An Evening with Kevin Smith
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| An Evening with Kevin Smith | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | J.M. Kenny |
| Produced by | Paul Apel, Alan Baral, Lisa Blond |
| Written by | Kevin Smith |
| Starring | Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 2002 |
| Running time | Disk 1 - 128 min Disk 2 97 min |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
An Evening with Kevin Smith is a DVD featuring Question and Answer sessions that the writer and filmmaker Kevin Smith held with his fans at various American colleges, including: Clark University, Cornell University, Indiana University, Kent State University and University of Wyoming. During the sessions, Kevin Smith answers questions regarding his movies, as well as his life. He discusses how he got started in the movie industry, how different films came about, his friendship with Jason Mewes, and his relationship with the media, fans, and various other celebrities.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Disc 1
- Start
- The film has a cold opening with Smith walking on stage in front of thousands of college students.
- The Marcel Marceau Part
- A student asks Smith why Smith chose to be in his own films and why did he choose to be Silent Bob. Smith answers that he originally intended on being Randal (that's why he gets all the good jokes) but decided against it because he couldn't act very well or remember lines, coupled with the strain of having to direct the film, produce, edit, and work in the store at the same time.
- Look-alikes
- Two students who are dressed like, and bear a slight resemblance to, Jay and Silent Bob are interviewed outside the auditorium along with other students. They get a chance to briefly row with Smith, and the conversation ends with Smith saying it's easy to look like him; "Just pack on 400 pounds and grow a beard".
- Smoothing things over
- A student walks up to the mic and tells Smith he was fired from his job at a restaurant for taking off to go see the show. Smith offers to call the restaurant and see if he can help him get his job back. After speaking with the restaurant manager, Smith is unsuccessful at getting the student his job back and jokes about his limited pull.
- Daredevil vs. Jersey Girl
- Smith details the struggle trying to get Ben Affleck to shoot Jersey Girl after Smith recommends Affleck to play Daredevil because "I can see Ben Affleck in any role - even the shark from Jaws". After spreading the word that they are recasting the part, Affleck implores Smith to push back filming on Jersey Girl, to which Smith agrees after Affleck agrees to even lower compensation. After which, Affleck comes to realize that Smith hadn't even finished writing the script yet.
- Kent State
- After going off on a tangent about visiting Germany and concentration camps he compares the reputation of the school to the reputation of Germany, and claims that even if Kent State cured cancer people would still remember the university for the Kent State shootings in 1970, much like how Germany is remembered for the Holocaust.
- Jay and Silent Bob in Wyoming
- Kevin Smith walks on stage and claims that Jason Mewes could not make the show because "he missed his flight". After the audience gets "angry" about not being able to see him at all, Smith calls Mewes from his cell phone and begins to chide him verbally. Then, from stage right, Mewes suddenly appears, still responding to Smith's scolding on his cell phone, and the crowd erupts with wild cheers.
- Where did the characters come from?
- A member of the audience asks the above question and Smith details how he came up with Jay and Silent Bob, and also delves into his past in New Jersey.
- How long have you known each other?
- The above question is asked and Smith launches into their 13-year history of friendship. Mewes started as a friend of a friend and started hanging out with Smith without his approval. Despite his initial reluctance to let the nearly four-years younger kid hang around, Smith claims Mewes stole his place as "the funny friend".
- Size and sexual preferences
- Smith goes off on more tangents about his past with Mewes and an audience member asks if Mewes is heterosexual or not and if he has a small penis (Smith admits that he himself does).
- A big Jay fan
- A fan continues hitting on Mewes until Smith waves him off. Then a woman asks if Mewes is single, which prompts the next story that Smith tells the audience.
- Sex tape critique
- Smith then launches into a story about how Mewes almost got married to a woman named Jamie. Mewes elaborately bought a fish tank complete with exotic marine life and a treasure chest with an engagement ring to propose to her. Upon hearing of this, Smith tells Mewes he wishes he could have been there. Mewes responds that he taped the entire thing and also taped he and his fiancee having sex afterwards. Smiths asks if he can borrow both tapes and immediately discards the proposal tape for the porn. Smith claims it was the worst amateur tape he had ever seen because the camera kept switching between Mewes's buttocks and the MTV Movie Awards playing in the background.
- Scott Mosier stories
- The topic then switches to the producing end of film and how Scott Mosier produces most of Smith's films. He details how he turned down a $3,000,000 budget for Chasing Amy for a $250,000 one. After talking about Mosier's anger he then states how happy he was when a $20,000,000 budget was okayed for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Then he tells of Mosier's monk-like existence except for his "tricked out" Volkswagen conversion van, then calls Mosier to have him talk about over the phone through the mic.
- Any personal life stories?
- Smith is asked if any of his own personal experiences have wound up in his films. He states that all his stories are works of complete fiction, and then goes on to articulate his views on the writer's role.
- Life frustrations
- When asked if any particular area of his life inspired his comedy, Smith responds that he feels that he does what he does because he "grew up fat." The room goes oddly silent at that notion.
- What do your parents think?
- Smith goes through how his parents feel about each of his films. Clerks and Mallrats were not well-received. Upon seeing Clerks, his mother said "That's what you spent $27,000 on?" However, Chasing Amy was a big hit with his parents. Reportedly, they were chuckling at blowjob jokes, much to his dismay, as with Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
- Dogma
- In this section, Smith discusses his views on religion and how they impacted his film Dogma. Also, Smith goes on to talk about the massive amounts of hate mail he and Miramax received (including, as Smith puts it, "Two and a half death threats.") The section is concluded when Kevin talks about how he and friend Bryan Johnson joined a protest against the film incognito titled "Dogma is Dogshit." This later wound up on the ten o'clock news (where he wasn't recognized, except by his own mother.)
- Any sci-fi ideas?
- A student asks Kevin if he has any future ideas for a possible sci-fi movie he would consider directing. Kevin replies that he already made a sci-fi movie (Chasing Amy) because, "ask any lesbian and they'll tell you that will never happen."
- Chasing Amy politics
- Following the mention of Chasing Amy, a female student, who is later revealed to be a lesbian, gets into a discussion with Smith about his portrayal of homosexuals in his films.
- Any funding advice?
- A student asks Kevin for some advice on how to fund a low-budget movie. After a joke ("Head works a lot."), Smith explains how he conned several credit card companies into believing he was the manager of RST Video and made $50,000 a year. Supposedly, that was how he earned a major part of funding in order to make Clerks.
- Whatever happened to Clerks II?
- Smith is asked by a kid named Geek if he could "suck your dick for five bucks," and segues into a question into what became of the planned Clerks II script. Smith's answer (after saying that he wouldn't let the kid suck his dick with a name like Geek) was as follows: "Clerks II became Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Smith concluded the segment by stating "Scorsese speaks a lot at NYU, and I'm damn skippy no one's ever been like 'I'll suck your dick for five bucks!'"
- Any run-ins with the industry?
- Smith is asked by a student if he's had any run-ins with the movie industry, to which Smith tells how he ran into director Paul Thomas Anderson before a physical, after slamming Andersen's film Magnolia on the Internet. Smith then goes on to describe two notes he received from the studio regarding Mallrats and content that should be removed. One instance was T.S., Brodie, Jay and Silent Bob sitting around discussing scars that they got from performing oral sex. (This bit of dialogue would later find its way into Chasing Amy.) The other was Jay and Silent Bob spying on Gwen while she was changing, and Silent Bob masturbating to the point where his ejaculate winds up in Gwen's hair. While this never made it into the movie, a similar event took place in the smash hit There's Something About Mary, which he resents to this day. Smith ends this story with the advice that "cum in the hair jokes always work."
- Superman Reborn
- Smith then goes into lengthy detail regarding his tenure on Superman Reborn, which would later become Superman Lives, revealing he had to go back to Warner Bros.' studios several times just to tell one board member after another per meeting that the initial script was bad, before getting the job himself. He also reveals how the executive producer of the project, Jon Peters, demanded that Superman not wear his traditional garb as it made him look "too faggy", that he could not fly in the picture and that the third act would feature a fight with a giant spider. He also wanted Sean "Spicoli" Penn to play Superman. Smith completed the project to Peters' satisfaction, and the project went underway, until Tim Burton came on as director and dismissed Smith's script in order to have his writers work on a new draft. Smith concludes his account with an epilogue centered around the final act of the Wild Wild West, produced by Peters, which featured a giant spider.
- Planet of the Apes
- After mentioning Tim Burton, Kevin tells a story about how he and New York Post writer Lou Lumineck were discussing the ending to Burton's film Planet of the Apes and how similar it was to a moment in the Jay and Silent Bob comic book series. Smith joked that he ought to sue Burton for copyright infringement, and the story ran on Page Six, without any of the joking overtones. In the article, Burton slams Smith's claims ("Anyone who knows me knows that I would never read a comic book."). Kevin quipped about this comment, "Which, to me, explains Batman". Burton apparently had much more to say, but the article had already gone to press. Smith claims that every time he signs a copy of his Superman Lives script bought off ebay, he also writes "Fuck Tim Burton!"
[edit] Disc 2
- Quality
- On the opening of the next DVD, Kevin is asked by a student, colloquially known as "Bucky", about the quality of movies nowadays. Smith says that, for a moment, he was worried that his entrance to mainstream movies was what caused the influx of bad movies, but then realizes that's not the case because, "nobody's seen my movies."
- "No style" style
- Smith discusses style and film aesthetics in this section. Smith claims that he doesn't have a set visual style, and his lack of aesthetics is his main aesthetic feature. He goes on to venture the possibility that what could be considered the distinguishing quality of his movies is the often off-color dialogue, giving as an example one character referring to another character as a "cock-smoker."
- Do you give actors much leeway?
- In this section, Smith and Mewes talk about how much improvisation is done on the set. Smith is fairly dictatorial when it comes to ad-libbing, but had ad-libbed most of his speech in Chasing Amy because he could not remember his lines. Then, Smith talks about how Mewes has matured as an actor throughout all their films.
- Snoochie Boochies
- A student asks Kevin about the origin of Jay's catchphrases, such as "Snoochie Boochies" and "Snootch to the Nooch". Smith claims that they all came from a saying Mewes had as a child ("Neh"), which was often said after a particularly insulting remark as a way of saying he was only kidding, such as "I fucked your mother last night. NEH!" All the more well-known phrases were derived from variations Mewes had on that one saying, which went from "Neh" to "Nootch."
- Two smokin' questions
- Two students, back-to-back, try to persuade Smith and Mewes to join them after the show to get high. One student then tries to find a way to get the union card Jay uses in one of the films.
- High Times
- Smith discusses a photo shoot he did for marijuana magazine High Times. The crux of the discussion concerned a large plate of marijuana he was photographed with for the cover, which Smith proclaims was absolutely real and "was enough to get me, them, and all our families thrown in jail forever." Smith claims that he received a small amount from the plate (but was still quite substantial) from the magazine as compensation, and jokes that he later sold it to Mewes for $900.
- Busted all the time
- A female student, after trying to talk Smith and Mewes into coming to a bar after the show, asks about a rumor that Jason was busted for heroin possession the Monday before the show. Mewes denies, saying that he probably wouldn't be there if it had been true, and proceeds to say "I just get busted all the time with heroin"
- Adam's 15 minutes of fame
- A rowdy student who kept shouting during the previous question is called onto the stage and chastized via cell phone by his father in front of the entire crowd.
- Are the Cousin Walter stories true?
- A student asks if any of the bizarre sex stories in Kevin's films are true. Smith claims that they aren't (i.e. he has never been able to suck his own dick), but that he was injured in the act of making love, but that happened long after Chasing Amy. He goes on to describe the story in the next chapter.
- How Kevin met his wife
- Kevin states that he met his future wife (Jennifer Schwalbach) while she was interviewing him for USA Today regarding the script for friend Ben Affleck's movie Good Will Hunting. The two became enamored with each other and later met at the Independent Spirit Awards, winding up at her place afterwards. The pair talked for a while, but soon found themselves heavily making out, with Ms. Schwalbach grinding into him. The problem was that she was grinding so hard that the zipper of Kevin's jeans scraped into his penis like a cheese grater, creating an open wound. She didn't know of the damage and despite the risks, Kevin had intercourse with her, which he describes as feeling "like sticking my dick in battery acid." He does state that he still does not know if it was this that resulted in the birth of their daughter, Harley Quinn.
- Dance, fat boy
- After that, a female student (and soon, the whole auditorium) tries to get Kevin to perform some impromptu dance moves similar to the ones he did in Clerks. He flat out refuses, claiming that, if he danced for them, what would stop them from making him drop his pants?
- Desperately seeking Tim
- A noise from the side door turns everyone's attention onto five students claiming that "Tim" has their tickets and that they should be let in. Kevin jokes with them to keep the mood light, but the students start to plead to Kevin to let them in. "Tim" shows up, and the five students turn out to be the victims of a cruel prank. As realization sets in, a community collection of spare tickets is gathered and the five are allowed into the building, but are forced to dance for the crowd as payment for their tickets.
- Prince
- During this monologue, Kevin Smith details his attempt to contact Prince for the purpose of getting "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World". Instead, he ends up with "Jungle Love" by Morris Day & The Time, and gets involved in making a documentary for Prince about his new album and the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. Several embarrassing details about Prince and the way he works are revealed in this section.
- Scream 3
- Kevin talks about the various appearances of Jay and Silent Bob in other media projects, one of which was Wes Craven's film Scream 3. Smith and Mewes worked for one day (for which they were paid SAG minimum wage) and received $300 spending money and a Scream 3 T-Shirt on top of all of that. Mewes was reportedly ecstatic, suggesting that they should do one day on all horror movies just for the free swag.
- Will we see Jay & Silent Bob again?
- The last question in the film is if Jay and Silent Bob would ever return after Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Smith said that they would not, claiming that they're both getting older, and after the aforementioned feature, the only other thing left to do would be "Jay and Bob in Space." (Mewes and Smith would later reprise their roles in Clerks 2, and it is likely that they will appear in the animated feature Clerks: Sell Out.)
- End credits
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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