Kevin Pollak's Chat Show

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.
==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. 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. 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==
# LeVar Burton 
# Samm Levine
# Jim Gaffigan
# Joe Mantegna
# Jason Antoon 
# Elon Musk
# Bobby Slayton
# Doug Benson
# Christopher McQuarrie 
# Paget Brewster
# Jon Hamm 
# Alex Albrecht
# Matthew Perry
# Chris Mallick
# Curt Smith 
# Felicia Day
# George Gallo
# Josh Malina
# Adam Carolla 
# Dana Carvey
# Nia Vardalos
# Illeana Douglas
# Dan Finnerty
# Kevin Smith
# Mike Binder
# Nick Swardson
# Jason Lee
# Craig Bierko
# Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel
# Samm Levine and Steve Agee
# Hank Azaria
# Seth MacFarlane
# Rob Corddry
# Michael Gladis and Rich Sommer
# Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova 
# Jane Campion
# Kevin Nealon
# Lisa Loeb
# Eddie Izzard
# Paul F. Tompkins
# "Weird Al" Yankovic
# Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine
# Brian Tyler
# David Koechner
# Robert Legato
# Nick Kroll
# Chris Hardwick
# Dave Coulier
# 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
# Billy West and John DiMaggio
# Jason Reitman
# James Urbaniak
# Seann William Scott
# Annie Duke
# 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
# Daniel Stern
# Henry Winkler
# James Roday and Maggie Lawson
# Cheri Oteri
# Justine Bateman
# The Sklar Brothers
# Titus Welliver
# Greg Proops 
# Martin Mull
# Alan Zwiebel 
# Wayne Federman
# Craig Ferguson
# Paul Rudd
# J. K. Simmons
# Rob Riggle
# John Slattery
# Larry Miller
# Rich Eisen
# Neil Patrick Harris
# Adam Scott
# Steven Weber
# Jimmy Pardo
# Bryan Cranston
# Fred Willard
# Kathy Najimy
# Andy Kindler
# Tim Street
# Paul Provenza 
# Rick Overton
# Robert Morse
# Jason Alexander
# Bradley Whitford
# Joel McHale
# Leonard Maltin
# Laura Prepon
# Eric Balfour
# Colin Hanks
# Andy Richter
# Billy Bob Thornton
# Stephen Root
# Paul Dooley and Winnie Holzman
# Lisa Kudrow
# Marc Maron
# Adam Savage (with studio audience)
# Nathan Fillion
# Steve Jones
# Lauren Graham
# Dave Thomas
# Robert Kraft
# Laraine Newman
# Fred Savage
# Demetri Martin
# Rob Reiner
# Garfunkel and Oates
# Eugene Levy
# John Cho
# Michael Chiklis
# Christopher Guest
# Stephen Tobolowsky
# Nick Offerman
# Oscar Nunez
# Damon Lindelof
# Peter Weller
# Alison Brie
# Michael McKean
# John Landis
# Phil Hendrie
# Sugar Ray Leonard
# Thomas Lennon
# Harry Shearer
# Greg Grunberg
# Dana Gould
# James L. Brooks
# Virginia Madsen
# Chris Pratt
# Megan Mullally
# Glenn Howerton
# Ivan Reitman
# Patrick Warburton
# Ed O'Neill
# David Krumholtz
# Rachael Harris (with studio audience)
# Garret Dillahunt
# Joe Lo Truglio
# David Wain
# Drew Carey
# Ed Begley Jr
# Ben Schwartz
# Zachary Levi
# Jason Biggs
# Adam Brody
# Richard Kind
# Danny Masterson
# Tony Hale
# Dan Harmon
# Johnny Knoxville
# Richard Schiff
# Phil Rosenthal
# Bob Odenkirk
# Tom Everett Scott
# Mark Valley
# Stephen Collins
# Alan Arkin
# Matt Walsh
# Micky Dolenz
# Shawn Ryan
# Scott Aukerman
# Josh Gad
# Mark Duplass
# Jon Favreau
# Barry Sonnenfeld
# Gillian Jacobs
# Paul Feig
# Eli Roth
# Peter Farrelly
# Stephen Merchant
# Michael C. Hall
# Rob Delaney
# Jason Mantzoukas
# Freddie Wong
# John Larroquette
# Bryan Fuller
# Jon Lovitz
# Danny Strong
# Jim Norton
# Dick Van Dyke
# Kumail Nanjiani
# Tom Papa
# Ken Marino
# Ben Folds
# Greg Proops
# Jim Rash
# James Leighton
# Bobcat Goldthwait
# Tom Hanks
# Jon Daly
# Mark Sanger
# Larry David
# Taran Killam
# Michael Showalter
# Curtis Armstrong
# Nate Corddry
# Jim Jefferies
# Anna Faris
# Jenny Slate
# Dom Irrera
# Jordan Peele
# Kelly Carlin
# Matt Jones
# Marc Evan Jackson
# Adam DeVine
# John Carroll Lynch
# Vinnie Jones
# Todd Glass
# Will Forte
# Jim Norton
# Bill Burr
# Bill Hader
# Jon Heder
# Alex Winter
# Craig Cackowski
# Mars Callahan
# Wayne Federman
# Kristen Schaal
# Cary Elwes
# Allison Janney
# Jake Kasdan
# Joel Murray
# Toby Huss
# Harland Williams
# Anthony Cumia
# Rainn Wilson
# Sam Rockwell
# Jim O'Heir
# Lauren Collins
# Will Sasso
# Matthew Perry
# Will Forte and Dana Carvey
# Horatio Sanz
# Phil LaMarr
# Peter Gould
# Saul Rubinek
# Dean Cameron
# Skylar Astin
# Jon Cryer
# Missi Pyle
# Josh Charles
# Jack Kenny
# Zoë Bell
# Seth Green
# Mae Whitman
# Kyle Bornheimer
# Brittany Snow
# Don Cheadle
# Matt Mira
# Richard Benjamin
# Kelly Carlin
# Vince Gilligan
# Al Jean
# Sam McMurray
# Jere Burns
# Stuart Pankin
# Clint Howard
# Carol Leifer
# Jay R. Ferguson
# Jane Lynch
# Jamie Lee Curtis
# Greg Fitzsimmons
# Colin Hay, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Burr (with studio audience)
# Timothy Omundson
# Aisha Tyler
# John Francis Daley
# Jenna Elfman
# John C. McGinley
# David Foster
# Illeana Douglas
# James Van Der Beek
# Natasha Leggero
# Wayne Federman
# Derek Waters
# Jason Ritter
# Shiri Appleby
# Brett Gelman
# David Harbour
# Andy Kindler
# Pete Holmes
# Janet Varney
# Jonah Ray
# Michael Ian Black
# Jay Mohr
# Maurice LaMarche
# Kevin Rahm
# Rider Strong
# Joe DeRosa
# Vanessa Ragland and Joey Greer
# Ben Schwartz and Kyle Bornheimer
# "Weird Al" Yankovic
# Rob Riggle
# Christopher Guest
# Lauren Graham
# Billy Bob Thornton
# Stephen Root
# J.K. Simmons
# Kevin Nealon
# Christopher Masterson
# Kevin Smith
# Titus Welliver
# Ethan Embry
# Chris Mancini and Graham Elwood
# Craig Ferguson
# Dave Foley
# Vincent D'Onofrio
# Dave Coulier
# Lucy Davis
# Michaela Watkins
# Paul Reiser
# Rob Corddry
# Carl Reiner
# David Koechner
# Jeff Garlin
# Ian Gomez
# Beth Dover and Joe Lo Truglio
# Antonio Esfandiari
# Josh Hopkins
# Bryan Cranston
# Mindy Sterling
# Tommy Dewey
# Greg Cromer
# Diedrich Bader
# Bobby and Mikey Roe
# Matt Besser
# Sam Robards
# Seth Morris
# Jenna Fischer
# Ricky Gervais
# Martha Kelly
# Chris Kattan
# Joe Keery
# Phil Proctor
# Jennifer Tilly
# Larry Sher
# Chuck Bryant
# Greg Kinnear
# David Harbour
==Notes==
==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
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Category:American television talk shows
Category:Audio podcasts
Category:Video podcasts
Category:Earwolf