career. If you could go back and give advice to your younger self, what would it be? You know, I think, in general— and you hear this from most people when they get to a certain age— they wish they could go back and tell their 20-year-old self not to worry so much, because most of those things don’ t matter. And you don’ t know that until you hit your 50s and 60s and go,“ That was wasted energy.” There’ s a couple of projects I probably wouldn’ t have done. There’ s probably a couple of things I wish I had said. Very few things I wish I didn’ t say. A few years ago, I was planning a trip with my wife. We were going to Italy, meeting up with some friends. We were both really looking forward to it. And at the last minute, something came up— I was offered this film. It was a very small indie. It wasn’ t even great, but there were some people involved that were great. And I thought,“ Well, it’ ll be fun.” But I had this trip. And I got persuaded to do the movie— and I canceled the trip. And I regretted it. I went,“ I’ m never doing that again.” Never postpone joy.
Circling back to your TV special, you describe this concept of unwanted raisins in rice pudding as a metaphor for understanding life. And my question is— what have you got against raisins? Nothing.( Laughing) I enjoy a raisin, but the symbolism and the metaphor is that as much as you may try to get your life pure and contain only the things you like, you most likely will not succeed. There will be some things you don’ t like creeping into the
From Left: Tim Daly, Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Steve Guttenberg, and Paul Reiser in Barry Levinson ' s Diner.
mix. And that’ s just the cost of doing business. And I remind myself of that all the time. It’ s like,“ Yeah, all right— you want to sell a show? Well, you’ ve got to take that meeting.” I don’ t like those meetings, but that’ s how it goes. I don’ t enjoy notes from people, but that’ s their job. Sometimes, I’ ve got to get notes. There’ s no end to that list of things that we tolerate in the name of trying to live the best life we can. n
— Dr. Joshua Sherman
Paul Reiser will perform on Friday, July 25, at 8 p. m. at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington. mahaiwe. org
July 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 13