Paul reiser will always be a stand-up guy | members only

SO WHAT CHANGED YOUR MIND?  At the time, there were all these reboots that were being met with success. So we were approached and we said, “Well, it’ll be really fun because we just love

working together.” But we really struggled with why. You’re not gonna go back and pretend that you’re newlyweds. That ship has sailed. … And then we thought, _Well, wait a second. There’s

actually great comedy and drama [here] ... Remember those people that you met as newlyweds? Well, guess what? They’re older now. They’re tired. Their dreams didn’t work out like they

thought. Their beautiful little child turned out to be quite a handful. Let’s see what they’re like now._ We had a great time, and I’m glad we did it. YOU’VE ALSO BEEN MARRIED A LONG TIME — 

HITTING 37 YEARS IN AUGUST. WHAT’S THE SECRET?I’m gonna tell you the secret — and I don’t say this lightly — I’m a delight. And I can’t stress how instrumental that has been in keeping this

particular charade afloat. First of all, I’m lucky because I married somebody wonderful [Paula Ravets, 61], and we like each other. _Mad About You_ sort of grew out of my stand-up, which

grew out of my marriage. Because there’s definitely gonna be times when it’s just going the wrong way and you’re tired of each other, or you just don’t have the energy to put into being

better or trying harder. But the number of times that you take a deep breath and get off the canvas? It’s hard work — fruitful and rewarding. YOU’VE GOT TWO ADULT SONS [EZRA, 29, AND LEON,

25]. ARE THEY FUNNY LIKE YOU?  They’re both funny, and my younger son, who’s a writer now, he’s funnier than me, which really ticks me off because he doesn’t work at it. But I know that

somewhere I must have helped contribute to that, because they were raised on comedy. _STRANGER THINGS_ IS SET IN THE ’80S. DID IT BRING BACK ANY MEMORIES FOR YOU?  It’s interesting. People

respond to shows emotionally when the period was their sweet spot. So I look at things that were early ’70s and they’ll resonate with me more. So I didn’t particularly feel anything about

the ’80s. WHO’S FUNNY TO YOU? ANY NEW COMEDIANS?When I got back into stand-up 10 years ago, there were comics that were quite accomplished that I never heard of because I wasn’t watching,

and I was like, _How is this guy selling out Madison Square Garden? I’m not familiar with him or her_. So I’m doing a lot of catch-up, and the people that I see that are funny, they’re not

even new. John Mulaney’s great, and Jim Gaffigan [58] and Sebastian [Maniscalco, 51], Nikki Glaser. There are so many. Sarah Silverman [54], who’s a little younger than me, but she’s not

new. So they’re all young to me. They’re not Alan King. So I’m now Alan King.  HOW ARE YOU TRYING TO STAY HEALTHY — DIET, EXERCISE?  I’m going to send you a flyer. I have it all written out.

If you follow my steps, you too can look like this [laughing]. It is not in my nature to be mobile, let alone athletic, so I have to remember to — you got to stretch, you got to exercise,

you got to do some cardio, you got to do things. And everything you hear is basically always the same: Don’t eat a lot of cake and don’t eat a lot of fat and get off your ass once in a

while. OK, let me jot that down, because that’s new.