Friday, January 18, 2008

Sleepless Nights with Kevin Smith

I’ve gotten into the habit of watching DVDs (or at least bits of DVDs) in bed before going to sleep. The past few nights I’ve cracked out one of my two Christmas presents from Ben; the double-pack of An Evening with Kevin Smith and An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder.


I didn’t even know these two titles had been released in Australia when I unwrapped them a few weeks ago, let alone that they’d been put together in a hand-dandy double pack.

I tried watching the first disc while plopped on the couch one weekend a couple of weeks ago, and found the audience participation aspect to be just as painful to watch on DVD as it was to experience when I saw Kevin Smith do a live Q & A at the Clerks II premiere way back in August of ‘06. I hastily switched the DVD off, unable to deal with the awkward, cloying geeks as they breathily pandered to their idol before asking a particularly inane question.

But, given my affection for the ol’ Silent Bob, I decided to get back on the horse and give it another shot … and I found the secret to avoiding the pain of the Q part of the Q & A; the fast forward button. The sub-titles still pop up, letting you know the gist of the query, and then you hit play so you get nothing but the creamy answer portion. Sweet relief!

The result is that I’ve been laughing hysterically in bed the past couple of nights. Had he not pursued the whole filmmaker thing for a living, Kevin Smith could have very easily subsidised himself as a stand-up comedian.

The DVDs have actually reawakened my formally keen interest in all things KS, and I’ve found myself gravitating back towards his blog. It’s kind of like catching up with an old friend; one you haven’t seen in a while and want to hear everything they’ve been up to.

Speaking of which, Pree arrives this evening. It’d be more exciting if I hadn’t seen his grinning mug on my recent Brisbane trip. Maybe I can ditch him at a water park and go ride bumper cars or somethin’, I dunno …

I kid, Pree, I kid.

Kinda.

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