If you’ve been playing along with the home game, then you’re already familiar with The Kevin Pollak Chat Show. We talked about that last May, and if you haven’t seen it, do check it out. It remains one of the best talk shows you’ll see. But we’re not here to talk chat. New this week on internet shelves is something called Vamped Out. As the opening might suggest, this also comes to us from Kevin Pollak. He directs, and he also wrote the series with Jason Antoon, who stars.
The idea came about in a dinner conversation. After noticing a billboard for Vampire Diaries, Kevin was complaining about yet another vampire show. Jason then wondered what it would be like if you really were a vampire and you couldn’t get cast as one. And with that, the ball was rolling. The simple observation explains Antoon’s half of the show perfectly.
He plays Alowisus, or Al, a struggling actor who also happens to be a vampire. As we meet him, he’s once again been turned down for a role for not being ‘vampirey’ enough. He does get right back on the horse though, when his manager, Billy (Sam Levine), lands him an audition for Vamp Stamp. We also get a peek at the Vamped Out vampire mythology. Al can be in the sunlight, eat garlic, drink holy water and touch crosses all day long. He does still need to drink blood though. Fortunately, his girlfriend, Marie (Seana Kofoed), works at a blood bank.
Pollak comes into the picture as the award winning film maker Elliot Finke. Elliot followed Al around making what he thought was the first documentary of an actual vampire, but while in post … he went missing. The show is our look at that documentary. The mystery of what happened to Elliot plays into how the show is structured as well. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger.
Given that this is the big premiere week, there is just one episode to enjoy, so much remains to be seen. I like what I’ve seen so far, and if you are a fan of Pollak’s brand of humor, I suspect you will too. You can watch the first episode below, or head over to the show’s page at Babelgum for the high-res version. New episodes will release each Monday.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Apr 14, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
