Welcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No ass-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

Kevin Pollak has led an enviable existence. He’s enjoyed a high level of success as a stand-up comedian and an actor, and his memoir, How I Slept My Way to the Middle: Secrets and Stories from Stage, Screen, and Interwebs (Lyons Press), features a long list of icons and mega-stars with whom Pollak has worked with and/or enjoys a close relationship. Many of them—including Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Kevin Smith and Mark Cuban—offer supportive or sarcastic quotes sprinkled throughout the text (as does his Mom, and Pollak himself, in a few asides). There are stories about Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Johnny Carson and Jack Nicholson. It would all be so very chummy and schmaltzy if not for the fact that Pollak is so god-damned charming.
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