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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pauly Shore’s home is on the road

Pauly Shore headlines shows at The Spokane Comedy Club on Friday and Saturday. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)

If you’re familiar with Pauly Shore, it’s likely because the comedian was briefly inescapable in the early to mid-’90s. Shore’s loud thrift store wardrobe and curly, shoulder-length hair made him a standout personality on MTV, as did his surfer dude patois, which inserted extra syllables into nearly every word.

Shore’s television popularity later helped him transition into films with a string of indifferently received comedies: “Encino Man,” “Son-in-Law,” “In the Army Now,” “Jury Duty.” All of this was before he turned 30.

Critics weren’t amused by his act. Roger Ebert described Shore as “the cinematic equivalent of long fingernails drawn very slowly and quite loudly over a gigantic blackboard.” Shore’s film career slowed after 1996’s “Bio-Dome,” which boasts a score of 1 out of a possible 100 on the film review aggregate site Metacritic.

But Shore, who stops by the Spokane Comedy Club this weekend, isn’t merely an artifact of the 1990s; he actually descends from comedic supremacy.

Shore, now 48, grew up in the Comedy Store, a revered stand-up club in West Hollywood that his mother, Mitzi Shore, has owned since 1974. In the decades since its founding, the Comedy Store has become a breeding ground for comic talent, and nearly every respected working comedian has performed there.

“I still perform there when I’m in town and I want to work on new material,” Shore said during a recent phone interview. “I call in like everyone else, put in my times and my availabilities, and they put you in the lineup with everyone else.”

Shore says he knew he wanted to be involved in comedy from an early age, and he began honing his own stand-up material at the Comedy Store when he was a teenager.

“I always knew I was funny when I was young, just being around my mom’s friends,” Shore said. “You know when you get laughs without realizing you’re funny? I had that going for me at a young age.”

After graduating from high school, Shore started touring as a stand-up comedian. He also began developing his blissed out, perpetually stoned persona, known as the Weasel.

“It wasn’t like Pee-wee Herman,” Shore explained. “That was just kind of who I was. I’d say it’s an exaggerated version. But I dressed like that, and I walked around like that.”

Shore’s career took off quickly, perhaps too quickly. His Weasel act had seemingly lost its novelty by the tail end of the ’90s, and starring roles in movies weren’t being offered anymore.

“I pretty much hit the jackpot as a kid,” Shore said. “It was fast, but it was fun. I was in heaven. … You learn what to do, and you learn what not to do. You make mistakes. When I turned 30, I realized I’d never been on my own. I was with my mom, then with MTV, then in movies. I was never able to figure my own thing out.”

In the years since his ’90s zenith, Shore has written, produced and directed several projects for himself, including the 2003 mockumentary feature “Pauly Shore Is Dead,” which spoofed his own fall from stardom. He recently released a behind-the-scenes tour documentary called “Pauly Shore Stands Alone” and made a cameo on the popular Comedy Central series “Workaholics.” He’s also taken over operations at the Comedy Store for his mother, who has Parkinson’s disease.

He admits he’d be thrilled to take up acting full-time again – “If really great people called me up, I’d do it in a second,” he said – but being on the road is a natural fit for the comic.

“Before MTV and movies, I was touring around doing shows when I was younger,” Shore said. “I’ve always been in and out of town, running around. It’s probably why I’m still not married, because I’m married to the road and the work. It’s better than being stuck in an office, at least for me.”