With TV special at the Palms, Pauly Shore shows he’s still a little nuts

By John Katsilometes

Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 | 5:22 p.m.

Pauly Shore shouldn’t be doing this.

We’re not talking about eating lunch at Simon at Palms Place, where the man who is still occasionally referred to as “Weasel” is popping open edamame and devouring the sushi sampler in short order.

No, Shore should not be fronting the "Pauly Shore’s Vegas Is My Oyster” variety performance Sunday at 9 p.m. at Pearl Concert Theater. The show is being recorded to air as a cable TV special, and Shore has his hands in all facets of the production.

Which seems no way to live, really.

“I’m sick,” says the onetime star of “Encino Man,” who today is purely Business Man. “I’m fried from the whole experience. It’s like training for a UFC fight. It’s nuts. I’m not going out, constantly working, dealing with cameras, everything. I flip from the performer Pauly to the director Pauly. The whole thing is intense. I’m working with a limited budget, and I have very little money to work with.”

Then why do it?

“Because I am crazy,” he says, smiling and shaking his head. “It’s like I’m in the comedy Mafia. I can’t get out! I’m in a crazy zone right now.”

This zone incorporates a curtain warehouse.

“I’ve been looking for curtains, driving through the rain trying to find a good deal on curtains,” he says. “I’m dealing with a hair-and-makeup person, budgeting that. A camera guy. A guy from New York tells me, ‘We got a guy for $500 a day.’ I’m like, we can’t afford that! It’s not like I have a production guy doing all of this. I’m doing it myself, and it’s nuts.”

As Shore describes the project, the show will unfold in the same vein as the inspired “Larry Sanders Show,” which aired on HBO for much of the 1990s. The special will center on the action onstage, with live and taped cut-away packages splicing together what is happening in the theater.

“There is a storyline that’s going to evolve,” he says, “but the bed of the special is the stand-up.”

The cast ranges widely, reflecting Shore’s own scattered brain. Dave Navarro will perform some guitar gymnastics and introduce Semi Precious Weapons, still riding a crest after touring with Lady Gaga. The aggressively tattooed Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, she of the tawdry relationship with Jesse James, will take part, as will ever-busy adult actress Bree Olson (a performer in 170 porn films). Andrea Lowell of Playboy Radio, too, is taking part, as the show will certainly be shaded in a hue of blue.

The show is stocked with an odd assortment of celebs: The ever-combustible Andy Dick, Charlyne Yi (“Semi-Pro,” “Knocked Up”), Faizon Love (“Couples Retreat, “Def Comedy Jam”), Maz Jobrani (“Axis of Evil” tour, “Friday After Next”), April Macie (who was voted the “Hottest Female Comic” on Howard Stern’s multimedia show). The taped skits star, among others, Tom Green and Bobby Lee ("Mad TV," "Pineapple Express"), who will be incorporated throughout the special.

The son of Las Vegan Sammy Shore, most famous as Elvis’ opening act at the International and Las Vegas Hilton, Shore, who turns 43 on Feb. 1, is approached frequently by fans who hearken to his early and mid-1990s film heyday. “I try to accommodate anyone, but if you’re hung over, or you’re stressed or you’re tired, the last thing you want is someone coming up to you saying, ‘Hey Weasel! Weasel! Encino Man!’” he says. “I try to be accommodating. I think I am.”

Shore, whose mother Mitzi helped boost the careers of scores of comics who started their careers at her Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip, is still a well-known figure in the entertainment industry. He has drawn upon some of his personal relationships to fill roles in the cable special. Example: He met McGee on Halloween in Vegas, and the two have been friends since (Shore’s description of the text-heavy relationship seems to counter some gossip Web site reportage that the two are dating).

“We had a funny exchange, I got her phone number, and we text once in a while, so she was in my life as a friend just as someone I met,” he says. “And I thought, I’m going to write this thing for her and get her into the show.” He’s known Navarro for years and mentioned the show to him when the two bumped into each other at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in L.A. Shore also notes, "The Andy Dick situation, I reached out to him.”

In the skit featuring Shore and Dick, the two are waiting in line to meet Olson. “I say to Andy, ‘Hey, the last time we were in a line like this, we were getting our heads shaved for ‘In The Army Now,’ ” Shore says, referring to the 1995 military-themed comedy that didn’t quite make anyone forget “Stripes.”

“So Andy goes, ‘Don’t remind me! Come to think of it, after I did that movie, that’s when I lost all of my effin’ mind!” So he blames me for his career going effing crazy.”

As of Sunday night, the favor will be returned.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.