In the two weeks it has existed, "The Jay Leno Show" has mostly been a study in stale stand-up and retread bits from Jay's run on "The Tonight Show." But so far his lineup of guests has been pretty interesting. He lucked into his conversation with Kanye West last week, and last night he welcomed another former MTV VMA star to his gigantic set: Pee-Wee Herman. Paul Reubens, the man inside Herman's head, has used the Pee-Wee character sparingly since his arrest for indecent exposure back in 1991, but he's bringing the persona back for a stage show in Los Angeles starting in November.

Reubens, who became an icon when the movie "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" and the Saturday morning show "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" became gigantic hits, sat across from Leno in his desk-free interview set-up to joke about his abstinence ring, his early experiences with the theater and how confused he always was about the process of making a record. Like all of the best Pee-Wee bits, the stories he told Leno were delivered in a childlike fashion but carried a twinge of sadness that always made his version of kids' entertainment a little darker than the average fare.

For his part, Reubens looks like he has barely aged and still retains Pee-Wee's youthful vigor despite the fact that he recently turned 57 years old. He hasn't been entirely invisible since putting away the Pee-Wee character in the early '90s, as he's appeared in a number of high-profile movies (most notably "Mystery Men" and "Blow"), dropped in on the Elton John video "This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore" and was a guest star on a memorable episode of "30 Rock" in 2007.