Paul Reiser, who has always had a youthful twinkle in his eye, recently added a grizzled, gray beard to his chin that makes him look more professorial - or medical.
The 57-year-old "Mad About You" star is playing a doctor in an upcoming Will Smith football film that is in production. He's taking a break from that to come to the Atlanta Improv Dec 5 and 6 for his first stand-up show in this town in at least a quarter century. (Buy tickets here.)
"It may have been 30 years since I performed at the Punchline," said Reiser in a recent phone interview.
Although Reiser began his career cracking wise on stage, he said once his NBC sitcom "Mad About You" took off in 1992, his stand-up landed on the side burner. "I was always too busy and exhausted," he said. When the sitcom ended in 1999, he could have gone back on the road but "was happy just staying put."
Reiser was a "Mad About You" co-creator and pocketed millions in syndication money, giving him the luxury to lay low, raise his kids, write here and there and take an occasional film role.
But soon after his NBC sitcom "The Paul Reiser Show" died after just two episodes in 2011, he was emceeing an event, ad-libbing jokes and "had this sensation I remembered. 'Oh, man! I love this. Why don't I do this every night?' "
So he called a local L.A. comedy club and began building a new set over the next year. Since 2012, he has been working the road like old times. While he does some theater shows and casinos, he's okay with hitting comedy clubs such as the Atlanta Improv. "There's something pristine about doing a comedy club," he said. "It's where I started when I was 18. In a theater, you feel like you're in an elevated place. At a club, you're down, the audience is right in your face. It's like getting together with old friends I haven't seen in awhile. You pick up where you left off."
He said writing material was actually not that difficult, thanks to oodles of life experience. He said writing books and films over the years "sharpened my writing tools, the muscles of stand-up."
He said he is now comfortable on stage again after some initial nerves. "There are no shortcuts with standup," he said. "There is no substitute for elbow grease. You do a joke the 100th time, it's always better."
Reiser is also doing more work on TV and film, with recent recurring roles on FX's "Married" and Amazon's "Red Oaks."
He played a supportive dad in the critically acclaimed film "Whiplash," where his ambitious son plays an intense drummer at a high-end college with a sadistic teacher (an Oscar-worthy performance by J.K. Simmons.)
"I'm in the movie just enough not to screw it up," he said. "J.K. Simmons just leaps off the screen! I've seen it in theaters. It's like 'Rocky.' People start cheering. It's electric!"
Comedy preview
Paul Reiser
8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday
$30
Atlanta Improv
56 E Andrews Dr NW Atlanta
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