Special thanks to News Askew for the nod.
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Today I took a trip over to Dave’s Video for a special event. Kevin Smith and his producer Scott Mosier were able to sit in at the aforementioned location for a scheduled signing of the Dogma Special Edition DVD (purchased at the same location of course) from noon to 2 PM. It just so happens I had something to chat with Kevin about and was invited to do so after the signing so I headed over there figuring I’d just hang out waiting for the signing to be done.
I got to Dave’s about 12:30 PM. By that time the line was already out the door and around the corner. Instantly I felt glad that I wasn’t
after a signed copy of the DVD today and I wouldn’t be standing out in the very generous heat and sunshine that I saw all these dedicated fans enjoying.The first surprise I got after getting in to the store was discovering View Askew web master himself, Ming Chenand Ben “HolyToads” Nieporent . Turns out Ming and Ben are working for LivePlanet.com now and actually live in the Los Angeles area. Ming has always been a great guy and I’ll always be grateful to him for putting a link to my PlayTV show covering Dogma up on the official Dogma web site. Turns out they were hanging out as well so we spent the day watching all the people waiting to get their stuff signed.
This also gave me the opportunity to meet AICN’s Mysterio since he was hanging with Ben and Ming before I bumped in to them. For those of you that have never been to an event where Kevin Smith is involved you wouldn’t know that this guy really goes the extra mile for the people that enjoy his work. The signing itself ended up going to about 6:00 PM (yeah, that’s right, 4 hours over the scheduled end time). Why? Not because of the large number of people so much as Kevin allowing everyone wanting to get a picture with him do so as well as answering some questions and just talking it up with them (that and signing everything they wanted to get signed along with their DVD). He even went out of his way to try to give every one of them a unique experience even if that was ensuring that they got a hand shake and thanking them for being there.Since I was there for just about the duration.
I can tell you that there were other surprises as well. One of them was the appearance of Jay Mohr who stopped in to talk to Kevin real quick as well as get the crowd cheering in his favor about him playing Fletch in the potential next project View Askew will be doing of “Fletch, Won.” To loosely quote him before he left Jay said to Kevin, “Having a non-comedian perform a comedic role… who’s Jason Lee? Well, you know what… I’ll see you at the box office Kevin Smith!” (It was all said with quite a note of sarcasm, I assure you). Since I came for a talk I didn’t think to bring my digital camera, but Ming was smart enough to bring his and he got a shot.
Some of the other highlights were such fun fans as the guy who brought in a street sign from Orange County for NuBian Way (if you don’t get the reference, pick up a copy of Chasing Amy). Kevin of course said he didn’t condone such theft but still had his picture taken along side of Scott Mosier with the contraband in hand. Then there was the guy who had Kevin Smith sign his Apple iBook. There was also a group of college kids who Kevin gave the parting advice of, “Save your money, quit school now. Just buy a big bag of cocaine and sell that… that should pan out a lot better.” He was joking, I swear! There was also the young woman who was with a group of people who I believe have made their own movie and had to get a picture of Kevin signing the cup of her bra. That’s right, before my and Ming’s shocked eyes a woman lifted her shirt and had Kevin sign her right breast. The most entertaining part of it was Ming pointing out that he was wondering if such a thing might happen today and it having done so marked the event as a truly complete experience.
Finally, my hat is off to the lady who dropped in not for signatures but to ask if Kevin would accept a script from a writer. For legal reasons you have to
understand that there is no way that someone can accept an unsolicited script. The legal ramifications are huge. Kevin kindly told the woman he couldn’t and she promptly headed for the back door. Nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose… unless you are trying to push an unsolicited script! (Quite frankly, if you didn’t want a signature to hell with you!) After six hours of signing and only taking twobreaks needless to say the man was fried and didn’t really have much energy to chat. I don’t blame him, I really didn’t either. He did extend the invitation to email him again though and also has hooked my sorry self up with a chance to attend a screening should one happen in the near future.
What can I say? I’m walking away happy. Oh yeah, I did buy the DVD and get it signed. Why not? Can you believe I wasn’t smart enough to get mine personalized? Ming also picked up a copy as well that he had Kevin sign in a way to poke fun at Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (LivePlanet is a joint venture they are involved in you see). Oh heck, I might as well show you. I’ve done a (very very bad) mock up of what it kind of looked like over on the left. Kevin’s great response to the request of this signing was, “Great, now I’m gonna get a phone call…(immitating Ben Affleck) ‘Why’d you sign that?!?'” And poor Ben “HolyToads” Nieporent had to wait the whole time because Ming was his ride.
A special thanks to the four people who had them hold a copy of the DVD at the front counter while they stood in line and eventually walked. You see, by the time I got there Dave’s supply of the DVD sold out. Thanks to them giving up I was able to finally pick up my copy that got signed. It is a great DVD and if you want your own signed copy (and have the time to wait for it) I recommend you head over the Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash and order your copy on line.
That’s it for today.
-WW
