movies. Such a thrill. Like I said, seeing that film with that audience would have been an amazing experience no matter what. Having Paul Reubens there as well, well that made it immeasurably amazing.
Oh! And I forgot to mention . . .
Are you ready to have your mind blown by the most amazing event you’ve ever heard of?
Paul said that Pee-Wee will be appearing at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota in August. They’re going to recreate the Biker Bar scene, and are going to put together the world record for the biggest Tequila Dance!!!
Oh wow, thanks for posting that long and awesome report! I like how someone asked him just to talk about Phil Hartman (RIP 
). Gotta show this to Mr. S tonight.
Also, you should know that because of this thread we popped PWBA in the player last night. 
Good for you and your father, FRANCIS!
Oooh, another story he shared that I really liked:
Paul was a fan of the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. He said that in these old movies they always found an excuse for Tarzan to have to wrestle an alligator underwater.
He said he always loved the underwater shots of Johnny rolling and rolling over and over, spinning with the alligator.
He said that wanting to create one of these Tarzan underwater wrestling bouts was the entire reason for the bath fight with Francis.
Cool stuff, thanks for sharing. Sounds like it was a blast to be there.