Coming to Showtime tonight, Thursday, December 4: PAULY SHORE STANDS ALONE
Shore’s self-directed standup road trip doc debuted at the Los Angeles Downtown Film Festival this Summer, where it picked up an award. It went on to screen at Woodstock this past October.
Decades past the height of his MTV and bro comedy popularity, the now middle-aged comedian contends less with celebrity and more with the challenges of an ailing mother, an aging body, and earning a living as a standup. While known for early 1990s comedies like ENCINO MAN and SON IN LAW, the film makes it clear that he didn’t just pop up out of nowhere – his father, Sammy, was himself a comic, and his mother, Mitzi, founded and ran the celebrated Comedy Store in Hollywood, a venue which saw some of the most notable comedians of the past several decades hone their craft, from Richard Pryor to Roseanne, Robin Williams to Sam Kinison. While Hollywood may not be turning to Shore with star vehicles any longer, he maintains a healthy fanbase that shows up to his comedy club appearances. As he travels to mostly small towns in the Midwest to perform, Shore’s film catches audiences up to his present activities – living with his mother, who suffers from advanced Parkinson’s, renting out his own home to help with finances, contending with an enlarged prostate, and half-heartedly considering whether he should finally grow up, settle down, and start his own family. While Shore is able to tap into some of his old “Weasel” stoner persona, he tends more toward a quieter, often self-deprecating humor, at least for the purposes of this unapologetically self-promoting behind-the-scenes portrait. While it may not resonate as strongly as its obvious forebears JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK or ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME, which benefit from performers with far more history behind them, this fairly conventional road trip doc is appealing enough for what it aims to do, presenting a different side of a figure who is otherwise often quickly dismissed out of hand for having presumed to continue beyond the peak of his mainstream celebrity.
what (not) to doc 