The writer's attitude is self-negating and crab-pot envious, alternately telling us how pathetic he is and giving us (poorly chosen) damning details about Pauly Shore.
A couple of things:
- I was an MTV viewer during the Totally Pauly years. It should come as no surprise, then, that I am no fan of Pauly Shore. I've never been a fan of comedians whose acts are personality--rather than joke--based. This, coupled with his constant presence on the only channel I really watched, made me stay far away from anything he's done.
- Still, I've kept an eye on his career. Where does one go when one becomes a fad, especially at such a young age? My interest in him was piqued when I saw what was probably the nadir of his career. During an infomercial for sunglasses, probably BluBlockers, he appeared as one of the random men-on-the-street who tried the sunglasses and liked them. He was not the one who wore the product, which was one of the small group he was with, but he made sure to interject himself and, most importantly, he was not credited. Perhaps this was his choice but it was a real "Didn't you used to be famous?" moment.
- The piece reminds me of Arthur Marx's biography of Bob Hope. I'm a fan of "unauthorized biographies," a genre that focuses on smearing celebrities, primarily through interviewing the little people that the celebrity might have snubbed. While Kitty Kelley's works on Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan are the towering pillars in the field, thick, mean books that attach a stink to their subjects, Marx's just aren't as good. His subjects are more of your run-of-the-mill jerks. His biography of Bob Hope makes him out to be a cheap womanizer who is short with anyone who isn't another big shot. In this article, Pauly comes across as a guy who lives in his own world, a world that's pretty much as simple as he is. Nothing to idolize, but I don't find it worthy of vitriol.
- Of course, the real issue is that our special, "obese," "barely tolerated," drop-out and impoverished author wasn't treated well enough. Pauly didn't buy him a coffee or a burrito. He didn't help him get stage time. He made him copy DVDs on an "old PC with Windows XP installed."
- That seems to be the main theme of every "I Interned for..." pieces, that the intern wasn't treated like an honored guest and made to do dull work. I'm not a fan of the prevalence of internships but this is precisely what one is supposed to expect. The benefit is to see, in action, those aspects of the business that aren't publicized. If I were in that position, I'd be looking at how he got booked, how he worked on the act, how he kept his name in the public's mind, how he set goals and accomplished them. After all, he has come out with a couple of self-produced movies since his star fell.
- When the writer does pay attention to these things, it's to mock them in an obnoxious way. He sits in on a writing session, listening to Pauly rant and then seeing his assistant turn them into five minutes of material, which is no small feat for a comedian.
Then there's this:
After the show, the comedians all got together to hang out in the Green Room and I was invited to join. I’m not really sure why, but Don [Barris, of the Big Three] kept getting into a boxing stance and smacking me in the shoulder, yelling “Fight me! Fight me!” Every time I would back away, he would smack me again. Eventually he slapped me in the face while his friends pointed and laughed. It was one of the most humiliating things I have ever experienced, and I totally cried in my bed that night.Okay, one comment about the upcoming generation: Getting over things like this should have been accomplished in high school. What are they teaching these kids?
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