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1995, R, 178 min. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollak, L.Q. Jones.

Kevin Pollak, Actor: The Usual Suspects. Short (5'5'), dark, compact, balding character actor, impressionist and comedian Kevin (Elliott) Pollak was born in San Francisco, California, on October 30, 1957, to Robert and Elaine (Harlow) Pollak, of Jewish descent. A stand-up comedy performer at age 10, he attended Pioneer High School in nearby San Jose, before turning professional comedian. Buy movie tickets in advance, find movie times, watch trailers, read movie reviews, and more at Fandango.

REVIEWED By Marjorie Baumgarten, Wed., Nov. 22, 1995

That Martin Scorsese is one of the modern masters of cinema is a fact that is reiterated through each of his movies. He always struggles to find new strategies for seeing beneath the surface of things and for new approaches to the telling of stories. Casino, however, cannot be viewed as one of Scorsese’s masterpieces. Yet, while certainly less than successful, I’m reluctant to call it a failure. Because, then, I’d have to revoke my love relationship with the film’s spectacular opening sequence (let’s just say it begins with a magnificent bang). The term “failure” would also negate the novelty of certain shots and scenes, like the overhead shot of Las Vegas that presents the city as a mecca of light in an otherwise barren sea of darkness. Leave it to Scorsese to expose the Vegas gestalt in a new and original manner. Eye-opening material like this is peppered throughout the movie. Then, of course, it is always a pleasure to watch De Niro at work, especially when at work in a juicy role like that of Sam “Ace” Goldstein, the Mob’s consummate bookie chosen by the bosses to front their “legit” Vegas casino. Believing in De Niro as a Jew is a bit of a stretch, however he’s good enough that you don’t dwell on how you can take the goy out of Little Italy but …. Better than watching De Niro work alone is the pleasure of watching De Niro working a scene with Joe Pesci, who is cast as Nicky Santoro, the New York muscle brought in to smooth over the casino’s inevitable rough spots. And to answer the question on everyone’s lips – Can Sharon Stone cut it? – well, yes and no. She fares better than any of her previous work might have led you to expect, but no one will ever mistake her for an acting giant. The problems with her characterization can largely be laid at the feet of Scorsese, a filmmaker whose body of work has never evidenced much sensitivity toward his female characters. For every Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Boxcar Bertha there are dozens of Johnny Boys and Travis Bickles roaming the Mean Streets, dividing women up into the virtuous and the fallen. Stone’s top-of-the-heap casino hustler could be a fascinating character, but in Casino she is simply there to be the object of Scorsese’s affections and subsequent scorn. The story is about what it is like for Ace living with her and living without her; not the other way around. Scorsese depicts the boys’ clubs, whether the movie is The Last Temptation of Christ, The Last Waltz, The Color of Money, Cape Fear or GoodFellas. And speaking of GoodFellas, that movie may just be the source of many of Casino’s shortfalls. Casino reminds you in too many ways of the brilliance of GoodFellas, and in a way that dooms Casino to remain in its shadow. It more than just the resonant re-pairings of De Niro and Pesci and novelist/co-scriptwriter Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese. Structurally, it tries to ape the climactic build-up of GoodFellas, but never quite blasts off as the climax of GoodFellas so viscerally does. Casino never really seems to have a point, and in a movie just a couple minutes shy of three hours, that really becomes a palpable problem. As a whole, the movie does not crap out at the table, but neither does it come up with a fistful of dollars.

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show was a weekly interview program hosted by actor, comedian and impressionist Kevin Pollak and streamed over the web on YouTube. The show aired live most Sundays from the M.I. Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, California. Episodes are 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]

The show ended with a live audience taping on March 2, 2019, with guests Pamela Adlon and Jim Jefferies.^[2]

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Format[edit]

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.^[3] 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.^[4] In 2010 the Kevin Pollak Chat Show was nominated for several Streamy Awards and won Best Live Show on the Internet.

History[edit]

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[edit]

• 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'sCasino, 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 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'sInglourious 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[edit]

• 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.

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Episode guide and guests[edit]

1. LeVar Burton^[5]
2. Chris Mallick
3. Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel
4. Samm Levine and Steve Agee
5. Michael Gladis and Rich Sommer
6. Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova
7. Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine
8. Cast and crew of Drones: Amber Benson, Adam Busch, Samm Levine, James Urbaniak, Marc Evan Jackson, Dave 'Gruber' Allen, Dan Bern, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
9. Billy West and John DiMaggio
10. 1 Year Birthday: Jason Calcanis, Bobby Slayton, James Urbaniak, Mike Binder, Samm Levine, Marc Evan Jackson, Illeana Douglas, Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, Mike Rotman, Kenny Chen, Jason McIntyre, Josh Negrin and Emily Goodman
11. James Roday and Maggie Lawson
12. Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman
13. Adam Savage (with studio audience)
14. Rachael Harris (with studio audience)
15. James Leighton
16. Craig Cackowski
17. Will Forte and Dana Carvey
18. Colin Hay, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Burr (with studio audience)
19. Vanessa Ragland and Joey Greer
20. Ben Schwartz and Kyle Bornheimer
21. Chris Mancini and Graham Elwood
22. Beth Dover and Joe Lo Truglio
23. Bobby and Mikey Roe
24. James Heaney
25. Schmoes Know
26. AKA (Ask Kevin Anything)
27. Jada Catta-Preta
28. Mark Norman
29. Jenna Laurenzo
30. Chris Fairbanks
31. Michael Zegan
32. Katie O'Brien and Katy Colloton
33. Pamela Adlon (finale)

Notes[edit]

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1. ^'Kevin Pollak's Chat Show'. Mahalo.com. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
2. ^'Last Episode Of 'Kevin Pollak's Chat Show' Podcast Tapes Saturday'. allaccess.com. 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
3. ^'Welcome to Kevin Pollak's Chat Show'. Kevinpollakschatshow.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
4. ^[1]Archived October 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
5. ^[2]Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

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External links[edit]

• Kevin Pollak's Chat Show on IMDb

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