Paul Reubens touts Sarasota in New York Times profile

Sarasota is the town that helped shape Pee-wee Herman.

That’s according to Paul Reubens in the latest profile of the actor published online in the New York Times Magazine yesterday. In the article titled “Pee-wee’s Big Comeback,” contributing writer Jonah Weiner writes that the city “was the site of the worst moment in Reubens’s public life, but his childhood there was happy — and the city ingrained in him his adoration of the offbeat.”

In the article, Reubens recalled living near high-wire artists, lion tamers and family of human cannonballs, and his time volunteering in the local theater scene. Former City Commissioner Lou Ann Palmer, Reubens’ history teacher at Sarasota High School, is even quoted in the profile as recalling his performance in the school’s rendition of “Guys and Dolls.”

“He would plan tricks and make the other kids laugh — not at him but with him,” Palmer said in the article. “I loved it. Who laughs in history class?”

The story comes about a month before Reubens’s film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is slated for release.