An Evening with Kevin Smith

On December 3, 2009, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Kevin Smith in Blackman Auditorium at Northeastern University. The notorious director spoke to students about almost everything for three hours in an open Q&A format. The length and talkative nature of the event was a little exhausting for some but I could have listened to him speak all night. I found solace and inspiration in his words as he told anecdotes about how he got to where he was today. I always love hearing the prominent voices of our generation speak and listening to the words of someone who has made a living by following their passion is certainly inspiring. It probably says something about me that I am inspired by a fat man in a bathrobe speaking crudely to a bunch of college students but, in its own bizarre way, it works. Clerks and Chasing Amy remain two of my favorite movies ever and I haven't disliked anything he has put out yet [although Jersey Girl was trying].

I couldn't possibly cover everything he spoke about and it wouldn't do much good unless you were there. One particularly funny story came from him explaining what it was like to work with Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan on the set of his upcoming film Couple of Dicks which was recently renamed Cop Out. I couldn't help but laugh as he described Bruce Willis acting exactly as I had always imagined: a hard-ass with a strong personality and a serious problem with authority. Some other hilarious tales involved his shameless retelling of his sex life and his newfound love of pot. I was as surprised as anyone would be to find out that he only just discovered pot but I guess it was something that he recently developed an affinity for. It wasn't all marijuana love and shit jokes, although there were plenty of both. He also jammed a large amount of introspective knowledge into the night; especially in one story involving the development of Wayne Gretzky, the world's greatest hockey player. If you want to get a glimpse of his intriguing musings, check out the installments of An Evening with Kevin Smith available now on DVD.

Listen to the hilarious 100^th installment of SModcast with Kevin Smith and long time producer partner Scott Mosier
here.