Paul Reiser: 'The most pure experience is standing on the stage and telling jokes'

After Mad About You ended its run in 1999, Paul Reiser went from playing Affable Sitcom Guy to Affable Stay-at-Home Dad.

But recently, and without much planning, he's experiencing a late-career resurgence. Movie and TV parts started coming his way: In Whiplash, he played the emasculated father of Miles Teller's manic musician. In Amazon's 1980s-set Red Oaks, he's the prickly Wall Street shark with a soft spot for the adrift hero. The series was recently picked up for a second season. "I wanted to make sure Getty was human," Reiser said about his not-so-polite character. "When I was working with a partner on a project, he said, 'Everyone thinks of you as Mr. Nice Guy, but you're really not that nice.' I loved messing with the cast. It's fun to air those colors."

He's also returned to the stand-up stage, and will play the Keswick Theatre on Friday.

You're having quite the career renaissance.

Who knew? There was not a lot of plan or design. The only thing I did plan after Mad About You was taking it easy. But I always wanted to get back into stand-up. I thought I'd wait for the right time, whatever that is. I emceed a charity show, and I forgot how fun it is. So I started going back to the clubs about three years ago. For a year, I would go down to this comedy club and work out 10, 15 minutes.

After a year, I decided to go out and perform and, ironically, that's when movie and TV roles started rolling in. Something cosmically was aligned.

The funny thing for me is to be reminded how stand-up is the center of it all for me. There were a lot of comics before who would use stand-up as the audition space. But to me, I always loved it in and of itself. As fun as these movies and TV shows are, the most pure experience is standing on the stage and telling jokes.

And Philadelphia! I used to do a club called the Comedy Works. It was above a Lebanese restaurant. You would eat Lebanese food and watch belly dancers and then do a second show. It just felt very home.

What's the difference between then and now?

It felt exactly like it did 35 years ago. The difference is now people know me. It's nice to not go entirely uphill. People are happy to see you. That lovely benefit of the doubt and that lovely welcome lasts about 30 seconds. We're simmering down now, what do you have to say. It was heartwarming that they hadn't changed.

What is it about stand-up?

Sometimes it's the content of the material. I do a lot of stuff about marriage and kids and getting older. A lot of stuff I can't figure out on my own until I do it on stage.

I was having some spat with my wife. For a short spell, a year, she was really into video games on her phone. I so frowned upon it. It bugged me, I don't know why. I went on stage and did a bit about it and I felt so much better. I let out some of the poison. The irony is now I'm so into it. She's now reading books and I'm sitting there like a 9-year-old idiot. But it was so cathartic. My outlet was talking to a room full of strangers.

Part of what was so refreshing about getting back on stage was there is something so immediate about it. You can think of something on the road and try it. With TV and movies, the time between thinking of the idea and it coming to fruition could be years. It's really a miracle it actually works. Like Whiplash. It was a miracle that movie threaded the needle perfectly. Along the way there are a lot of people interfering. But with stand-up, there's no middle man there. I'm going straight to the market.

How has the stand-up scene changed?

My 15-year-old will show me clips of things. I go, 'Where is it? How do you know about this?' There are so many things that I haven't heard about that have a million hits. The nature of stand-up has changed. You can be seen and enjoyed by millions without being famous. It's amazing. My son is my window into that world.

There's a million different flavors of comedy that have been tried. There's a much wider variety. If you watch Amy Schumer, that would not be a mass hit 30, 20 years ago, but it works now. The confines have been blasted open and there's room for everybody and a wider variety of sensibilities.

In my world, it doesn't feel like it's changed. My skill has changed, my perspective has changed. I know what I'm doing now. In your 50s, at least you think you know what you're doing. There's certain rules that still apply, you have to get the laugh and entertain people.

Does your son think you're funny?

Reluctantly. It kills him to laugh at me.

8 p.m. Friday, Keswick Theatre, 291 Keswick Ave., Glenside. $29.50-$49.50. 215-572-7650 or keswicktheatre.com