The weasel is no more. Pauly Shore has died. Let us take a moment to remember the southern-California-bred slacker that you saw on MTV’s Spring Break.

In the ‘90s, Pauly Shore seemed to be everywhere — he was constantly on MTV, he appeared in several movies (“Bio-Dome,” “Encino Man”) and he dated basically the most popular women of the era. He has been romantically linked to model Jillian Grace, actress Tiffani Amber Thiessen and pop star Kylie Minogue (“That’s the one thing about doing movies — you get to hook up with your co-stars,” he admits).

Due to this constant exposure, and perhaps jealousy at his seemingly undeserved fame, audiences were turned off and later turned on the casual comedian. Despite his background in comedy, his name became the punch-line in many jokes. Later, Shore received several Razzies, a distinction for the worst performances every year in film. Most notably, he won for “Worst New Star of the Decade” in 2000.

Shore still talks in his lackadaisical SoCal drawl, peppering his language with “bro” and “you know.” But, the words come with a sense of maturity and acceptance about his career’s arc: “You put yourself out there and you get battered. It’s good to have thick skin. Thick foreskin.”

So how do you have a second act when the audience has already left?

The answer, it seems, is to fake your own death. “You gotta die to come back,” he claims. His 2003 mockumentary “Pauly Shore is Dead” has received positive reviews and even won him an audience choice award at the Slamdunk Film Festival. A parade of celebrities collaborated to help Shore in his self-deprecating project, and a mock funeral helped cap a nation-wide publicity campaign. He believes the appeal of the film is due to “Making fun of myself but yet appealing to people who never liked me.”

Afterwards, a new Pauly Shore emerged, and, while the weasel is no more, he has been reborn. Shore has been focusing on his jokes, on getting back into stand-up comedy: “My style used to be the persona and now it’s more about my material.” The weasel persona is dead. “Its something I did a while ago... we’re all different than we were 15 years ago.” His new material draws on contemporary issues as diverse as Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid to his rollercoaster career. His routine, in his words, “is like a surfer jumping into a wave... You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

For those who fear that he may be taking himself too seriously now, he still states that his style is simply “Keeping it real, bro.” He aspires to “Keep a connection with the audience” and “just hang out.”

Many consider his resurgence in the comedy world surprising because his fame was not derived from his joke-telling, but rather his iconic persona. But comedy is the family trade. His mother opened up the famous Comedy Store in Los Angeles in 1972, a comedy club where countless legendary comedians performed, oftentimes before they made it big. John Belushi, Jim Carrey, Bill Hicks and Jerry Seinfeld are among its alumni. Shore grew up with some of the finest acts in the world, and they made a deep impression on him. With the parade of comedians around him, he quickly developed favorites and mentors: “The guys that moved me were [Richard] Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Sam [Kinison]... and Robin Williams... These are the guys I would get stoked by.”

Since his mother owned the club, he met a lot of the greats — as babysitters. “My mom would give me physically to comics. I got taken to little league and all of these comics would be in the audience.” Sam Kinison drove him around. Stand up legends would cheer for him in the field.

In 2005, he had a reality show on TBS called “Minding the Store” which was about his campaign to revitalize the Comedy Store. Despite the program’s cancellation, he calls the project successful: “The show helped get the name back out there.” He still watches over the Comedy Store on occasion, and, akin to the Store’s famous alums, he performs new stand-up there. Shore believes that the common trait they all posses is their need to be comedians: “I think the true comedians are the ones that have to go on stage; they don’t want to go on stage. There is stuff that I have to talk about.”

Despite the ridicule he endured for his years of surprising stardom, he has a positive attitude about it: “It was just my time. I was outrageous and wild and I didn’t give a fuck... It was about the people and connecting. There was that connection between me and the people. If I go to an airport... everybody will give me high fives. It’s a cool thing to be known for.”

Now on tour, Pauly Shore is coming to the Bay Area. He’s performing Friday through Sunday at the Improv in San Jose. If you can’t make those, part of his resurgence includes a soon-to-be-released sketch comedy special called “Natural Born Komics” and a guest-starring role on “Entourage” due out in two months.

Love him or hate him, Pauly Shore is still very much alive, bro.