I Killed.
True Stories from the Road from America’s Top Comics

Random House / Crown Books, Released October 3, 2006
By Ritch Shydner & Mark Schiff

I Killed features a number of comedians including Kevin Pollak, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey, Larry David, and many more. Due for release on October 3rd, you're doing yourself a huge injustice if you don't buy this book.

Take a peek (and buy the book while you're at it).

Seven Times Lucky
Variety.com, January 23, 2004

By Robert Koehler

The grifter movie reaches a level of unprecedented enjoyment and excitement in an absolute knockout of a feature debut by writer-director G.B. Yates. A full cinematic vision is created with a wonderful set of characters resonating long after the closing credits. Stateside pickup should be a no-brainer for solid commercial play.

Savvy casting of Kevin Pollak as a hard-luck con man and delivery guy for mob bosses who gets in over his head, is reminiscent of "The Usual Suspects." "Lucky," however, is more closely tied to film noir tradition and to the grifter sub-genre, and is less self-consciously clever for its own sake than Bryan Singer's film. Read more.

Kevin Pollak Ups the Ante
Player Magazine (cardozaplayer.com), December, 2003

By Mark Ebner

As the misanthropic Melvin Udall in the movie As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson finds salvation in some anti-depressants. For actor Kevin Pollak (the only comedian still doing Nicholson impersonations without seeming hackneyed), refuge from his Hollywood grind might be found in a luxurious, complimentary room at the Bellagio. Or maybe he finds solace in the spicy nuances of a Zino Platinum cigar, or in a crisp, Kettle One vodka on the rocks.

Who is kidding whom here? Pollak’s true salvation is found in 8-to-10 hours of mental swordplay with the poker professionals haunting the famed Bellagio poker room.

Tough life, eh?

Well, you can’t say Pollak hasn’t earned his Las Vegas lifestyle. With more than 50 motion pictures under his belt, a thriving stand-up comedy career in full swing, and three feature films already in the can and slated for release—yeah, Pollak (who has been listed in Variety as one of the 15 hardest working actors in Hollywood) has earned his right to play.

It’s only 3pm, and Kevin—a living, breathing hybrid of Zeppo Marx and Harvey Keitel—is grinning when we meet briefly for cocktails in the Bellagio’s swank Petrossian Bar before the photo shoot. He’s already in the money from morning poker play with the pros, so during his photo shoot in the Picasso restaurant he’s firing off priceless one-liners and impressions for sport. Dinner plans are quickly arranged for later in this vaunted room where the fine art on the walls ($70 million in authentic Picassos) is matched only by what master chef Julian Serrano puts on the plate. After that we’re whisked off to the casino floor.

The cheerful Bellagio poker room manager Deby Callihan greets us amidst the din of clicking chips, bad beat groans and full-boated victory cries. As an aside, she informs me that when it comes to poker, “Kevin is a dandy.” Deby’s father, 1980 World Series of Poker High Draw Champion Pat Callihan, joins us at a reserved table, and we’re on. Pat, a true Vegas old-timer sporting a signature cowboy hat and brown leather vest, leans in to allow that he’s been playing poker with Kevin for 15 years.

“He [Pollak] is a recreational player, but he’s also a winning player,” says the admiring champ. “Win or lose, he always acts like a gentleman.” Well, Gentleman Kevin rudely rakes in two fat pots in two hands with mean trip-3s turning twice against my busted straight draws and Callihan’s discreetly folded cards. Not too long after, our 7-stud game is over before we really have a chance to get started.

For more on Kevin and the results of our poker game, read the Premiere Issue of Player, on newsstands now.

A Few Good Laughs, Courtesy of Kevin Pollak
Washington Post, October 11, 2003

By Leonard Hughes

Kevin Pollak's stand-up act is riotously funny, unless you happen to be William Shatner, Jack Nicholson or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Appearing in more than 30 movies in the past decade hasn't made Pollak's name as recognizable as his face, but it's given him plenty of comic material. In fact, his relative anonymity has become a running joke, as in his description of working with Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Demi Moore in "A Few Good Men": "I'm like 'Where's Waldo' in that cast."

His show, which runs through tomorrow at the Improv, includes startlingly realistic impressions of the big-name stars, whom he met while appearing in films such as "The Wedding Planner," "The Usual Suspects," "Casino" and "Avalon."

Among true stories are a trip to a dance club with an apparently un-hip, stiff-dancing Schwarzenegger; a series of crank phone calls Pollak, pretending to be Alan Arkin, placed to other celebrities; and Walter Matthau's sexually explicit greeting to Sophia Lauren on the first day of filming the sequel to "Grumpy Old Men."

Perhaps instinctively realizing that folks are getting sick of hearing jokes and news about Schwarzenegger, Pollak made few allusions to the recall election: "It's great to be back in the nation's capital," he said at the top of the show, adding smugly, "This is how the rest of us speak in California."

Pollak's impression of Shatner, which many in Thursday night's opening crowd had apparently anticipated, drew some of the biggest laughs. He took the audience through a hilarious fantasized account of the actor's audition for the role of Capt. Kirk in "Star Trek," then recounted an actual luncheon that found a nervous Pollak sitting down with Shatner after Pollak had been "making fun of him for 20 years."

Along with impressions, Pollak's sarcastic observations about non-Hollywood life also kept the capacity crowd fired up. "I don't enjoy the flying," he said disgustedly, "It's such an incredible pain in the [expletive] to get on the plane now -- I don't give a [expletive] that my seat floats. . . . What else do they have -- is the drink cart a shark cage?"

Appearing on the bill with Pollak are two clever, seasoned comics, Dak Rakow and John Betz Jr.

Baltimore Sun, January 10, 2002

Kevin Pollak: The First Performer at Baltimore's Improv Comedy Club
It seemed as if he were telling funny stories to a close group of friends and not a room full of strangers. Pollak, who got his big break as an actor in Barry Levinson's set-in-Baltimore movie Avalon, also does great impersonations. His bits on Christopher Walken explaining the "birds and the bees" to an 8-year-old, William Shatner auditioning for Star Trek and Arnold Schwarzenegger getting down on the dance floor at a hip night club were hilarious.

Pollak says that he doesn't practice impersonations; they either come or they don't. In other words, he can't impersonate just anyone. "I don't really study people," he says. "I just have a great gift. I'll see a movie or I'll work with someone and they just have an effect on me. I didn't realize it, but ever since I was young, before I started doing impressions, whenever I went to the movies I would walk out sort of doing the poeple in the movie that I most connected with. My wife calls me Zelig, you know, [the character] from the Woody Allen movie who literally takes people's characteristics and personalities without even being aware of it. It just happens to me."

Pollak acts as if fame just happened, too. But since an early age, he's thrived on performing. When he was 10, his mother walked in on him lip-synching to Bill Cosbys first comedy album, playing each part in the Noah and the Ark routine. "I listened to this album about a hundred or 200 times," he says. "I didn't know what lip-synching was. I just knew this was a fun thing to do. I was listening to this album and I wanted to interact with it."