Fame is gone for Pauly Shore, but comedy still keeps him warm
8 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Loonees Comedy Corner, 1305 N. Academy Blvd., $22; 591-0707, looneescc.wix.com/loonees. 8 p.m. show SOLD OUT.
Anybody who grew up in the ’90s remembers Pauly Shore.
The star of MTV’s “Totally Pauly” show was better known as “The Weasel” whose catchphrase “Hey budddddy” sprang from the lips of many a college student in Daytona Beach, Shore’s home away from home during spring break shoots.
The stand-up comedian and actor rode the wave of popularity into Hollywood and starred in “Encino Man,” “Son in Law,” “In the Army Now” and “Jury Duty,” though some say the 1996 “Bio-Dome” signaled the beginning of the end.
He’ll perform two shows at Loonees Comedy Corner on Thursday.
“The other day, a friend asked me what I was up to, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t make Chris Rock money,’ ” he said in a 2014 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “And he goes, ‘Do you make a living?’ And that’s what matters. I found something I enjoy that I get paid to do, so I think I’m pretty lucky.”
Two decades later, life looks a lot different for Shore, 47, as he explores the vagaries of midlife. His beloved mom, Mitzi Shore, famous for founding the Los Angeles comedy club The Comedy Store in 1972, is in steep decline after a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. He’s still not sure if he should get married and have kids, and his prostate is a cause for concern.
Hollywood stopped calling years back, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in front of a camera.
In 2003, he made the mockumentary “Pauly Shore is Dead,” in which he faked his own death to boost the popularity of his old movies. And in 2014, the self-directed, stand-up comedy tour documentary “Pauly Shore Stands Alone” followed him as he played venues in small towns across the Midwest.
“Everything I’ve done since I first started has meant something to some people,” he says in the documentary. “It’s one of the reasons I’m always in the room – to give them comedy and love and for me to receive comedy and love. It’s reciprocal.”
JENNIFER MULSON, THE GAZETTE, 636-0270, JEN.MULSON@GAZETTE.COM