Kevin Pollak's Chat Show

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show
Presentation
Hosted by	Kevin Pollak
Genre	Interview
Language	English
Updates	Sundays
Length	1-2 Hours
Production
Direction	Jason McIntyre
Production	Jason McIntyre
Picture format	16:9 HD
Video format	MP4
Audio format	MP3
Publication
Original release	March 22, 2009 – present
Website	http://www.kevinpollak.tv

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show is a weekly interview program hosted by comedian and impressionist Kevin Pollak and streamed over the web on YouTube. The show airs live most Sundays from the M.I. Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, California. Episodes are then archived on YouTube, as well as on iTunes and Earwolf. The show premiered on March 22, 2009, with guests LeVar Burton and Samm Levine.^[1]

Format

The show typically opens with Pollak at the table speaking directly to the viewers, which can consist of a simple introduction, an anecdote, a joke, this portion also includes sidebars with head writer, Jaime Fox, and side kick, Samm Levine.^[2] The majority of the show is taken up with long-form interview segments, typically with actors, writers or comics. Initial episodes would feature 2 hour-long interviews, but subsequent shows typically feature one guest per episode, averaging two hours in length. There are also a number of "games" Pollak plays with his guests, created by Jaime. Some of these include "Who Tweeted," which Samm hosts and reads 8 messages from Twitter, one at a time, all of which were written by either Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber or Tyra Banks. It's a contest between the guest and Kevin to see which can ring in and answer correctly. Each episode also includes "The Larry King Game" (also created by Jaime), in which guests perform a bad impression of TV personality Larry King, exposing personal information that Larry should never, but does in fact reveal, then a throw to the phones including a funny sounding city name.^[3] In 2010 the Kevin Pollak Chat Show was nominated for several Streamy Awards and won Best Live Show on the Internet.

History

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show started after Kevin Pollak met internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis at an underground poker game in Los Angeles. Pollak shared his vision for a web-based, live-streaming talk show with Calacanis. Mahalo.com, Calacanis' startup, had recently built a studio around the NewTek TriCaster and Calacanis offered to produce Pollak's show. The show is among the most popular podcasts for download on iTunes and had a strong following on its own website. The Chat Show is available in both audio and video format. On March 13, 2013 it was announced that they had joined the Earwolf network. The show began streaming on YouTube as of episode 165 on March 28, 2013.

Regular cast members

• Kevin Pollak: Actor and comedian Kevin Pollak hosts the show. A long-time veteran of stand-up comedy, television and film, he has starred as casino owner Phillip Green in Martin Scorsese's Casino, small-time criminal Todd Hockney in The Usual Suspects, LTJG Sam Weinberg in A Few Good Men and President Walter Emerson in Deterrence. He also appeared in the Kevin Smith film Red State, was a recurring guest star on Mom, and recently co-starred with Jane Lynch in the CBS series Angel from Hell. In addition to acting and stand-up, Kevin has recently spread his wings into the realm of directing, helming the documentary Misery Loves Comedy and the soon to be released coming-of-age comedy The Late Bloomer.
• Samm Levine: Actor Samm Levine is a regular guest of the podcast and also hangs out in the studio to watch interviews. Levine was a regular on the comedy series Freaks and Geeks and was seen in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Levine regularly guest hosts.
• Jaime Fox: Pollak's partner (not to be confused with Jamie Foxx, aka Eric Bishop). She runs the chat room during the show, compiles the question roster, and provides occasional fangirl commentary. Inventor of the Larry King Game.

The crew

• Jason McIntyre has been a part of Kevin Pollak's Chat Show since its inception. Both as a producer and a writer for the show, he does the research on the guests and is present Sundays to operate the TriCaster and direct the show.
• Kenny Chen has been a part of Kevin Pollak's Chat Show since episode 1, and is the floor director and co-producer. On Sundays, he makes sure the cameras are in place, the lighting is set, and the show runs smoothly from inside the studio, once the live show is launched.

Episode guide and guests

Notes

1. ↑ "Kevin Pollak's Chat Show". Mahalo.com. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2014-07-27. 
2. ↑ "Welcome to Kevin Pollak's Chat Show". Kevinpollakschatshow.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2014-07-27. 
3. ↑ Archived October 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
4. ↑ Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.

External links

• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show official site
• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on YouTube
• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on UStream
• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on blip.tv
• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on IMDb