Las Vegas performers enjoying fatherhood

The Strip turned out to be a good environment for working mothers such as Celine Dion, Rita Rudner and Toni Braxton.

As a society, it still seems less unusual to talk about working dads. But consider two performers experiencing fatherhood from different ends of the age range.

John O'Hurley had the good fortune to land "Monty Python's Spamalot" shortly after the birth of his son William, now 18 months old. The actor was used to being "in an airplane 300 days a year," he says. "It was a blessing for me to sit still for almost a year and a half.

"Each day you never get back if you give it away," O'Hurley adds, so "I'm very careful about traveling without him." With the musical, "I have all of my days free. I take him over to the putting green and he has a full-shoulder turn."

More nights than not, the toddler still can be spotted pushing his stroller through Wynn Las Vegas in his pajamas. "He loves watching the show on the monitor, and sometimes I'll bring him out on the deep part of the wings and let him watch. And he gets such a kick out of my outfit. It's like Dad is a live action figure," O'Hurley says.

Since he has become a father, O'Hurley says he has realized "a depth of love that I didn't know was possible." And he says, "I no longer require the same returns I used to from entertainment. It has been the biggest change in my life. I used to define myself by being an actor and an entertainer."

At the other end of the fatherhood spectrum is veteran comedian Sammy Shore, a fairly new Summerlin resident. He has three sons, one of them a psychiatrist in Chicago helping soldiers from Iraq cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Pauly Shore, now 40, generates most questions about Sammy's family. The two perform 10 to 15 stand-up dates together each year; Sammy is his son's opening act. They have done this more than 10 years now.

"It was Mitzi's idea," Sammy says of his ex-wife, who runs The Comedy Store. "She said, 'I think you need your dad now, Pauly. Why don't you take your dad on the road with you?' "

But it was Sammy who was revitalized in the process, after standing ovations from Pauly's young fans. If fatherhood made O'Hurley realize he didn't need to be an entertainer, it made Shore realize he still is one.

Granted, they have an unusual father-son relationship. Shore remembers groupies filing into the tour bus -- "Oh Mr. Shore, you are so funny" -- on their way to "whatever whatever" with Pauly. Recently, Pauly had to come pull Sammy out of a hotel bathtub when he froze up and somehow couldn't get out.

"It got us closer," Sammy says of their travels. "We talk all the time now."

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 702-383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.