Kevin Pollak | Director of Misery Loves Comedy

For this special interview, I sat down to talk to the director of the new documentary, “Misery Loves Comedy“, Kevin Pollak. Yes, THAT Kevin Pollak. You know the famous actor and comedian from classics such as “A Few Good Men” and “The Usual Suspects”, as well as his numerous other film and television credits, or possibly you know him from his own “Chat Show”, where Kevin speaks with other famous, creative talents.

For our conversation, Kevin is here to discuss his new film, “Misery Loves Comedy”. What is his “Misery” about? Here is the official synopsis:

Jimmy Fallon, Tom Hanks, Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow, Lisa Kudrow, Larry David, and Jon Favreau are among over 60 famous funny people featured in this hilarious twist on the age-old truth: misery loves company. In-depth, candid interviews with some of the most revered comedy greats who each share their unique path and a life devoted to making strangers laugh.

With arresting anecdotes and insights from the comedy underbelly that reveal a performer’s deep desire to connect with audiences, Kevin Pollak’s MISERY LOVES COMEDY is the definitive master class on the art of humor that details a comedian’s rare ability to help us understand life as only they can.

That is the official description. What I will tell you is that this is the closest I have ever been to truly understanding what makes a comic, a comic. Why would anyone want to spend every day of their lives trying to make someone else laugh? Were they always a comedian, or were they simply masking their pain? Finally, does a person have to be miserable, to be truly funny? This film answers all of those questions.

Kevin and I discussed “Misery Loves Comedy” in detail. From why Kevin wanted to make a film on such a personal topic, to some of the creative directions he chose for the film, and even how he managed to snag every high-profile comedian for the film! The film itself is a wonderfully insightful exploration into the psyche of a comedian. Of many comedians, in fact. I highly recommend checking the film out, which is available now on iTunes and On Demand, and is releasing to theaters beginning April 24^th.

A charming guy and a brilliant talent, it was a pleasure to talk to Kevin about “Misery Loves Comedy”, and I hope you guys enjoy the interview as much as I did.

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider

Aaron Peterson: Kevin Pollak, how are you?

Kevin Pollak: Damn good, Aaron. How are you?

AP: (laughs) Damn good myself. You’re here to talk about your film “Misery Loves Comedy”. I’ve been listening to your chat show for years so if you feel the need to just take over, just feel free.

KP: Ahhhh, thank you.

AP: Easy question first – What made you decide to make a documentary about what it’s really like to be a comedian, culminating in the big question of does a comedian need to be miserable?

KP: Well, the project was actually brought to me, a woman (Becky Newhall) who co-produced, co-financed the film, had the original idea and the title. Which I’m still envious that she came up with it. She originally wanted to do a documentary specifically about comedians who suffer from clinical depression. She was speaking to another producer who ended up being the other co-producer, co-financer, Burton Ritchie, who had been developing a script of mine to direct. So when she brought the idea to him, he thought I would be a perfect selection to direct, with my own background in comedy, my own background doing a talk show and interviewing people for, at that point five years, and also a rolodex of funny people I might be able to actually book, and my desire to direct a film. So it all sort of came together based on that. And in terms of the subject matter interesting me, that’s kind of a natural as well, having given my life to the art form of making strangers laugh in the dark.

So, I had such a bucolic, suburban upbringing that I suffered just from life misery, not from a personality disorder. I was a litmus test. Ya know, I felt, ok, let’s see what kind of misery is really out there and let’s see what this really means. And then with the 70 hours of interviews that I got in 4 weeks, with all these funny people, then I got into editing with no narrative, no story, no script, and no real idea of what the hell the film was ultimately going to really be about. That’s when I sort of thought, well let’s make the last half hour just simply about do you have to be miserable to be funny, and for the first 2/3, or the first two acts, let’s just meet the players and find out what forged their lives to this point. And by them sharing all of that, maybe we’ll find moments where we’ll find truly how miserable they are.

Like in the case of Marc Maron, what’s interesting to me, he shares these great insights and personal moments, riddled with misery, I mean it’s as much of his act as it is in Woody Allen’s films. So, by the end of it, when I say ‘Do you have to be miserable to be funny?’, his answer is ‘I don’t think so’, and that’s hilarious to me. Because he’s just been miserable for 94 minutes for me, and he says ‘I don’t think so’ (laughs).

Ya know, the journey also showed me how different every comedian truly is, the way that every person is. So, all the comedians who found their own real voice throughout the course of their career, their own genuine specific point-of-view, comedically, are as unique as anything. Ya know, ultimately I found it’s how they articulate their misery that makes them funny and entertaining. It isn’t so much that they’re a miserable person.

AP: And that actually surprised me because, and I definitely don’t want to spoil for anyone, when you get to that point of it, some of the responses surprised me. It made me think that maybe we’ve been, I don’t even know where it started. Do you know where that started, that comedians have to be miserable, to be funny?

KP: Well, that’s one of the things Marc Maron touched on, the early days, and also Penn Jillette speaks about Lenny Bruce deciding this is what stand-up comedy is going to be. Once comedians broke away from mother-in-law jokes in the 50’s and 60’s and started talking about personal experience, they had no choice like any artist, a painter, a songwriter, to share misery because it’s a fascinating part of the human condition once you’re either removed from it enough that you’re able to look at it with fresh eyes or perspective. Or use the art form as a cathartic weapon, life, which I think comedians specialize in, is taking it on stage and vomiting pain. But again, it is about how you craft the story. It is about how the comedian is able to make, or the songwriter, is able to make a story out of it that is fascinating and humorous, that becomes the genius to me.

But in terms of its origin, I think it’s talked about by others in the film, where comedians are finally allowed to speak their mind, and then as Marc Maron said, the assumption is, ‘Well, these must be miserable people’.

AP: Which is funny, because you’re talking about all of the talents that are in this film. Usually when you watch a documentary, you get 5 or 6 people who are going to be talking throughout the movie, and that’s the first 20 minutes. So, you know basically who your cast is going to be in a documentary.

KP: Yep. Yea

AP: Here, I felt like I was at a guest star buffet. Because it goes from Jimmy Fallon to Tom Hanks, and then it goes to Judd Apatow, and then it keeps going and going and going. How did you manage to get all of these talents? I mean I realize you’re in touch with them, but there are still a lot of people, and to talk so candidly about themselves?

KP: Well, it’s difficult for me to answer that, only because it will sound like one self-grandizing, flattering comment after another. Because the truth is, I think it’s a combination of we come from the same trenches, so they felt like they were in the company of someone who had a shared experience, so that lowers their guard. I had 5 years on the “Chat Show” to develop whatever interview skills I have. I knew most of them personally, so there was that comfort level. But I think just relating to a comrade is the biggest part of it, and then I find if you ask smart questions, you get smart answers. If you ask specific questions, you get specific answers. And then it’s just up to each of them as to how much they’re willing to share, and that’s their credit, not mine. I’ll take a little bit of making them comfortable enough, and confident enough, to speak freely, but they all had to choose to do that on their own.

AP: Did anybody surprise you? What skeletons they were willing to…

KP: Yea. Yea. Yea. I mean, Martin Short talking about feeling jealous, and his breakdown corner story. I mean, you don’t think of Martin Short in that regard. Christopher Guest was a revelation, cuz he’s very, very dry, and he opened up, I felt. Listening to him talk about bombing was pretty fantastic. But, you know, Judd Apatow is not someone I think the public knows, and he was extremely open about his misery and at present, current efforts to find some form of happiness that nothing in his career has really given him. Sustainable anyways.

So, yea, I felt like almost everyone sort of surprised me at some point.

AP: I mean I was impressed, honestly, because a lot of these actors people will see, or comedians they’ll see, and they’ll have seen them in a hundred interviews, David Letterman, Leno, Fallon, whomever, and I think I’ve gotten more from this movie than I’ve gotten from any of that. So, that was very impressive to me.

KP: Thank you.

AP: Oh, sure! I have two favorite elements of the movie I wanted to ask you about. The first is that you interviewed comedians from various avenues. Going into the movie, I kind of thought it was just going to be stand-up. But it’s comic actors, writers, directors. So why was that diversity so important to you?

KP: Well, ya know, when the idea was presented to me, it was just stand-ups, and it was just talking to those that suffered from clinical depression, and I felt like there was a bigger story. I felt like America, children suffer from ‘Hey, look at me’, I talk about this in the film a little bit but this really did crystalize it. Children suffer from ‘Hey, look at me’ disease because they’re children. Adults suffer from ‘Hey, look at me’, otherwise Facebook wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar company. If you have a page, you exist. You’re somebody.

You know, everyone is crying and desperate for attention, but who would choose that as a profession? Who would devote their life to that vulnerability of needing attention as a career? It crystalized for me one day in terms of a form of insanity. So, ultimately, that becomes the goal, and then when I thought about all the performers and all of the creative people that I’ve known and met and had access to through email, I wanted to get as many people who had chosen the life of vulnerability in an art form that had to do with comedy.

Even a filmmaker like Jon Favreau,that you don’t think of (coming from) a comedic background, you find out he started out at Second City and had to stand naked onstage. Someone like Sam Rockwell, a great dramatic actor, had comedic performances, but I saw Sam in “A Behanding in Spokane” on Broadway and he had a monologue that he just spoke to the audience as a part of the play, and I knew he would relate to that vulnerability. Bobby Cannavale was just someone I knew had great demons and he was open to share them.

So the idea was to get funny, creative people, whether they were stand-ups or not, and see how close we could get to the truth.

AP: Well, we really appreciate it. The other element, that really struck me, was your lack of narration. I think everybody that goes in knowing it’s a documentary expects whomever is directing it to lend their voice to it, guide us along, tip us in a certain direction. But throughout the film, you let the comedians speak and the audience came to their own conclusion. I think I hear your voice maybe a couple times, and that’s only as part of whatever the conversation is. Which is absolutely unheard of in a documentary. Did you ever debate adding your own narration?

KP: Well nothing makes me happier than that question. Because it was such a by-design effort on my part to not be Michael Moore. To not be Spurlock. To not make this about my opinion. Nothing against those great filmmakers, but if a documentary is about a subject other than yourself, then it should be about the subjects and not about your point-of-view about anything.

So, you’ve got my point-of-view in questions, you’ve got my point-of-view in the editing. The film is, in fact, my point-of-view. The participants are the talent on screen. And that was something my producers and co-financers were not happy about at the outset, that I would not appear in any way.

AP: Really?

KP: You know, it took some convincing, cuz you’re right, it isn’t the norm, and when you say it’s unheard of, then you know, you’ve answered the question for them and their concerns. ‘Why wouldn’t you be on camera, Kevin? Why aren’t you going to be a part of this?’ I just felt very, very strongly that my point-of-view was going to come through in the questions and in the editing. Whether you realize that before I tell you that or not, that’s the truth.

This is about all these variety of lives and people’s thoughts and experiences, let it be that. Let it be that. Also, not being self-deprecating, they’re all so much more fascinating than me, every single one of them. Honest to goodness. That was an easy choice once we got into it too.

AP: It was really interesting. Because I honestly spent about 30 minutes wondering, ‘Is the audio wrong? I don’t understand.’ Cuz I haven’t heard…you know, it’s a Kevin Pollak film, it’s a Kevin Pollak documentary, I’m expecting Kevin Pollak, and I don’t hear Kevin Pollak.

KP: Yea, I think part of that was also really wanting to be the director, really wanting to step out and just be, and to me the director meant the writer and the editor. As a stand-up comedian my whole life, that’s the drug of the job, it’s that you’re all of those things. You’re the writer, the editor, the performer, the producer, the choreographer…

AP: The everything, yea.

KP: Yea, it’s everything. So, I thought ok, then let me really step back and let me have all those levers and buttons to control without having my stupid opinion being seen on camera.

AP: Now do you want to take this and go into something, like a fictional story, or are you looking to…

KP: Yea. Plans are afoot. Yes. This came about because I was already developing a script of mine to direct, when the producer said let’s stop and do this first, and I was very, very glad that he did. So, plans are already afoot. I’m a life-long gambler also, so I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it in detail.

AP: I understand.

KP: But, the future is extremely bright.

AP: What I got most from the film is kind of a deeper understanding for comedians of all kinds, in terms of, I guess they’re regular people. I know that sounds ridiculous that you would say that, but I think as an audience, we see these people that make us laugh every single time, and to get that insight that they had, just an upbringing like we did. They had personal lives like we do. They’ve had pain like we have, and how they took that pain and used it to become the creative outlet they are, is that kind of what you are hoping people take away from the film?

KP: Yes. The comedian has to, any artist, has to find a way to articulate their misery. That’s the task. That’s the joy of writing an act. It’s figuring out a way, even if it’s Seinfeld just talking about the missing sock in his dryer. That is a form of misery in his life that he found a way to articulate that is universal, so that everyone goes, ‘Where is that fucking sock?!’ (laughs) Ya know?

AP: (laughs)

KP: But it’s something everyone suffers from, that’s a form of misery, and he found a way to articulate it that made it INSTANTLY universal. ‘Oh, thank goodness. Someone has spoken for the common man and our common mood.’ Or as Steve Coogan pointed out, you know, that similar thing of a universe you’ve just shone the light on what it’s like to be human. That’s the best thing a comedian can do.

Or, one could argue, their personal pain and misery is SO personal and SO honest, that you can’t relate to it but it’s instantly compelling and hilarious because they’ve found a way to articulate it in a humorous way.

So, it’s one or the other I think. That goodness, as Penn Jillette pointed out, this is what Lenny Bruce decided stand-up comedy is going to be, by speaking honestly about anything.

AP: I like how you covered everybody. I mean, there is a gamut of comedians from different eras throughout the film. Was there anybody you really wanted, but you couldn’t get?

KP: Oh a bunch, yea.

AP: Yea?

KP: Yea. In fact, Seinfeld emailed me back and said, ‘I am so talked out about comedy right now, I can’t even begin to describe it’

AP: (laughs)

KP: And I understood, ya know? But Louis C.K., Ricky Gervais, you know, look, I had four weeks to shoot. I had four, five-day weeks.

I was on the phone with Robin Williams two different times for almost an hour. We had known each other since the late 70’s, having come from San Francisco stand-up comedy where he broke in, and had been a friend and appeared in an HBO special of mine. He’s a real mentor of mine, and a guy I knew had suffered from clinical depression his whole life. So, we were on the phone twice, but he was shooting the television show, single camera, 12-14 hour days, and I could only shoot with my crew during the week. He was shooting with his crew during the week, it just didn’t work out.

He passed away while I was editing and so the producers asked if I wanted to do something to include him, like reopen the film and shoot some interviews about him, and I just felt that was not at all going to accomplish anything to ask people what they thought of Robin Williams. That isn’t what the film’s about. So, dedicating it to him made the most sense and it was an easy decision to do, and one that I’m proud of.

AP: Well, I’ve got to let you go, Kevin, but I appreciate your time. Very much.

KP: I appreciate your interest, and your compliments are much heartfelt. Thank you.

“Misery Loves Comedy” is now available on iTunes and On Demand

In Theaters beginning April 24th