It’s the start of a new week, which means all sorts of things in this crazy world. Garfield is in a bad mood, Peter Gibbons has a case of the Mondays, and most importantly for the purposes of this post, it’s time for another episode of Poker Movie Mondays on Poker In The Ears!
It’s been a while since the guys have focused on a poker movie. This time around they reach for perhaps the least tenuous connection to poker of any that they’ve done so far: Zak Penn’s 2007 deep-cut poker mockumentary The Grand, which neither Stapes nor Hartigan had ever watched before. And they get the inside scoop on the film directly from this week’s guest, Andrew Hill Newman, who served as the film’s technical advisor and also played the dealer.
Newman and Stapes have known each other for a while. They both play in a Hollywood home game with Josh Malina, with whom Newman co-created the classic series Celebrity Poker Showdown. The interview kicks off at the 29:38 mark below:
The original poster for “The Grand”
The Grand is no classic, but it’s an interesting piece packed with actors and comics like Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Cheryl Hines, Jason Alexander, Gabe Kaplan, Ray Romano, and Michael McKean — and even a cameo from legendary documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog. Several poker pros from the poker boom era make appearances as well.
To kick off the show, Stapes talks about his first “Fear and LOLing in Las Vegas” comedy show (2:30) and getting a shout-out from one of his biggest comedy influences (7:55). Detailed discussion of the movie begins at 10:25, and to wrap up the episode, Ben Martin from Guilford in the United Kingdom takes the place of honor in this week’s Superfan vs. Stapes (1:05:02). The topic this week is — you guessed it — The Grand.
Check out Episode 160 of Poker In The Ears on Soundcloud, iTunes, or Spotify. And if you want to help the boys out, make sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast!