Making poker funny with Douglas Kim

We chat to the former Main Event finalist who is using his winnings to launch a new comedy show about his life.

The show looks really well produced, have you literally invested in it yourself with poker winnings as your character has in the show?

Douglas Kim: I did literally invest in it, cash out of my own pocket. Not a dollar came from anywhere else. Part of the reason was because I knew taking this project through traditional Hollywood routes would take an absurd amount of time (I'm unknown, I'm an Asian American, etc.) and I didn't want to wait for them to come around, and wanted to just bet on myself.

Another issue is that Asian American produced content tends to not be seen as "industry quality". While that's for various reasons outside our control (we simply don't have the infrastructure and network capable of consistently delivering high quality products), I wanted to break that stigma as well and spare no expense in turning my vision into a reality.

What is the ideal scenario for the show? To be picked up by a network or netflix?

Douglas Kim: My ideal scenario is to be picked up by a major VOD platform (Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/HBO/etc.) or a cable network (such as FX/AMC/etc.) that has traditionally been more progressive and willing to show adult content. Or if we're really successful, we may be interested in partnership with Facebook as well as they've been the first believer in our content.

You mentioned if picked up, the show would explore poker quite a bit, how would you ensure the poker stuff was accurate while at the same time being accessible to a wider audience?

Douglas Kim: I would mostly talk about what my experiences with poker and the poker community is like. What interesting dynamics there are in the poker community, the drama and the news stories, the way it's kind of suffered under black Friday, the way the WSOP is essentially like pokercon, the way it's a revolving door where many people who've found success go on to do other things with their lives.

Poker to me personally has always been a means to an end, a perfect meritocratic endeavor where cream rises to the top, which is an interesting dichotomy with the entertainment industry, where this isn't always necessarily the case.

"Poker can definitely be funny"

Can poker be funny? I’ve often thought that the setting is perfect if you have two or three funny characters, for example some of the best scenes in Louie or Curb were at the poker table.

Douglas Kim: Poker can definitely be funny. Probably more likely to be during home games and the like. I think what's funny about poker is the relationships that you make at the table and with other players, it's really where random social interactions can take place with people you would never expect to come across in your regular life. My poker friends and I regularly still quote Rounders on a regular basis in our everyday lives with stuff that has nothing to do with poker, and I feel like I joke around the most with my poker group of friends.

The stereotypical poker player is introverted and the stereotypical actor is very extraverted, what is it like leaving one profession for another that seems diametrically opposed to it?

Douglas Kim: I think that's also something that's interesting to explore with my show, I'm sort of a paradox when it comes to stereotypes, I'm both a stereotypical Asian American (good at math, played violin, loves video games, went to a good school, worked corporate after college, etc.) but not (going into a creative field, playing poker professionally, etc.) But my show wants to explore what my character's dilemmas are, particularly in the areas of "opportunity cost", my character will probably wonder why I left a profession I was so successful at to something I barely scratched the surface!

I think you don't have to be one or the other though to be successful at either pursuit. You have personalities like Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu who have done plenty fine at poker, and you've seen reclusive actors like Daniel Day Lewis that generally kill it on screen. So I don't think it's that big of a deal transitioning over, I'm just a person who happens to have interest both in analytical things as well as creative ones.

Does having poker chops make trying another high variance pursuit like acting easier to handle, because you have something to fall back on?

Douglas Kim: Finances are definitely the biggest concerns for most creatives, it's just hard to make it and survive in the early stages of your career when you're trying to build something from nothing. However, I'm less worried about financial aspect at this point as to really just searching for an overall purpose with my life which I don't think I've found in poker. I enjoy the intellectual challenges of it and try to still keep up with the latest trends and what makes sense from a GTO perspective when playing, but as far as wanting to be the top player or whatever that's not really my desire or goal.

"It's like jumping into the big game"

What’s it like being a relative unknown as an actor, but jumping right into the lead role on something you have created? 

Douglas Kim: It is a bit scary to begin with for sure and I guess it is a bit like jumping into the big game. But I would say that it's more that I had confidence that I could deliver as a lead actor because I thought my personal life was compelling enough to talk about and act through. It's funny because the first day of shooting was actually the sitcom scene so Doug's general excitement and awe of being on a legit set was actually genuine, it's almost like I didn't have to act!

But while I never played in the big game, I would say my confidence came from the fact of my many years of training at an acting conservatory, and many many more classes out in NY in LA, and believing my character is somewhat compelling, even my IRL persona. I guess you could say that I had watched every Run It Once video and done all the work with solvers, and was ready to log on to play.

Why did you choose to play yourself, and if the show was picked up could this lead to cameos from real poker players in the future?

Douglas Kim: I think there's still a stigma in America that Asians aren't actually American, but more "other". Part of my goal is to help "normalize" Asian Americans to the general public, to basically say that we're just Americans we have our own fears, doubts, strengths, weaknesses just like the rest of you guys.

I chose to play myself because I think my life is like I said both stereotypically and not Asian American. I think this is helpful in trying to show what Asian American life looks like from my perspective, because I can kind of capture the whole spectrum that way through my variety of experiences, but while not being preachy at the same time. I simply want to present this slice of American life to people so that it doesn't get lost 20-30 years from now if no one else makes a show that shows what this looks like.

Definitely thinking cameos are possible (I'm looking at you Doug Polk), and would love to throw a bunch of my Vegas friends in there if I do end up making an episode that takes place there. But I do want to stray from contrived plot lines that just put a famous poker player in the episode for the sake of putting them in there, it'd have to come from a storyline that I believe that could take place in my actual life. I still know some higher profile players so we'll see what happens.

You can follow the progress on 'Just Doug' over at the official Facebook page.