Pauly Shore: Not just another Weasel face

Most people remember Pauly Shore as the colorfully airheaded valley boy of MTV’s early-’90s Spring Break specials who referred to himself as “the Weasel” and went on to make critically reviled but commercially successful comedies like “Encino Man” and “Son-In-Law.”

But in December, Shore revealed another side – one that may even win over the haters.

The documentary “Pauly Shore Stands Alone,” which aired on Showtime and is available on Shore’s website for $5, follows the comedian during a weeklong stand-up tour of Wisconsin in winter as he deals with moving his Parkinson’s disease-stricken mother out of the Hollywood mansion she’d lived in for 40 years. A portion of the proceeds from download sales go toward Parkinson’s research.

It’s not a glamorous portrait of the artist.

“In the film, it’s me on the road, dealing with my mom being sick and not having a relationship with my siblings and not having a kid and getting older,” says Shore, 47, who returns to The Comedy Zone on Wednesday.

The gritty but funny documentary deals with fleeting fame and family drama but finds Shore more relatable than ever.

“If (viewers) aren’t going through it, they can identify with someone that is,” says Shore, calling from a hotel in Hawaii, where he’s filming a guest spot on an upcoming episode of CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0.”

“People that saw the doc identified with it, and people that saw it that were friends of mine were like, that was like who I really was. People like to be connected and relate.”

Shore is actually a studied comedian who was practically raised in L.A.’s famed The Comedy Store, which his parents started in 1972 and his mother retained after their divorce.

“It’s just like if you grew up and your parents owned a bakery and you’re there all the time,” he says of the parade of A-list comedians that performed on his mother’s stage.

Shore never wanted to do anything else.

“Comedy chooses you,” he said. “You don’t choose it. I had brothers and sisters that grew up in it and they didn’t do it. I was always kind of funny. I went from high school to pros, like Kobe Bryant. MTV was my college.”

Like the documentary, Shore’s recent projects reveal more about the man behind the Weasel. On his recently relaunched podcast, “The Pauly Shore Podcast Show,” he chats with everyone from Garry Shandling to director Brett Ratner (past guests have included Chris Rock and baseball pitcher Brian Wilson).

“I have a lot of access to people because I’ve been in the business since I was young and grew up at The Comedy Store,” Shore said.

He’ll begin filming the podcast soon and would like to see it jump to television; that’s where he’d also like to see a documentary series based on the documentary end up.

“I’m in the middle of trying to sell a documentary series based off the documentary,” he said. “I kept filming after it was over. I have over 200 hours in the can.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Pauly Shore: Not just another Weasel face."