Kevin Smith beamed as he introduced his latest film, “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot," on the first night of his 65-city Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow tour in Asbury Park on Saturday. He whole countenance seemed to scream “snoogans!”
Smith, 49, stood alongside his friend and co-star, Jason Mewes, at the Paramount Theatre. He talked about his plans to return to the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo to film “Clerks III." (He recently told NJ Advance Media the Jersey location would be non-negotiable.) Both that shelved project and “Mallrats II" found new life after Smith completed “Reboot,” which he filmed in New Orleans earlier this year (a lookalike building stood in for the Quick Stop).
But the cherry on top for fans arrived after the screening, when the director used the occasion to announce yet another new project.
“I spent a lot of time down at Quick Stop today because there’s an end unit on the building that’s completely empty,” Smith said, wearing his signature jorts. “We’re going to turn it into SModcastle.” (Note: this is not the old RST Video.)
SModcastle was a venue Smith opened in 2010 on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was a place where fans could watch his SModcast podcasts live. The 50-seat theater closed after a year, Smith said, because audiences outgrew the space.
The crowd of Jay and Silent Bob fans clapped and cheered the news. Smith, a Red Bank native who grew up in Highlands, said his new venture would be a partnership with some old friends and the owners of the Quick Stop.
Caution: Video contains expletives.
“We’re all going to throw in and kind of make this theater,” he said. “We’re going to end the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow tour at the theater opening day in February. From there forward, we’re just going to start doing what we did at SModcastle out west.”
The podcast base, which Smith said would also host script readings and possibly some rental space, will expand his presence in the area. The director, who lives in California, maintains a Jersey outpost through the Red Bank comic book store Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. The store was the setting for the reality series “Comic Book Men,” which ran for seven seasons through 2018 on AMC.
Smith explained that he originally intended to film the Quick Stop scenes in “Reboot” at the actual Quick Stop, but that it would have cost $500,000 to move the production. Now, he anticipates spending a lot more time in Leonardo for the SModcastle and “Clerks III.”
(Update, Oct. 20: Smith posted photos of the duo outside the Quick Stop on Instagram this weekend and said construction would be starting on 64 Leonard Ave. See below.)
Smith and Mewes started the Reboot Roadshow on a date of some significance. On the same day 25 years ago, Smith’s first feature film, “Clerks,” opened in New York and Los Angeles. The black-and-white movie, which revolved around two clerks and was filmed when Smith still worked at the Quick Stop, fueled the director’s rise in Hollywood. The stoner duo of Jay and Silent Bob made their film debut in “Clerks" as the two guys who were almost always hanging out in front of the store, selling drugs, riffing and occasionally making poetic observations about life, when Silent Bob deigned to speak.
At the first night of the roadshow, Smith introduced Mewes, who plays Jay, as “a true American original” who gave him his “passport to the world."
“I’m super stoked to start here," said Mewes, 45, who also grew up in Highlands, where he met Smith. The four-month tour will take the pair across the country and into Canada.
Smith and Jason Mewes introduce a screening of "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot," the sequel to Smith's 2001 film "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" that contains mini-sequels to his other movies.Russ DeSantis | For NJ Advance Media
The director told the sold-out crowd that in 1998, he was often in Asbury Park with Mewes for a different reason. Mewes, then living with Smith in Oceanport and struggling with drug addiction, needed to go to the city’s methadone clinic every morning.
“We should’ve had the screening at the methadone clinic,” Mewes joked. After a relapse, he’s been sober for 9 years, three months and two weeks (he specified the exact length of time in answer to a question from a fan).
“Jay and Silent Bob Reboot," which co-stars Smith’s daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, is a sequel to Smith’s 2001 film “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." The characters try to stop a reboot of the Jay and Silent Bob-inspired “Bluntman and Chronic" film they tried to squash in the last movie.
But “Reboot," which opened in theaters across the country through Fathom Events screenings on Oct. 15 and 17 (on Instagram, Smith later said the screenings made $1 million), also contains mini-sequels to “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy." Returning characters from the other movies in Smith’s New Jersey-set View Askewniverse brought Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Brian O’Halloran, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Lee to the story (in addition to a long list of cameos). Smith said that after “Clerks III” and “Mallrats II” fell by the wayside, he felt pressure to inject elements from those narratives into this film in a kind of “last chance” effort.
When Smith suffered a massive heart attack in 2018, it only strengthened his resolve to make “Reboot.” He started shooting the film on the one-year anniversary of the hospital trip that moved him to become a vegan and drop more than 50 pounds.
“This movie should not exist," Smith told fans. "This is the movie I lived through death to make.”
After the film, Smith announced a new local venture of his that will come to Leonardo, home of the Quick Stop the director first made famous in "Clerks."Russ DeSantis | For NJ Advance Media
Now, Smith is promising they’ll see a lot more of the View Askewniverse in the next few years, with “Clerks III” and “Mallrats II” back on deck.
The director said they didn’t both with test audiences for the film. A recent Los Angeles premiere was the only indication of how the film would be received, but Smith was really waiting for the verdict from the Asbury Park audience. He later said the Jersey homecoming and first night of the tour made $100,000.
Smith has called the film the ultimate love letter to himself, but also his fans. He leaned in a doorway and watched as the Asbury Park crowd devoured every wink and nod, including the Jason Lee (Brodie Bruce)-assisted skewering of reboot culture and a part where Jay and Silent Bob actually turn to the camera and acknowledge the audience. Giddy, heavy-handed references to Jason Bourne and Batman in Damon and Affleck’s scenes also proved to be a hit.
“I f---ing love being Kevin Smith," the director said during a Q&A portion of the event as he fielded queries from fans who said he had inspired them to become filmmakers and podcasters.
“I’ve been dreaming about you (expletive) since I first thought of this movie,” Smith told the audience. “This night meant everything to me.”
Christopher Wellington, 27, of Brick, got his introduction to the View Askewniverse in fourth grade, through “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back."
“It’s the stoner comedy, I love it," he said. "I think it’s hilarious. It’s stupid but it’s funny.”
A scene from "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot," which is chock full of cameos, including Method Man and Newark's own Redman.Kyle Kaplan
Ryan McLelland of Trenton, 40, appreciated Smith’s reunion with Affleck in the film, especially since the two weren’t talking for many years.
“It was great seeing them come together in a film, mocking Hollywood,” he said.
Woodbridge’s Niki Skalla, a Kevin Smith fan since “Clerks” in 1994, wore a pointy-eared Bluntman hat to the screening.
“They’re real, they’re honest, they’re open,” she said of Jay and Silent Bob. “They’re badass.”
Her all-time favorite Smith film is the 1995 movie “Mallrats.”
When a fan asked him to rank the View Askewniverse films, Mewes put “Clerks” on the bottom of his list. Part of his reasoning was that it’s a black-and-white film, for which Smith duly roasted him. Mewes topped his list with “Reboot,” followed by “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," “Clerks II" and “Dogma.”
Smith also named Reboot his No. 1 pick, followed by “Clerks II,” “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Mallrats" and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”
Another fan requested Smith and Mewes to each assemble a team of Marvel’s Avengers to defeat the Trump administration. Smith’s picks included all of Wakanda, the Hulk, Captain Marvel and Tony Stark — “a real billionaire.”
Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
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