In ‘Sammy Shore,’ Comic’s Life Is Played for Laughs

The Energizer comic Sammy Shore is still zinging in one-liners after 45 years in thebusiness. “. . . But First, Sammy Shore,” his one-man show at Two Roads Theatre, delivers plenty of laughs, especially when Shore is waxing hilarious about the travails of growing old. It’s when Shore tries to impose a dramatic structure on the proceedings that he runs into trouble.

A formidably spry character of 70-something, Shore apparently intends the show, co-written with Rudy DeLuca and directed by Paul Linke, to be a no-holds-barred tell-all about his life. At play’s end, he doffs his toupee and says, “Now you know everything.”

Not really. Despite input from Linke, a solo-show maven, this production is essentially a stand-up routine, with Shore’s somewhat mundane autobiographical musings spliced in.

In keeping with the title--a wry reference to his long career as an opening act for such luminaries as Elvis Presley and Tony Bennett--Shore’s reminiscences are made up largely of celebrity anecdotes, a veritable laundry list of famous people Shore has known. We get only faint glimpses of Shore’s parents, Russian Jewish immigrants who settled in Chicago, and we learn even less about his fabled breakup with ex-wife Mitzi, who obtained sole ownership of their Comedy Store in the wake of their divorce. Scant too is information about his four children, including his celebrity son, Pauly.

As Shore himself admits, he was an indifferent husband and father, more interested in his career than his family. Still, if he wants to tell the story of his life, he needs to be more forthcoming with the personal data, however revealing or painful. For now, his show remains an amusing resume, suitable for a cabaret but not quite ready for the theater.

*

* “. . . But First, Sammy Shore,” Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends April 8. $15. (818) 761-0704. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.