Pee-wee as Himself

• Directed and Produced by Matt Wolf
• May 23, 2025 (HBO)

The life and career of actor/comedian Paul Reubens who best known for the character Pee-wee Herman.

I like how the two-episode Pee-wee as Himself is much more of a conversation and general interviews interspersed with footage and photographs. You get a very intimate feel for Paul Reubens and where he came from and what he thinks. It is casual while displaying the aspects of Reubens’ personality. The man can start to be coy or playful with the interviewer before you pick up on a bit of unnecessary hostility. Heck, things deteriorated during production to the point he never quite finished before his death.

This documentary series is carried entirely by Reubens’ narration. It is like talking to a very interesting friend able to make even the dullest story lively and engrossing. There is a twinkle and slyness to everything he says. It takes you through his life. There is no way that the character of Pee-wee Herman or even his general performance came from something more stayed and very middle class. If you thought he grew up quietly in suburbia you will be surprised.

One thing that Paul Reubens talked about in the interviews is that he could pass as straight. I don’t think anybody ever thought that. Most people just never cared because he entertained them so well. It just wasn’t the first thing that people cared about when it came to him once he became a known commodity with Pee-wee Herman.

They give a few interesting stories. They mention how Reubens got on The Dating Game as Pee-wee Herman. I don’t think the casting people of the show understood what was going on. I find it stranger than the story of the Nightstalker getting on there.

He may be best known for Pee-wee Herman, but the man could do more than that. I think his biggest mistake was becoming so dedicated to becoming famous through Pee-wee Herman that he lost the ability to do other stuff. They showcase some of his non-Pee-wee work and it is quite good. He makes it clear he saw Pee-wee Herman as his vehicle to fame and success. I don’t think he took into consideration imitations of sticking to just one character.

Mixed in with the interview footage and the personal clips are snippets from Our Gang. They never let the viewer know if he was a fan or it was just something cheap that fit the with the documentary’s intended aesthetic.

The elephant in the room with Reubens are the two incidents involving porn. There is effort to make both come off as some big misunderstanding. While I would say the theatre conviction is pretty straightforward, the porn collection one certainly lends itself to giving him the benefit of the doubt with the film making a good case on that.

Intentionally or not Pee-wee as Himself hints at an undercurrent of self-sabotage based on a need for control which Reubens acknowledges. It even caused him to not entirely complete the documentary. The final words spoken by him are a recording he made the day before he died.

Pee-wee as Himself is a picture of the man behind the pop-culture figure. It’s engaging and personal. I’m afraid to call it informative but considering that Pee-wee is better known than Paul Reubens I will call it a bit informative. If you were there for the Pee-wee Herman phenomena or simply curious about the man behind the character, this is worth watching.