SILENT BOB STRIKES AGAIN
So Monday local hero & superstar Director Kevin Smith returned to Red Bank, NJ to celebrate the recent release of "Clerks 2" by "meeting & greeting" more than 1000 fans at Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic book store, shaking hands & signing anything & everything from 2:45pm in the afternoon til 4am the next morning! Then Tuesday night, rested-up & ready for more, Kevin hosted a free showing of his original cult classic "Clerks" for 2000 fans at Riverside Marine Park, the movie projected in the balmy Summer night on a huge inflatable screen. Cast members signed posters, tee shirts and memorabilia in a vending area by the river. The festivities kicked off at 7pm for an hour and a half "question/answer" session followed by several old previews of some of his other hits, including "Mall Rats", "Dogma", "Chasing Amy", "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and, of course, the new smash "Clerks 2", which continues the original saga. I arrived late due to the fact that my date got called into work at the last minute so I showed up to find that the authorities had stopped admitting fans into the jammed fenced-in park and you needed a plastic hospital-type wrist-band to get in! Fortunately some lucky kid inside the fence helped me, ripped-off his wrist-band & sold it to me for five bucks, including a free wad of pre-chewed gum so I could stick the thing together securely on my wrist. Worked like a charm!!! Mustering my journalistic mojo, within a minute I hopped, skipped & jumped my way through the crowd seated on the grass and landed right up front with the Press, snapping pictures of the Auteur himself a few feet away!!! In the heat of the moment, you gotta do what you gotta do! In any case, Kevin had the crowd in the sweaty palm of his chubby hand, and titillated them further by announcing his next work will be a Horror Flick! "I'm gonna call it 'Jersey Girl 2,'" he wise-cracked... (EDITOR'S NOTE: Refer to my April 3, 2005 LJ post "SILENT BOB SPEAKS" for my review of Kevin's last marathon "Q&A" appearance in Red Bank at the Count Basie Theater...)