Ray Romano On His New Stand-Up Special And Having Real Emotions While Filming ‘Paddleton’

The last time I interviewed Ray Romano was in August of 2017, right before the first season of Get Shorty premiered. During that interview, he discussed that he had been back out doing stand up, something he hadn’t done in earnest since Everybody Loves Raymond debuted in 1996, and was batting around the idea of doing a special. When I suggested that Netflix would snap that up right away, Romano said in his usual self-deprecating manner, “Yeah, well… we’ll see.”

Turns out that Romano did end up doing a Netflix special, which debuted on February 5. In Right Here… Around The Corner, Romano spurns the usual theater venue and does two 25-minute sets. One at New York’s Comedy Cellar, where he got his start over 30 years ago, and then another around the corner at the Cellar-owned (and slightly bigger) Village Underground. In between, you see him walking the streets of the West Village, where some people recognize him and others, in typical New York fashion, ignore him. At both venues, the comedy is a slightly edgier version of the material that made Romano one of the ’90s top standups; stuff about his wife and (now grown) kids, observations about his own shortcomings, and thoughts on getting older (he turned 61 in December).

Romano and I not only spoke about the special, but about his dramatic turn in the upcoming Netflix film Paddleton, written by Mark Duplass and director Alex Lehmann. In the highly-improvised film, Romano plays Andy, who is best friends with his downstairs neighbor Mike (Duplass); when Mike is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he asks Andy to not only help him obtain an assisted suicide drug cocktail, but to help him administer it when the time comes.

DECIDER: The last time we spoke, you were just starting to return to stand-up, and weren’t sure you were going to do a special. So how did you conceive of this two-part special and how did it get to Netflix?

RAY ROMANO: Well, I think at that time… I don’t know if I’d been offered. I think at that time… my agent has been telling me “You should do a special, an hour” for a number of years now. And, I kept telling him to keep quiet. But, he hadn’t got an offer yet. He just kept suggesting it… “Do it. Why not? It’s time” and then of course Netflix — it’s almost their specialty now, getting these comics. And, then I turned [exclaims] SIXTY! And I realized, you know, it’s still fun.

When I go in the Cellar, when I go in the city, I pop in the crowd still gets excited. I still get good laughs. I know I’m earning those laughs — in the beginning [of a set] they’re laughing at everything, but then you earn them. And I thought, you know, let’s do it. I shied away from it a lot because I didn’t want to retire my material [after the special]. Not that you have to but it, you kind of do, if you’re a purist and a pro. You just don’t want to do stuff that people may have seen on a special. You want to write a new act and I didn’t — that didn’t look good to me. I don’t do it as much, you know. If I was doing comedy every night, maybe.

But then I just thought, screw all that. And, let’s get it down. It will be something great to have. And, so we ran with HBO, Netflix, everybody and Netflix seemed like the best fit. We talked to them, we met them, and I decided to do it at the Cellar. I kind of liked the idea of being unannounced and having the energy of this unsuspecting audience. Maybe it’s a good audience, maybe it isn’t. I’m going to do two, three times anyway.

So, it’s little bit of a gamble. And, why not at my home club, the Cellar. And, then the Cellar was a little bit- you know it only holds 100. And, I thought that the Village Underground around the corner, which the Cellar owns, it holds 250 so it’s a little better. So the man that was directing it, Michael Showalter said, “Why don’t we do it in both?”

I thought it was interesting that the Village Underground has the Cellar backdrop. if you kind of just look down and looked up you wouldn’t be able to tell really where you were.

Yes, I was aware of that and there’s a little neon light in the Village Underground that’s on the wall. We clicked that on, I’m like we gotta put something on here. So it stands out, you know. I mean the stage is a little bigger and the lighting’s a little different. But yeah, you could easily think, if you didn’t see me walk around or [a viewer] goes to the bathroom when I walk around they’ll think it’s the same show.

How did you like the vibe of doing it there as opposed to a big theater?

I didn’t want to do the theater. I didn’t, I don’t know, sometimes when you do it in a theater you lose the… The character of the audience just gets lost and the laughs just all feel like just a noise. It’s not specific. I wanted the intimacy and I also wanted the possibility that there’s people in there who don’t know me. Who might not even know that I do stand up. So there was a little bit of a danger element that energy and a cool excitement. I really didn’t want to do the big venue. The unannounced part, I felt like I got that idea a little later. I liked it. Anytime I drop in on the Cellar in New York, there’s always a great little energy to it, to that audience. I said, “Let’s do it now, let’s do it now before this goes away.”

The Cellar has cameras there all the time. Did anybody get tipped off that you were coming?

No. The Cellar has cameras when Crashing is filming something or whatever. But they don’t have cameras like that. They told people they were just filming a promo. So nobody knew, no.

Beside the fact that 23 years ago you were talking about three little kids, and now you’re talking about three adults and a teenager, how do you think your material has changed from pre-sitcom days to now?

Well, I think you’re right. I write about what’s going on in my life. I mean, that’s my source of material. I think my style is a little different, I think — I don’t want to say smarter, because I’m not smart. But, it’s more sophisticated. I’ve gotten a little clever and there’s a little more story behind it. There’s a little more experience behind it. But I would say the [same] subject matter is basically that’s my inspiration. Whatever’s going on in my life, whatever happens… In my relationships, in my experiences, that’s the source of my material. I didn’t suddenly become political. You know some comedians go on little detours in their career. What I do best and talk about what I experience and hopefully everybody can relate to.

Do you think it’s different due to the fact your life is a lot different now? Not just your kids are older, but just everything about your life is a lot different. You’ve done a lot of varied projects, for instance.

I think that applies more to acting than stand up. I think the fact that I’ve done more things doesn’t make me a better stand up, it gives me more to talk about. I think just doing stand up makes you a better stand up. I think living life and experiencing life, I think is making me a better actor. You’ve got more to draw on and more to go to when you need to relate to a moment. I think stand up… It’s like anything where what you do is you want to get better. The older you get in some occupations you get worse at. You’re not going to be a good ballplayer when you’re [exclaims] SIXTY! But, I think my stand up muscle is getting stronger, or it’s still as strong so far. That’s why I wanted to do it. Eventually it’s going to get weaker

I like that little part where your family comes out with you after the last show, and you guys go get some pizza and you talk about the show. You say that the twins aren’t so bright, and your youngest son is an ordained minister and you talk about sex with your wife. She’s used to being in your act, but what do you kids think now that they’re grown or almost grown?

I know what you’re saying, but I bought my wife off! I’m hoping I can buy my kids off! You know, if I even for a second thought these kids were going to have any detriment to them I would not do it. It’s gotten to the point where I run it by them and it’s almost the other way. It affects them when they’re not in a bit. In other words, now, I’m doing a lot about Joe, my youngest, and I think the twins are getting a little jealous.

[My kids] are pretty good, well adjusted and I think they know how I really feel about them and all that. They like a little bit of the attention of it, and now like, I don’t know, years from now it’s just going to come back to haunt me.

Well Joe is an ordained minister, so you never know what he can do.

Joe’s that guy, Joe’s that kid… everything kind of bounces off him. That’s the way he is, yeah. So, that helps.

Let me ask you about Paddleton. It’s an interesting story and from what I can interpret you carried more of the emotional load because you’re playing the caretaker of Mark’s character Mike. Do you know of a male relationship that’s like what you and Mark had in the movie? And what kind of state of mind did you have to get into to play this caretaker who has to assist his sick friend when he wants to commit suicide?

I got some close friends, but we’re… I guess if we were dying, we’d say I love you to each other. I don’t know that we would any other time, but we’re kind of New York, Queens friends, you know. So we say “I love you” by saying “You’re an asshole,” that kind of thing. But I do have some close, close friends that I’ve been with, great friends for forever.

As far as making that decision I thought about it and my gut instinct is that I would want that person to fight to the end. That’s why I put it in there, when we were improvising that scene where he tells me [he has cancer]. I said that just feels like I would want you to not give up.

On the other hand, I don’t know, in that circumstance if a loved one was suffering and there’s was no help and there was no hope, I mean it’s such a hard thing, I don’t know. I don’t know if I could make a decision, but I could understand somebody who would do that.

Because the last twenty minutes of the movie when Mike decides that he’s ready. That’s some of the toughest stuff in the whole thing. I mean there’s that little piece we’re you’re mixing the cocktail and you just take a paper towel and you dab your eyes. Did you improvise that piece?

It was improvised to the point where I knew I had to go and stir and make the mixture and come back in the room. I got emotional there, and so I did wipe, but that was not written or anything. Everything on the bed [after Mike took the cocktail] was not planned out either, but it felt — I’ve said this before, usually an emotional moment like that I need to prepare and get in that frame of mind and put on my headphones and listen to sad music.

You told me you usually have a backstory somewhere…

I did have a backstory- I had a backstory for the character, yes. But that only explains how he gets to where he is friends with this guy. For the final moment I really didn’t need to prepare at all it, it just, it came naturally. I think the fact that we were improvising for twenty days, and letting ourselves come up with the dialogue, based on what we were feeling, made it much more easier to be in that character, to embody that character and feel that emotional moment. So, when he was dying, I surprised myself. It was surprising how upsetting it was for Andy.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Ray Romano: Right Here, Around the Corner on Netflix