Actor Kevin Pollak (A Few Good Men, Usual Suspects, etc.) met Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis at a poker game and learned all about Twitter – a few weeks later and he has over 160,000 followers (although he jokes “I just don’t know what that means”). Calacanis also talked him into hosting a video show as well, which is two weeks old and already has 1,000 or so people watching live every Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow he’ll have Tesla founder Elon Musk on the show at 5 pm.
Mahalo basically duplicated the Charlie Rose set (all black, single round table) for a total cost, he says, of $20,000. He says he can create a HD show for $300/episode for an editor, makeup, etc.
The show is good, and it’s fun to watch a professional actor begin to understand the power of social media, where you can gain a lot of devoted fans very quickly – with the only downside being that you have to listen to what they say back to you. Pollack is handling it well, talking about the chat feature on the video show and how bewildered he is by Twitter. And he also seems to like the fact that he can do literally anything on the show that he wants – swear, be silent, talk for as long as he likes, whatever. Between his talking about what it’s like for a professional actor to do whatever he likes without interference, he throws in a few good comedic bits as well. My favorite – a damned good impersonation of Jack Nicholson at about the 2:15 mark of this video:
An email from Kevin:
Although we are only two weeks old, and are still the lil’ show that could, we’re hoping to improve the creative content on the internet, if not the future of “Intervision.”
As you have been told by Jason, and can clearly see, we are utterly grassroots, but you should know we are determined to stay that way. While the quality of the production will improve as we work out the kinks, I never want it to feel too professional and NEVER tv-slick. Basically, we’ve got a barn (Calacanis’ Mahalo studio) and some costumes (whatever my guests want to wear) and we’re puttin’ on a show!
FYI, the show is every Sunday at 5pm, PDT, streaming live on Kevinpollakschatshow.com, and we take questions LIVE from the chat room on the site, as well as from Twitter.com at @kevinpollak. Also, a day later each episode is available on iTunes as a free podcast, as well as on blip.tv, and then shortly thereafter available at Kevinpollakschatshow.com.
A list of upcoming confirmed guests:
April 5th: Actor Jason Antoon and Tesla Motors and SpaceX Founder/CEO Elon Musk
April 12th: Star of the documentary “Super High Me,” comedian Doug Benson, who will be discussing California’s effort to legalize marijuana, and the “Pit Bull of Comedy,” “Yid Vicious,” and a new star of the Las Vegas strip, Bobby Slayton.
April 19th: Academy Award winning writer of “The Usual Suspects,” Chris McQuarrieOthers Confirmed:
Felicia Day: Creator/Star of the internet comedy MEGA-hit, “The Guild”
Jon Hamm: Golden Globe winner/star of “Mad Men”
Jon Favreau: Director of Iron Man (and just started on the sequel)
Alex Albrecht: Co-Creator/Host of Diggnation and The Totally Rad Show,
John Krasinski: Actor, “The Office”
Luke Wilson: Actor (Old School, etc)
A ton of other VERY recognizable names and faces that I am still reaching out to from the tech world and showbiz, not to mention YOU, if you’d care to come on and chat…
Thanks VERY much for your time and interest in helping our lil’ show.
-Kevin
Congrats on finding one of the best natural celebrity shows online.
Of course I’m not biased…its the Christopher Walken impression that makes my knickers twist–thats all!
Please address more world issues. You have the audience. Make more of your status and reach the intellectuals. I could care less about the gossip in LA. Jews are cute don’t ya think;0)
$300/episode for editor and makeup and “etc.”? I assume that means someone operating camera and sound gear too. Do these people know that Calacanis is ripping them off?
The cameras are fixed. Kevin and Tyler worked on their setup for a day or two. So, no camera operators.
In terms of “ripping folks off” (ugh, so negative!) we’re not making any money, so after the ten shows we do we’ll actually be down $3,000. However, I think there is a great sponsor out there who will come in and support the show. If anyone is interested in sponsoring just ping me at jason at mahalo.com.
It’s just a fun time… and we’re proving a point: a couple of motivated folks can make something kickass that is not just AS GOOD but BETTER than traditional media!
‘…BETTER than traditional media’?
Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears?
Sorry, I don’t think so.
I’m going to tune in to Larry King now, if you don’t mind.
i definitely find this infinitely more interesting that most of what i see on tv.
The key point here is not that kevin is hilarious and entertaining – he is and it’s great to see more of him – but what’s going to make this a great show to watch is that a) he can say anything he likes, I.e. has total freedom of speech, and b) that he’ll be co-creating his show with his crowd of fans. That’s what’s going to make it good and different to Larry King, etc. (not that it’s an either/or thing – there’s definitely room for more good content out there).
good to see that calacanis found a modest celeb who will put up with him….”J Cal” is a massive starfucker dork. i’m sure pollack wants calacanis to put money into his films. classic. when will mahalo make any profit anyway?
"man over board" indeed
A $20,000 set is NOT “grassroots”…
Nonetheless, best of luck to Pollak. He is funny and genuine.
compare that to the cost of creating a professional HD set a decade ago and it sure is.
Actually, the $20k number is a *little* high. The exact setup is:
- Light package: $5,000 (provided by our co-office share friends CauseCast.org!).
- Three HD Sony Cameras $3,000 (one is my personal camera, so really $2k).
- Tricaster: $10,000 (but we got a demo unit from my friends over there).
- microphones and sound board: $1,000.
So, in hard costs Mahalo spent about $3k on the show. However, the Studio did cost $20k to be fully HD with professional lighting and ability to switch cameras, etc.
My guess is that someone very cool like Audible, GoToMyPC or GoDaddy will ping me at some point and sponsor the show for $1,000 a week and we’ll do a live read for them!
We’re just having fun doing something super organic and seeing where it goes.
The good news is that the studio is setup and if anyone wants to use it we can provide it for cheap. So, if diggNation needs a studio we can provide it.
In fact, Richard Metzger over at Boingboing.net has been taping some pilots of his new show in the studio.
My hope is that we can get 5-10 shows going in the studio at no cost to Mahalo in exchange for some plugs on the show.
Jason,
This is great man. I see this to be very interesting and innovative. Kevin brings reality to the session and your high techh knowledge and experience helps in a big way.
Way to go man
SG
We shot one of the web’s earliest full featured shows in 2000 (over a million downloads in early Google Video days) and know what kind of work is involved. Congrats. We shot in a professional Public Access studio with chromokey on my little 1.7 ghz PC.
I do want to build my own studio at some point but for scripted programming, I don’t want to do any more newsmagazines, there are too many of them now. I have a question, which Sony HD Cams are you using and are you using HDD based Cameras or MiniDV? I have a MiniDV HD Cam that’s great, but my new MacBook doesn’t have freaking FireWire! What does TriCaster do that makes it cost so much? And are you shooting from a warehouse or your home?
Michelle
http://www.eclipsemagazine.com
You need to learn how to both read and use the web: http://en.wikip.../wiki/Tricaster
To Jason C –
Seems like we are both whipping up some interest bridging established traditional media insiders with social media influencers.
Don’t listen to the haters, they’re just jealous… Hopefully you don’t owe them money.
Love it – this is a great vehicle for Kevin’s talent and personality. Now wondering who the next couple of “names” are that will do something similar.
Evolution like this just confirms to me how much trouble traditional TV is in.
Kevin’s show and Adam Carolla’s new podcast illustrate the wide-open, free-wheeling possibilities of online entertainment when talented people jump in. This is the beginning of some great stuff.
Kevin Pollak pretty much rules
What is “social media”?
a device for over sharing, self promotion and keyboard diarrhea!
I love this! This is kinda what Twitter is anyway, except in video form. You’re just observing other people’s casual conversations. I think we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more of this in the future.
As someone who has written and produced network and cable shows- I can’t express how refreshing this is. To have a great talent like Kevin running his own show and doing what he wants and having on who he wants to have on- has truly shown how far technology can now take us. No network notes, no focus groups- just people doing what they love to do.
The future of “TV” is looking bright.
Congrats to Kevin and Mahalo.
Eventually they’ll need to hire a trio of writers to keep things entertaining, and that’s when things will get expensive.
I like this, it’s simple and not overdone. Reminds me of Charlie Rose show. He’s funny too. He’s should do very well with this show. I’m a fan ever since he played Jacob, Walter Matthau’s son, in the Grumpy Old Men movies. Best of luck to you in your new endeavor Kevin.
The rest of us are learning just like you and I am excited like you. This is all amazing.
I would like to be a quest on your show.
Let’s Play!
This is going to put the Film companies and the Networks on notice.
Actors can finally control their content.
Many actors already do… by owning the production companies behind their films and TV shows.
If you like celebs, check out wefollow.com and follow people like @the_real_shaq and @RainnWilson
They are laid out nicely on Kevin Rose’s new site
My YouTubes are clogged! {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/OocIvf9Dgo_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”My YouTubes are clogged! ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/r0mtBmcCNh”}}}
As a point of reference, the set for this show for BBC World News; The Oracle with Max Keiser cost about 20,000 dollars to build in a studio in Paris.
http://www.yout...h?v=k7PWkHgxkTI
A big cost for the show are satellite feeds. $800 to $1300 each.
We use four camera on the show and we spend 1 1/2 days editing. Total cost per show is about $7,000.
Hmm, looks like we should expect more coming..
“so i met Kevin at a poker game” la-didadida…
This makes me want to write viruses.
i get what you’re saying, but jason doesn’t mean it that way.
jason wishes he was a good poker player and wishes he was as “inside” hollywood as he pretends – he’s a tool….pollack is funny, but it’s a partnership born of convenience. if calacanis needs a 50+ year-old for this show, and pollack has been trying to do something/anything with this idea for a couple of years……that tells ya everything here. but hey, calcanis gave kevin thousands of followers on Twitter and ….that and a few bucks gets you a cup o coffee…. but they can stoke their mutual delusions. hey “J CAL”, when does Mahalo get profitable? what’s the timeframe, now that the ad market is rolling along nicely.
Great work guys – so who’s next?
I really like this. It is simple and not overdone like most of the stuff you see on TV or even the Internet. Kevin is funny. I suppose I never thought of him doing Stand up or doing this.
Keep it simple, leave the glitz and glamour out of it and keep it funny. Good Luck !