While the success of most of these films rely on the immaturity of the audience, Smith’s more sensitive side is subtly present. Smith’s screenwriting style tends to attract mostly a mostly younger, male audience.
Each week, Smith and his producer Scott Mosier host a one hour podcast that they’ve coined, SModcast.
(S for Smith and M for Mosier replacing the P from Podcast).
Smith is a strange one, I’ll always be grateful for the good times and associate Clerks, and Chasing Amy , with very pivotal times in my life. However, I just don’t know where he’s going with all of this. On one hand, he seems to be ahead of the curve as always, doing something progressive, edgy and in a tech savvy format that appears to be dialed into his core audience. On the other hand, he also seems like he’s so full of himself that he gets paid to talk with his friends that he has now expanded his Podcast network to a different one featuring him EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK, and TWICE ON FRIDAY. Who could stand that much of anyone? Maybe his wife can’t stand him and he needs something to do
Hollywood Babble-On w/ Kevin Smith & Ralph Garman – Jon Lovitz’s Comedy Club – Universal City, CA – January 7th 2011
Ok so tonight I was excited as I was seeing Kevin Smith in yet another format and I was interviewing his co-host Ralph Garman after the show for the L.A. Weekly. Ana, sadly was leaving in a few days and this club is in Universal City, so though I had doubts that she would be able to understand the jokes, I figured she might enjoy doing the Universal Walk. We get there and Frank (Manager) is a friend of mine and we were immediately seated up stairs (thanks man).
Now I’ve written quite a bit about Kevin Smith in this blog, as I was a huge fan of his early work and though I know he tried to position himself as the next John Hughes, he never quite got there and admittedly has been treading water now for as long as he was on top.
It seems that he has found his niche in a speaking capacity, as though you will always think of him as Silent Bob, his speaking engagements seem to be his true calling and as prospered in recent years doing just that.
He and (producer) Scott Mosier have an extremely popular weekly podcast called SMODcast, and now Smith is setting up a Podcast network where he does four others a week on top of slew of other activities and now he’s hosting two more in one night (see later tonight entry). All I could think of was “Man, great work ethic, but when does he see his wife and kid?”.
This particular show discusses current events happening in Hollywood, and includes segments such as Tinseltown Stiffs (where recently deceased Hollywood celebrities are discussed) and Hollywood Helpers (where the pair point out acts of helpfulness or charity among the show business crowd). When discussing current events with Smith, Garman will also perform impressions of famous actors.
It was only slightly entertaining and more of the novelty of “Hey look, it’s Silent Bob”. It works in a comedy club cause it has the shtick-ish feel to it. The show used to be at a place Smith recently purchased to house all of his podcasts , the Smodcastle, (yes for real) but the shows were in too high in demand that they had to be moved here. I never saw any of those shows so I can’t compare but I think having it in a comedy club probably helps with more than just attendance size.
The show started to run over its time, and Smith said not to worry as he was “friendly with the guys in the next show” referring to his pairing with Jason Mewes in the next time-slot doing what Smith himself would no doubt refer to as “going back to the well” in reference to when you have nothing new to offer you go to what’s been proving reliable.
Right as Smith says this I jump as what seemed right behind me was protesting voice screaming “Fuck that shit!, I’m next” as I (and the rest of the crowd) turn around to see Jason Mewes entering to the dressing room that was, yes directly behind me.
The press agent sends a security guard to come get me, informing me its time for the interview, so I tell Ana I gotta go do this.
I enter a small by anyone’s standards dressing room, that is engulfed with smoke (pot/tobacco) and the only people in this little box are me, Garman and Smith, and Mewes and a male friend of his. I’ve seen Smith dozens of times, but it occurred to me that we had never actually met/spoke and certainly not in such an intimate setting, that believe it or not I felt nervous, but only for a second. That’s all the time I had before Kevin, asked me if the pot smoking bothered me (it didn’t) and also if I wanted a hit (I declined).
Ralph was expecting me and greeted me warmly. I made a few polite salutations before getting down to business.
You can read the entire interview here:
The interview lasted roughly 20 mins but 5 mins in, this little room started to fill up, namely with a rather loud-laughing female, I can only assume was Kevin’s wife. Mewes was getting louder and more out of control by the second and kept borrowing my lighter. The humor in the dysfunction and insanity around us was not lost on Ralph and I, as we shared a few jokes of our own, before I wrapped it up because by the 15 min mark, we were having to shout into each other’s ears to communicate.
The room starts to clear a bit and I stay behind having a drink and shooting the shit with Kevin for a bit then he takes off and it then its down to just me and this late 40s, impeccably dressed, over-the-top flamboyantly loud gay man and his female fag hag, with Mewes sitting in the opposite corner wearing headphones and seemingly struggling to concentrate on whatever it was that he was writing down.
I didn’t wanna overstay my welcome but the gay-crew had me pinned and they must have done copious amounts of cocaine before hand because I was stuck in this conversation where they ask questions, but before you can answer they are off on another tangent to the point you don’t even know what you are saying. Mewes was the savior by virtue, but still no less embarrassing as he practically kicked us out of the dressing room. He was cool about it, but we were clearly a distraction and this was his dressing room, not the kind of exit I wanted to make. Whatever, I head back to my seat and get ready for the next show.
(later that night) Jay & Silent Bob Get Old w/ Kevin Smith & Jason Mewes – Jon Lovitz’s Comedy Club – Universal City, CA – January 7th
I return to my seat and asked Ana what she thought of the show, and as I had feared, she really didn’t understand a word of it, but was having fun regardless and enjoying the nature of the evening. She didn’t know who Garman was, but of course she knew who Mewes was, and probably had a fleeting crush on him at some point like most girls seem to of had.
I don’t wanna sound like a dick or be too harsh on the guy, but Mewes talks like a crackhead and only looks about three hits away from being Steven Adler. That’s not to say that my man hasn’t cleaned up his act, because from what I understand he’s been staying off the dope with the help of Smith and even got married a few years ago. But the damage to his appearance (not to mention, reputation) and his speech has been done and its irreversible.
The thing that struck me was Mewes has this whole drug-casualty-as-phoenix rising thing going, where that’s what you think of when you see him. Like, we almost lost this person to the point where we never recover from it and see him as we see everyone else, we still see him as on the edge or keep up the good work buddy but we don’t have the ability to see him as just Mewes anymore. The topic of his drug use, where should be kinda old news was on the tip of everyone’s tongue, especially Smith’s and he was the man with the microphone. They have maintained a dynamic relationship that is fascinating to watch. Mewes will tell a long-winded and often tragic story about memories from his childhood. Smith will jump in periodically with a sarcastic comment and quick punch line.
For their finale, they play a little game with the audience for comic relief called Let Us Fuck, which was the total what-am-I-doing-with-my-life-by-being-here moment for the audience (myself included)
Kevin Smith calls out a sex position, and Mewes and an audience member have to imitate it, come up with what our version would be, based on what the name sounds like. (yes this really happend…and the prize was dildos for girls and artificial vaginas for the guys..courtesy of the show’s sponsor…Fleshlight).
