This absolutely gob smacked Peter; Jason casually mentioned he was originally cast as Lt. Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner’s Oscar nominated film, A Few Good Men. George Costanza alongside Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise? Really, no really!
So how did actor, comedian, impressionist, author, director, and podcast host Kevin Pollak nab the memorable Lt. Weinberg role…which ended up boosting his already growing credits? We needed to find out.
So, we reached out to Kevin who has appeared in over 80 films; including the cult classic - The Usual Suspects as Todd Hockney and played Phillip Green in Martin Scorsese's Casino. Recently Pollak was a regular cast member on Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He’s also a podcast pioneer hosting such classics as, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, Talkin Walkin where he spoke only as Christopher Walken and most recently My Mrs. Maisel Pod.
IN THIS EPISODE:
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YouTube: @kevinpollakschatshow
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Facebook: Kevin Pollak
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Really now really.
Really now really hello and welcome to Really Know Really with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden. In this episode, you'll discover how one of our hosts was originally cast in Rob Reiner's Oscar nominated film A Few Good Men alongside Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, and then eventually became uncast.
You learn about the relationship.
Between misery and comedy, and you'll get a tutorial on how to impersonate Christopher Walking from a man who actually got that part in a Few Good Men but is also a comedian, impressionist, author, and director. Wow, this guy sounds great. He should do a podcast. Oh wait, he is also a celebrated podcast host. Yes, Kevin Pollock has truly done it all, But for now, here are two guys who've lived up to a mere fraction of their potential.
Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden. Now really all right, Well you ready? I think we're gonna have fun. I think this is what I have to do to get ready.
Well, yeah, on the shirt, this is this really no really, my friends? Is well what we're about to use as a really no really to me is no big deal.
But to you I left. You were gobsmacked.
So you Kevin Pollack, I think before you love cover and he's a great guest.
And but we only do really no, really, we don't just have people. We don't just have people.
Are because one day you just said to me in passing, you know, I was supposed to get through all in a few good men.
And I look at you and I go, and you went, what happened? I went, I couldn't do it. So Kevin Pollack did it? And I were like, how the hell worlds are colliding?
How does that happen? That Kevin Pollack would replace you? Like like it was.
It wasn't how it could replace you, it was how are you casting?
Really?
No?
Really, because I can imagine you in the courtroom seen there but Cruz and Nicholson and all that. Not because her, because I'm I'm such a lot I have.
I don't have the dramatize Kevin Pollack.
Yes, no, the last three Yes, no, because just like I couldn't imagine Kevin as George Costanzo, there are once it's ingrained in your head.
Yeah, it's there. Kevin did such an amazing job.
Anyway, That's what flabbergast did Peter, and so it was a good excuse to have my now very old and dear friend Kevin Pollack. You know him as an actor, comedian, impressionist.
Uh. You know him from films like Oh Few Good Men, Grumpy Old Men at the Sequel, Grumpier Old Men, Casino, End of Days, or as Usual Suspects. He was a god on The Marvelous Missus Masel.
He is one of the progenitors of the podcast.
He had a podcast, you know, chat show. The one that made me laugh is and doing the research.
You actually created a show called Talking Walking where you just did the whole podcast as Christopher Walker.
Correct? Is that correct? What people do? Christopher Walker? What's the premise?
No? No, I would have someone on as a guest and we would talk about the minutia of life for forty five minutes or so, and I spoke only as Christopher Walk. But we never we never referenced me or Christopher Walker at any point during the conversation.
To me, it's so wonderful that you went for the It's like going for the joke and then sticking.
With the joke.
It's called committing.
It's called committing and I got to tell you in starting this episode.
You gotta tell me.
I gotta tell you this because it's really important. There's a lot that we're going to talk about. But it's usually interesting for me that something bubbles to the surface that is important. And you had set a line in some interview you gave that said, if if you're not creating, you're waiting.
Yeah, and that is a mantra.
Yeah, that hit me really big.
Well, I appreciate that very very much because it means a lot to me. So the fact that it would mean anything to anyone is always a pleasure to hear. It started around the same time as that first podcast, Kevin Pollock's Chat Show in two thousand and nine. It was sort of the chat show was sort of born of that because as actors or comedians or any quote unquote piece of talent, we're taught to wait for the phone to ring. And so instead of waiting for the phone to ring, the idea was, you're limited by your imagination only, so create whatever you want to do. And so many people have done it over many, many decades. So yeah, so if you're not creating, your waiting and what do you waiting?
But you know, it's but the fact that you created keV. What I what I admire about the chat show was you were taking your episode well, yes that was a standout, but you you created in an area that wasn't really yet a thing. So the fact that you have created in areas that were not yet ripe for the picking were you I don't quite know what the rewards are going to be.
Yeah? Are you drawn to that?
Are you intrigued by these other things, these other areas.
Yeah, it's probably why I wrote a book, directed a couple of movies, because I wanted to keep diversifying and expanding my opportunities by creating them, you know, I mean, and yes, I did absolutely wait for the phone to ring for many years. Yeah, between being a stand up comedian, rising to the local scene in San Francisco where I'm from, moving to LA and then getting my first job in LA, there was at least at least two hundred auditions where at one point it wasn't they started to feel like, how about anyone but you was going to get right?
Yeah?
So yeah, and in fact it was a few good men. That's what was the goal line of going from auditioning to getting offered, Yeah, and to be clear to the earlier up as we discussed on the chat show many years ago, and has you know made the circuit. But I'm glad Peter hadn't heard it before because it allowed me to come on your program here.
Yeah.
So I was doing a summer series created by Rob Ryner Christopher Guest for CBS that nine people ultimately ended up watching, called Morton and Hayes. And I would have lunch every day with Rob Reiner, and he at one day at lunch pointed his sizable finger in my face and said, this next film I'm doing was a big Broadway success. I got Tom Cruise. I think we're going to get Jack Nicholson. And there's this part of Tom's co council that you're you're perfect for. I've got an offer out to Jason Alexander, but if Seinfeld gets picked up for a second season, he won't be available. And I'm just not realizing you you could do this, and you know a couple things. A. I went home, of course, and prayed for Jason's success more than intensely than I had prayed for anything ever. But also just the people talk about good luck, right. So the fact that I was having lunch on a daily basis of Rob while he was casting that movie is just completely utterly luck of the drug.
Yeah, hell, you know, it's so funny.
I mean, I know you for so long and we're pals, and there's so many things I don't know about you, and I don't want to drag you over old territory, but just I'm gonna ask. I heard you tell the story that when you were a kid, you'd come out of the movies and you would be doing, you know, a piece of the movie. You'd be imitating something for me. But I was a fan of theater and film and whatnot when I was a kid, But it took me until I was a teenager before I ever thought about being a part of it. And it happened by accident because we moved from one town to another and the theater kids picked me up and I wound up on stage.
How did you actually decide this is what I'm gonna do? And was the family behind you?
And I mean you went from being a cute, funny kid who imitated the movies that he saw to going I'm gonna do this.
What was that journey?
Yeah, well, my mom told me that as early as age four or five, when she took me to the movies, when we exited the theater most of the time at conclusion of the film, sometimes a little early. We didn't have patience for bad as a team that I would not necessarily be impersonating, but I almost in a zeleig way, had become someone in the film. So a little four and a half five year old pisser was Marlon Brando for no reason, and she just marveled at it and didn't really make anything of it. But secretly I was thinking as early as that age, how do you get to do that? And then I got sidetracted with stand up quite honestly, because I was also collecting stand up comedians on television the way my friends collected baseball cards, and you know, I was allowed to stay up and watch Carson Or but the comedians absolutely captivated me. And then my parents would bring home comedy albums and I would watch them laugh uncontrollably to the point of discomfort. On my party, it was as if they were crying uncontrollable. That's how awkward and out of character was to see them laugh. And then that certainly laid the groundwork for I'm going to learn how to do this?
So was it acting that called to you first? And comedy just happened to be the road in? But your your eye was stand.
Up hijacked it, really stand up high hijacked it.
Yeah, I.
And then they sort of lived together when I started maybe doing a couple of plays in school high school. But yeah, that I was horrible in class in school. So the idea of when others would say you should go to an acting school, it sounded horrible to me. If someone had maybe surrounded me as your friends did from the theater world and so join us, that would have changed the course of things. But it didn't.
So you've never formally studied right acting, No.
No, just just at the feet of the greats.
In front of the observation experience.
And so how do you find yourself into impersonation if all the comedy things to do, that's like, not only you have to be funny and figure out jokes, but I also have to kind of commit to being this person and be accurate enough and close enough that the audience gets it without being the comedians.
The old guys we used to always come out.
And say, oh look, it's Jimmy Stewart. It's like announcing who they are. How did that's a weird thing to glom onto and say, I think I can do that.
Well, Jason will tell you that it's just a you have a freak gear for it and a desire to pursue it, or you don't. Every child learns to speak from mimicking the parents or sounds around them, right, and some of us that that mimicking just doesn't go away, doesn't stop. So yeah, I would make my friends laugh in junior high into high school by impersonating whoever was interesting on the scene in TV or movies, and based on their laughter, I started to think, Oh, I guess I can do this, you know. I eventually would almost Penn and Teller break down the illusion in my standardback about doing impersonations and how it's a parlor trick. If I can think of someone you like and I can recreate them in front of you, I will basically steal the affection you have for the actual person. If I thought you liked Peter Falk as much as I did, and I said, oh geez, I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a pitched Can I ask you one question, why did you get those shoes? My wife, she's crazy about shoes. Her name is Amelda. So the feel there is I promise you, if you didn't know who Peter Falk was, or you didn't love Peter Falk, what I just did would would be maybe funny in a cartoony kind of way, but it wouldn't have any So once I tapped into that, it never made sense to me to say, you know what, if Jimmy Stewart were a busboy at might go something like this.
He was more.
He was.
Even though my dear friend who I started out with, well, I was about to say I started out in San Francisco's stand up with Dana Carvey in the late seventies, and he actually did the funniest bit ever, which was Jimmy Stewart as a waiter. I don't know if you ever did it in any of his specialist but yeah, he just a very impatient waiter as Jimmy Stewart. I don't want to bastardize it, but it was something like that. I just I told you the Specials twenty minutes ago. What do you mean You're not right?
Yeah?
I mean I'm not going to make this all about the impressions. But do you do you have a methodology for getting one of those things or do you just you either have it or you hear it enough and you've got it.
Or they're in my wheelhouse?
Are they are?
They're not there, you know. Dana and I would always say, we got our Johnny Carson from Rich Little, we got our Kirk Douglas from Frank Gorshen. You know, there's someone had to break the code, or you break the code yourself, the way Dana was forced to. Once he was on SNL one week. We were talking on the phone on a Tuesday and I said, who they got you doing this week? And he said, it looks like they're gonna want me to do Ross Perot And at that point Ross had just appeared on Larry King I think, just once, and we both sort of started playing on the phone call with the idea of what is a Ross Pro impression, And by the end of it, we both had a Ross Pro impression, just pat and I said him, well, wait a second, this sucks because come Saturday, you're gonna become famous for doing Ross and I just nailed Ross Pro and no one will ever care so his data's bit on Ross with his little catch thing or the key that opens the lock was can I finish Larry? Larry canna finish can Ah Finnick? Because Larry can't be interrupting it? And my thing was Ross pro had an analogy for everything, and never did they make sense. The economy, you see, it's like peanut butter. If you feed it to a horse and he chews on it, it'll look like he's talking. So so yeah, there's no I guess sometimes if you put your mind to it and they're in your wheelhouse, you can learn them. There's been many that I could never learn.
Well.
I you know, I never ever wanted to be a comedian. But I was in college having not really focused much on comedy, and I had a professor who you know, to the to the outhouse and said, look, dude, you're you're you're five foot five, you're thirty pounds overweight, and you're already starting to lose your hair. You may want to think about some comedy. And so I started doing. I got very serious, and I had all the comedy albums that you had as a kid, but I wasn't I wasn't singing along with them until I started then in college going okay, why is what he allen?
Funny?
And that's when I started trying to learn the routines and do them with him, to get the rhythms and to get the sound and the musicality of it, you know. And and so there were a couple of people I could fall into, but I wanted.
He would even later admit to ripping off Bob Hope with that one move that became a signature of his, which was yes, yeah, yeah, he just clearly ripped off I meant a much lodger Man.
Yeah, right, exactly. But I could not.
I did not like, for instance, I feel like I should be able to do Chris Walkin. I cannot get Chris Walkin. I can't get him.
Well, so I was dabbling a little bit. Chris McCrory, who, after being a twenty six year old punk and winning an Oscar for the usual suspects, which I insist he'd leave it my mantle one week out of fifty two for all the lines I improvised in his Academy World screenplay, I mean literally every line that's quoted to me on the street by fans.
Of course, it's something you came up with.
Sure, the very first time my character speaks in the beginning to Move, when we're all individually round up before the police lineup. My character's in a garage. He's working on a car. The garage door behind him opens up and five cops pill in behind him, which he sees through the side mirror he's working on behind. There are no lines written, And I said in the on the day, are you sure you're brought enough guys in the movie? Leave the trophy on my mantle one week out of the year for so so so. Anyways, So Chris, Chris McCrory and I were he's now writing and directing the mission possible, what he was doing quite well. But we we were casting UH, a TV thing that we created UH less than a year after he won that Academy Award. And while we were casting, in between when the cast and director go out and get the next person to bring him in, and we started improvising Christopher Walking and Regis Philbin co hosting a morning talk show because because why not, Because we were quite bored and needed to make each other laugh. And then we were in on the warners lot in the golf cart going to lunch the way you do. And we see Jay Moore walking and we just about run him over as we corner him against a building and insist that he show us his secret for doing Christopher Walkin because he was the only one who had done it on television, which he did the famous Christopher Walkin's Psychic Friends Network a sketch on Saturday Night Live. And so he gave me the key that day, which I can give you, which is every single syllable word when doing Christopher Walkin becomes a two syllable word, So the word no, no becomes now. It begins there and then you just spread it out.
It's Jay.
I was doing a movie. I've directed two films that nobody has seen. Jay was in the first one, and he told me the story of that great time that he was in the cast and Walkin.
Was the host the bear Suit, and well there's that.
But also they're all in Lauren's office and Chris has his back to everybody as they're all pitching ideas for sketches, and he has no reaction until he out of nowhere goes dresses funny, oh that was the bearsuit, and everybody's gone, yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, the bearsuit.
That story that exact same setup and delivery punch that you just gave has also been attributed to him in that moment saying bass suits are funny always make me laugh. I don't know which is funny or which he actually said.
This is pretty good.
Yeah, So the Talking Walking podcast, as I was talking about the reason I did it, what makes me laugh about the Christopher Walk impression and why I still do it even though it's become the most pedestrian impression do is that What I find most interesting is the conversational Christopher Walker, him talking about the minutia. So the you know there, if you google Christopher Walker impersonation, sometimes over thirty thousand search and answers will come up. That's how pedestrian it's become. There are five pages on YouTube dedicated to Asians doing Christopher Wall and they are hilarious. I won't do any of them because I'd rather not be canceled, but you do need.
To see them.
So so yeah, the conversational just talking about anything and nothing without having to push. For example, here's your opportunity to ask Christopher Walker and anything. Let's let's realize this.
In real time.
Anything you'd ever want to ask, And it doesn't have to be funny. It doesn't have to be at anything you're actually curious about.
When exercising, what is the one exercise that could probably heal the best result?
Damn good question, Peter Frankenstein never scared me. Marsupials do because they're fast. That's it doesn't really matter what you That's where we're going, Chris.
Some people scared of elevators.
It's simple. I probably the quick and easy answer, of course, is the up and down aspect. But what you really need to think about is the buttons. I know where I'm going, but I don't know which button.
Is.
That As much fun to do as it is, it's.
More fun, by the way. Uh uh. This is the weird part about doing impersonations. When I am doing those people, it becomes like a possession.
And also you light up when you do it.
And I watched your loved Misery Loves Comedy, and I want to talk about that in a minute. But the thing, there were some really cool stuff that resonated there too. You got a lot of comedians to talk about not just misery, but the one thing that jumped out of me, And I think was Jim Gaffigan who said it. The mad think about being on stage and the Dwarfin release in the rush is I got a secret that I'm going to present to you in a minute, and only I.
Know it, and wait and wait for wait for it. I got to come in.
That's such a more powerful thing that I know this you's going to kill and every commute.
Jason has felt that on stage doing a play.
Yeah, I remember doing the Neil Simon play on Broadway and.
Yeah, but but I also had a weird reaction to that too, because I did that. I did the play for uh ten months or eleven months, maybe even more, and the first four or five six months it was that rush of going, oh, I got something good, and I know they're going to do this thing. And then I started to get resentful of the fact that they were going to do it. Right Why I started to go, oh, yeah, sheep, here it comes, here, it come watch they're gonna.
Les yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because I got I got bored with it. I got bored with the material.
And the nice thing about doing stand up is you get tired of your team, you switch it up.
Yeah, but you do feel that Russia. I got something coming. Yeah, when you know you've got it, when you know you've got it, it's it's really good.
It's a weird sensation. It's very powerful.
Misery Loves Comedy. If you haven't seen the documentary, it's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, with comedians being really candid. I guess because you knew them all. They were really comfortable with you. The one that jumped out at me was Martin Short walking with his wife, Why don't you tell that story? Because it was pretty like, whoa, this is revealing.
So I was approached to direct a documentary with the thesis do you have to be miserable to be funny? And then I came up with the title Misery Loves Comedy, which wasn't too difficult as titles go. But then I reached out to sixty or so annoyingly famous funny people and asked them if I could just, you know, have them either meet somewhere convenient or many times, in the case of Marty Short, at my dining table.
Because they were going to go to this party where that right where these people were.
He and his wife were walking along and they saw a bench.
And he said, I got to sit down, and she said why He said, because I'm devastated right now. I can't fake going in there and dealing with the fact that he's that there are a couple of people that have taken off that were my equals, there's that much more successful.
I don't know how to deal with that.
And it was really honest and just open and he had to really deal with that and kind of up to his game to even walk into that room because he was so devastated by their success.
And yeah, it was one thing to share with his wife who he could trust with these private such a private moment and reveal of honesty that he was so jealous of this person or person forgetting a job. I think it was SNL, but he wanted that he didn't want to go to the party.
Yeah, that was then to share it with me in the camera for this documentary, that was really something that's a good pull.
The other thing that got me was Christopher Guest did a thing and I've never seen Christopher Guest really talk that much, and he did the thing where he threw his You asked him about when he started being funny, and he said he started in school where he would throw the screeching noise mm hmm across the room and get other people in trouble. Oh, like a ventrilous like a ventriloquist, and they was, and he did.
It, and then he does it and and it was when I was editing I realized I had to put a little chiron or lower third, which says he's he's really doing it, because it it sounds so dubbed in right after the fact, because in some cases he could move his mouth as if he were talking and that same sort of whatever the sound was. Uh yeah, it was. It's bizarre. Uh yeah, yeah. Chris, I guess is a tough interview. He was on the chat show. We'd known each other a while since that rob Ryn and Christopher guest thing. I mentioned it at the top. That led to a few good man, he's tough. In fact when he was on the chat so people would email or call and say, oh, buddy, that was tough. And my thought was that was that was Chris Guess having a blast. What you just saw was the most funn he's ever had in a conversation on camera. Sure, yeah, I don't think he ever really did talk trips he was.
It was fascinating to hear him talk at all, because I never have a couple of quicks. Exactly, did Jack Nicholson really hit on your mom? Yes, oh, I don't know about that.
Every story that's in the book and has consequently become a part of my stand up back happened.
Yeah, that's what was your mom that hot?
Because Jack, you find that a stretch looking at me now.
Just think I'm just thinking age wise. He doesn't for the show, gal.
So here's my mom comes to visit while we're shooting. She's you know, her nickname was the Sun because we were mere planets revolving around. And so when she came to visit in the courtroom Nicholson on the stand, that just happened to be the day we were shooting. Not only that, but we just happen to be shooting a POV over Jack's shoulder, his POV onto the courtroom, which means the camera angle now is so wide for this setup, there's no place to put my mom where she can stand and watch us shoot. Well, they end up having to put her over Nicholson's other shoulder, and so while we're shooting, she's waving at me and oblivious to the process, and Nicholson sees how truly unnerving. I mean, I'm aware while we're shooting the movie, this is easily the most important thing I have ever done and might ever do. And my mother one's ultimate judge is in my eye line. That's bad enough. And now she's waving and making faces about how excited she is while we're doing the scene. So I'm losing my Nicholson sees that, and in between lighting setups, he walks, gets off the stand and comes over to the table where I'm seated and.
Says, Hey, keV, how'sn't hanging listen? I was hoping you might be able to do me your favor. I was hoping you might be able to get your mom.
Off my edge. Huh.
I think you might be able to handle that. I wouldn't mind so much. But she's hitting on me. What the hell am I supposed to do?
keV?
Am I supposed to take your mom back to my trailer?
Is that what you want? So?
Did my mom hit on him? I don't think so. Did Jack Nicholson say that to me?
Yes?
There, wonderful, Yes, you you have done so much stuff and most of the time, like me, and like our circle of friends, our character actor friends.
We're never the guy. We're in the group, but we're not the guy. Yeah, how do you feel about that?
Is there a thing you'd like to do where you are the guy? Is there a story that you haven't yet told that you're waiting to tell or.
I tell you. It's a great question. I've only been number one on the call sheet a couple of times, and the first time the writer director Rod Lurry, who went his next movie was The Contender with Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges and yeah, several Academy Award nominations for those performers Gary Oldman. But the first movie he wrote directed was called Deterrence, where I play the first It's a political thriller, and we were in the same poker game and he said to me one night, well, Peter, you might know because he was.
A Rod Laurie was my movie reviewer.
Movie review.
I actually had to call Rob after about the seventh review and say, Rod, you gotta like a movie. You can't pay every movie. Yeah, you're saying, is no good. And the fact that he was ready to be a director was amazing.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought you knew. So he said, I've written this movie in about forty pages in and it's about this president of the United States, and who have you know involved in this political thriller? And I realized, as I'm writing it, and I'm writing you as the character, are you? Are you cool to read this? Or should I start thinking about somebody else? And I said, well, do you want no one to see your film? I mean, why are you.
So?
I'm very exceptionally proud of that film and that work. And I was right nobody saw it. Uh, it's damn good political.
It was a good movie, very.
Very uh maybe uh prevalent in today's world. But anyways, Uh, to answer your question, the reason the title of my book is How I Slept My Way to the Middle is because I've been afforded an extraordinary existence and happiness and opportunities. You know, standing on the set or at base camp while doing the usual suspects of my agent call saying you've you've been offered a part in Martin Scorsese's next film, set in Las Vegas, written by Nick Polegie, who wrote Good Fellas. I said, you can stop talking, just you know, go make it.
Happen, yeah.
On Casino, you know those kind of moments and various things, And then you know the marvelous Missus Mail where you get to be an ensemble of amazing actors with a female lead who comes pretty much out of nowhere. You know, did I mean? I mean nominated work on House of Cards, but no one really knew who right you was? But there I am suddenly with eight paid scenes. Were my character bloviates? So yes, I was used to. At the beginning of the eight paid scene, I say to Tom Cruise or fill in the big star here, Hey, what do you think we should do? And then that star talks for seven and a half pages, and then I say, all right, let's go. So I love this character actor career that has afforded me all these travel all over the world blah blah blah, And I've been in the airspace of the biggest stars in the world out in their social personal lives, and it's not to be envy. So I do think we've been afforded, Jason, the best of all versions of show business by being character actors who get work based on our own work. Directors showrunners at some point realized, well, this isn't the guy that's going to put butts in the seats, but I want him based on being a fan of his the word.
Yeah. By the way, can you teach anybody to do impression? Yes?
I can. I teach people how to do Jason Statham some of you, most of you know who that is a short little British bullet heead I can call him that because he's not here. So I had when my book came out, I was doing the morning talk show to promote the book tour, and I was following him on these shows because he had a new movie out, because he hadn't had a new movie out in the six weeks, so he would be the first guest, and I would follow him with my book. And it only takes a couple of those appearances before the host or hostess invariably says Kevin Jason Stathum was just here, do you do Jason Stathum? Well, the first couple of times that happens, you know, it's it's difficult. And then after that I realized I'm the jerk for not coming with the impression right, and I had to teach myself, which is why I can now teach you Peter and here we go.
Go all right, everybody home, listen carefully, Here we go.
Gee and anyone can learn this. Jason Statham says six words faster than any human being on the planet. These six were words are do you know what I mean? Which he says as Joe Maade. He reduces six words to two syllables.
If I'll put you in that share, you'd be dead in thirty seconds.
Joe me, do you not?
What do I mean?
But if you just say Joe Made, so the name Joe, the word mean because Joe's a little cranky, and then grap up your voice a little bit, Joe made that's it. You're done.
You spot Joe, Spot Joe. Do you do anybody? Do you have any I cannot anybody. I don't have anybody. It's weird.
I mean, I can play guitar, can here's something on radio and play guitar, But I can't pick up a voice. And it's horrible. How would Christopher Walken? Do?
Do you know what I mean?
Okay, so I don't understand the lack of need or appreciation for syllables. I say us all six they're there for a reason. Do you no.
What I mean, and there's seven all of you know.
I I fancy that I do a fairly good Shatner, although Shatner says, I don't see.
It, but but but you do have a way.
It's not only the sound you you, there's a physical embody of it too that you get you Dana Carvey gets it. It's it's more than just a sound. It's it's a transformation, you know.
Yeah, and that's why it feels like a possession.
Yeah, because when you became f with it, Bill, because of your your personation. Correct.
Yeah, Yeah, it was weird. I mean I was doing it on talk shows, so he was either shown it or saw it and eventually reached out about me. He wrote a book called ghet a Life, and there was a chapter about people impersonating him, and he wanted me to come by the office and explain to him for a chapter in the book, which is in the book wherein I will tutor or walk the reader through how to do and his words the consummate Captain Kirk. So I get that call and I'm as Jason will tell you the most absurd from a monkey who does voices. To get that phone call, you know, I race to the car. I'm halfway there and it dawns on me. Oh no, I'm going to have to say to William Shatner, Well, mister Shatner, you know you're a actor. I mean, that's why there's an impression, because you take ridiculous pauses. Now I was, I'm joking. He's an extraordinary actor, but he would you know the character. There's actually a moment in Twilight Zone where the character of Captain Kirk is born, not the one on the airplane, but the one in the diner where he's stuck with the the fortune telemachine and his wife says, are we just going to stay here all day? Is this thing in to rule our lives? And he turns through and he says, I don't know. And in that moment, Captain.
Kirk was playing so oh my god.
So halfway to Shatner's office at dawns on me, I have to say that to him, and I don't. I So I make nice and I'm in the book and yeah, it's a ridiculous thing that you're you meet the person your due, It's it's usually a no win because again, the the parlor trick is me thinking of someone you like and recreating them and stealing the love you. So if they're there, I am aboute fraud. Although when Alan Arkin rest his Soul came to see me in New York, do stand up? He came backstage afterwards and said, you know what, I've decided of just seeing this, I'm not gonna stammer so much. Do you hear me talking right now? There's no stammering. There's no stammering.
I'm just talking.
I'm gonna keep talking even though I have nothing more to say.
Unbelievable. You know, here's what I want to ask you, and believe me.
I'm not I don't mean this is set up. You do not have to do anything. I always think that people that we we tend to think of to do impressions of have something very unique about their sound or their presentation.
Am I would I be an easy impression?
Yeah? Well yes, because of the George Costanza of it all. I think I think George as a character his highs are pretty high and his lows are very intense, and so those are the wavelengths that people could easily it.
Would be me a lah George for the most part. But it's not like our buddy Richard kind where you know, just sitting at the table.
We don't do some version of Richard.
No, no, you're not a caricature.
High and by to you because I see you all the time. But a thank you for doing this, b thank you for inviting me into your world as often as you do, and I am very excited to see what comes next. We just just uh, people should know. I was just did an episode of Kevin's podcast on the MASL show.
Rewatch called My Missus Maisel Pod.
You had a lovely two hour conversation that you know, and we we chat all the time.
So it's never been wait every week to watch you in MASL and I left.
Every time you come in. Every time you make an entrance, you made me.
You made me laugh because there's always some crap that they threw it, you hid money, some kind of aggravation and you had to deal with it, and you play that funnier than just about anybody else.
And also it was you, Caroline Dank Karen, we're just so well because it was always.
Gonna make Yeah, you just notched up.
Yeah, there was no there was no messing up that particular performance and were just about it.
Was kind of really successful, and yet I have to solve everybody's bro So thank you.
Can't wait to see your next thing. We'll see you at our next dinner.
The maisl uh just plug why not is called my missus maisle pod. If you're interested in the rewatch, where I have Jason and other people who worked on the show as my guest each episode, then thank.
You fellas for this time that Kevin.
How to quote you on mine? When you quote when you plug thiscast however you find you?
So that's my that's my buddy Pollock. What do you think he's always great? But he's always great. I think he's been in.
About ninety moves. Oh he's you go to I m dB.
He is one of the nicest much so much nice, yeah much God.
Google before you go to Google.
Hum, I have a little game David before we before we go well, actually know what go to you first?
David? Let's tell you. Then you can play along in my game, and Laurie you can play. Okay, go ahead, what do you your first? Da?
Well, first of all, I actually googled Christopher Walking impressions. There's one hundred and forty two thousand results that pop up. But this is wow, this is the interesting thing. The first six are compilations of different famous people doing it.
But what do you think is the.
First solo impression of Christopher walking that comes up?
Under that? It's either it's either Kevin or j Moore because that they are noted for doing extraordinary goodness. It's Kevin.
Yeah, so I thought that was because everything else before that.
Yeah, but you know why, because Google Google only gives you. The way it works is the ones that are the most viewed will move to the top of the list, and Kevin watches it incessantly.
That's why it has start watching. Yes, exactly, sense are really no really? Today?
Was that Jason was the original little person cast or the the uh yeh, the Lieutenant Sam Weinberg. Yeah, I thought that maybe i'd go through some famous roles that people know who they are, but who were some of the people that we were either originally cast.
Or asked to do that? All right?
So of course we all remember in the Harry Potter franchise, the original Headmaster the Dumbledore character was played by Richard Harris.
That's the wonderful actor who then passed away, and then they had to find a replacement, of course, and they they eventually found the wonderful Michael Michael Gambung who just passed away very recently.
But before they went to him.
Guess which other British actor they approached I'm.
Going to go with?
And I may have heard this somewhere. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Peter o'toua.
No did I?
I don't know British and the British actor who they went to for Michael Kane very close, sir Ian McKellen. Oh sure makes sense. Yeah, but here this.
Is the and this is the one I why I did at first, this is such an awesome thing. The reason why he turned it down is he said that Richard Harris was a critic of McKellen's acting skills. He actually called him passionless, and in an interview with Hard Talk magazine, McKellen explained he couldn't take over the park for an actor that he didn't appreciate his work for the No, well, I looked at it sort of disrespectful for the gentleman who originated. All right, here's here's another one. Jody Foster won the Oscar for her performance in the Silence of the Lambs. But she was not the first person that they wanted to fill that role.
Okay, they wanted I'm trying to think of when it was made, who would have been big?
They wanted, Uh, what you guess, Peter the Goldie hawn. I'm gonna say Meg.
Ryan, excellent, guesses it was Michelle Meifer, Michelle the.
Other Meg Ryan, the other Meg Ryan.
Of course she was the girl.
Yes, And and the reason she turned down the role because she felt that it was putting evil into the world and evil one in that picture and she did not want to That's interesting. There you go, here's an odd one. The last one run before he was John Wick. Keiana Reeves was just of course Neo in the Matrix. Yes, but he was not the first person they asked to be in that that part. They actually went to several people before they settled on him. But which former co star with Keanu Reeves was asked before Keanu Reeves to play Neo in the Matrix?
Wenona Ryder, I was gonna say, pee Wee Herman. Well, you know, the run is actually a good one. It was Sandra Bullock. Oh yeah, look at that.
All right, I'm gonna play a very quick game because I know Laurie wants me to go.
I'm gonna name actors. That's all Laurie does is wrap us.
Because we had Devin colleg This is an honor Kevin Pollack, who is a comedian who is also an actor. I'm gonna name you actors who have played comedians. You tell me what the film was or the role film.
Jim Carrey, actors who played comedian Andy Kaufman, very good, Robert de Niro lade with Rupert Pumpkin, Pupkin Hopkins and very good. Uh, he did another one. Danira is a comedian, played a comedian. Oh DeNiro played No, that was harp I played. He got me on this one.
He did a movie called The Comedian where he played a guy named Jackie b. Tom Hanks. I know we did stand up? Yeah, he plays stand up about It punchline. Eddie Murphy played Rudy ray Moore and Dolomite. How about oh wow, this one you should get Jeane Smart. Oh, Jeane Smart's playing a version of of Joan in the Sitcomtry and Sally Field.
Sally Field played of course of Moms Maybeley in that wonderful movie What the hell are you Talking Moms mabley Mania.
Sally Field played Mom's man, but she was also in Punchline you mentioned, uh. Dustin Hoffen played Lenny Bruce. Give you two more, Laurence Olivier.
Oh.
In the Crazy We've played a TV host, the TV saing the entertainer. The entertainer played Archie Rice, and Jerry Seinfeld of course played comedian Jerry.
Thank you, Kevin Pollock, thank you, my dear friend, Peter Tilden. One of the great comics, one of the great friends, one of the great men, one of the great radio and podcast hosts, one of the great most charitable men I know, one of the greatest fathers.
And the husbands. Laurie's gonna edit this all for time and you were joining us. We'll see you next time. Announce No, let's take it away now, Really.
Really, that's another episode of Really No Really comes to a close.
I know you're wondering who were the most impersonated celebrities. Well, I will tell you in just a moment, but first let's thank our guest, Kevin Pollock. You can find him on Instagram at at Kevin Pollock one two three, YouTube at Kevin Pollock Chat Show, and on x at Kevin Pollock and you can find us online at reallynoreally dot com. We're also on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and threads it Really No Really podcast and check out our full episodes on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button and tick that bell so we know that you really know, really like us. We release new episodes of Really No Really every Tuesday, so make sure to follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now the answer to who are the most impersonated celebrities? They are Marlon Brando is the Godfather, Sylvester Stallone, Al Pacino, Christopher Walkin, Michael Jackson, and still at number one, Elvis Presley. Or Really No Really is a production of Ahea Radio and Blase Entertainment.
Oh wow, that was bad