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Pauly Shore’s filmography (Bio-Dome, Encino Man, Son in Law) netted him a Razzie award for “Worst New Star of the Decade” in the ’90s. His latest—a video of a heckler punching Shore in the face on a comedy-club stage in Odessa, Texas—went viral in December and was later revealed to be a hoax. The antic will be fodder for his four-day stand-up stint this weekend.

Why stage a fake punch?
Why not? I like to make fun of things, you know? Like the whole [Michael] Richards thing turned into something so retarded. Not what he said, just the fact that everyone was so curious about hecklers. And I wanted to make fun of the whole video-phone thing—how ridiculous it’s gotten…“Oh shit, did you see? Oh shit, did you see?”

Are you down with hecklers?
Hecklers shouldn’t heckle because a lot of people pay a lot of money to see comedians…[it’s] almost like a baby crying on the plane for a comic, you know. I mean, I don’t mind it as long as it’s not continuous. [But] it’s not about me, it’s about the audience, working all week long at their shitty jobs in their shitty lives; sometimes people just want to enjoy the show.

What was your goal?
If you look at the best comedians, they’re people who talk about things. When Dave Chappelle left for Africa, he came back and talked about it. When Richard Pryor caught on fire onstage, he talked about it. I hadn’t had anything personal happen, so I wanted to kind of, you know, make fun of that.—Steve Heisler

Pauly Shore does mike duty at the Improv Thursday 11 through Sunday 14. See Shore’s heckler video at www.youtube.com.