Look, I’ve gone through life without any particular opinion Pauly Shore. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of his movies, and while the little bits of him I have seen haven’t particularly wowed me, I haven’t really seen him doing his thing.
I did, however, see him once in person. I was at The Comic Store, which is his mother’s comedy club, to see The Smothers Brothers. He was obviously doing some management work there. It’s that sort of activity that forms the basis of Minding the Store, Pauly’s new mock reality series about him running The Comedy Store for his mom. It’s certainly an attractive concept, with the club giving an excuse to show some comedians and the handheld camera style of reality shows being cheap to make.
Alas, it’s not funny. It comes across as both a purposeful showcase for Pauly’s talents, which aren’t impressive, and an ad for the Store. Good “mockumentary” (defined by the Christopher Guest team from Spinal Tap on) gets it strength by being that close to reality, catching the reality of the absurd. But Pauly Shore making up a tape to pitch his dramatic acting ability by reading a scene from a blaxploitation flick doesn’t feel close to funny, it feels like someone standing up and shouting “hey! I’m funny!” Walk the walk, Pauly.
And schedule more Smothers Brothers shows. That was fun.
