When Kevin Smith showed up at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, he was an unknown New Jersey filmmaker with a black-and-white, ultra-low-budget movie in hand. By the time he left a few days later, he had a deal with Miramax and that movie, Clerks, was on its way to becoming a cult classic for film fans, and a towering example for fellow filmmakers that they could make a passion project outside the Hollywood system and still hit the big time.
That's exactly what Smith did, even if some naysayers might argue that the big time eventually hit him right back after some critical and commercial failures. After Clerks, Smith's world expanded into more films — some good (Dogma, the underappreciated Zack and Miri Make a Porno) and some bad (Jersey Girl, Cop Out) — and beyond the big screen into comics, books, spoken-word tours, reality TV, podcasting and more. His 2016 movie Yoga Hosers (now on Netflix) barely made a blip in the public consciousness, but Smith remains a hero among a segment of nerd culture who can't get enough of his myriad projects. He recently announced on his Jay and Silent Bob Get Old podcast that he's making a sequel to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and I, for one, will be happy to hang with those characters from Clerks again.
Kevin Smith • Fri-Sat, May 26-27, at 7:30 and 10:30 pm • $35 • 21+ • Spokane Comedy Club • 315 W. Sprague • spokanecomedyclub.com • 318-9998
