STAGE REVIEW : Sammy Shore: Still Funny After All These Years : Once an opening act, the veteran comic now opens for himself at San Diego’s Gaslamp in a poignant look at the life of an aging comedian.

It might seem sad to see a man who performed for thousands, as the opening act for Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley and Tom Jones, now working the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company’s small venue downtown.

But Sammy Shore doesn’t let anyone feel sorry for him, even for a minute. The old pro knows the fundamental rule of comedy--laugh at yourself first.

And that’s just what he does right at the top of his terrific new show, “Beyond the Laughter, Beneath the Smile.”

“When I was a little kid, I dreamed I would grow up and play to an 83-seat house in San Diego,” the 60-year-old comic says, shaking his head and getting into a lather while riding a stationary bike on stage.

“The young people are taking over the whole industry! Why do you think I’m here? My youngest son, Pauly Shore, has his own TV show. Pauly is 19. He’s making $25,000 a week. And I’m here at 4th and Market riding this damn bike! I’m not bitter!” he says, his blue eyes going wild as he pedals furiously, lifting the handlebars of the bike up and then smashing them down to the ground.

Shore, in case you’re wondering, is the father of MTV comedian Pauly Shore. In fact, this whole act, written by Shore and writer-actor-comedian Greg Lewis, is a slice of Shore’s own life as an aging comedian, looking back, looking at the present and looking ahead.

It’s a funny but poignant look. After batteries of jokes, Shore becomes an opening act for himself--the real Sammy Shore. A guy who describes himself as “the woman who owns the Comedy Store’s ex-husband” (Mitzi Shore got the store he founded as part of their divorce settlement). A guy who just broke up with his girlfriend, but is still looking for love.

He’s had two hip replacements and has enough vanity to have worn a hairpiece since he was 22 or 23 (he says); but still, in the middle of the show, he takes the hairpiece off.

He’s a guy who worries about death, which he calls “The Big Sleep.” He’s a guy who misses his parents, both of whom passed away, and who worries about the world passing him by.

He’s a guy who clings to the memories of great stars he has known and loved and who nourishes a fantasy--it’s not clear whether this is fictional or not--about a girl he wanted to ask out in high school but never dared approach.

The set, which has pictures of his mother, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr., Cary Grant and Elvis on the wall, is supposed to suggest his own living room. He treats the audience as guests in his apartment and talks to them directly, with no small measure of intrusive, friendly abuse.

Watch out, those of you who dare to sit in the first row--he’ll find out what you do for a living and what you do for excitement, and he won’t forget it. He even made a bald guy in the second row try on his hairpiece. And, in a tiny space like the Gaslamp, even the people in the back aren’t safe.

But what drives the two hours is a phone call he gets during the show from a friend who wants to introduce him to a 24-year-old woman who wants to meet him at a Jewish dance. Should he go? Isn’t it a little foolish to be chasing young girls at his age, he asks the audience.

“The second thing that goes at my age is your memory,” he says. “The first I forgot.”

He tries to talk himself out of going to this dance, telling us about all the ridiculous relationships he’s had with stewardesses and ski instructors and women he tried to sidetrack on their way to Elvis’ dressing room. But, as the jokes and stories keep rolling, he starts putting curlers in his hairpiece, doing his exercises and getting ready to shower before meeting the girl.

The show has its hokey moments. Shore would do well to drop the music that gets piped in when he starts to get serious--either that or make a joke of it. But, on the whole, it’s a masterful blend of old-fashioned battering-ram stand-up and gentle comic revelations.

Shore worked the place like he was thinking about buying it. And one could say that by the end of the evening he owned the house--the applause, even by the abused, was genuine, loving and enthusiastic.

The young guys may be taking over the industry, as he says, but the old man has still got it.

This show, which debuted last month in Palm Springs, deserves to go places. Catch it here, while you can.

“BEYOND THE LAUGHTER, BENEATH THE SMILE”

By Greg Lewis and Sammy Shore. Additional material by Rudy De Luca. Director is Mark W. Travis. Music and lyrics by Carol Conner. With Sammy Shore. At 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through April 6. At 547 4th Ave., San Diego, (619) 234-9583.