Kevin Smith lectures packed crowd

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Many Mahoning Valley residents are probably tired of the incessant rain the area has received, but hundreds of people found themselves laughing about it, thanks to Kevin P. Smith.

“My ex-girlfriend went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. We broke up the night before her graduation from Carnegie Mellon, but I stayed for it,” remembered Smith, a filmmaker, comedian, actor, comic-book writer and podcaster who recalled also having driven home to his native Red Bank, N.J., afterward.

On the seven-hour trip, he and a friend drove through a blinding storm that caused their vehicle to hydroplane and veer off the side of the road.

Smith, 48, was reminded of the occurrence as he traveled through a downpour from Cleveland to Youngstown before entertaining hundreds of fans with that and many other stories during his two-hour performance Friday evening at Stambaugh Auditorium.

His appearance was part of Youngstown State University’s Skeggs Lecture Series, and he plans to be in town for Youngstown Comic Con at the Covelli Centre today and Sunday.

Smith is perhaps best known for the 1994 low-budget comedy “Clerks,” which he directed, wrote and co-produced, as well as played the character Silent Bob of the Jay and Silent Bob duo.

Wearing a rally cap, untucked shirt and shorts, Smith generated laughter by opening with a story about how he knew little about Youngstown and took to Wikipedia to do a quick study on the region.

Also eliciting plenty of laughter was a series of travails Smith encountered in a Cleveland movie theater before coming to the area. While seeing the new film “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” a security guard with a flashlight searched a suspicious looking black bag he had, but it contained only a computer and snacks, the latter of which diverted a child’s attention from the movie, he said.

Smith also recalled how his late father, who disliked his job in a post office, used to take him to Wednesday matinees as a form of escape. His father’s love of films also fostered a love for movies in the young Smith, though his father never pushed him to enter the movie industry, he explained.

A defining moment for Smith’s career choice was having seen the 1990 Richard Linklater comedy-drama “Slacker,” which follows a group of misfits in Austin, Texas, and has social exclusion as one of its recurring themes.

“I fell in love with that movie. It’s the movie that lit my fire,” Smith said.

During a lengthy question-and-answer period, an aspiring filmmaker asked the entertainer to describe his first experience as a director.

“There’s no such thing as an aspiring filmmaker. You’re a filmmaker!” he told the woman to applause before explaining the process is never solitary – that he worked with people who were experts in specific aspects of the business.

Smith also expressed his love and respect for the late Stan Lee, an iconic producer and comic-book writer who created Spider-Man, the X-men, Captain America, Thor and other Marvel Comics superheroes.