By Jay Betsill
@TheFamousJay on Twitter and Instagram
Entourage is and always will be my favorite show and like the gift that keeps on giving, Entourage is back in our lives in what I deem to be THE BEST THING TO HAPPEN IN 2020 with Victory the Podcast.
Victory the Podcast is hosted by Entourage creator Doug Ellin, ‘Johnny Drama’ himself Kevin Dillon and Kevin Connolly. Connolly played “E” on the show and is the producer of the podcast and while “E” was mockingly called the “Pizza Boy” on Entourage, on the podcast, Connolly is the “Businessman.”
Each episode really feels like hanging out for an hour or so with a group of buddies and there is one thing I can guarantee … Once you have listened to a few episodes, you won’t be able to hear the opening of beer can without simultaneously thinking of ‘Irish Crickets.’
Do you know the term, “Irish crickets”? Victory! Check it out. https://t.co/nC76BrCf5b pic.twitter.com/nyKpuPZTDS
— Doug Ellin (@mrdougellin) October 21, 2020
You will also feel the need to flip a coin over whether to watch Kissing a Fool or Rocky V. Full disclosure: I bought Kissing a Fool on Amazon after hearing Kevin Connolly jokingly busting Doug Ellin’s chops about this 1998 movie starring David Schwimmer and Jason Lee and it’s pretty damn good.
Entourage aired on HBO from 2004-2011 over eight seasons and 96 episodes and returned to grace the silver screen as a major Warner Bros. motion picture in the summer of 2015. The series chronicled the acting career of A-list movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) who is joined by his best friends Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon) and his agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven).
Entourage was appointment television for me and my buddies on Sunday evenings back in the days before binge-watching was a big thing and you actually watched the shows when they aired. When Superhero by Jane’s Addiction kicked off the opening credits, we were just as pumped as NFL fans prior to playoff games.
Fast forward to today and I get that same adrenaline rush when I receive the notification that the latest episode of Victory the Podcast is available.
New episodes drop each Wednesday (the easiest thing to do is simply subscribe to the show where you listen to podcasts and it magically appears on your mobile device once it’s released) and the guys deep dive a new Entourage episode each week with inside scoop and special guests while simultaneously talking about things going on in their own lives.
Victory the Podcast kicked off on June 24, 2020 and has featured guests including Jerry Ferrara (Turtle), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Sloan), Constance Zimmer (Dana Gordon) and Rhys Coiro (Billy Walsh) who need no introduction to fans of the popular HBO show. One of the things made Entourage so incredible was the on-screen chemistry of the actors and that very thing translates to the podcast whether it’s the First Lady of Entourage (Chriqui) or the scene-stealing actor known to fans as the director of ‘Queen’s Blvd.’ who coined the “E” nickname “Suit” (Coiro).
For anyone who would wish for any type of Entourage revival no matter how big or small, Victory the Podcast is already the answer as you basically get to re-watch all of the episodes with the very people that are responsible for its greatness. They even teased a possible table-read of an unfilmed version of the Entourage pilot and Kevin Dillon even threw out the possibility of having his brother Matt Dillon being a part of that show.
Entourage featured a plethora of real-life movie star cameos, so it only makes sense that said stars would make their way to the podcast. Gary Busey appeared in the first season of the show in the episode titled ‘Busey and the Beach’ and dropped by the Action Park Media studio to discuss his some of his iconic roles including Lethal Weapon and Point Break and the actor’s improvising his lines on Entourage.
Season 2’s ‘Aquamansion’ episode brought Ralph Macchio to the podcast to discuss the Playboy Mansion and the huge success of Cobra Kai. The second season also featured Bob Saget and he joined the show to talk about the ‘Neighbors’ episode.
As of this writing, there are 25 full episodes and my personal favorites featured Entourage music supervisor Scott Vener and Entourage executive producer Rob Weiss.
Vener appeared on the Aug. 12th podcast and took fans behind the scenes of how songs were selected for the show and the scoop on how they were able to shoot during the U2 concert at STAPLES Center and get the “Happy Birthday” shoutout from Bono to Johnny Drama.
Weiss is the guest on the Nov. 4th podcast where the guys break down the legendary “The Sundance Kids” episode where we learn that Weiss was the inspiration behind the Billy Walsh character as well as how much of the episode was actually shot in Park City and a prank the guys played on Ellin involving Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron.
Following Entourage, Weiss was an executive producer on the HBO hit Ballers and dropped a story about Jeremy Piven wanting to be cast on the final season of the uber popular show starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Would you have liked to see Ari Gold on @BallersHBO @robweiss could have made it happen. Check it out Victory! https://t.co/h5HLwhjzgC @mrkevinconnolly pic.twitter.com/j3IM2v55DN
— Doug Ellin (@mrdougellin) November 12, 2020
Other episodes of the podcast have included a superfan coming on the show and doing Entourage trivia and an entire show dedicated to taking calls from fans. Ellin mentioned that on the call-in show there was over 12,000!!! phone calls!
Since the podcast’s popularity has been skyrocketing, they are offering merchandise from the show including shirts, hats, masks and hoodies that are available at victorythepodcaststore.myshopify.com.
Follow the guys on INSTAGRAM @mrdougellin, @kevindillonofficial, @mrkevinconnolly and @victorythepodcast, where they are very interactive on the comments section but very openly prefer that you DO NOT DM them.
Victory the Podcast is produced by ACTION PARK MEDIA.
