Kevin Pollak Kickstarts 'Misery Loves Comedy' Doc

Comedian and actor Kevin Pollak, from such films as The Usual Suspects and the SyFy Channel miniseries The Lost Room, will be directing a documentary about the dark side of comedy with his new film Misery Loves Comedy. The film will be Pollak's directorial debut.

The film is going to explore the "pain behind the humor" that Pollak believes so many comedians endure. Suicide, depression and dissatisfaction are common factors among many comedians, independent of their level of success, and Misery Loves Comedy will "uncover more about the minds and hearts of comedians than any of us think we know," Pollak said in a statement.

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Initially, to fund the project, Pollak set up a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to crowd-source the funds for the film, in the same way that Zach Braff recently raised the capital to shoot his next film.

Currently, Misery Loves Comedy has 155 backers, and has raised nearly $15,000 on Kickstarter. However, the project has picked up producers and financiers, so it will be going into production no matter what the Kickstarter campaign is able to raise.

According to Pollak, dozens of big-name celebrities have agreed to participate in the documentary, including Tom Hanks, Christopher Guest, Richard Lewis, Penn Jillette, Eddie Izzard, Jon Favreau, Joel McHale, Chris Hardwick, Dana Carvey, Andy Richter, Kevin Nealon, and Stephen Merchant, along with many, many others.