This week we're covering Scorsese's The King of Comedy and we've got the real King of Comedy on to talk about how Rupert Pupkin should have done some open mic nights.

The great Stavros Halkias returns to talk Marty, Bobby, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, the Klumps, and his billion-dollar pitch for a new action franchise character named Fuccio Pussighetti. Plus - we all apologize to Jason Mantzoukas.

Watch Jerry Lewis at the 30th Anniversary Screening of King of Comedy.

Watch Don Rickles Tribute, from De Niro & Scorsese.

Listen to our perfect ep on Is This Thing On?

Check out Uncle Stav.

Go see Tony

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Did you pod my cast? DID YOU POD MY CAST?

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time - one of the greatest boxing films, one of the greatest biopics, one of the greatest screen transformations and lead performances of all time. It's also one of the greatest uses of repetitive dialogue.

The great David Krumholtz joins us to talk about Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, the luminous Cathy Moriarty, and the tonal tightrope this film walks.

Again - DID YOU POD MY CAST??

Check out Krumholtz's De Niro story

De Niro FUCK TRUMP

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Start spreadin' the news, we're podding today...

Broadway icon (and newly minted Disney Legend!) Lin-Manuel Miranda joins us to talk about what is possibly Scorsese's biggest bounce - 1977's New York, New York.

Cocaine, unchecked ambition, and a misguided attempt to try and get Liza Minnelli to do improv led Marty to some dark places. But hey - at least Robert De Niro learned how to play the saxophone! Expect lots of Broadway talk on this episode - with, of course, much props to the "Homie John Kander."

Check out the Disney Legends alongside Lin

Read Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You

Watch Mick respond to Mulaney 

Watch The Songwriters: An Evening with The Homie John Kander & Fred Ebb

Read Colored Lights

Check out The Drama Bookshop

Theme from Blank Check, Blank Check Produced and mixed by “Synth Horn Savant" Kyle Joseph

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You poddin' to me? Well, listener, actually - we are podding to you. For nearly FOUR HOURS.

The great Tracy Letts joins us to talk about Scorsese's monumental Taxi Driver, a film that is both fully ingrained in the American psyche and completely surprising and effective on every rewatch. Of course we're gonna spend our longest episode ever talking about it! This week, we discuss Paul Schrader's "God's Lonely Man" fixation, Ben's uncle's experiences as a New York City cab driver, the 1976 Oscars, Taxi Driver's themes of male loneliness and white supremacy, the incredible performances of Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, and how totally normal it is to go to a porno theater on your second date. Oh, and there's plenty of physical media talk.

Taxi Driver discussion begins at 46:52

Listen to the 1976 Draft ep of the Big Picture

Check out MVD Marquee / Radiant / Vinegar Syndrom

Buy The Haunting to listen to Tracy and Sean do a commentary

Watch Bette Davis and Robert Wise, Oscars 1987

Watch "The King of Horror"

Read Transcendental Style in Film

Read You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again

Read Drama: An Actor's Education

Read Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet “By Mark Jacobson

Listen to Marty go Hogg wild

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"Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies about women" - WRONG. "Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies that would work as a long-running workplace sitcom" - ALSO WRONG.

Katey Rich joins us to chat about Scorsese's unexpected follow-up to Mean Streets, 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. We're talking diners, Ellen Burstyn, parenting strategies, "women's pictures," and far more Hootie & The Blowfish than you'd expect from this episode. We're also not "trying silence," okay?

Buy the Hootie and the Blowfish shirt Katey (and David) have. 

Listen to the Screen Draft eps with Griffin and Katey.

Read about how Katherine LaNasa says Ghost of Ex-Husband Dennis Hopper Haunted Her: 'It Was Super Upsetting.'

Read Vincent Canby’s review.

Subscribe to Prestige Junkie at the Ankler and Fighting in the War Room.

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We're heading to Little Italy's San Gennaro festival this week with Griffy Parm, David Bags, and the great Miriam Bale as we chat about 1973's Mean Streets - a major breakthrough for both Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Join us as we chat about the seismic impact this film had on American cinema, DeNiro's screen persona, those iconic needledrops, and the ways racism and misogyny permeate the film's atmosphere. Also - did you know this movie was mostly filmed in Los Angeles!?!

Listen to Bobby on Off Menu

Follow @judis.annie on Instagram

Read the Next Scorsese series in Esquire

Listen to SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE

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Knock knock! Who's there? MARTY, THAT'S WHO! Welcome to the first installment in PODCASTFELLAS - our supersized series on the films of short king and Italian-American asthmatic Martin Scorsese. This guy made some pretty good movies, huh.

This week, Griffin, David, and Ben discuss Scorsese's Little Italy upbringing and his two first features - 1967's Who's That Knocking at My Door? and 1972's Boxcar Bertha. One feels like a film school parody of Scorsese movie. The other, a not-scuzzy-enough exploitation picture. Neither really feel like his true debut.

Check out Mostly True: The West's Most Popular Hobo Graffiti Magazine by Bill Daniel Author

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Surprise! In a first for Blank Check, we’re dropping a bonus main-feed episode featuring a conversation with the Academy Award-winning director of the films we just covered. The great Andrew Stanton joins us for a delightful conversation about Pixar, what happened to scatting, and how Elmo messed everything up for everyone. He answers many questions from Griffin (the Pixar nerd formerly known as FlikLover98), and goes in depth on the ending of WALL-E. Enjoy!

Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

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Woody, Buzz, and Jessie are back - and they're making us freak out about social media! Join Griffin, David, Ben, and Marie as they discuss Andrew Stanton's latest film - this summer's blockbuster hit Toy Story 5. David gets to talk about being a parent. Marie and Ben get to talk about wanting to be parents. And Griffin gets to talk about his special interest - the Toy Story franchise.

Special thanks to Nick “Tiger” Wiger (Doughboys, How Did This Get Played?) and Aiko Tanaka (@aikocomedy) for help with the Japanese translations.

Read Sucker: My year as a degenerate gambler By McKay Coppins

Watch Please take Toy Story 4 away from me by Jenny Nicholson

Read: Toy Story Confronts a Nightmare of Modern Parenting By David Sims

Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

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Did you know that Andrew Stanton released TWO movies this year? Toy Story 5, of course, but also the centuries-spanning sci-fi yarn In the Blink of an Eye?! This episode is dedicated to the latter - kind of. Theater critic and brother of the show Joey Sims joins us to chat about a BUNCH of things, not limited to In The Blink of an Eye; Off-Broadway plays, caveman movies, Power Rangers, and the status of the Lost in Space IP. It's a tangent-heavy listen, folks.

Listen to Joey’s Pod: House Closed: Theater We Saw

Read about how Off-Broadway's PERFECT CRIME and THE OFFICE halted performances due to theft of pipes at the theatre

Check out the Hayden Planetarium at the New York Museum of Natural History 

Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

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Sing in us, O Muse, and let us tell the story of four cunning podcasters, wanderers who gained entry into three different large format screenings of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey across three cities and two continents.

This week, we defied the gods to record an episode with missing King of Ithaca himself, Griffin Newman, as he continues his own mythical journey of trying to survive this European heat wave. Join us for a sensible two-and-a-half-hours gushing about this incredible cinematic event, breaking down our favorite set pieces and performances, and discussing previous attempts to bring The Odyssey to the screen. That Christopher Nolan really can't seem to bounce a check these days, can he?

Read Richard Nilsen’s review of the 1997 Odyssey miniseries.

Check out the Picture House in the UK if you are there. 

Check out Mile End Kicks.

Read the classic tweet /post.

Read Bilge’s article about the making of the Odyssey.

Read David’s review. 

Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

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For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com

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