Pauly Shore is Dead
(Fox Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2004)
review by Bil Withonel

I like Pauly Shore. There, I've said it, and I'm certain any ounce of credibility I've ever had the illusion of having has disappeared faster than a packet of those little chocolate donuts left open at Rosie O’Donnell’s house. It's true though, beneath all the "whoa buuuuuuuud-y's" and the rest of the dude speak that made him famous in the early 90's, I can see some rare comedic timing.(I still think Pauly candidly asking Ru Paul, "So, did you bail your dong?" was the one of funniest thing MTV ever aired, next to The State that is......) For my birthday a few years ago, I had bugged my girlfriend at the time to take me to see Pauly Shore who was doing standup at the Comedy Connection that weekend. She relented, kicking and screaming, and right up to pulling into the parking lot, asked if I knew anyone that wanted HER ticket. Once inside, her opinion changed. Gone were the pounds and pounds of curly hair. Gone were the head bands and neo-hippy clothes. Gone was the "Weasel" persona. Gone was the whole gimmick. What was left was just a 30 something man, telling some jokes and some funny stories and making people laugh. And laugh we did. Even my ever skeptical exgirlfriend was crying with laughter at some points. He proved that night that he can get by on his own. The only problem seems to be that Hollywood is less interested in a NON-Weasel-Pauly, than they are in a Weaseled Pauly.

Pauly Shore is Dead (You'll Never Weaz In This Town Again) is a half fictitious auto biography of Pauly's rise and fall in Hollywood. Being the son of comedian Sammi Shore (yeah, I don't know who he is either....) and Mitzi Shore (Owner of The Comedy Store on Hollywood Blvd) gave Pauly a unfair advantage in to the world of Standup Comedy, a fact that many stand up comedians held against him. MTV gave him is own show, "Totally Pauly" and several movies were written just for him. In 1997, Fox gave him his own sit-com, "Pauly." In the movie, Pauly refers to this as the "worst thing that ever happened to me." The show had the plug pulled on it after only one episode. (I watched it, I admit it)... And that was the end of Pauly's career.

In the movie, Pauly is visited by the ghost of Sam Kinison. This seems a bit in poor taste, unless you know that Sam Kinison was the person who Pauly idolized as a kid, and spent a lot of time with growing up at The Comedy Store. Sam tells Pauly that the best career move he could make is to kill himself. Die young and be thought of as a "comic genius gone before his time was up" as it had worked so well for Andy Kaufman, Lenny Bruce, and even Sam himself. Pauly does, or at least he fakes his own death. For a brief moment, he gets some respect. However, his ruse is quickly discovered, and he becomes more hated than ever. Even his loyal fans (which are portrayed as filthy inbred rednecks) turn on him, and Pauly is sent to jail. While in jail, Pauly decides that he "wants to act" and dabbles with some Shakespeare, and has a dramatic scene or two.

On the whole, the movie comes across as an 82 minute exercise in self pity. Pauly has the ability to laugh at himself, and readily admits that his shtick during the 90's was as lowbrow as you can get. He has no problem admitting how bad some of his movies, Jury Duty in particular, actually were. The weird part is watching him beg other actors over and over "Is there a part in your movie for me?" I never was 100% sure on how to take the movie. In one way it looked like Pauly was raising a HUGE middle finger up to Hollywood, and yelling FUCK YOU through a megaphone, but groveling for another chance at stardom at the same time. The equivalent of begging and pleading with an ex to take you back, that you've changed and all you ever wanted was her, and buying flowers and candy and kissing a major amount of ass, then turning around and calling her a whore when she refuses your groveling.

Close to the only redeeming quality of this self directed, self financed, self pity montage is the fact that Pauly still has a lot of friends that will work for free to help him out. Cameos abound in this flick. Everyone from current headline grabbers like the Hilton sisters, to fellow has-beens Carrot Top, and Todd Bridges (Yes, Todd Bridges, who actually has much more than a cameo) I think Pauly, much like a lot of people thrust into the spotlight without paying necessary dues, find themselves wondering "What happened?" when the world stops banging at their door. You've been replaced with the next piece of fodder for the Hollywood machine, Pauly, and they will probably never ever give you another look. You're best bet now is to find something that makes you happy, that hopefully will make you some money at the same time. If you're looking for your own show, or movies custom written for you, those days are long gone and looking backwards, trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, will be the worse thing that could ever happen to you, worse than getting your own sitcom on Fox.