Pauly Shore Leaves Deon Cole Starstruck With Untold Comedy Store Stories

Deon Cole Could Barely Contain Himself Once Pauly Opened The Vault

Catch ’90s phenom Pauly Shore visiting fellow comedian—and thespian in his own right—Deon Cole on Funny Knowing You. But this is not merely two comics trading road stories. It quickly becomes Deon sitting across from a walking piece of Comedy Store history and realizing, in real time, just how many legends Pauly actually knew.

From the opening introduction, Deon treats Pauly like an icon. He calls him one of the funniest people on the planet, then spends much of the conversation reacting with wide-eyed disbelief, delighted interruptions and the kind of uncontrollable laughter that makes an interview feel less like promotion and more like a genuine fan finally getting access to the stories he has always wanted to hear.

Pauly Shore Did Not Just Watch Comedy History—He Grew Up Inside It

Pauly explains that he was already working as a short-order cook at the Comedy Store’s Westwood location when he was only 14. That job placed him within feet of a generation of performers who would help define stand-up through the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

He remembers watching Sam Kinison, Jim Carrey, Andrew Dice Clay, Paul Rodriguez, Louie Anderson, Bob Saget and Mike Binder develop in the room. Later, when he began performing himself, Pauly says he came up around comics including Chris Rock and Faizon Love.

Every new name seems to make Deon lean in further. His laughter is not the polite host laugh used to keep a show moving. He sounds genuinely starstruck—partly by Pauly himself, but especially by the realization that the stories are coming from somebody who was physically there while modern comedy was being assembled night after night.

Richard Pryor Was “Jesus,” And Deon Needed Every Detail

The exchange becomes especially electric when Pauly talks about Richard Pryor. He says he saw Pryor often and was very close to him, describing the response when Pryor walked onto the Comedy Store stage as something even heavier than the modern shock of Dave Chappelle making an unannounced appearance.

Pauly remembers Pryor’s “sweet vulnerability” and says both Pryor and Sam Kinison taught him how important the first 30 seconds of a set can be. Even when the material was harsh or confrontational, he saw a heart and likability underneath it. His lesson was simple: walk onstage and let the audience feel the sweetness before taking them somewhere dangerous.

Deon, clearly amazed, keeps asking whether Pauly saw the legends bomb, practice and work through unfinished material. Pauly confirms that he did. He witnessed Pryor testing material on nights when it did not all land—an intimate reminder that even the names now treated as untouchable mythology still had to build the act one room at a time.

Robin Harris, Redd Foxx, Paul Mooney And George Carlin Enter The Chat

Then Pauly starts dropping stories so casually that Deon can barely keep up. Pauly says he was the person who introduced his mother, Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore, to Robin Harris. After seeing Harris destroy at Fat Tuesdays, Pauly says he waited for him to leave the stage, rushed him through the club to meet Mitzi and insisted she put him up next. Harris killed again and became a regular.

Pauly calls Harris brilliant, sweet and heartfelt, and says he carried a little of Redd Foxx in him. That leads to another almost impossible memory: Pauly says Foxx once recognized him as Mitzi’s son and handed him a joint. He held onto it for a long time before eventually smoking it.

He also says he was very close with Paul Mooney and knew George Carlin well. Pauly did not know Dick Gregory personally, but the roll call alone leaves Deon sounding like somebody who has accidentally booked the oral history of American stand-up instead of a standard celebrity interview.

Inside Deon Cole And Pauly Shore’s Comedy History Exchange

The conversation also reaches Pauly’s parents, his childhood in West Hollywood, his mother’s life at the Comedy Store and the unusual freedom that came with growing up around the club. Pauly speaks warmly about Mitzi’s heart, his comedian father Sammy Shore and the losses of his mother, father and sister within a short span of time.

Deon connects with that grief through his own experience of losing several loved ones in one year. The laughter never disappears, but the episode develops an emotional undercurrent: two veteran comedians recognizing the people, rooms and family histories that made their careers possible.

Pauly Still Sees The Legends Standing Beside Today’s Comics

One of Pauly’s most revealing observations comes when he describes watching current comics at the Comedy Store. He says he can look at somebody performing on that famous stage and still picture Richard Pryor standing beside them because he actually saw Pryor work there.

That history also shapes how Pauly views the modern comedy scene. He praises what Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchcliffe have built in Austin, comparing the sense of focus and opportunity around the Comedy Mothership and Kill Tony to the energy the Comedy Store carried when Mitzi was present.

By the time the interview reaches its end, Deon and Pauly are laughing so hard that Deon says they had been crying. It is the clearest proof of what makes the episode work: Deon never hides how thrilled he is to have Pauly there, and Pauly never treats his access to comedy history like something too precious to joke about.

Watch Pauly Shore Visit Deon Cole On Funny Knowing You

The full conversation follows Pauly through his Comedy Store childhood, friendships with legendary comics, MTV fame, movie career, family losses and the stories that leave Deon genuinely starstruck and laughing throughout.

Source: Deon Cole’s Funny Knowing You interview with Pauly Shore.