PART THREE

 

O’TOOLE - I can tell you’re definitely born on this coast, and like…up north on the Atlantic seaboard when you’re talking about “Oh yeah, we’re going to Jersey, Hartford, Toronto” and during these months saying “No Problems!”

SMITH - Right.

O’TOOLE - You gotta wear the shorts too, when you come out on stage – just to prove that you’re ready for the cold weather.

SMITH - Oh yeah, man I got off the plane two days ago and I left 85-degree weather and it was 50 when I landed. And I was still in shorts and man it felt good. It’s wonderful to be somewhere where you don’t sweat. And for me that’s a big plus because I sweat constantly and not even because of heat, or because of stress or exercise – I just sweat. I’m one of those fat, sweaty guys. So being out in the cold in like 50-degree weather, that’s so sweet for me.

O’TOOLE - Having been a rather fat sweaty guy in my time I appreciate that. And I appreciate Dogma, and I appreciate Clerks and Jersey Girl… and the Clerks animated series too.

SMITH - Right on. Clerks cartoon. Did you see the Clerks X DVD?

O’TOOLE - Didn’t see that yet.

SMITH - You gotta pick that up. It’s good stuff. It’s worth picking up alone because there’s a documentary on it. This ninety-minute documentary called ‘The Snowball Effect’, which kind of tells the story of how the movie got made. And it’s fantastic. That documentary, I think, is more interesting than the film… to me at this point. But also on that DVD we did a brand new seven minute piece of animation, in the style of the Clerks cartoon for “the lost scene”, that thing we put out as a comic book a few years ago. It was a scene that we had never shot for Clerks. It’s pretty fun.

O’TOOLE - Well, you heard him. Go get it, people.

SMITH - Yeah, please. It’s good. It really is. I’m a DVD whore, and I’m one of those guys who will buy the nineteen versions of Evil Dead 2 and Terminator that they put out - each time. But I understand why some people don’t like doing that, and they just feel rooked and whatnot. And they hate when there are multiple editions of the same movie. The one thing I will say about the Clerks X DVD is, it is worth the money even if you have the first one, because we go above and beyond that first one. That first DVD was really just the contents of the laserdisc dropped onto a DVD, so we never got a chance to really expand. ‘Cause when it was originally released on laserdisc we were limited to the one hour per side. We didn’t get to put on as many extras as we would have liked.

O’TOOLE - Didn’t the Chasing Amy DVD have the commentary from that laserdisc as well?

SMITH - It totally does. And that was like a two platter set, so there was more content on that. But yeah, during that commentary that’s when I said “F*** DVD!”

O’TOOLE - (Laughs)

SMITH - And then when we put it out on DVD I did a new intro where I tongue-in-cheekly apologized…

O’TOOLE - Actually, this leads me to a related question from our leather mug enthusiast. No, he’s not really, but he’s at a Renfest. Anyways, Sam had a question for you.

SMITH - Yeah.

O’TOOLE - Being the big Star Wars fan that you are, did you rush out and pick up the trilogy on DVD?

SMITH - I didn’t rush out, but I did pick it up. I picked it up I think a week after it was out.

O’TOOLE - And do you still appreciate having the laserdiscs around?

SMITH - Umm, you know, I haven’t used my laserdisc player in… I don’t know, four years. Maybe that’s too long. Maybe two years.

O’TOOLE - You’re letting Sam down a little bit now.

SMITH - Oh, because he still watches his laserdiscs?

O’TOOLE - Occasionally he’ll pop that in, but that was his… this Star Wars trilogy, he was on that whole political tip about, you know… like, they should have put the original…

SMITH - Oh, he was mad that he altered it?

O’TOOLE - Yeah, mad that he altered it, and mad that… you know… just for that reason he didn’t pick it up. He’s not out protesting George Lucas’ house.

SMITH - Oh really, he’s a negative fan, that’s his statement?

O’TOOLE - No, not really. He just didn’t feel like doing it.

SMITH - Didn’t wanna do it. Didn’t wanna pick ‘em up.

O’TOOLE - Not so much a statement as ehhhh… he wasn’t feelin’ that. Is that a statement? I don’t know.

SMITH - He put on his chainmail outfit with the leather patchworking and his broadsword and decided to take a stand against Lucas and the evil Empire.

O’TOOLE - Verily, yeah.

SMITH - (Laughs) Verily. Umm, I heard some people grouse about that. Me personally, I don’t care. I mean, it would have been nice if he had restored the ‘Han shoots first’ scene but it’s fine. I picked it up, but I still haven’t watched one of them. Eventually I’ll get around to it, but that was one of those movies, or whole series of movies, that I’ve seen so many times… but I could probably wait another ten before watching one of them. But I am interested kind of to show them to the kid. And you want to talk about saturation marketing…

O’TOOLE - Oh man.

SMITH - When I picked up the DVDs… my daughter’s five years old…when I picked it up, I was like “We’re gonna watch a movie tonight called Star Wars.” And she was like, “Uh, I don’t wanna watch Star Wars.” I was like “You’ve never even heard of Star Wars”. She’s like “Yeah I have.” I said “Where?” She’s like “TV”. I said “Where on TV?” She’s like “Commercials’. They used to play so many commercials for Star Wars. And I was like…Wow, I haven’t seen any TV at all apparently ‘cause I haven’t seen any of those spots. But she knew and had seen enough, and knew enough about the movies by seeing those spots, and had seen so many of them that she was already tired of the movie before I even had a chance to show it to her. I still haven’t watched it with her.

O’TOOLE -I’m imagining it was Cartoon Network she was watching probably, even the ads for the Clone Wars ads when they were showing that or something.

SMITH - That and she watches Nickelodeon a lot, and she watches Noggin, and all those places [where] they just kind of hit kids.

O’TOOLE - Well, I guess that’d be enough for today. We’ll let you get back to your Sunday morning. What’s a Sunday morning in Toronto like, anyways?

SMITH - Sunday morning in Toronto looks like overcast outside – not very bright. Which is strange, ‘cause we’re supposed to have a… I’m going up to Linda Schuyler's, one of the creators of Degrassi, and she’s having a barbecue at her house and this is not barbecue weather. So I am kinda interested in the Canadian barbecue. I don’t think I’ve ever been to one.

O’TOOLE - I have to say when you’re barbecuing in the 50s, that’s like a sure sign that… that’ll show you the temperature range. To them that’s like the 90s.

SMITH - Right, they’re like “This is nice!”

O’TOOLE - “Let’s go out swimming!”

SMITH - “Fry up some back bacon! Let’s swim!”

O’TOOLE - Alright, well, thank you very much for joining us. Look forward to seeing you, meeting you on Friday there.

SMITH - Right on. See you up there. You’re gonna go to the show?

O’TOOLE - Oh yes, sir.

SMITH - Fantastic.

O’TOOLE - And the leather mug guy will be there.

SMITH - Even if you hate the movies… I’ve been told by people who are like “I can’t stand his movies, but I do like that dude’s Q&A.”

O’TOOLE - You do good Q&A man.

SMITH - It’s all in fun, man. It’s always based on the audience, so as long as they generate interesting questions I try to generate interesting answers.

O’TOOLE - We’ll try to have cattle prods ready in case it gets a bit too tired or something like that.

SMITH - Totally. And in honor of Sam I will come out in an olde tyme frock….

O’TOOLE - He is going to kill me. [When you least expect it – ed.]

SMITH - …wearing just the helmet portion of a suit of armor.

O’TOOLE - And waving your original trilogy DVDs.

SMITH - Totally, go and check it out.

O’TOOLE - Thank you very much Kevin.

SMITH - Thanks for having me.