For the better part of 30 years, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes have sung praises for the city of Boston. While it would seem like just another cordial acknowledgment from two of the funniest men in the business, Smith is here to promise us that it is, indeed, anything but empty lip service.
Setting up shop at The Wilbur on Sunday (February 2) to kick off their Aural Sects tour, and effectively begin the next chapter of the Jay and Silent Bob legacy, Smith is excited to be back in the frigid, deep winter embrace of a Boston crowd with his hetero lifemate, and to feel the intensity and energy that radiates out of the local chapter of their loyal and ever-growing fanbase — even if some of that loyalty has to do with being buddies with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
“It’s always great to go back to Masshole country, because for whatever reason, Jay and I get a pass there,” Smith tells Vanyaland. “I guess the proximity to Jersey kind of helps, and the fact that we’ve never stated any hardcore allegiances to a baseball or football team also probably helps too. We get a pass for hockey though, because Boston has an Original Six team, but the city has always embraced us. Since ‘94, Bostonians have always welcomed me, and by association later on, Jay. It also helps that we are close to a couple Bostonians of note, as well. That never hurts.”
For the better part of the last 15 years, Smith and Mewes have been adamant about getting out on the road and sharing their creative excitement, and their experiences gained along the way, with their fans in a live setting. Whether it be to celebrate releases like Jay & Silent Bob Reboot and Clerks III, or to just hang out on a weekend and talk their non-scripted shit, both Smith and Mewes have always relished in building this genuine and accessible facet of their careers off-screen and giving it back to the fans that always show up and keep coming back for more.
Which, as Smith himself has realized, is a pretty wild turn of events for the guy who wrote the line “this job would be great if it wasn’t for all the fucking customers.”
“If we look back, I think I’ve played The Wilbur at least 10 times, both with and without Jay. Whenever we talk about doing something on the road, The Wilbur is always the Boston stop, because we’ve had good fortune in that house, and over the course a career that probably should have fizzled out years ago, they have been huge in keeping us going,” says Smith. “The older I get, the more I realize that we’re in the business of relevance, like high school-plus, and your popularity has everything to do with whether you work or not. So, being able to go back to a packed house at The Wilbur is just a reminder that we’re still culturally relevant enough to keep doing the thing we started doing over 15 years ago with these live shows. It’s a proving ground of sorts, and not just a reliable audience that you know is discerning, and an audience you have a history with. Shit, if nothing else, you can just scream out ‘Ben and Matt!’ and they’re with you.”
Even after a laundry list of awards, spin-offs, comic books, and of course, the classic films, the fever for more Jay & Silent Bob material that fans maintain both puzzles and excites Smith, who never intended to recreate the wheel with his iconic stoner buddy characters. Instead, he just wanted to pay homage to the great duos in film history like Cheech and Chong, Bill and Ted, Abbott and Costello and others who dared to stand next to each other and say something even remotely counterculture for the times.
“Maybe now, three decades in, I’m starting to understand that that’s why it’s worked,” Smith says. “There’s nothing wholly original about either of those characters. Charlie Chaplin made a huge part of his career out of not talking, so you can’t even say that I brought that new wrinkle into the mix. Honestly, the only reason it had the rocket sauce to get us off of planet Jersey and blast us out into the atmosphere where we’ve been floating for the last three decades-plus, is Jason Mewes who is, as Alan Rickman referred to him on the set of Dogma, an American icon.”
To be bestowed such an honor from a legend like Rickman is one thing, but the idea that Mewes would be a star on screen started long before Smith ever decided to get behind a camera. As Smith reflects, there were so many moments that showcased Mewes’ natural gift to be outrageous and funny, to the point where he half-jokingly questioned whether it was a true gift, or if anyone outside of New Jersey would see him the same way as his friends did.
As it turns out, they did, and the rest is history.
“Long before I ever thought about being a filmmaker, I always thought someone should put [Mewes] in a movie. So years later, when I started doing it, he was one of the first people I thought of because I had never met anyone like Jason Mewes, and I had never seen anyone in media like him,” says Smith. “Of course, there are characters like him, with Spiccoli being one of them, but there was something unique about him where he could say these crazy, questionable things, but you could tell he has this moral barometer even though he’s saying some of the most outrageous shit. It’s almost like it occurs in his head, and then immediately falls out of his mouth.”
As arguably the longest residing member in his friend’s corner, aside from Mewes’ wife Jordan Monsanto, Smith has been by Mewes’ side through the highs of silver screen superstardom and the lows of his battle with addiction earlier in their careers, and Smith can’t help but grin like a proud father as he watches Mewes grow in his own creative and comedic approach. The work that Mewes has put in to becoming a venerable stand-up force has added not only an element to his own “a-Mewes-ing stories”, but also to the dynamic and camaraderie that he and Smith have built over the years, and it’s something that has made the idea of taking the stage night after night an even more exciting venture now.
“I’m generally always forcing my fuckin’ stories into the public’s face, and updating everyone on everything, whether it be on Instagram, the podcast, or whatever, but when we go out on the road, I just want people to listen to Jason, really,” says Smith. “In the beginning, it was easy to be like ‘listen to this guy talk about these weird experiences he had while fighting a battle against drug abuse,” but now we don’t even talk about that shit. Now, he goes out there and talks about having two kids, and it still works. By all metrics, it should be like ‘if you’re not talking about the same old dopey shit that we love you for, then why are we here?’ but like me, they’re willing to go on the dude’s life journey with him. For me, he’s my first marriage from before I even met Jennifer [Schwalbach]. Knowing him has enriched my life, and that continues every day, because now we’re going out on the road for two weeks to earn largely on the back of the stories he’s going to tell.”
Whether it’s the countless screenings and live shows, the Affleck and Damon stanning, or the Dunkin’ Donuts in Asbury Park that Smith would accompany Mewes to after methadone clinic visits in the late ‘90s, Smith has nothing but love for what Boston has given to him and his best friend, both directly and indirectly, over the last three decades. With that being said, the pair isn’t so focused on the past that they aren’t looking to make the most of the present, and Smith is locked in on bringing the best batch of stories he can muster up while Mewes readies his own litany of tales that may or may not take aim at a regional institution.
“For me, I think about those times sitting at Dunkin’ Donuts and learning more about my friend than I had ever known before, and I remember it as a very warm time in my life that created a lot of the lasting bond that still stands today,” says Smith. “But when Jason is in Boston, he knows it’s Dunkin’ country, so every fucking Dunkin’ story comes out, and I’m excited to hear them when we get there. I also have a killer Affleck story that I’m looking forward to sharing, and if I can’t do it in Boston, where the fuck else can I do it?”
JAY & SILENT BOB: THE AURAL SECTS TOUR :: Sunday, February 2 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6 p.m., $39 to $69 :: Advance tickets