An Evening with Kevin Smith

This post was supposed to go up hours ago, but the computer that I am using today has Microsoft Vista on it and keeps crashing. Gah! This is why I use a Mac!

So, anyhoo....this weekend I was lucky enough to score tickets to go see Kevin Smith live at Roy Thompson Hall here in Toronto. For the past five years, Kevin has been coming up to our city every year to do an informal Q&A session with fans and it is phenomenal.

Kevin has the ability to take a simple question and quickly turn it into an engaging (sometimes disturbing) story. My sides were literally in stitches I was laughing so hard, but its not the type of thing I'd take my mother to, if you catch my drift. My good friend, Justin (who I went to film school with!) came with me and we made a whole night of it, starting off with a Winterlicious reservation at Riva Supper Lounge on College Street. Soooo good.

The event was set in the gigantic Roy Thompson Hall and quickly filled up with people from all walks of life.

I love the overhead lighting features in this building.

We were up at the top, but we could still get a great view of Kevin on the stage. And yes, he is actually wearing a bathrobe, slippers and jorts (jean shorts) on stage.

One of my favorite things that happened was when the first guy came up to the mic and asked Kevin how he proposed to his wife. Kevin goes on to tell this whole (very detailed) story about barely knowing her, flying her out to a movie set and then basically hooking up with her in his trailer. They decided to get married the next day. Maybe not how all great relationship start, but it seems to have worked for them. Kevin then turns to the guy and says "well, how would you do it better?" At this point the guy turns towards the audience and asks his girlfriend to marry him. She is sitting on the very top level and just starts screaming "YES!" Everyone is clapping and cheering as she is starts to make her way to the stairs down to the first level. As the whole audience is patiently waiting for her to get down, Kevin turns to the guy and says "She's taking a long time....maybe she ran away. Or worse yet maybe she was trying to get down here so fast that she slipped on the stairs, broke her neck and we're all just waiting for her but she's already dead. Man, that would suck." Poor guy starts sweating buckets and the whole audience starts to get nervous, but just then she bursts through the door and runs up to the guy and they have this perfect moment where he spins her around and puts the ring on. I couldn't help periodically peeking over at them during the show and they were constantly cuddling and giggling. She'll never forget that night...and not just from all the "potty humour" jokes.

Kevin brought along his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith. This woman must be a saint considering all the personal and intimate stories of their marriage that he shares.

He talked a great deal about what it was like working with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan on his latest film, Cop Out (in theatres February 26th). As an aspiring film producer, I love hearing his stories of working on scripts, confrontations on set, and dealing with the trials and tribulation of the industry.

One woman came to the show with her ex-husband and current boyfriend, and made Kevin so interested in her awkard situation that he let her come up on stage for a few facebook worthy photos.

All-in-all I had a great time and it was worth it to go see him in person. However, if you can't catch him live, I highly recommend watching one of the taped sessions. Here is a YouTube link to the first one:

Photo Credit : E. Platero (Images 1, 5-9)