Free
The New York Times

The Closet in Pee-wee’s Playhouse

Listen in app
In the new HBO documentary “Pee-wee as Himself,” Paul Reubens, the creator of the iconic character Pee-wee Herman, comes out as gay. Reubens, who spent most of his career in the closet, had already come out years before but then returned to the closet during his time as the popular Saturday morning children’s show host.

On today’s episode of “Cannonball,” Wesley Morris talks with the writer Mark Harris about Reubens’s relationship to being closeted, and they discuss what it means for artists to publicly come out.
0:56:30
Publication year
2025
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
👍👎
fb2epub
Drag & drop your files (not more than 5 at once)