Speaker 1: Look out. It's any films to be buried with? Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to Films to be Buried with. My name
Speaker 1: is Brett Golstein. I'm a comedian and actor, a writer,
Speaker 1: a director, a Brandy Brander, and I love film. As
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Carrie once said, all knowledge is worth having, and
Speaker 1: all the films of Paul Thomas Anderson are worth seeing.
Speaker 1: Not a bad one amongst them. I mean, that's not
Speaker 1: exactly a hot take from Jackie, but one that's certainly true.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're all brilliant. Is amazing? While were you
Speaker 1: even talking about anymore? Every week I invite a special
Speaker 1: guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get
Speaker 1: them to discuss their life through the films that meant
Speaker 1: the most of them. Previous guests include Barry Jenkins, Kevin Smith,
Speaker 1: Jamila Jamil and even Ked Bamble's. But this week it's
Speaker 1: the brilliant comedian, actor, writer, producer, director and movie star
Speaker 1: mister Kevin Pollock. Huge announcement. I'll be doing a big
Speaker 1: live Films to be Buried With live at the Southbank
Speaker 1: Center on Saturday, the twelfth of February. Come along, bring
Speaker 1: a date. It's going to be a good one. Tickets
Speaker 1: are available at Southbank Center dot co dot UK and
Speaker 1: Plosive dot co dot UK. We'd love to see you there.
Speaker 1: We'll do a Q and A after you can tell
Speaker 1: us the films that mean the most of you, Me
Speaker 1: and the super special guest that I'm not announcing yet. Oh,
Speaker 1: we'll have a right old time. Head over to the
Speaker 1: Patreon at patreon dot com forward slash Breck Golstein, where
Speaker 1: you get an extra twenty minutes with Kevin, where we
Speaker 1: go deep talking about beginnings and endings. You get a secret,
Speaker 1: You get the whole episode, uncut, ad free and as
Speaker 1: a video. Check it out over at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: forward Slashbreck Golstein. Last bit I've had minted last season
Speaker 1: two is all available now with the season one on
Speaker 1: Apple TV Plus. You can watch the whole show one go.
Speaker 1: Super Bob is now an Amazon Prime, as is Soulmates
Speaker 1: in a lot of countries. I don't know all the
Speaker 1: countries is. It's in a lot of amb a look
Speaker 1: free you'll find it so Kevin Pollock. Kevin Pollock's a
Speaker 1: fucking movie star. I was so excited to have him
Speaker 1: on this. He's in a few good Man. He's in
Speaker 1: the Usual Suspects, he's in Casino, He's in pretty much
Speaker 1: everyone your favorite films. It's quite amazing that he wanted
Speaker 1: to do this podcast. We recorded it over zoom. He
Speaker 1: was an absolute pleasure. I think you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: So that is it for now. I very much hope
Speaker 1: you enjoy episode one hundred and seventy nine of Films
Speaker 1: to be Buried With. Hello, and welcome to Films to
Speaker 1: be Buried With. It is I Brett Goldstein, and I'm
Speaker 1: joined today by a podcaster, a writer, a producer, a
Speaker 1: stand up comedian, a poker player, an actor, and most
Speaker 1: of all, a movie star who is in more films
Speaker 1: than maybe even I have seen. Please welcome to this show.
Speaker 1: He's a legend in his own lifetime and in yours.
Speaker 1: Please welcome. I can't believe we've got him. He's really here.
Speaker 1: Put your eyes together. It's mister Kami Pollack. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Please be seated. Can I allowed to correct the introduction?
Speaker 1: Most people are very flattered with how you introduced them.
Speaker 1: I've listened to dozens of episodes. Disciplined. You've got nice,
Speaker 1: well done for the most part, but I do have
Speaker 1: notes on the air. Yeah, well it's just if you've
Speaker 1: been around as long as I have. Well, since we're
Speaker 1: both stand ups. Um, you know how in the beginning
Speaker 1: of your stand up career, all you have is your
Speaker 1: introduction when the audience has no idea who you are. Yes, right, So,
Speaker 1: so you're a little overly controlling on what the MC
Speaker 1: or whatever you call them says about you and the
Speaker 1: moment you get any sort of credits. Those are even
Speaker 1: more important than anyone gives a shit about. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so I would go to I would I would throw
Speaker 1: in director. If not international direct, I'm sorry that I didn't.
Speaker 1: I actually thought I had said that that is that's
Speaker 1: and then maybe even award winning director. It's you know what,
Speaker 1: it's not a competition. Let's go, let's go back. No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm no, I don't want no redos, no reduce. I'm
Speaker 1: forcing you to keep this part. What do we direct her?
Speaker 1: Just whack that in the edit? Ah fuck no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we'll be We'll be truthful and record my absolute shame.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing that Kevin Pollock, if I may say,
Speaker 1: the problem with doing your intro is often if you
Speaker 1: have listened to the show, I'll expand on people's cvs.
Speaker 1: I'm making a thing. You have done so much stuff, more,
Speaker 1: I think, more than any person I've ever had In
Speaker 1: the podcast you're like Wikipedia page is like seventy five pages,
Speaker 1: just rooms and rooms of credits. You've done more than
Speaker 1: you have had hot dinners. I think you've done more, more,
Speaker 1: more types of jobs. Plus you're in so fucking many
Speaker 1: amazing films. Like you more than anyone. You must be
Speaker 1: who are you? Yeah, it's amazing. Well, if I may
Speaker 1: quote you, when we first met at the evening before um,
Speaker 1: was it the evening before the Emmys? Was that the thing? Yes?
Speaker 1: I think it was. Yeah, we met, which I was
Speaker 1: very excited about, having been a fan of the show
Speaker 1: with our friend Sue Dix and you. I think one
Speaker 1: of the first things you said was do you want
Speaker 1: me to cry? I was trying to get a gauge
Speaker 1: on whether you know. The thing about it about all
Speaker 1: this credit stuff is when you meet someone. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a reason my book is titled How I Slept
Speaker 1: My Way to the Middle. So as a character actor,
Speaker 1: you know, there's this face right which potentially is more
Speaker 1: of a door opener than the name. Many times you
Speaker 1: hear the name and someone says, oh, yeah, that sounds
Speaker 1: from about you. Who is that? Or or I'll be
Speaker 1: in line the grocery store and someone will turn around
Speaker 1: because they recognize me from my voice, which really must
Speaker 1: really freak shout. But I'm sure there's a point in
Speaker 1: here somewhere. But I do feel at some point that
Speaker 1: when you have all these credits you mentioned and all
Speaker 1: the stuff that you know, you get to a place
Speaker 1: where you're joking about it just to not have to
Speaker 1: talk about it much. Right, So I'll say, I don't
Speaker 1: know the exact number of films I've done ninety one,
Speaker 1: but I will say that six of them are quite good,
Speaker 1: which is so well, six out of ninety one is
Speaker 1: actually a horrible, batting average. But but you're not wrong
Speaker 1: in the sense that they're probably if I were more truthful,
Speaker 1: that maybe there's like eight, I could expand out to
Speaker 1: almost ten that people have come up to me and
Speaker 1: insisted is their favorite movie. So yeah, but but but
Speaker 1: that includes films that I don't like at all. So
Speaker 1: that's why I'm a little more concerned. Obviously, we want
Speaker 1: to know which which one they are, But I don't
Speaker 1: know if you'll say that. I did want to ask
Speaker 1: you if if you have an answer, and maybe you don't,
Speaker 1: what's the favorite film that you've been in. What's your
Speaker 1: personal favorite? Because you have been in some classics. Well,
Speaker 1: one of the difficult things from listening to your podcast
Speaker 1: when preparing which I like to do to be a
Speaker 1: guest on it is the sort of definitive ellen of
Speaker 1: having to choose number one. Yeah, so that's the difficult things.
Speaker 1: So for me, there were three truly life changing moments,
Speaker 1: Barry Levinson's I Will Dare say Masterpiece avalon, I went
Speaker 1: from just being a stand up comedian to people thinking
Speaker 1: I was a New York trained actor, which made me
Speaker 1: laugh endlessly because I had no I've had no formal
Speaker 1: training as an actor. I'm not proud of it, it's
Speaker 1: just what happened. And then the next one was, of
Speaker 1: course a Few Good Men, which for every actor, that
Speaker 1: goal line in American football terminology is going from auditioning
Speaker 1: to getting offers, right, So that's what happened after a
Speaker 1: Few good Men, And then a couple years later, I'm
Speaker 1: on the set shooting Usual Suspects when my agent called
Speaker 1: and said, Martin Scorsese wants you to be in his
Speaker 1: next film set in Las Vegas, also written by Nick Palleggi,
Speaker 1: who wrote Good Fellas with de Naro and Pesci and
Speaker 1: Sharon Stone, arguably her best work, which I didn't know
Speaker 1: at the time of the phone call, certainly, but anywhoo,
Speaker 1: so those three kind of three and a half four
Speaker 1: things were um yeah, you know, just honestly and truly
Speaker 1: Jettison Forward, Momentum and Beautiful Movies, two of which shot
Speaker 1: by by Bob Richardson. Oh wow, yeah yeah, if you
Speaker 1: good man named Casino, are we allowed to talk about
Speaker 1: we can cut this. If no, what you were doing
Speaker 1: in Wales? Was that a secret? I think we can.
Speaker 1: I think it was announced. Okay, So you were in
Speaker 1: in a film that meant a lot to me as
Speaker 1: a kid, and then you are now in the TV
Speaker 1: show of this film. Well, I'm in one episode of
Speaker 1: the television show that would do for me. Yeah you
Speaker 1: want to name it. You're also multiple multiple award winning
Speaker 1: co star also also at least an episode. So yeah.
Speaker 1: So thirty four years ago I did this movie that
Speaker 1: Ron Howard directed, George Lucas produced, um Sword and Sorcery
Speaker 1: Fantasy thing, and it was the first real movie I did.
Speaker 1: I did sort of a bad Dino de Laurentis rip
Speaker 1: off of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World with
Speaker 1: a bunch of comedians that well, I'll just say this
Speaker 1: about it. Bred it opened on an airplane and there's
Speaker 1: only playing on flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so you had to have a round trip to see
Speaker 1: the whole film, and people still walked out. I've got
Speaker 1: material on these bad movies. What was it called Million
Speaker 1: Dollar Mystery? I think it was called yeah, really really bad.
Speaker 1: But I got to know Rick Overton while doing it,
Speaker 1: and he's the one who had worked with Ron Howard
Speaker 1: on Gung Ho. And so when Ron Howard was going
Speaker 1: to do Willow, he wanted Rick Overton as one of
Speaker 1: these little brownie characters, these seven inch tall guys. You
Speaker 1: could argue they were the C three PO and R
Speaker 1: two D two of Willow, the sort of comic relief
Speaker 1: guides or whatever. So anyways, Ron said, I pick five
Speaker 1: guys that you could improvise with, bring him in and
Speaker 1: we'll do one at a time and figure out who
Speaker 1: the other Brownie's going to be. So because Rick Overton
Speaker 1: suggested me, and I went in and that's how that happened.
Speaker 1: And I will say one of my all time favorite
Speaker 1: parts though that movie, Rick and I shot on the
Speaker 1: largest blue screen facility, which was up in northern California, ILM.
Speaker 1: Lucas Ranch Facility. Thing. I was born and raised in
Speaker 1: Northern California. My father came up because I'm finally in
Speaker 1: a movie that's big time with Ron Howard directing and
Speaker 1: George Lucas producing, and I introduced my father to George Lucas,
Speaker 1: and my father says, I really loved et And to
Speaker 1: George's credit, who's not known for his sense of humor,
Speaker 1: George said, so did I, Yeah, which was pretty good
Speaker 1: comeback for Well, yeah, how was it? In seriousness? You
Speaker 1: did this film thirty four years ago and now they're
Speaker 1: making a TV show same cuss, same same story, continuation
Speaker 1: of it. How was it to return to that world,
Speaker 1: et cetera? Was it w was it easy? Did you
Speaker 1: hate it? Did you love it? Completely surreal? I would say.
Speaker 1: Ward Davis, who plays Willow in the movie and now
Speaker 1: the series is the only series regular from the movie.
Speaker 1: Joeanne Wallly, I think, is in a few episodes from
Speaker 1: she was in the movie, but I don't think anyone else.
Speaker 1: I think I'm the third AnyWho. So this time I
Speaker 1: did get to go to Wales. Originally shot the movie
Speaker 1: in Wales in New Zealand and which we would watch
Speaker 1: on the monitor before we would do our scenes on
Speaker 1: the blue screen facility thirty four years ago. So yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: when the agent calls and says, you know, they want
Speaker 1: you to do your character from a movie thirty four
Speaker 1: years Yeah, it's just ridiculous. It's absurd until I got
Speaker 1: on a zoom with Jonathan Kasden, son of Lawrence and
Speaker 1: brother to Jake, Jake the other very successful writer writer director. Right,
Speaker 1: So John then, like yourself, grew up with the movie
Speaker 1: and never let go and then pitched pitched it to
Speaker 1: Disney Plus as this new giant, sprawling world and yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go. It was great fun would recommend. Well,
Speaker 1: you know it was early October and Wales. I think
Speaker 1: you know what that means. It rained every single second
Speaker 1: of every single day. It was um it was grim.
Speaker 1: You know how you you know how you make um
Speaker 1: friends on the awards show circuit, you sort of bump
Speaker 1: into other people who were nominated around the same time.
Speaker 1: So Andrew Scott would last go round for Marvelous missus
Speaker 1: May's Landrew Scott was cleaning up with Um freeback and
Speaker 1: so we sort of became friendly. And then Jamie, my
Speaker 1: better half, and I Jamie who you met at that
Speaker 1: evening before Um, who helped me a lot with my
Speaker 1: list by the way, So Jamie and I became friendly
Speaker 1: with Andrew Scott and we were going to go to
Speaker 1: Paris and London February of twenty twenty, about five weeks
Speaker 1: before the world shut down, not knowing it was going
Speaker 1: to And when we told Andrew Scott, it reminded me
Speaker 1: of my Wales experience. He said, you're going to be
Speaker 1: in in the UK in February, it's gonna be green. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a quote, and he was not wrong, and we've
Speaker 1: we've said it many times, but yeah, so this time
Speaker 1: Wales was obviously not as bad as it's going to
Speaker 1: be in February. And also I am an Anglo file
Speaker 1: for sure, so anywhere near the UK. My mother's father
Speaker 1: and my grandfather was born in Leeds, so I guess
Speaker 1: I'm technically half half her and I've been told I
Speaker 1: can get my British passport because of us as well.
Speaker 1: My mother's father. AnyWho. So I've always said this affinity
Speaker 1: and the idea of going to Wales was very exciting
Speaker 1: and the experience was pretty damn cool. Right do you
Speaker 1: forgive me for not knowing this? And genuinely I'm sorry
Speaker 1: if you do. Do you still do stand up on
Speaker 1: on a occasion? After Wales? I had another thing to
Speaker 1: shoot at the end of October, so I rented a
Speaker 1: home in Hempstead where I had my birthday dinner with
Speaker 1: a few friends, one of which is our mutual friend
Speaker 1: name dropping uh mister Ricky Gervais and Jane joined us,
Speaker 1: and yeah it was lovely, but he was talking about
Speaker 1: my film stuff at the dinner and also had a
Speaker 1: much less gentle entree into oh fuck, I forgot you
Speaker 1: do stand up right? Fun? Yeah, I never think of
Speaker 1: you that way. So it's kind of weird. It's the weird,
Speaker 1: weird left turn in my career. I started I as
Speaker 1: a stand up nor formal training as an actor, and
Speaker 1: then you get to LA and you just auditioned for everything.
Speaker 1: I mean, two weeks before Avalon, I think I auditioned
Speaker 1: for Full House, like with every other comedian in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: And that's That's the turn I would have taken had
Speaker 1: I got that job. And then after Avalon a few
Speaker 1: good Men and then really by Usual Suspects and Casino
Speaker 1: in ninety five it was over. I kept doing stand up,
Speaker 1: and I, you know, would people would come see the
Speaker 1: dramatic actor. I guess he does stand up. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, is that sort of thing. It really did
Speaker 1: fuck with at that point twenty years. You know, I'd
Speaker 1: been at it a long time already, and it was
Speaker 1: a very, very bizarre thing. So I rarely get to
Speaker 1: be the funny person in these movies. In fact, in
Speaker 1: the case of a Whole nine Yards, I had known
Speaker 1: the stars of Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis through other things.
Speaker 1: And when they were speaking with the British director Jonathan Yes,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Lynn, they said, you know, Kevin Poll could be
Speaker 1: great as Yanni Gogel act And Jonathan said, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean not get it. He he's very diverse.
Speaker 1: I've seen Usual Suspects, I've seen a few good Men.
Speaker 1: He's very diverse. But you know, fellas, this is a comedy,
Speaker 1: and as the story goes, Bruce Willis or John McClain,
Speaker 1: as I always call him, grabbed him firmly at the
Speaker 1: shoulder and said, that's what he is. He's a comedian.
Speaker 1: So it's it's really been this painful struggle thing of
Speaker 1: it was my first love, and I it's still the
Speaker 1: happiest plays on stage. So you think an audience was
Speaker 1: turning up guying almost like, well, let's see this guy
Speaker 1: try stand up rather than often often. I mean I
Speaker 1: had a couple of stand up specials and they had
Speaker 1: their own following, but the film We Are just overtook
Speaker 1: and commandeered my alleged fame to the point where, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's weird to have such platitudes of success as an actor,
Speaker 1: and then I still have to do clubs. I can't
Speaker 1: do theaters because I can't sell enough tickets, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. That's fucking that's fucking weird. Now I
Speaker 1: don't I don't mind clubs, and I I've obviously performed
Speaker 1: them my whole life, and so now when I say
Speaker 1: I perform standard on occasion, it is because it is
Speaker 1: a theater and someone has demanded that I show up
Speaker 1: sort of thing. Because I've just heard too many trays
Speaker 1: of drinks hit the ground over the last forty years.
Speaker 1: You know, it's depressing that. Yeah, you know, in England
Speaker 1: it's not like that. You know, in England we have intervals.
Speaker 1: We have intervals, you buy drinks. There's no like service
Speaker 1: happening during the size and that's why you like probably largo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: no drinks at all. Yeah, it's such a weird thing
Speaker 1: that you're in the middle of a bit and three
Speaker 1: hundred drinks of being saved and sorry, sorry sorry in
Speaker 1: your life. Yeah yeah, And I'm a storyteller. I don't
Speaker 1: really do jokes, so I you really. In fact, I
Speaker 1: remember that turn where I committed full time to the stories,
Speaker 1: and I remember hearing silence for the first time and thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, a comedian would panic if there's too much silence,
Speaker 1: but I actually ended up thinking, oh, fuck, they're listening,
Speaker 1: they're actually listening. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck Kevin Potock, Fuck,
Speaker 1: can you forgot to tell me something? Yeah? How could
Speaker 1: you tell I've forgotten to tell you something? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's difficult for me because I'd listened to so many
Speaker 1: episodes and I know that you're a multiple award winning
Speaker 1: actor now and I don't buy this bit at all.
Speaker 1: So wait a second, Well, hanging. I forgotten, so maybe
Speaker 1: you you know, maybe you could, maybe you could jog
Speaker 1: my memory of it. Well, yeah, no, I can help
Speaker 1: you with this. I didn't I say I was going
Speaker 1: to tell you, So I didn't. I say something important
Speaker 1: to tell you when you do the podcast. But I can't,
Speaker 1: for the life of me, For the life of me,
Speaker 1: I cannot remember. What do you remember? Do you have
Speaker 1: an inkling? I do, and it might be difficult for
Speaker 1: you to wrap your brain around, more so than even remember. Well, sure,
Speaker 1: because we've been talking so long, and I think I've
Speaker 1: been somewhat engaging. But I'm dead. I've died. I died.
Speaker 1: You're dead. I died. Fuck. I knew it. I knew
Speaker 1: it was something. Yeah, it was something vaguely important. But
Speaker 1: you have been you have Maybe that would be a
Speaker 1: great title for my second book, vaguely the vaguely important.
Speaker 1: H how did you die? Did God? I'm so sorry?
Speaker 1: So this was this was difficult because my instinct was
Speaker 1: on set doing better than average work. Yeah, slightly better
Speaker 1: than average work. Um, And then I I was jogging
Speaker 1: my memory and ideas through Jamie and she said, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you're gonna die and you're fucking Tesla because you're not
Speaker 1: paying attention. So wow, that's that's the other option. But
Speaker 1: don't they self drive? Isn't that the point? I mean,
Speaker 1: they do, but I I do like to you would
Speaker 1: distract it? Yeah, yeah, No, I I do like to
Speaker 1: be involved in the actual driving of the car. I'm
Speaker 1: crazy that way. You're driving your Tesla and I'm learning
Speaker 1: how to drive it while I'm driving. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: truly an engineering I'm not a car guido. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: this damn spaceship is is engineering masterpiece, and so I'm
Speaker 1: fascinated by way too many aspects of it. And it's
Speaker 1: not that I'm it's not that I'm not paying attention
Speaker 1: to the road. It's just not paying attention. I'm not
Speaker 1: paying any attention to life. Right, And do you do
Speaker 1: you drive into a wol You don't take anyone with
Speaker 1: you to you? No, I don't take anyone with me.
Speaker 1: I do I drive into you know, the very first
Speaker 1: one I had, I did rear end someone in the
Speaker 1: fast lane of the four oh five Freeway on a
Speaker 1: Friday night, a week before Christmas. If you could imagine
Speaker 1: going down to the Irvine improvacy, an old pal Dana
Speaker 1: Carvey to stand up. True story and it was stop
Speaker 1: a goat traffic, and you know, you glanced away for
Speaker 1: two seconds and I tapped somebody, but it was enough
Speaker 1: for the air bag to go off. And by the
Speaker 1: time I turned back and asked the couple we were
Speaker 1: with in the backseat, is everyone okay? My cell phone
Speaker 1: rang and it was I'm not kidding Tesla headquarters, asking
Speaker 1: is everyone okay? Now. The writer's embellishment of that is
Speaker 1: that we looked up and Elon Musk was on a
Speaker 1: rope ladder from a helicopter above us with his hand out.
Speaker 1: When you crash into the back of someone, and I'm
Speaker 1: seeing everyone was fine. When you go out the cards
Speaker 1: talk to them where they like, holy shite, even better?
Speaker 1: Even better they were. They were cranky because it's a
Speaker 1: Friday night and they were going somewhere. But when the
Speaker 1: police arrived, the police said, holy fuck, a few good men,
Speaker 1: we got this, and that was there you go. I'll
Speaker 1: I slipt my way to the middle. I just that
Speaker 1: face every now and then it really comes and it
Speaker 1: really helps you evade the law. Tell me this did
Speaker 1: do you worry about death? No? I don't worry about
Speaker 1: the act the moment I think about being present and
Speaker 1: not letting any more time slip by or take it
Speaker 1: for granted. So I'm much more I'm spending too much
Speaker 1: time thinking about being present and being present then contemplating
Speaker 1: death or what it means. What do you think happens
Speaker 1: if you may contemplate it for a second, what do
Speaker 1: you think happens? Die? Well? I just heard an episode
Speaker 1: where one of your guests did believe in the afterlife,
Speaker 1: and you were so delighted because I apparently you'd had
Speaker 1: too many people a long who just don't aren't buying it,
Speaker 1: and and this woman was was very u effusive about uh,
Speaker 1: and you were so delighted. I thought, well, I yeah,
Speaker 1: I I'll use some of my award winning acting talent
Speaker 1: at an appropriate moment. No, I um, I am a
Speaker 1: big science guy, which is why I struggle with life
Speaker 1: after death. But also because I'm a science guy. You
Speaker 1: can't destroy energy, Yeah, it turns out it can't be
Speaker 1: destroyed scientifically, So I don't know what that means or
Speaker 1: how it manifests next. But one of my answers to
Speaker 1: one of your upcoming questions will expound a little bit
Speaker 1: on this. Okay, okay, I'll tell you where that energy.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you where that energy, guys, Kevin Pollock, You guys,
Speaker 1: straight straight up to heaven. There's a heaven, baby, and
Speaker 1: you're in it. You've got there in the end, and
Speaker 1: I tell you how you got there because you were
Speaker 1: vaguely important and slightly better than average. That was the requirements. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so so great, I'm in. He's filled with your favorite things.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite thing? Should I say movie watching? Because
Speaker 1: of the nope? Um, I guess. I've been hosting a
Speaker 1: weekly poker game in my home since we moved in
Speaker 1: to this particular one eleven years ago. You know, I
Speaker 1: had a table custom made, and I have a friend
Speaker 1: who I said, you should go to poker dealing school.
Speaker 1: I'm about to change your life by dealing this game.
Speaker 1: And so you know you mentioned poker in the intro.
Speaker 1: It is certainly one of my favorite things. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: to Heaven is filled with inveterate gamblers gambling. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: wolves are made of poker chips, the chairs are made
Speaker 1: of felt, and there are croupiers as far as the
Speaker 1: eye can see. And everyone is very good at poker,
Speaker 1: but not as good as you, but enough to keep
Speaker 1: you on your tights anyway. Oh, that was a great
Speaker 1: episode of The Twilight Zone. Are you a Twilight Zone fan?
Speaker 1: Go and tell me. There's a gambler who doesn't realize
Speaker 1: he's gone to hell and he keeps winning what he
Speaker 1: thinks is his angel. Sebastian Cabot plays the what we
Speaker 1: think as an angel. He's actually brilliant, but the guy
Speaker 1: keeps winning, and eventually he's like, he gets bored because
Speaker 1: nobody wants to always win. The tooth as a poker
Speaker 1: player will remember the hands they lose more than the
Speaker 1: hands they wins. Like stand up gigs, tell me this, yep,
Speaker 1: what They're very excited to see you in Heaven, very excited.
Speaker 1: They're all huge fans. They want to talk about your life,
Speaker 1: but they want to talk about it through the medium
Speaker 1: of film. And the first thing they ask you, what
Speaker 1: is the first film you remember seeing? Mister Kevin Potter. Okay,
Speaker 1: because I'm one of your older guests, be the oldest.
Speaker 1: I had to look up the movies I knew I
Speaker 1: was six years old, and so I had to look
Speaker 1: up the movies of that year to help me sort
Speaker 1: of do a little math and there were a couple
Speaker 1: of movies that I absolutely know I saw in the
Speaker 1: theater when I was six, but I won't lie. I
Speaker 1: do not know which was Fay So it was either
Speaker 1: Jason and the Argona Amazing, amazing, truly amazing, Ray Harryhausen,
Speaker 1: stop motion stuff. And then the other one was It's
Speaker 1: a Mad Mad Mad Mad w Wow with all these
Speaker 1: comedians and brought you. Yeah, I've seen both. I love both.
Speaker 1: And so do you remember where was this happening? Where
Speaker 1: did you grow up? If I may in northern California,
Speaker 1: my mom would take me to matinees and she would
Speaker 1: later tell me that long before I did impersonations, which
Speaker 1: sort of became the cornerstone of the stand up back.
Speaker 1: In fact, any one of these questions, you can ask
Speaker 1: Christopher Walkin, just so you know. Now, I know it's
Speaker 1: become very pedestrian to do Christopher Walkin. But I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, but if you Google search
Speaker 1: the phrase Christopher Walkin impersonation, sometimes you'll get as many
Speaker 1: as sixty thousand search answers. That's how pedestrian it's become.
Speaker 1: There's five pages on YouTube dedicated to Asians doing Christopher
Speaker 1: walkin not kidding, and they're fucking hilarious. I'm number one
Speaker 1: on that Google search now that in six dollars will
Speaker 1: get me a coffee at Starbucks. It's really a bullshit
Speaker 1: sort of brag, but it's it's a fact. So I'm
Speaker 1: just saying you can ask any one of these questions
Speaker 1: of Christopher Walking. My mom told me that when I
Speaker 1: was six and she would take me these Matt Mays,
Speaker 1: I would walk out of the theater as someone in
Speaker 1: the film, not doing an impersonation, just transfixed by a performance,
Speaker 1: not even the actor. That's nice, and I do remember
Speaker 1: that that was the big thing that remains to this day.
Speaker 1: If the film is good, I will get lost in
Speaker 1: it and I will want to stay in it and
Speaker 1: live in it. And Purpa Rosa Cairo was very amazing.
Speaker 1: To do you do you have siblings? Can I ask?
Speaker 1: I have one brother two years older. See'st it? So
Speaker 1: when you were going with your mom, we're going with
Speaker 1: your bropper as well? It was just you too. No.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm sure at some point yes, but my
Speaker 1: memories were just my mom taken me. That's very sweet.
Speaker 1: Kevin Pullet, what is the film that scared you the most,
Speaker 1: and do you like being scared? You haven't done a
Speaker 1: lot of horror, as I say, Uh no, I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of the genre itself unless
Speaker 1: it's a brilliant film that also happens to be incredibly scary.
Speaker 1: So you know, the obvious example, or maybe most awarded example,
Speaker 1: would be Silence in the Lambs. But The Thing right
Speaker 1: was one of the scariest easily. But I'm so old
Speaker 1: that I know a lot of people have said The Exorcist,
Speaker 1: but I'm so old that when I was probably just
Speaker 1: out of high school or still in it a little,
Speaker 1: that movie came out and it was like you had
Speaker 1: to gear yourself up to go see it. People were
Speaker 1: passing out, they were puking, you know. When it first
Speaker 1: came out the theaters, it was something no one had
Speaker 1: ever seen. And you know, it's a bit trite all
Speaker 1: these years later, but I watched it recently, you know,
Speaker 1: older and wiser. I watched the exist and I was
Speaker 1: really impressed. Like I was like, oh, this is a
Speaker 1: fucking good thing. It is incredibly it's raby, sort of serious,
Speaker 1: and the and it's a very long build and it's dark,
Speaker 1: that's fun. Crazy build the first thirty forty minutes. We
Speaker 1: don't even we haven't even Metayer. It's bizarre where what
Speaker 1: you know, we hire an editor? What's happened? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: with the with the build up. So I appreciate that
Speaker 1: you had that experience, but still imagine it's the seventies
Speaker 1: and you're seventeen eight. What I'm what I mean is
Speaker 1: we all to build up that everyone had in the seventies.
Speaker 1: It isn't a sort of slucky It isn't a fun
Speaker 1: film like it's. It's very fucking heavy. And so to
Speaker 1: go in with that bird up thinking oh is this
Speaker 1: going to be scary? After it to deliver on this
Speaker 1: is horrifying. Yeah, yeah, I really mean back to that,
Speaker 1: no one had ever seen anything like that element is
Speaker 1: impossible for you to experience. Did you go with someone?
Speaker 1: Was it like a couple of friends, had to have
Speaker 1: a few drinks, well underage but needed a couple of drinks,
Speaker 1: had to leave the theater at one point to go
Speaker 1: to the bathroom to sort of breathe through what was happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was harrowing. But in terms of all
Speaker 1: of that nonsense taken away just a filmgoing experience. I
Speaker 1: would say Alien for the haunted house, scary movie, and
Speaker 1: the Thing for the monster scar right, right, answers, Riddle
Speaker 1: me this, What is the film that made you cry?
Speaker 1: To miss Kevin Pollock? Do you cry easily? Do you
Speaker 1: a cry well? As you get older? You cry the
Speaker 1: drop of a hat? Yes? And I don't know why
Speaker 1: it's always a drop of a hat. Yeah? Why does
Speaker 1: that say said? Why not? Why are we not crying
Speaker 1: at the drop of a shoe? People whose hat was it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I tend to I realize I tend to cry more
Speaker 1: about hope than heartbreak when something's incredibly hopeful. Another trite movie.
Speaker 1: I think that's underappreciated because it's a holiday film that
Speaker 1: is actually a perfect film, and the structure of it
Speaker 1: from a writer's standpoint, it's a wonderful life? Is its design?
Speaker 1: Is it's otherworldly? Yeah? And the hope in that film
Speaker 1: probably caused me to cry more than than most films. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're quite you're quite right. What is the
Speaker 1: film that people don't like? It is not generally critically acclaimed,
Speaker 1: but you love it. You don't care what anyone says.
Speaker 1: Jamie really helped me with this one because I was
Speaker 1: struggling to try to figure out what movie that's shit.
Speaker 1: Usually if a film is outright pan and hated, I'm
Speaker 1: sort of in line. But Cable Guy as a singular
Speaker 1: comedic performance, again from a guy who Jim Carrey had
Speaker 1: sort of established himself with those first two movies out
Speaker 1: of the you know, right out of the Gun when
Speaker 1: in in the beginning of that career, Yeah, and The Mask.
Speaker 1: They were both I think within the same Yeah. In fact,
Speaker 1: I remember he came out of the Academy Awards to
Speaker 1: present and his film, one of those two movies had
Speaker 1: just become the biggest comedy opening in history, and he
Speaker 1: walked out of the Guts to present and his opening
Speaker 1: line was, so, how was your weekend? I thought that
Speaker 1: was pretty good. But but his performance in The Cable
Speaker 1: Guy was it was not this big giant slapstick it
Speaker 1: was it was it was a caricature of design. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a dramatic performance that was hilarious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a really interesting doc film. That Also there was
Speaker 1: a stigma that he was the first actor to be
Speaker 1: paid twenty million dollars for that movie, which I promise
Speaker 1: you was a big, big, big, big reason people hated it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree, and yeah they were just ready
Speaker 1: to his horrible Yeah, what is the film that you
Speaker 1: used to love? You loved it very much, you've watched
Speaker 1: it recently, and you do not like it anymore for
Speaker 1: whatever reason. This is going to be controversial. Here we
Speaker 1: guy drap In. This is a movie that's beloved and
Speaker 1: it's complete bullshit. What is it? Tutsy wow, wow wow?
Speaker 1: Exactly tell us everything. Yeah, here's the deal. There's not
Speaker 1: a redeeming quality about the lead character. He is a horrendous, narcissist,
Speaker 1: horrible person and to everyone in his life. And I
Speaker 1: refuse to root for him, this fictitious character. And also
Speaker 1: he's a man in drag every single second, and no
Speaker 1: one is saying, are you with Lakajrapho? What's happening? I don't.
Speaker 1: I reject the premise. It's now the performances around it,
Speaker 1: Sydney Pollock, Charles Derning, Bill Murray, Terry Guard, Jessica Lang,
Speaker 1: they're all breathtakingly wonderful and what Dustin is doing to
Speaker 1: me is complete horseship. But I will say this also,
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise is the reason Rain Man is a great film.
Speaker 1: Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar, but he is a single
Speaker 1: note performer throughout the entire film. His character has no arc,
Speaker 1: he has no He's one note all the way through.
Speaker 1: It is the arc and ride that Tom Cruise's character
Speaker 1: goes through that we root for, that we live vicariously
Speaker 1: through and and care so very much about that film.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying and also, you know that wonderful
Speaker 1: story of Laurence Olivier on Marathon Man. Just in case, well,
Speaker 1: I want to qualify a little bit by saying, Dustin
Speaker 1: Hoffman in The Graduate is one of the all time
Speaker 1: great performances. It seems like I've not I know him
Speaker 1: a little bit personally just to say hello, and he's
Speaker 1: super sweet. But he and and Alpaccino suffered, I think
Speaker 1: from a very similar thing at some point. I don't
Speaker 1: know what year it was that Alpaccino became an old
Speaker 1: black blues player, but dear god, it gave him awards
Speaker 1: for yelling and guess what, that's all he did. And
Speaker 1: now he's got to touch everything. Hands move, they're gonna
Speaker 1: go over here. I believe there's a time when we
Speaker 1: can't move things. So these guys are all about tricks
Speaker 1: and shit, and it's I don't buy it and I
Speaker 1: don't care about it, and so yeah, so so Dustin's
Speaker 1: performance is um, it's it's a man in drag and
Speaker 1: I don't. I just I don't. I don't, I don't
Speaker 1: buy any Okay, you may have this answer. It is
Speaker 1: your films to be buried good. I did talk about
Speaker 1: because he came up on someone else's list a well ago.
Speaker 1: But the only thing I don't get about to see
Speaker 1: is the ending spoiler alert is that he pulls off
Speaker 1: his makeup and he's like, I'm a man, I'm your
Speaker 1: brother or something, and thinking that that will get him
Speaker 1: out of this soap opera. But I'm like, you've just
Speaker 1: opened a whole new set of storylines for your character.
Speaker 1: There's no way that's the end of your story. Like
Speaker 1: the writers are going rubbing their hands together. Thank god,
Speaker 1: Now we've got three seasons left, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 1: You've just you've just given us a house, especially honest
Speaker 1: Bob brilliant, thank you yeah yeah, And and and the
Speaker 1: voice that he does throughout the film, it's just, oh God.
Speaker 1: And then I'm dorsh. I'm Jack Dorsey, you know whatever
Speaker 1: it is. When he comes out of the makeup, I'm
Speaker 1: your brother again. All the performances around him are just breathtaking.
Speaker 1: Sidney Pollock was one of the all time greater and
Speaker 1: truly and his work and that that film is one
Speaker 1: of the funniest things in it. Have you directed yourself? No? So.
Speaker 1: The first thing I directed was a documentary called Misery
Speaker 1: Loves Comedy, the premise of which is do you have
Speaker 1: to be miserable to be to be seen it? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I it's great. I directed that. Yeah, I've seen it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a couple of Brits. I got Um Coogan, I got
Speaker 1: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. I get Stephen Merchant. I
Speaker 1: think I did. Anyways, it's about sixty annoyingly famous funny
Speaker 1: people and interviewed them all these questions and so they
Speaker 1: they wanted me to be on camera a little bit
Speaker 1: and you just hear my voice on occasion. I have
Speaker 1: a real problem with documentarians who put themselves at the
Speaker 1: center of the That really annoys the shit out of me,
Speaker 1: and so I I didn't. And then the comedy I directed,
Speaker 1: The Late Bloomer. I was a gun for hire. And
Speaker 1: they wanted me to do one of the parts, and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I can cast much better than me.
Speaker 1: I got JK. Simmons six months after he had won
Speaker 1: the off, and so I gave him the upgrade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what your experience has been, like you've
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated by people who can direct themselves like this,
Speaker 1: just the just the sheer sort of logistics of it.
Speaker 1: Are you running? Are you running back to the monitor
Speaker 1: after every take? To what's yourself? For you? You know?
Speaker 1: And the and the I think getting past the embarrassment
Speaker 1: of going, yeah I was perfect at that take, but
Speaker 1: we need to go again because you went or do
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like the the Yeah, and
Speaker 1: also you see it in their eyes it's difficult. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I would think you if you're acting in a
Speaker 1: scene with the director who's at the opposite of you
Speaker 1: would probably see in their eyes not them being in
Speaker 1: the moment, but rather studying your perfective. Yeah. It's fascinating. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Kevin Pollock, what's the film that means the nice to you?
Speaker 1: Not necessarily the film itself is any good, but because
Speaker 1: the experience you had around seeing that film will always
Speaker 1: make it special to you, Kevin Pollock. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: thought about this one and as many times early on
Speaker 1: as my mom took me to movies. It's sort of
Speaker 1: accentuated when my father finally took my brother and I
Speaker 1: both to see Blazing Saddles, and I saw my father
Speaker 1: laugh uncontrollably, almost like a lunatic, which was a little unnerving.
Speaker 1: But also I was laughing at the same time, and
Speaker 1: it was a connection between us that ran much much
Speaker 1: deeper than what we had previously. So that was ridunculously impactful.
Speaker 1: That's second nice. Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: my dad was not a man of many words, so
Speaker 1: you know, to see any outpouring of any emotion was
Speaker 1: just spectacal. In fact, I sidebar and you may not
Speaker 1: need this, but when my parents brought home Bill Cosby's
Speaker 1: first comedy album, only if they'd put in the liner notes,
Speaker 1: you know, will become most prolific serial rapists in history.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe we don't listen to you. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't in the liner notes. So and they
Speaker 1: would play that first album on the stereo high five,
Speaker 1: the seven foot wide piece of furniture. And when I
Speaker 1: watched my parents laugh uncontrollably at the guy talking from
Speaker 1: the furniture. That was a epiphany. As soon as no
Speaker 1: one was around, I sat in front of the high
Speaker 1: Fi by myself and listen to that album over and
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over and over again
Speaker 1: until I could stand in front of it and lipsync,
Speaker 1: not knowing that lip syncing was a thing or that
Speaker 1: I had created something. I was just interacting. I was
Speaker 1: just playing, and I wanted to be the guy telling
Speaker 1: those stories that made my parents laugh uncontrollably, And it
Speaker 1: all sort of started. And then my mom came home
Speaker 1: one afternoon when I was doing that and literally caught
Speaker 1: me and said, I mean knee jerk reaction. You're doing
Speaker 1: that for the zookers at Passover. So my first performance
Speaker 1: at ten was the painted out white brick fireplace that
Speaker 1: had a little stage, and I lip sync the Know
Speaker 1: and the Arc routine off the first album It And
Speaker 1: was that a British term for killed it? Okay? I
Speaker 1: crushed it. I was my first experience performing it in
Speaker 1: front of anyone. Thankfully it was relatives, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know what I would Every comedian will learn which is
Speaker 1: never performed for your favorite Oh, God, there's nothing. Oh buddy,
Speaker 1: don't do it. But this is different. This was a
Speaker 1: precoci just ten year old lip syncing what would become
Speaker 1: one of the greatest stand up comedians of all time.
Speaker 1: So it's his material, it's his voice, he's he's killing.
Speaker 1: I'm just this precocious ten year old mimic lip syncing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. I clear my throat when he does on
Speaker 1: the album and I'm a start. That's basically what is
Speaker 1: the film you must relate to? Okay, So, I in
Speaker 1: my twenties and probably thirties, was dangerously jealous as a
Speaker 1: as a boyfriend, and when I saw Albert Brooks's film
Speaker 1: Modern Romance, one of the most hilarious movies about an
Speaker 1: insanely jealous guy and what we're capable of putting ourselves through.
Speaker 1: Have you seen the film? Tell me? Well, so you know, Hi?
Speaker 1: He goes to the like CVS, Hi, do you have
Speaker 1: a doll? You pull a string and says Mary, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry you This the obsession of m oh no, no,
Speaker 1: you're you're not gonna wear that dress outside, are you?
Speaker 1: We have some sewing to do. There's men out there.
Speaker 1: They rape, that's all they do. Holley. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: this guy was just so I got to laugh at
Speaker 1: him and then myself and the ridiculousness of being obsessively
Speaker 1: jealous in control? How is your jealousy these days? In
Speaker 1: the beginning, because she's considerably younger, it was a tough go. Ye,
Speaker 1: it was a tough go. Yeah. Yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: learning curve for me. But I think it also had
Speaker 1: something to do with I wouldn't want to belong to
Speaker 1: any club that would have me as a member. So
Speaker 1: I'm suspicious of someone who says, yes, completely get that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you if you love me, you're an idiot. Well
Speaker 1: if or if you love me more to the point,
Speaker 1: you're a suspect, and I have to I have to
Speaker 1: unravel this case. But you have got better on the
Speaker 1: O jealousy. Yeah, thankfully, the majority of the fifteen years
Speaker 1: has been jealousy free. That's great. I mean, every now
Speaker 1: and then it comes up. I don't invest too much
Speaker 1: in things like saying I'm a scorpio, but apparently that's
Speaker 1: one of arguably the single most jealous nature people. I
Speaker 1: don't fucking know. Yeah, it's definitely my DNA and I
Speaker 1: am interesting. So I've calmed the hell down, and every
Speaker 1: now and then I'll get a pang, but I'll recognize
Speaker 1: it and say, oh Jesus, buddy, take it, Jamie. I'm
Speaker 1: about to say something, and I know what I'm about
Speaker 1: to say isn't fair, but you cannot go that today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got some showing to do. Christopher Wilkin, what is
Speaker 1: the sexiest film you've ever seen? I'll be honest with you, Brent,
Speaker 1: this is easy. I've been wedding quite some time. Truth
Speaker 1: to be told for you to ask this question, and
Speaker 1: I feel strong about my answer that you haven't had
Speaker 1: anyone say it A and two's It speaks to the
Speaker 1: nature of what sexy is the film, of course, Butch
Speaker 1: Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. When I saw the film,
Speaker 1: which I saw many times in the motion picture theater,
Speaker 1: I instantly fell in love with Catherine Ross. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be the man she chose from all the men.
Speaker 1: But also there was no one sexier than those two fellas.
Speaker 1: And I didn't have confusion I had I had draw
Speaker 1: to be them. I wanted to be with her and
Speaker 1: be them, and all three reasons were sexy. That was sexy.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Speaker 1: There is a reason you are the top of thirty
Speaker 1: three impressives. That was excellent. Tell me this. There is
Speaker 1: a subcategory to this question. You can answer as yourself
Speaker 1: or as Crystal Woke, and the subcategory is troubling by
Speaker 1: his Worrying widnes a film you found. Yeah, I've heard.
Speaker 1: I've heard tell of this on episodes I've listened to.
Speaker 1: And again I've got a couple of you know, I
Speaker 1: think it has to do with puberty for me, when
Speaker 1: you're sort of shocked by the physical development in your parents.
Speaker 1: And it came at a very young age, Bye Bye Birdie.
Speaker 1: I was probably preteen. And and Margaret does some sort
Speaker 1: of dance with a low cut top. I think it
Speaker 1: might be at the end. It's either at the beginning
Speaker 1: or the end. And she is doing things that a
Speaker 1: nine year old or whatever I was had not experienced
Speaker 1: watching and things happened. And then the other one I
Speaker 1: loved a Shot in the Dark. Yeah, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was britt Eklin. There was some either
Speaker 1: britt Ekland or brit Eckland type in that film. That
Speaker 1: British blonde slide over byte that became oh, an obsession,
Speaker 1: an obsession, a real instant bone So a Shot in
Speaker 1: the Dark is this hilarious comedy where I'm just falling
Speaker 1: in love with the comedic genius and then she comes
Speaker 1: on screen and I don't I don't even see Peter Sellers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's nothing troubling about and Macao presecling, but
Speaker 1: I will accept. Well, the troubling part was simply that
Speaker 1: these were not films to get boners at. Neither one
Speaker 1: were designed to be sexy. Might think it might have
Speaker 1: been a podcast films to get by is at We'll
Speaker 1: be out there to dot com. Uh. Objectively, what is
Speaker 1: the greatest film of all time? Might not be your favorite,
Speaker 1: but it's the pinnacle of cinema. Yeah. I struggle with
Speaker 1: this one a lot. It's the word objectively, my struggle,
Speaker 1: Brad Goldstein. And I do want to qualify it that
Speaker 1: I am a genuine fan of yours, and I am
Speaker 1: not a fan of most people, let alone perform. I'm, I'm,
Speaker 1: I'm very well, it's I'm you know, you're you've We've
Speaker 1: seen too much, we know too much, and and I
Speaker 1: see through most everything just reeks of of of effort,
Speaker 1: and it makes me a little uncomfortable, and because it's
Speaker 1: there's a sadness behind. Oh you poor things, Stop trying
Speaker 1: so hard. So when I do like someone or performer
Speaker 1: or film, there's an effortless quality about it. So the objective,
Speaker 1: objectively speaking part takes me, in my opinion, out of it.
Speaker 1: It just asked me to sort of acknowledge a great film,
Speaker 1: which I'm happy to do. Now I'm going to also, well,
Speaker 1: I realize I'm coming full circle around to answering in
Speaker 1: the vein. I believe you're asking the question and taking
Speaker 1: my being objective to taking myself out out of the
Speaker 1: equation terms of endearment. So James L. Brooks, through poker,
Speaker 1: became a friend plays occasionally in my home game. He
Speaker 1: had already won countless Emmy's, having created The Mary Tyler
Speaker 1: Moore Show and co creating Taxi and then of course
Speaker 1: The Simpsons. But his very first time at the at
Speaker 1: the Helm, first screenplay that he wrote that he directed, first, first, first.
Speaker 1: He's the only human being in history who can say
Speaker 1: the following my very first time directing a film that
Speaker 1: I wrote. The film won Best Screenplay, Best Director, and
Speaker 1: Best Picture. It's never happened to any other first time.
Speaker 1: And for those reasons, I think, objectively speaking, it's a masterpiece.
Speaker 1: Because I was thinking about, you know, it's got to
Speaker 1: be Cube Break, it's gotta be some movie that maybe
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of. And then there's the obvious
Speaker 1: choice of The Godfather because it's perfect and it's epic
Speaker 1: and it's changed the way people thought of film. But
Speaker 1: then I thought of my friend Jim Brooks, and I realized, Nana,
Speaker 1: I love that that is, objectively speaking, in a category
Speaker 1: of its own. So that's a perfect tense and I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you twenty seven points for it. And
Speaker 1: what is the film that you could or have? What's
Speaker 1: the mist over? Again? So this changes over time. I
Speaker 1: did see Butch casting to Sundance Kid twelve times in
Speaker 1: the movie theater. I wanted to be in that world
Speaker 1: as a teenager, and I didn't want to leave it,
Speaker 1: so I just kept going back to it. But I
Speaker 1: then became obsessed quite recently with Once upon a Time
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. I want to spend at least an hour
Speaker 1: every day with Brad Pitt's character in the car, just
Speaker 1: driving around LA traffic. Yeah, so I saw it a
Speaker 1: couple of times in the theater, but then once it's
Speaker 1: on the streaming and whatnot not. I've probably seen it
Speaker 1: fifteen times. I'm a big fan of the filmmaker in general,
Speaker 1: but this one man oman oman oman it just have
Speaker 1: you read the novel? I listened to Jennifer Jason Lee
Speaker 1: read the Audience, which I highly recommend. I read the book.
Speaker 1: I loved it, really really loved it. The novelization, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great. What Kevin Puddock, we don't have to be negative?
Speaker 1: What's the West film you've ever seen? Okay? This was
Speaker 1: another tough one, and I had an answer, and that
Speaker 1: was Jamie. She's not just the brains of the outfit,
Speaker 1: but I've I've had to come to grips, which I
Speaker 1: can't actually function without it. So I told her what
Speaker 1: my choice was. First of all, I agreed with an
Speaker 1: earlier guest of yours. Now you see Me okay was
Speaker 1: a fucking insult and the and the review should have
Speaker 1: been now you see me now you wish you hadn't? Oly, God,
Speaker 1: was that insulting? Just the earnestness of those performances was
Speaker 1: But when a great filmmaker makes a self indulgent, bad film.
Speaker 1: I find that the most difficult and painful. So I
Speaker 1: was talking to her about it, and she said, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you really want to go out of your way
Speaker 1: to shoot on that filmmaker? It's a good answers. The
Speaker 1: answers not really, and that's why she's the brains of
Speaker 1: the outfit. So I decided to make it a little
Speaker 1: more personal. I'm in a truly horrible film, and the
Speaker 1: reason it's so painful is that it's my favorite comedic
Speaker 1: performance in a film of my own. The film itself
Speaker 1: is complete shite, soup to nuts. I can't be objective
Speaker 1: about my own performance. I just know the doing of
Speaker 1: it was a joy. Comedically. I've never experienced the Feds
Speaker 1: the film the Whole ten Yards, so the Whole nine
Speaker 1: Yards is pretty damn good. I would put it in
Speaker 1: my I've done ten good things, but the Whole ten
Speaker 1: Yards is unwatchable. It really is garbage. But I got
Speaker 1: to wear prosthetic makeup and play the father of my
Speaker 1: character from the first film, this eighty year old Hungarian
Speaker 1: mobster with the shock of white hair and the lou
Speaker 1: Wasserman big goggle glasses, and it was a joy. Beyond description.
Speaker 1: So that made it's so much more painful, and and
Speaker 1: I had to really embrace how shitty this movie is.
Speaker 1: So did you know why you were making it about? No,
Speaker 1: it's it came out of the wheels a few times
Speaker 1: on certain days and you're like, oh, that's not what
Speaker 1: we was in the script. Why are we doing this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: got yeah, Yes, you're in comedy, you're a comedian, you're
Speaker 1: very funny. What's the film that made you laugh the most? Okay?
Speaker 1: So again, the singular answer is The Struggle. As a
Speaker 1: member of the Writers Guild since nineteen eighty seven, proudly
Speaker 1: from from a writer's standpoint, page per page, jokes on
Speaker 1: the page, there's no film funnier than Arthur the original.
Speaker 1: The remake is unwatchable, garbage and should be set on fire.
Speaker 1: The original written by a I think thirty year old
Speaker 1: who died maybe a couple of year years after the
Speaker 1: film came out. Steve Gordon was his name, and they
Speaker 1: shot that film for several years. Nobody known in the studios.
Speaker 1: Who cares about a rich drunk No one's going to
Speaker 1: care about this guy. But it's not just Dudley Morris performance,
Speaker 1: which is flawless and revelatory. It is page. The amount
Speaker 1: of jokes on every page of that script is insane. Then,
Speaker 1: my favorite comedy of all time is The in Laws,
Speaker 1: and it has to do with the performances there again,
Speaker 1: remakes set it on fire. I would argue that the
Speaker 1: film The in Laws performances and script is pound for pound,
Speaker 1: the funniest film ever made. And then Jamie, the all
Speaker 1: around perfect person, reminded me that we went to see
Speaker 1: No Country for Old Men in a theater and that
Speaker 1: is such a dark comedy. At times, I laughed so
Speaker 1: hard and loud that when the lights came up and
Speaker 1: the movie was over, the three people in front of
Speaker 1: me stood up, and one of them turned back to
Speaker 1: me and said, well, I guess I'll see the film
Speaker 1: again some other, some other time, because I had ruined it.
Speaker 1: I do have when when something is you know, when
Speaker 1: you laugh involuntarily. I don't know what your laugh sounds
Speaker 1: like when you laugh involuntarily. Mine is pretty loud that
Speaker 1: no one expected that. Unset It's nope, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: You're not going to get No Country from Men. But
Speaker 1: there are there are times of Javier Bardem's performance that
Speaker 1: are so fucking funny to me, dear lord, he's amazing.
Speaker 1: I saw him being the Ricardo's thank you very much,
Speaker 1: and he is so good. He is just like you're
Speaker 1: just like, fucking now, that is one of the most
Speaker 1: charismatic screen actors, Like you're just like he's he's just
Speaker 1: love it. I think he's I agree, I think he's
Speaker 1: Mount Russian War. There are a few actors like Jeff Bridges,
Speaker 1: who's done flawless work and twenty amazing films that one
Speaker 1: different than the other, No one more diverse. Starman to
Speaker 1: Baker Brothers or whatever. Yeah, beggar or sexy too, you know,
Speaker 1: all of it, all of it. And I would say
Speaker 1: Harvier bur Dam is the same thing. It's a different
Speaker 1: performance every time. And there's nothing this guy kid, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Kevin Pollock, you've been amazing. Now, However, when you were
Speaker 1: in your tesla, it was the fifth tesla you'd had,
Speaker 1: looking at all the buttons, you're pressing all the buttons
Speaker 1: and you drive straight into a wall and you died
Speaker 1: on impact. And Elon Musk appeared in a helicopter. But
Speaker 1: I was walking past with a coffin. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm like, And I said Elon. Yeah, don't worry about it, mate,
Speaker 1: I got it. And he went, is this no pictures?
Speaker 1: Is gonna look bad for us? I said, don't worry,
Speaker 1: we'll make it audio. I'll be fine. And anyway, she
Speaker 1: went straight back up in his helicopter, which then turned
Speaker 1: into a rocket. Enough he went to march and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get the state you're in there. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a lovely car, but you've made a real mess of it.
Speaker 1: I have to get I have to chop out the
Speaker 1: fucking door, have to chop out bits of metal. You're
Speaker 1: it's all over here. Anyway, I get you plus bits
Speaker 1: of the Tesla into this coffin. I stuff you in.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely rounded in there. There's only enough room in
Speaker 1: it for one DVD. But I then find out you've
Speaker 1: already got one in the coffin. I look, I have
Speaker 1: to lift you up again. And underneath it there is
Speaker 1: the film that you're going to take to show everyone
Speaker 1: or movie night when it's your turn in heaven. And
Speaker 1: that film is fantastic, mister Fox. That's right. You're happy
Speaker 1: with that. I am very happy with that. It's a
Speaker 1: lovely film, a really lovely film, and a lovely choice.
Speaker 1: I need one more and more. It's a fucking brilliant film.
Speaker 1: I really like that. That was too too many percents. Way, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's shoot for the metal. You know it is um.
Speaker 1: I love Rushmore in the Royal Gene Hackman's performance in
Speaker 1: the Royal Town of Bombs is a comedic clinic that
Speaker 1: is almost unmatched. Yeah, but the fantastic mister Fox just
Speaker 1: in terms of I don't know everything of creativity, performance
Speaker 1: surprised the Light. A big fan of critters in general.
Speaker 1: Bill Murray as the want to see the badge accountant
Speaker 1: or something fuck me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's magical. It's magical,
Speaker 1: it really is. Kevin Pollock, is there anything you would
Speaker 1: like to tell people to listen to, you, to look
Speaker 1: out for to watch coming up for you and out
Speaker 1: of your three hundred upcoming projects? Thank you for waiting
Speaker 1: for season four of The Marvelous Missus Masel the those
Speaker 1: of you who give a shit about that particular show. Sorry,
Speaker 1: we got pushed to February, but thank you for your patients.
Speaker 1: So I would I would invite you to forgive us
Speaker 1: and tune in in February. Look, if you want your
Speaker 1: hammers in a day, sometimes two. Then you get missus
Speaker 1: Maiso for free, okay, And the other thing is the
Speaker 1: other thing is I um. After ten years of hosting
Speaker 1: the Kevin Pollock Chat show at the at the Forefront,
Speaker 1: back when you had two thousand and nine, when you
Speaker 1: had to explain to people what a podcast was, I
Speaker 1: gave it up in nineteen after ten years and four
Speaker 1: hundred episodes. I was done with podcasting. And then about
Speaker 1: two years ago I started a all improvised comedy podcast
Speaker 1: with some brilliant improvisers I saw at the Westside Comedy
Speaker 1: Theater and hand picked them and they're brilliant and amazing,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's called Alchemy. This. So if the idea
Speaker 1: of an all improvised comedy podcast where we do three
Speaker 1: scenes that we're all seen suggested by fans either through
Speaker 1: patroon or through emails, if that interest you at all,
Speaker 1: with brilliantly fast, fearless funny fuckers, then check out off
Speaker 1: for me. This that's funny. However, you get your podcast,
Speaker 1: and of course Willow will be with us scene. That's right, Willow.
Speaker 1: And the other reason I was in the UK better
Speaker 1: things the Pamela ad Lane Show amazing, Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: Kevin Pollock. I really appreciate your time. I'm very grateful
Speaker 1: for you doing this. Thank you. You've been wonderful and
Speaker 1: I hope you have a wonderful day. Good day, sir,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. So it was episode one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy nine. Head over to patreon dot com forwards
Speaker 1: Brett Colstein for the extra twenty minutes of chat, secrets
Speaker 1: and video with Kevin. Go to Apple Podcast. Give us
Speaker 1: a five star rating. But don't tell me about the show.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the film that means the most of
Speaker 1: you and why it's very nice thing to read. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you that much. Thank you so much to Kevin Pollock.
Speaker 1: Kevin Pollock, can you believe it? Thank you Kevin for
Speaker 1: doing the show. Thanks for screepings Pit and the distraction
Speaker 1: Pieces of Network. Thanks to Buddy Pieces for producing it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks to Addam Richardson
Speaker 1: for the graphics and Lisa Linum for the photography. Come
Speaker 1: join me next week where my brilliant special guest I
Speaker 1: believe will be the wonderful and hilarious Danielle Pinock. So
Speaker 1: that is it for now. In the meantime, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. I hope you have a lovely new Year,
Speaker 1: and please be excellent to each other.