Home Joe Rogan Episode
Joe Rogan · 2024-06-27

Joe Rogan Experience #1981 - Pauly Shore

Pauly Shore joins Joe Rogan to celebrate the Comedy Mothership, reminisce about his mother Mitzi Shore and the Comedy Store, and riff on fame and culture.

Joe Rogan Experience #1981 - Pauly Shore
The guest

Pauly Shore: Comedian and actor (Encino Man, Bio-Dome, Pauly Shore Is Dead), former MTV VJ, and son of Comedy Store founder Mitzi Shore.

What this episode covers

Pauly Shore visits Joe Rogan around the opening of the Comedy Mothership in Austin, praising the room and how it has grown the local comedy scene. Much of the conversation is a deeply personal reflection on Pauly's mother Mitzi Shore and father Sammy Shore, the origins of the Comedy Store, and the brutal mentorship that shaped a generation of comics. They swap stories about Sam Kinison, Nicolas Cage, Dave Chappelle, and the heroin culture of Seattle rock. The episode also ranges over homelessness and mental health policy, ibogaine therapy, the geopolitics of the Russia-Ukraine war, the collapse of the sitcom era, and how the internet and podcasts replaced gatekept media. It closes with Michio Kaku-inspired quantum computing talk and Pauly plugging his tour, album, and movies.

Recommended on this episode

ProductRecommended

Yondr phone pouch

Yondr

“I think every Comedy Club should do that”
“I think every Comedy Club should do that that is a a definite sense of Freedom”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

The Machine

Bert Kreischer

“his new movie is hilarious”
“his new movie is hilarious this machine movie is going to crush it it's going to crush it”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

The Ms. Pat Show

Ms. Pat

“Miss Pat's show is hilarious it's really good”
“other than Miss Pat who's pulled it off Miss Pat's show is hilarious it's really good dude but it's on BET plus”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

Sanford and Son

“I love that show ... best show was the best show”
“red red fox I love that show I used to watch that show my grandfather best show was the best show”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

“that movie's good ... so good”
“but him and Pedro Pascal oh my God that movie's good yeah he's aable weight of massive Talent yeah so good”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

Raising Arizona

“raising was amazing”
“I mean Moon struck and leaving Las Vegas raing was amazing so many so many great movies”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended

Pig

“you got to watch Pig ... it's really good ... it's great”
“that's his favorite movie that he did really you got to watch Pig it's really good yeah yeah it's great”— Joe Rogan

The guest's own work

MediaBy the guest

Guest House

Pauly Shore

“have you seen my movie guest house I have not it's on Netflix Eric Griffin's in it Bobby Lee's in it”— Pauly Shore
MediaBy the guest

Pauly Shore and the Crusties

Pauly Shore

“I also have this this is my new album this is cool it's called poly Shore and the crusties”— Pauly Shore
MediaBy the guest

Pauly Shore Is Dead

Pauly Shore

“we also have poly Shore is dead that's on uh the 20-y year anniversary is this year”— Pauly Shore

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

MediaReferenced

Undisputed Truth

Mike Tyson

“it was uh kind like my version of Undisputed Truth which is the Mike Tyson play oh nice”— Pauly Shore
MediaReferenced

Tiger King

“do you think Tiger King would have become AB abely not right it seems like it was like a timing of the universe”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified

Brother Sam

Bill Kinison

“did you ever read his uh brother Bill his book yeah brother Sam um that he talks about the slide”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

Capri cigarettes

“she's smoking her Capri cigarettes and she starts seeing her finger go like that and she goes what's going on”— Pauly Shore
MediaReferenced

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

“he was on the set of I think it was Fast Times at richmont high he was with uh I think it was Shawn Penn”— Pauly Shore
MediaReferenced

Moonstruck

“I mean Moon struck and leaving Las Vegas raing was amazing so many so many great movies”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

Leaving Las Vegas

“how about leaving Las Vegas yeah remember that movie hell yeah holy that movie was Heavy”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

John Wick

“good movie is it like John Wick with pigs no not quite not quite but close I guess”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced

The Old Man

“did you ever see the old man it was a uh series that was on is it on Apple it might be on Apple”— Pauly Shore
MediaReferenced

Watchmen

“that's like that's a scene in The Watchmen or something right picture them doing the same thing but finding an iPhone”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

ChatGPT

OpenAI

“you train CH GPT with some new Tik Tok references some new comedy and then all sudden you go”— Joe Rogan

Big reveals from this episode

  • Pauly took his Parkinson's-stricken mother Mitzi to the Bahamas for fetal-cell injections, which he believes prolonged her life.
  • Sam Kinison dumped cocaine on Pauly's saltwater fish tank at a party and let teenage Pauly and his friend snort it.
  • Pauly explains his father Sammy Shore co-founded the Comedy Store with partner Rudy De Luca before Mitzi took it over.
  • Mitzi Shore disliked Seinfeld and refused to be nice to him even while walking past his house.
  • Mitzi never told Pauly she loved him, believing that saying it would stop him from becoming a comic.
  • Nicolas Cage made Pauly promise never to post any photos or videos of them together because he wants privacy.
  • A fan stitched 450 phone videos into Frank Ocean's full Coachella set, then got threatened with a lawsuit by Coachella.

Worth remembering

  • The Comedy Mothership building has carried the 'Ritz' name since 1927 and the sign must stay as a historical landmark.
  • Michio Kaku built a particle collider in his garage at 17 and photographed antimatter.
  • The 1981 repeal of the Mental Health Systems Act under Reagan is tied to the surge in homelessness.
  • Pauly was a 14-year-old short-order cook at the Westwood Comedy Store, feeding hamburgers to Sam Kinison.
  • Mitzi Shore bought a theater on Las Palmas and Sunset and named it the Richard Pryor Theater.
  • Louis CK advised lowering the ceiling and shrinking the stage of the Mothership's small room, delaying the opening.
  • Journey's singer Arnel Pineda was discovered from YouTube cover videos and is from the Philippines.
  • Kaku told Joe a true quantum computer would crack any encryption and grant technological superiority to whoever builds it first.