Where is Pauly Shore? What has he been up to? Pauly Shore has a hot new television series on TBS, following the acclaim of his recent documentary, Pauly Shore is Dead.

According to Pauly, being away from the spotlight was a little bizarre. “It was like I was the popular kid in high school and then I wasn’t. I wasn’t invited to ‘the party’ as much; ‘the party’ meaning all the cool places. Of course I’d show up anyways. But you realize that you have to go away to come back and that’s just the nature of the business.”

Pauly grew up in a unique showbiz family. His father, Sammy Shore, is a legendary comedian. His mother, Mitzi Shore, ran The Comedy Store, one of Hollywood’s most famous stand-up comic institutions, since the ’70s.

“It was crazy going down into a smoke-filled room and there was Richard Prior and they are all getting screwed up and partying and doing drugs. I’m telling them to shut up because I have school in the morning and they’re all laughing. I was like a pinata.”

Apart from being a pinata, Pauly also had the opportunity to be a comedy sponge. “The Comedy Store is kind of like an artist colony. Everyone who works here is a comedian. If she (Mitzi) likes you, she’ll let you work the door.”

Minding The Store’s promos set the stage for an innovative, fun and funny series. The show features Pauly as he takes over his mother’s business.

Pauly thinks of Minding The Store as a sitcom reality. “It’s based on reality, but it’s kind of slugged out. The story goes to a particular place. For instance the first episode is called Hot Girls of The Comedy Store. I wanted to have girls in the first episode to get the audience. It’s hot girls doing stand-up. The premise is that she (Mitzi) has different theme nights that aren’t doing well; Arabian Night, Fun to Be A Jew, and all these different things that aren’t working. Actually Marlon, who is my assistant, right here, came up with it.”

Marlon, who was a maintenance worker at The Comedy Store became Pauly’s side-kick on series and is described by Pauly as the Spanish William Hung. He even sang us Pauly’s requested song of singer Mario’s “Let me Love You!”

“Well you know, hot girls. Everyone is going to like hot girls. All the gentleman, you know what I mean? We’re going to make a party right here at The Comedy Store!” says Marlon.

Pauly had the world at his fingertips with his MTV mega hit television series, “Totally Pauly” in the early nineties to his slew of box office smash films such as Bio-Dome (1996), Jury Duty (1995), In the Army Now (1994), Son in Law (1993) and Encino Man (1992).

He describes Pauly Shore is Dead as being pretty truthful and dark. “I’m hard on myself. I just kinda destroy myself and also have fun at the same time. People who never liked me before, I think responded to it because I’m making fun of myself a lot and in this business you have to. When you are part of pop culture, you gotta make fun of it. No one would give me money for it, but then I just did it myself, and it turned out to be great.”

Going from the major studio pics his independent production of the documentary meant a much smaller budget but much more of his vision and control. “It was exactly what I wanted. I shot as long as I wanted, I didn’t have to wait. The payoff was great. They weren’t as big as the other movies. I’ve been promoting my TV show for three or four weeks now and everyone who has seen the movies, all the DJ’s and the radio stations all really liked “Pauly Shore is Dead” so that was a really cool response.

Totally Pauly taught the comedian how to work in front of a camera spontaneously.

“Totally Pauly was very much like off-the cuff, creating moments with people, and the comedy coming out from that. It was successful from like ‘90 to ‘95. Minding The Store, I don’t want to say is like that, but it’s in a similar format due to the fact that I’m off the cuff, and playing off people. It’s interesting because on the show, I’m like the straight man. I’m the Seinfeld on the show. There are a lot of mental patients around me. There are always bizarre people around me, all the comics, and I’m the one keeping it together. And that’s really how it is in real life. That’s what people are responding to; that’s why the reviews have been pretty positive. I’m letting the comedy play.”

While he’s quite accomplished, the industry is still an important creative challenge for him. “Even George Burns never really figured it out. I don’t think there is a perfect formula of what works. Even Steven Spielberg I guess has his crummy movies or movies that don’t play as well. It’s a creative thing inside of you. It’s something that you can’t explain. It’s like a virus inside of you that you have to try constantly to be creative. Right now, I can go on the road and probably make some pretty good money doing some stand-up. But I’m really kind of burned on my act. I’m burned on the jokes I was doing 6-7 months ago. I want to do new stuff for me to be motivated to go back out.”

Mentioning Pauly Shore’s name to young people still creates a general excitement about him and that should hopefully make his new TV show a hit. Shore has survived the wrath of what Hollywood can do to one’s soul, and he is now back in a brave, funny new way. Minding The Store may also touch a whole new generation who never had the chance to see him the first time around. It’s a ballsy move for Shore, but the concept of his real life isn’t too farfetched and is actually extremely interesting, possibly far more so than most reality series offered today.

“People should check it out. It’s a good comedy and I think they will hopefully be sucked into it,” says Pauly Shore. Minding the Store premieres tonight on TBS; check local listings for times.






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