Stand-up guy plays for the home crowd

Not long ago, Kevin Pollak realized something rather puzzling. "There are," he says, "no Jewish video games ... except maybe Quicken."

Rimshot! Score one for the popular actor and stand-up stalwart, who returns to his South Bay home turf for a four-night gig at the Improv comedy club in downtown San Jose through Sunday, June 26.

Pollak is probably best known for his acting roles in such films as "The Usual Suspects, "A Few Good Men," "Avalon" and "The Wedding Planner." But he started out as a stand-up comic, and he still hits the stage as often as possible.

Though proud of his Jewish heritage (he attended Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah at San Jose's Temple Emanu-El), he describes his comedy as more of "an escapist act. I take people on a ride, talk about family and travel, working on movies, and I make fun of the people I work with."

That comes easy to Pollak, who is a gifted mimic who does dead-on impressions of celebrities such as William Shatner, Walter Matthau, Christopher Walken and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It isn't hard for Pollak to do these actors; he's worked with most of them at one time or another. He says he doesn't practice the impressions: They either come to him at once, or not at all.

He enjoyed a mega-forum for those routines when he served as host during the first season of "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on the Bravo Network.

His work on that show inspired comedian Jimmy Fallon to come up with a scathing but hilarious Pollak impression on "Saturday Night Live" a couple of years ago. So is this is a case of "he can dish it out but he can't take it?"

"I didn't see it," admits Pollak. "But I guess it's an honor to be imitated on SNL. It suggests I'm a big enough name."

Pollak says he first felt the comedy bug as a young child when he memorized every syllable of his favorite Bill Cosby records. He did his time on the comedy circuit as a young stand-up, but his desire to act proved equally strong. With all that built-up confidence working in front of live audiences, Pollak found transition an easy one.

He cites his work on Rob Reiner's "A Few Good Men" as a watershed experience. "That changed the course of my career," he says of the Tom Cruise/Jack Nicholson classic from 1992. "I was 'Where's Waldo' in the cast, but the part was so meaningful. For me it was a chance to cross a goal line."

He also values his work on "The Usual Suspects" (1995), which earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Pollak's co-star Kevin Spacey. "That was an amazing experience, unlike any I've done," says Pollak. "The film grows more popular with each passing year."

After the tour, Pollak returns to his L.A. home to work on a screenplay and various other projects. But however respectable his acting career, he still seems to prefer the mischievous subterfuge of the stand-up world.

"Everything," he says, "is a reason to find a comedic point of view."



Kevin Pollak appears 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 24-27, at the Improv, 62 S. Second St., San Jose. Tickets: $23-$27. Information: (408) 280-7475 or www.improv.com.