NPR

'Pee-Wee As Himself' reveals the person behind the persona

The new HBO documentary Pee-Wee As Himself isn't the boilerplate Hollywood profile you think it is. You get the biographical details you expect – how young avant-garde artist Paul Ruebens created the ...
Los Angeles Times

Everyone knew Pee-wee Herman. But few knew the man behind the man-child

The first time we see Paul Reubens in the documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” he is not playing Pee-wee Herman, the antic man-child he portrayed in comedy routines, movies, a children’s TV show and most ...
The New York Times

Review: ‘Pee-wee as Himself’ Finds the Man Behind the Man-Child

This fascinating though incomplete documentary tells Paul Reubens’s story despite the subject’s doubts about the project. By James Poniewozik The title of “Pee-wee as Himself,” the two-part ...
NPR

'Pee-wee as Himself' is a portrait of a private man and his public alter ego

In 1986, one of the most unusual and iconic kids' TV shows debuted. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE THEME") PAUL REUBENS: (As Pee-wee Herman) Hey. CYNDI LAUPER: (Singing) Come in and pull ...
Los Angeles Times

‘Pee-wee as Himself’ gives Paul Reubens the final word on his identity

“I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River; my father worked on a steamboat and his name was Steamboat Milton,” says Paul Reubens by way of misdirection in Matt Wolf’s ...