Wheeler Opera House presents An Evening with Paul Reiser

Though he may not sing and dance much, Paul Reiser is still a triple threat in the entertainment world: He’s a comedian, actor and author, whom Comedy Central named as one of the top 100 comedians of all time. He takes the Wheeler Opera House stage Feb. 20 with his first love: stand-up.

As a college freshman, he did his first stand-up gig with a dream of ultimately appearing on “The Tonight Show.” But he ended up putting stand-up on the backburner when his acting and writing careers took off.

It all started with “Diner,” which he got by accident; he was hanging out with a buddy, who happened to drop off a headshot at the casting office for the movie.

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“The casting director came out and asked me to come in, and I said, ‘no,’ and I tried really good to bow out of it. I said, ‘No, I’m just waiting for my friend,’ and she said, ‘Well, come back tomorrow.’ She just had an inkling looking at me that ‘This guy just might be right for what the director’s looking for,'” he said.

From there, doors flew open. In the early 1990s, television producers asked him to develop a show based on whatever he wanted to do. He was newly married, and his stand-up material revolved around relationships, specifically on “the craziness of suddenly being with another person all the time,” as he described it. He folded the ups and downs and funny, sad and mad moments of marriage into “Mad About You.”

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“I never really thought about writing books, and I certainly wasn’t aiming to be an actor, but the irony is, you know, these wonderful things happen. And then, years ago, at the beginning of ‘Mad About You,’ I got so busy with that, I just didn’t get out and do stand-up,” he said.

When the show’s seven-year run ended in 1999, he and his wife had just had a baby, so he was happy to stay at home. And, before he knew it, 20 years had passed without taking the stage as a comedian.

“So the irony is, right now, a lot of times I’ll go out, and people go, ‘oh, I didn’t know he does stand-up.’ And, in fairness, I haven’t been out for a while. It’s been so fun for me to get back, and I do it as often as I can,” he said. “There’s something just irreplaceable about being in front of a live audience.”

He particularly loves the immediacy of it all — like writing a joke, and, a few hours later, seeing how it lands.

“You don’t have to wait six months to find out if it’s funny,” he said.

Speaking of being funny, although he’s honored to be named one of the top 100 comedians of all time, he thinks it’s a bold move to presume he’s more humorous than everyone who has ever lived — even those, say, in the 1200s or 1450s.

“The truth is: I’m not smart enough to make anything up, so I just tell people: Here’s what happened to me; here’s what’s going on in my house, and, luckily, it turns out that people go ‘oh, yeah, that sounds like my house,’ I think people like to know that they’re not the only ones with these struggles,” he said, adding that he won a lot more arguments in “Mad About You” than he did in real life. “I think the audience likes to hear that they’re not the only ones, but I also get the same kick when I talk about my marriage and my kids or what it’s like as we get older, and they laugh — and I go, ‘Oh, I’m so happy that it’s not just me.'”

So, he continues to revolve his stand-up routines around his life experiences.

“I got nothing else, as my wife points out. She has told me: ‘Without me, you got nothing,’ and that is so true,” he said.

His latest comedic movie, “The Problem with People,” was inspired by his love of Ireland. It focuses on a New Yorker and Irish man who are distantly related but had never met due to a falling out in their family three generations ago. Then, one day, Reiser’s character travels to Ireland to bury the hatchet.

“But it goes badly because we are flawed, and that is the problem with people. No matter how small you make the sample group, you will probably find something to fight about,” he said. “It’s a very funny and sweet comedy that hopefully dances around something bigger, which is: What is the problem with people — why is it we can’t seem to get along? And this is my stab at answering that.”

He also co-wrote “What a Fool Believes,” a candid memoir of musician Michael McDonald, released last May.

“I knew him as a friend, and I love him as a musician, but I never really knew anything about his story, so I would always ask questions, and one day, I jokingly said, ‘You should write a book. I wouldn’t have to ask you these questions if you just write a book,’ and he said, ‘I wouldn’t know how to write a book,’ and I said, ‘Well, I’ve written some books. I’ll help you,'” Reiser said. “He’s very open. He talks about his journey with drugs and alcohol and his journey to sobriety and how much it has informed him, and along the way, there are these fantastic stories about everybody that he’s worked with.”

Along with all of the projects, including his recent special, “Life, Death and Rice Pudding” and a pilot that he’s working on with his son about a father-son relationship, Reiser packs in about 75 to 100 stand-up shows, or, as he puts it, “Not enough.” But, just like in the early days, he enjoys being home, so he only hits the road about every other weekend — and choose venues by whether or not he can reach them within a day through a nonstop flight.

“So, you’re just under the wire (in Colorado). Vail is beautiful. I’ve never been to Beaver Creek, but I know where it is. And then, I’m going to Aspen the next day, which I’ve been to, and that’s beautiful,” he said, adding, “so I appreciate you keeping the blizzards and snow to a minimum.”

Of course, none of us are saying no to all this fresh powder, but let’s hope, for the sake of laughs, he has clear sailing this coming week.