Paul Reubens career looked to be over when in 1991 he was arrested on suspicion of wanking in a porn cinema in Florida. This was an actor who had risen to fame as the camp man-child Pee-Wee Herman and suddenly the sleazy mug shots in the tabloids made him look anything but a harmless kids entertainer.

Prior to this public disgrace he had embraced the Pee-Wee persona so completely that he never appeared in public out of character, a fact he now acknowledges as maximising the fallout from his indiscretion.

It is probably no coincidence that the 1985 movie, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, has a far lower profile than other Tim Burton movies even though I’d rate it as superior to many Burton made afterwards and certainly better than Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks or Alice In Wonderland. It has rightly maintained its status as a cult film and is deserving of reappraisal.

I remember being bowled over by it at the cinema when it was first released and recall how members of the audience leaving on bicycles rode off imitating Pee-Wee’s mad laughter.

In the U.S. the character’s cult status was consolidated by the Playhouse kid’s show which was uniquely surreal in a way that stood out from the safe and sensible alternatives. As one fan stated in a documentary about Pee-Wee’s rise and fall, Sesame Street taught kids to spell, Reubens taught kids how to scream!

Bravely, Reubens has slowly rebuilt his career taking small roles in movies like Matilda and Spy Kids and a bigger part in Ted Demme’s 2001 movie Blow alongside Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz. He has also played cameos in TV shows like 30 Rock and Pushing Daisies. In recent interviews he makes no attempt to gloss over his past and comes across as both urbane and dignified.

There is now talk of two (maybe even three) new Pee-Wee movies in the works. Successful stage shows on Broadway last year indicate that there is still a lot of affection for the character although it would be impossible to play the part with such naive innocence and the fact that he is now almost 60 rather than 33 would surely make the role even weirder than it was back in the 1980s.

I think I’d prefer to remember him as the slightly more youthful rebel in search of his shiny bike than as some jaded senior citizen playing an overgrown adolescent.

If you haven’t seen the movie, or need reminding how good it is, these edited highlights from You Tube are well worth nine minutes of your time:

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