Pauly Shore is Glad To Get Back Into Starring Roles With Guest House

Pauly Shore, a staple of the American comedy scene for decades and a wildly popular comedian, actor, and personality during the 1990s, will appear in his first starring feature film role in a decade next week, when Guest House hits digital and on-demand platforms — and he says he’s thrilled to be back in what he calls “the circus.” Almost 25 years on from Bio-Dome and 17 years after Pauly Shore is Dead launched him into a series of roles where he played either himself, or a parody of himself, Shore told ComicBook.com that he’s glad to be getting back into acting, rather than just parody and comedy.

In Guest House, “engaged couple Sarah (Aimee Teegarden) and Blake (Mike Castle) buy their dream home, there’s a catch: a party animal named Randy (Shore) in the guest house who refuses to leave! When Randy throws a wild, sexy pool party, the cops show up — and Blake gets arrested. Can he and Sarah get through their backyard wedding without a certain loser crashing the party…and ruining their marriage?”

“I was just happy to get another shot of doing something which was not playing a version of myself, which I’d been doing for a while,” Shore told ComicBook.com. “I mean, it’s where I feel I belong. I love acting. I love working with a group of people and developing scripts, and I love the process. So it’s kind of like, in the ’90s I was in a circus — because that’s really what it is; when you go from movie to movie, or big project, It’s like a circus. There’s the caterer, there’s the hair and makeup person, there’s the wardrobe. You know what I mean? And then I left the circus, or the circus left me, and then now I’m back at the circus. So as I was on the set, back in that space, it felt like that was my home.”

For Shore, who grew up around the entertainment industry (his mother owned and operated Los Angeles landmark The Comedy Store, and later founded The Comedy Channel, which would eventually become Comedy Central), returning to the “circus” after all that time away still feels pretty normal. Shore has been managing The Comedy Store since his mother passed away in 2018, and remains a writer, director, and producer.

“It feels like an old shoe,” Shore explained. “It doesn’t feel weird. It felt like an old, nice shoe. And I have a lot of experience, so I’m able to help the other people get through it. I’m able to look at scripts and movies from a point of view of up-top, looking down at it, as opposed to being in it, because I’ve done it for so long and I’ve developed stuff and I’ve been through it. So I’m able to kind of wear a lot of hats. And I like the fact that I produced and directed a lot of my own stuff, because it really helps me with rewriting scripts and pacing and all that stuff. So it felt good, and hopefully I’ll get another shot and we’ll do some more, but that’s what I love to do. I’m a comic, but I’m really an actor, you know? So I love acting.”

Guest House will be available on-demand and for digital purchase on September 4.