Writer/director (and podcaster) Kevin Smith has a smoke-filled chat with Marc in the garage. He talks with Marc about how he confronts failure, how he responds to the haters, and how he hopes to continue his career once he's finished making movies. This episode is sponsored by AdamandEve.com - click here for the special Valentine's Day WTF offer.
I've loved his stuff since 1996 when I first saw 'Clerks' on VHS in the Navy, and for the most part have liked all the stuff that he's done. When 'An Evening with Kevin Smith' came out I thought, 'Aw shit... Smith's probably trying to do too much.' But I was pleasantly surprised when it was awesome. Self-indulgent? Of course, but isn't most comedy about turning a negative into a positive, so you can live with it?
Why else tells an audience that several girlfriends in your past said you had a little dick? Because it hurts, and sometimes spite motivates you to prove that you may have a little dick, but you're still funny enough to make a room full of strangers laugh. And while telling them the story won't make your dick any bigger, to me it proves you have big balls.
And I can understand Smith getting pissed at his critics, since most 'Professional Film/Media Critics' are too talentless to put themselves out there enough to try doing something they actually created on their own. It's easy to stand off the the side and think, 'Look at this asshole trying to be interesting...' instead of enjoying that he actually might be interesting if you pulled the pole of pretense out of your ass.
I would be tired of people that 15 years prior would let me tea-bag them because they loved my first three movies because they were 'Indie, Non-Conformist, Generation X' comedies, but it turns out that when your sense of humor changes along with your writing style as a film-maker you're no longer worth their time.
I may not have loved everything that Kev has done, but I could at least appreciate when he was trying to do something different. People went after him with such vigor over movies that he really cared about and put a lot of sincerity and heart into... apparently, if there is a dearth of dick and fart jokes and vaguely homoerotic dialogue between two straight characters, people try to throw him down a flight of stairs.
Fat jokes? Really? If you're going to insult someone, at least do them the courtesy of being a little original, like, say... saying that he has womanly, child-bearing hips.
Kevin Smith is a big guy, but I've had to sit next to people that had their own gravitational pull and they didn't have to buy two tickets, and I know he isn't that big, so I chock it up to prejudice. They just got pissed at and smeared him for speaking up for himself, which many overweight people are too meek to do, and that's all it takes nowadays.
And I thought that Kev and Marc would be great together on a podcast when I first found out that Marc had one going, and you know what? Turns out I was right!
Although, I became a Marc fan in 1990, so I like his show more. Keep up the great work.
Marc, you rock as always - love the podcast!!
I'm a big Kevin Smith fan, a lot (not all) of his movies but more importantly the Q/A sessions he did across colleges (An Evening with KS, etc. *loved* that).
I gotta say I enjoyed this episode from the first minute to the last. Great flow to the conversation, I just love when KS dispenses with all the politically correct and says what he really thinks. Refreshing in this hollywood industry. Also agree with Tiffany. KS is just venting. Maybe the f***/buy your wife is a bit much, but he gets the point across that's what he WOULD do if he sank down to their level.
I don't know SouthWest, I don't even live in your country. But, if being honest, I wouldn't want him next to me on a flight, for a few reasons.
>>you are clearly harboring some jealousy there about the size of Kevin Smiths house.
The one he kept bragging about? ;-)
I just find him to be a mediocre talent with poor taste but who then obliviously promotes and revels in that and then is whiny and petty towards people who disagree. (See his ridiculous rants against critics who panned his recent films. You make crappy films, you'll get criticized. You're fat, you'll have embarrassing problems sometimes. Don't blame others.)
Given how many tasteless and annoying things he said in one podcast, I thought that view was well confirmed.
I'm sure he'd be a funny guy in the kitchen at a party. Wouldn't want to be stuck at dinner with him though.
Incidentally, Smith went on Rotten Tomatoes a few years ago and engaged all the fulminating "nerdcocks" in a flame war that went on all night. I was one of those nerdcocks. He conducted himself with the decorum of an angry boar with flatulence. I loved him for that.
PS. Ziggy's two posted comments sound like planted Southwest loving. I'll happily admit our current society is too sensitive and doesn't want to offend anybody, but the policy is shit and Southwest is shit. I'm only 180lbs but I'm 6'1" so being a tall skinny guy, I take up just about as much room since I'm practically made of elbows and knees. Southwest's website says the armrests are the deciding factor, they don't list a certain weight limit. so it's about not bothering the passenger next to you. I guarantee I've bothered more passengers with elbowing their ribs and stabbing my knees through the seat in front of me than any other "passenger of size" as they call them. Why haven't I been kicked off a flight? When do I get my passenger of height label and my flight voucher?
The first part was OK, the 2nd part was unbearable, a non-stop Kevin Smith rant against people who dislike Kevin Smith (for good reason), but how he pretends he doesn't care what they think and has more money than them. Prefacing tacky claims about the size of your house does not make them any less tacky, especially when you work it in twice in one discussion.
Good job trying to interrupt or even get out a complete sentence, Marc.
"I ruined Seth Rogan"
-well, that tells you enough about Kevin Smith's "taste" right there. Marc, how could you not comment on that???
"They said I was fat and asked me to go on a flight with 2 tickets"
-Marc, why not point out the truth that, well, he is enormously fat and it sounds like a good basic policy. The 2 people next to him were probably relieved they were helped out by SouthWest but of course said nothing in front of an angry fat man grilling them. Cheers to SouthWest, unless they sucked up to him afterward as Kevin pretends, but sounds like they simply explained a basic policy to him:
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"Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank – as he's been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby. As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy. Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight. Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience."
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And, seriously, what sort of loser becomes an all-day stoner at 40?
Marc I feel like you were not able to get into the hurt that must be underneath that kind of douche-ey comment. You were being an accomodating, almost obsequious "bro". To me you sounded like someone who didn't want to offend a potential Hollywood contact.
I'll admit that I grew up kind of idolizing Smith during the Clerks and Chasing Amy years, but I was also a teenager. As I matured and his work got worse, I, like many, lost all interest in him, his work, his egomaniac persona...
I think this interview really cemented the fact that this guy is a windbag.
All of his boasting ("I'm fat but I can fuck your wife" and "I live in a mansion," etc, etc.) drivel comes across as though Smith has some deep insecurities inside.
Towards the end of the interview I even felt you were a little turned off by him.
Whatever the case, interesting episode... keep em coming.
And whoever it was that complained about the way you end interviews with "are we good?" - fuck them! I love that you do that. It makes WTF YOUR show and not some other show. Don't change a thing based on what one douchebag on the internet says. Wasn't it the "are we good?" shows that made it into the NY Times?
'Grade A' pod casting Maron - good on ya!
Please have him on again, soon.
FU haters.
Great podcast Marc!
Awesome interview Marc!
Love Kevin Smith.
Haters step aside.