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Sept. 1, 2011 - The Joe Rogan Experience
01:20:00
Joe Rogan Experience #134 - Kevin Smith (Part 2)
Participants
Main voices
j
joe rogan
26:08
k
kevin smith
46:37
Appearances
b
brian redban
01:54
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Speaker Time Text
kevin smith
My brother just has this expression where he just kind of gives me the slow nod, which is, he's gone.
You know, my father was dead, and I went in and I saw him on a gurney and shit, and it was so strange.
And I go outside, and I was a smoker, like a cigarette smoker in those days.
I always go to have a cigarette, and Donald comes out, and I was like, oh, this is a shock, and whatever, you know, we were upset and stuff.
And I said, how was it?
Because he was there.
I said, what happened?
And Donald tells me the story of, like, Dad woke up and had this, like, big reaction, like, just like, I'm hot, I'm hot, and he was throwing the sheets off, and Mom freaked out.
She's like, what's the matter, what's the matter?
She told Donald, call the ambulance, call the hospital, and he was gone within seconds.
So, that's, you know, bad enough.
You know, he was hot and uncomfortable.
You didn't want to hear, like, oh, he died in his sleep, and we woke up, and he just didn't.
But then my brother says this thing, probably defined my life.
My brother goes, he died screaming.
And I go, what?
And he goes, he died screaming.
And I was like, I mean, is that a figure of speech?
And he goes, no, he literally, he died screaming.
And you could see my brother was haunted by it.
And my father wasn't like a, I wouldn't say he was a butch man or a strong man, but he wasn't a soft man by the stretch of the imagination.
And I never heard him get real loud or anything like that.
And the notion of my father dying screaming It changed my life because I was like, even a good man in this world, you play the game, you play it straight, you play it by the rules, you do everything you're supposed to, you're going to die screaming.
And at that point, I was like, there's no point in not trying to accomplish every stupid fucking dream I've got.
Even if it's dumb shit like fucking, you know, oh my god, I've always wanted to collect this many fucking Wayne Gretzky cards in one fucking binder.
Or if it's like, I want to make a movie.
Or if it's like, I want to put on a podcast.
Or I want to do a TV show now.
Or I want to write a book.
Chase it all down.
Chasing whimsies is what I've been doing for the last few years.
Just smoking weed and chasing whimsies.
Any time I'm like, back in the day, I'd have a good idea, something I really wanted to follow through on.
And so you get scared, you start thinking about what some motherfucker's gonna say.
And be like, oh, it's stupid.
Why would you fucking do that?
And fucking why, why?
A lot of why people in this world.
I try to surround myself with the why nots, motherfuckers.
So you're like, I want to try this.
They're like, why not?
Let's go.
Let's give it a shot.
You got to be game, man.
People help you achieve your dreams and shit.
So for me, the last few years, I've just been trying to accomplish every dopey dream, the big shit, the little shit.
You got to do them all.
You can't just do the climb every mountain shit.
You know, sometimes lay the bar down, step over it and be like, ta-da, so you feel accomplished.
But chase it all and do it all, because we're all going to die screaming.
And you might as well enjoy it here.
And when I say chase it all, don't fucking do it at the expense of someone else.
Obviously, don't hurt somebody else.
But go after your dreams, man.
If your dream is to like, I want to kill 12 children, I'm not talking to you.
But go after your dreams if they're not going to hurt anybody.
joe rogan
You seem...
I wish I knew you before you became famous.
Because you seem like, if I had a guess, I bet you haven't changed at all.
kevin smith
Yeah, the same person pretty much.
joe rogan
Now, how did you navigate that?
That's a very...
kevin smith
My friends, those dudes.
Those dudes that I was kidding about, they don't want to do the show.
And that is, they really don't want to.
I mean, not really like, Kevin, we don't want to do this.
But Walter's just like, oh man...
joe rogan
So you think they just grounded you so much?
You never gave in to the tide of craziness out here?
kevin smith
I mean, I've never had butch friends who, like, fucking punch you and wrestle and shit.
joe rogan
I think that's called butch.
kevin smith
I mean, it is to a fae dude like me.
That's butch dudes.
Those are bullies.
But, like, the hard boys, as my mom used to say when I was a kid.
Leave those hard boys alone, Kevin.
I didn't have the roughhouse playing around like, let's wrestle and shit like that.
What I had was more psychological, more oral.
And that sounds dirty, but I don't mean oral.
More like the dozens.
Motherfuckers keeping you tight.
You grow up fat.
You gotta be fucking sharp.
Stay on your toes or else you're a fucking victim every time you walk in a room.
Because most of the world don't look like you.
So you get sharp.
You learn how to fucking...
Take yourself out first before anybody else can.
Steal their thunder.
Hey, I'm fucking fat.
And then people are like, oh, he knows.
And then you've removed their fucking card.
You're taking their biggest weapon out of their quiver, the biggest thing they got.
And then suddenly you've changed the focus and, hey, he's easy with himself, blah, blah, blah.
And it makes people, you know, just all that shit you pick up over the years.
It's what shapes you.
It's what makes you who you are.
So being able to hang out with people who were quick enough to shred you, but you had to be able to protect yourself.
It's like hanging out with ninjas all the time.
Or not ninjas so much as Kato from the old Pink Panther movies where he just hired him to literally attack him out of nowhere.
That's what your friends do.
They just attack you out of fucking nowhere.
And so by doing this all the time, it made me sharp.
But it also kept me very, very real.
So these cats, even when the movies would take off, or I was doing this one or this one, they were never like, oh my god, the fucking, we had no idea you were hidden genius.
They remained the same exact individuals.
joe rogan
Did they ever tell you I didn't like that one?
kevin smith
Oh, fuck yes.
joe rogan
Really?
kevin smith
Yes.
unidentified
Oh, yes.
kevin smith
In a heartbeat.
In a heartbeat.
They'll let you know.
And they'll let you, like, I brought them on to Mallrats to come work on the movie and stuff, and they made it, they were in it in a few scenes, but they worked beyond the scenes.
They quit after about two weeks because they're just like, I don't want to do this.
I have no interest in this.
I mean, and that's cool.
Like, I respected that.
I was like, that's Brian.
That's Walter.
Like, that's who they are rather than be like, all right, man, we're going to do it because it might upset Kev.
If we don't, they're just like, oh, we don't want to do this, dude.
Be true to thine own self kind of thing.
joe rogan
I'm sorry.
What makes you think that without them, you wouldn't be you, though?
What makes you think that without them, you wouldn't have pulled yourself to the ground?
kevin smith
I wouldn't have had that sense of humor.
I think my sense of humor largely came from them, largely came from my friend, Brian Johnson and Walter also kind of shaped it to some degree.
I was funny, like, don't get me wrong, in high school I write sketches for the comedy shows and shit like that.
But it was their sensibility, married to whatever sensibility I had as one of three kids raised Catholic in Highlands, New Jersey, that clicked.
That, like, kind of made me the version of me you know.
The person that you would want to meet or the person like that was different It was like Kev, 18 years old, 17, 18, before he started hanging out with Brian and Walter.
Those were the cats that kind of helped me define who I was.
And if you look at Clerks, that movie is, I'm kind of Dante, and my friend Brian Johnson is meant to be Randall, the guy that I most wanted to be.
He always knew what to say.
He was fucking funny in a room and shit like that.
Really misanthropic and stuff.
And so it kind of all communicated.
Without those cats, I know I wouldn't have the jobs I've had because I wouldn't have the sense of humor I have now.
And I don't think I'd be...
Let's say I got into entertainment somehow, I doubt I'd be as grounded.
Knowing those dudes have kept me kind of grounded for years.
joe rogan
That's pretty cool, man.
It's good to have something like that in your life, man.
Nobody else is smoking weed.
kevin smith
Why aren't you smoking weed?
I thought this was a weed show.
joe rogan
We already got high.
You want to get high again?
kevin smith
Let's get higher.
joe rogan
Okay.
We can get high.
unidentified
Why the fuck are we experiencing it higher?
Kevin just gave me a heart attack and he didn't even realize it.
kevin smith
What way?
In what way?
unidentified
By talking about all that life thing, I almost died Friday night.
When?
I was out in...
kevin smith
You just told me, and I'm like, when?
brian redban
I was at a karaoke bar in Burbank, right across the street from the Jay Leno show, like the NBC building and stuff like that.
unidentified
It's called Dimples.
kevin smith
I drive past that.
I've seen that place.
brian redban
I came out, me and my girlfriend, around 1130, and we were walking out the front, and we parked.
unidentified
So I'm opening the door for her to get in.
brian redban
Out of nowhere, this big, tall, black guy, about 6'2", wearing a fake gray beard, like a Santa Claus beard, that was, like, tied on with white strings and a hat and this big hobo jacket, shoves a gun to my chest, and was like, give me your fucking wallet.
kevin smith
Oh, man, you're harsher my buzz.
unidentified
Yeah, and then, never mind.
kevin smith
Keep going.
unidentified
Keep going.
My girlfriend was pretty drunk.
I'm not scared of your stuff.
brian redban
My girlfriend was pretty drunk because she has social anxiety so she drinks when she goes out.
unidentified
She thought it was a joke.
She looked over and thought this was a character or something.
kevin smith
Right.
unidentified
And so he's like, give me your fucking purse, bitch.
And she's like looking at him like, what?
Like she was drunk and shocked.
And I'm like, give him the purse.
And so she gave him the purse.
And then he goes, get in the car, lay on your fucking stomach.
And he's shoving the gun in my back while I'm laying in the car.
And I'm thinking like, all right, this is like execution style.
Like he's telling me to, you know, get in there.
brian redban
And then suddenly he goes, lay down to my girlfriend.
And she laid down on her back because she was just so freaked out.
unidentified
And he said, I said lay on your fucking stomach, bitch!
And he's like just shoving a gun in her back.
And then finally we're just like both laying there.
And then he slams the door and then just takes off.
brian redban
And so now, the other day I was at the grocery store, and I saw a black guy that was tall, and now I'm freaking out.
unidentified
If it was a redhead that robbed me, it would have been the same way.
But now I see these guys, and I'm becoming a racist from the 50s now, where I'm walking around like, what's he doing on my side of the store?
It's crazy!
kevin smith
It's like, at this point, you were in that moment, dude.
What was it like?
unidentified
It was really, when I was laying there, it was like, this is it.
kevin smith
What did you think?
unidentified
I didn't think about anything except my girlfriend the whole time.
brian redban
Hearing him yell at her, you think that you're just going to look around and look for a weapon or something like that, but when you're in that big of a shock, you're just like, Defenseless.
kevin smith
I'm so not the butch dude that's like, where's a weapon?
I'm going to do this.
My reaction is going to be like, let me suck your dick.
Let us go.
I will suck your dick until you let us go.
And he's like, you've got a girlfriend.
I'm like, still, I'll be better than her.
I can really deliver.
That's where I go with it.
I would never go defensive or offensive.
unidentified
All these people online, of course, are like, that's what you get for not doing jiu-jitsu!
And I'm like, if I had two guns in my pocket, I still would have done it.
kevin smith
You still would have been fucked.
Even if you had yourself strapped to dynamite, maybe, then you could be like, look at this, bitch!
joe rogan
Yeah, people, those you should have people should shut the fuck up.
No one knows what that's like until that happens to you.
And you should always give someone what they want.
Usually they just want to fucking get your money and run away.
They don't want to shoot you.
kevin smith
Is that the case?
unidentified
Usually.
brian redban
You hear it once in a while though, like old lady, you know, did nothing, still gets shot or something like that.
joe rogan
Yeah, that does happen sometimes.
unidentified
If it's a young kid on fucking PCP, it's really a gamble.
kevin smith
You're right, you're right.
unidentified
I'm Burbank.
kevin smith
What time were you leaving this place?
unidentified
About midnight.
And three months before that, or six months before that, I was in Fuddruckers in Burbank, and some guy's stealing this girl's purse and running out the door, and I'm chasing him.
I'm like, I'm in Burbank right now.
And we talked about the Kmart shooting in one podcast.
brian redban
There was a shooting at Kmart in Burbank, and the officer that got shot was the one that came to rescue me the other night.
And I was like, you're the one officer.
unidentified
And he's like, yeah, I got shot in the leg and stuff like that.
joe rogan
A celebrity guy?
brian redban
Well, he's been shot at in Burbank and Kmart.
joe rogan
So you saw him on TV? Yeah.
unidentified
But it seems like you always hear Burbank is so safe and stuff like that.
kevin smith
Yeah, you don't think a Burbank is like, Bob Hope lived there.
How could it be?
There could be no terrible...
joe rogan
I wonder how many chicks want to bone that guy because he's the celebrity cop that got shot.
I bet a bunch, right?
kevin smith
Gotta be, right?
joe rogan
Fuck yeah.
kevin smith
There are chicks that want to fuck fat dudes.
There gotta be chicks that want to fuck fucking a hero cop.
joe rogan
Hero cop that got shot in the leg.
I bet that guy is beating off the pussy.
unidentified
I was waiting for forensics.
I had to wait like four hours.
They closed off helicopters and everything.
There was cops and stuff.
brian redban
And then they wanted to fingerprint my car.
unidentified
So I'm just sitting there.
brian redban
And he's asking my girlfriend weird questions.
unidentified
Like, so what do you do?
Oh, you're a dancer, huh?
And stuff like that.
joe rogan
It was weird.
unidentified
No, he was totally an awesome, nice cop.
But it was kind of weird hearing my girlfriend having to talk like, yeah, I'm an exotic dancer.
No, but just asking weird questions.
Like what?
joe rogan
Was he going as close to hitting on her as he could and still remaining a cop?
unidentified
Was he doing like, why are you with this guy?
You should be protected with somebody else.
I don't know.
You see me and then you see my girlfriend.
Maybe he thought I paid for her if she was a hooker or something.
How long do you know this guy?
kevin smith
You got the she's out of your league look.
unidentified
Right, exactly.
joe rogan
Brian fucks way over his head.
unidentified
But what's weird is...
I don't even know what's weird.
Oh, but it's weird.
He was talking to me and asking me all these questions.
brian redban
And I was like, yeah, I would like to be a cop, but I like marijuana too much.
unidentified
And he goes, yeah, I see that.
You know, marijuana.
And he's like, it's going to be legal soon, so don't worry about that.
Cops said that?
Yeah.
I was like, all right, this cop is great.
joe rogan
Yeah, I don't know if he's got a fucking crystal ball.
unidentified
Yeah.
kevin smith
Come on, man.
joe rogan
Come on, man.
kevin smith
That was the only silver lining to that horrible story.
Was like, at the end of it, the cop was like, don't worry, kid.
One day, weed's gonna be leaving.
unidentified
And now I'm scared of black wizards.
Wizards?
Wizards with a beard?
Yeah, like I'm gonna be a Halloween.
There's gonna be one black wizard that's gonna attack me like a screen mask.
joe rogan
That's gonna be an internet meme, my friend.
Black wizards.
unidentified
That created a black wizard joke.
No!
You're scared of monsters, you know, like werewolves and stuff.
kevin smith
That's what I'm smoking, my strain is.
joe rogan
I'm not scared of werewolves, bro.
unidentified
I love werewolf movies.
joe rogan
I just have my own monster now, though.
I'm scared of jaguars and panthers.
unidentified
Did you see the video?
And now I'm a monster.
joe rogan
Did you see the video I tweeted the other day of a jaguar killing a fucking crocodile?
Somebody tweeted it to me and I retweeted it.
It's a jaguar killing a fucking crocodile.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
How scary are jaguars?
kevin smith
I don't know.
joe rogan
They look at a crocodile and they're like, hmm, let me just fuck.
kevin smith
Fourth reference you've made to a jaguar.
They do scare you.
unidentified
They're terrifying.
He likes listening to Led Zeppelin.
joe rogan
Big cats.
Big cats to me.
Well, not here.
Fortunately.
But there are pumas in this neighborhood.
kevin smith
Really?
joe rogan
Oh yeah, for real.
Whenever you see deer, there's deer in this neighborhood and there's pumas.
Alright, so there's two neighborhoods to stay out of.
kevin smith
This one and Burbank.
joe rogan
It's not uncommon.
People have spotted them in this community several times.
kevin smith
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
kevin smith
Like mountain cats and shit?
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
I mean, there's a known population of them that live, like, around Topanga Canyon in this area.
And they travel really far.
Like, one of them, they tracked from South Dakota all the way to Connecticut.
A Puma?
It got hit by a car in Connecticut.
And they had decided...
kevin smith
Yeah, I saw this article.
joe rogan
Yeah, so they did the DNA test on this fucker, and they found out that it's from South Dakota.
So this is from a group of genetics from South Dakota.
This thing had walked 1,800 miles.
kevin smith
He was looking for sugar to put in his teeth.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
kevin smith
A lump?
Oh, three or four.
joe rogan
Or a dog or two.
Eating some nice plump dogs along the way.
kevin smith
Downing mutts on the way.
Little dogs like mine.
Alright man, let's change up the topic.
You're scaring me.
Now I don't want to go out to my car in this neighborhood and I don't want to get out of my car in other neighborhoods.
joe rogan
You should just watch the video of the jaguar killing a crocodile because it is fucking amazing.
Because you look at a crocodile and you look, that is a goddamn dinosaur.
kevin smith
Yeah, it's a dinosaur.
unidentified
It should win.
joe rogan
This armor-plated, evil lizard.
Who would fuck with that?
And the jaguar, just playful with this fucking crocodile, knows it's going to kill it.
He's just playing with it.
Swats at it, paws at it, just looks for the right moment, gets sideways on it, and then butts it right behind the fucking head.
It's crazy.
It's like, if they're not scared of crocodiles...
kevin smith
What hope do we have?
joe rogan
Our fleshy bags of pink, you know?
These big, black, muscular, evil-looking cats.
kevin smith
In a world where you've been following up on wildlife attack stories, you've been seeing all the bear stories lately?
joe rogan
Yeah, two bears in Yellowstone this year.
unidentified
The animal bears?
joe rogan
Two guys have been killed by bears in Yellowstone this year.
It's rare.
kevin smith
You read that story online about the kid who got bit by the polar bear.
joe rogan
Yeah.
kevin smith
That was fucking astounding.
The dude literally tells a story where him and his troop are out in the fucking woods or something like that.
And there's a kid sleeping next to him in a tent.
And this polar bear comes fucking through the tent.
The kid woke up to, like, wailing and gnashing of teeth and the fucking thing growling, and blood all over its face.
And the thing bit him on the head, had his head in its mouth.
A polar bear had this kid's head in his mouth, and he said...
It bit so hard, they cracked his fucking skull.
And he heard it crack in his head, and what he also heard in his head, louder than life, sense-around style from the 70s, was growling, because its fucking mouth was over his ear, dude.
And he starts punching this fucking beast in the head.
Punching it in the head real hard and shit.
And finally it lets go enough for him to make a move or something like that.
So he survived.
His buddy who was right next to him died.
And they interviewed the kid and he was talking about it.
He's like, I got a lot of guilt, man.
It could have been me.
If I had slept on that side, I'd be dead.
But I'm like, dude, you got your head bit by a polar bear.
I'm not going to say it's worse, but that's pretty damn bad.
joe rogan
So he got away and it just went after his friend next?
kevin smith
No, his friend was done for.
By the time the kid woke up, the polar bear had taken what it wanted, I think, from his friend.
It mauled him instantly.
It's at his face, I believe.
joe rogan
Oh my god.
kevin smith
Yeah, man.
Nature, what do you think it is?
Do you think it's like they're hungry and the weather condition changes and they're just coming into the neighborhoods now?
Because you didn't hear a lot about this back in the day.
But a lot of it happening now.
unidentified
A lot more shark attacks, a lot more bear attacks.
joe rogan
Is that really true statistically?
kevin smith
Well, I'm asking.
unidentified
I don't know.
kevin smith
You would know more.
Maybe it's just I'm reading more about it.
joe rogan
Well, we have more access to information.
I do know that they said with this Yellowstone attack that the last time there had been a death from bears in Yellowstones, it was in the 80s.
kevin smith
86, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, so that's a long time, man.
I mean, shit.
That's a long-ass time.
You know, it's for nothing to get killed, and then all of a sudden, two people get killed quickly.
But those two people could have been sprinkled any time along the way.
You're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
You zig when you should have zagged.
It didn't rain enough, so there's not enough food, and then all of a sudden bears start eating other things.
Bears are omnivores.
That's the crazy thing about them.
They can eat whatever the fuck they want.
kevin smith
So it's like us.
joe rogan
But the terrible thing about bears is, because they're not strict carnivores, they don't kill their prey before they eat it.
They just start eating.
kevin smith
I'm going to stand for a bit, and I just don't want the camera looking at my dick the whole time.
That was the only reason.
joe rogan
We could all stand.
kevin smith
No, I just wanted to stretch.
No, no, I'm all good.
joe rogan
How long are you going to stand for?
kevin smith
Only until it gets awkward.
And then I'll kick back down.
unidentified
Do your balls ever fall asleep from sitting too much?
brian redban
Lately, I think I've been sitting a certain way where it squeezes the blood pressure off of one of my balls and then it feels like my whole crotch is numb.
joe rogan
That's the inevitable progression to you growing a vagina.
What's going to happen is...
Your balls are going to melt together and then pop open.
You remember that scene in John Carpenter's The Thing where the chest cavity opens up and becomes a big mouth?
kevin smith
That's going to be your new pussy.
joe rogan
That's your new pussy.
No, my balls don't fall asleep usually.
unidentified
Never?
Have you never had that happen?
It's such a weird feeling.
joe rogan
No, but my...
kevin smith
Is it good?
Should I try it?
unidentified
No, it's horrible.
joe rogan
I do the Ari Shafir sometimes, though.
When I'm reading...
You know he has that joke about taking a shit and his legs go numb?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
And you get off and fall down to the ground?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I read magazines all the time in the toilet, and you do.
If you read magazines, essentially you're choking out your leg.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's why jiu-jitsu works.
Jiu-jitsu works because you cut off the blood.
And what you're doing when your feet go numb is you're putting all this pressure on yourself and weight.
You're essentially choking out your legs.
unidentified
The hemorrhoids.
kevin smith
That's what it is?
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
When you choke someone out in a jujitsu choke, what you're doing is you're stopping the blood to their brain.
You're cutting it off.
You're stopping it from happening.
You're squeezing it.
And that's what you're doing when you're sitting here on the toilet.
If you have this hard surface beneath your leg and then you're on top of your leg, you're basically giving your feet a slow choke.
kevin smith
Oh my god, dude.
Alright.
I do this all the time.
joe rogan
I do too.
kevin smith
I sit on the toilet for so long that when I get up...
I got pins and needles and I can't walk.
And I have to lean on the wall.
And then, like, sometimes I'll try to man up and get through it.
But by the time I hit the bedroom, like, you start laughing because it's so, you're out of control of it.
Because the nerves are all dead.
And my wife's just like, how long, when are you going to learn?
Like, you go in, you shit, you get out.
Like, why are you staying in there until your fucking leg falls asleep?
And I was like, because I'm getting shit done.
But I guess that's unhealthy.
joe rogan
I read car magazines.
kevin smith
Is that what you do?
I go on the internet, tweet.
joe rogan
It's the only time I read car magazines.
I won't let myself go on the internet in the toilet.
That's where it gets ridiculous.
I'm like, I'm down to the occasional magazine.
At least let me finish a Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone article in here on the crapper.
unidentified
Do you wipe sitting up or sitting down?
joe rogan
What the fuck?
kevin smith
You mean stand?
unidentified
Yeah, standing up.
Who are you?
kevin smith
I've never done that.
unidentified
You never stand and wiped up?
kevin smith
Only when I was a kid, and this is weird.
Wow, alright, you're getting something out of me I haven't said publicly, maybe ever.
When I was a kid...
I remember, like, I'd take a shit, and I'm trying to remember what age this stopped, but I'd be like, I'm done, and somebody would get up, you'd stand up, and they'd wipe your ass for you, and I think I did that until I was, like, seven, which is weird.
unidentified
It is weird.
kevin smith
Yeah, but it was pretty good, like, in terms of, like, I didn't really have to figure out how to fucking wipe my own shit until that point.
unidentified
And then you had to train yourself to do it from sitting down.
kevin smith
But I think it's an ever perfected, or an ever perfecting art form, like the art of the wipe.
It's not, you know, there's no one true measure, and I think it develops as you get older, you learn better technique and stuff.
But no, not since then.
I'm more of a front wiper, though.
Because I've got a lot of back fat, rather than reach around, I'll lean forward and reach through my legs, so I'm wiping almost like my man puss.
But I clear the balls so it doesn't hit my balls or anything like that.
unidentified
How fascinating stuff it is.
brian redban
The wet wipes have really helped my life ever since.
unidentified
Did they just come out of nowhere?
Couldn't they have those in the 70s or something?
kevin smith
Will Smith was the first one that called them to my potential.
I mean, they had baby wipes forever, but these flushables they didn't have.
joe rogan
Will Smith, asshole cleaning aficionado.
kevin smith
Yeah, big time, man.
He talked about it in an interview.
unidentified
Really?
kevin smith
Yeah, he did.
He literally talked about it in an interview.
He was just like, Barry Sonnenfeld on Men in Black turned me on to...
Wet wipes or handy wipes for going.
He's like, why would you use toilet paper when you can use this?
He's like, I haven't gotten back since.
So one day I went out and got a pack.
I was like, this is fucking amazing.
It's like taking a shower.
joe rogan
Do you flush them?
kevin smith
Yeah, but these are flushable.
joe rogan
Yeah, they say they're flushable.
Let me tell you what happens.
unidentified
I've used them for four years and I've never had any problems.
kevin smith
But I had a problem.
I had a septic problem.
joe rogan
I had a tree growing inside my pipe.
The most ridiculous thing.
I tweeted it.
It's almost impossible to find now.
Someone on the internet will find it.
Literally, there was a branch growing.
It was huge.
This crazy root system and everything that was growing in my toilet.
I kept having this clogged up toilet.
It didn't matter if I poured Drano on it.
Nothing would work.
So I had these guys come over.
I figured they were just going to snake the toilet.
Well, they cut out a fucking tree.
Because nature is such a motherfucker that a tiny crack had grown in one of the pipes.
And a root from one of the nearby trees had forced its way into this and found out that there was all this water in this area.
So spread apart the pipe by growing and then grew up the pipe.
It was incredible.
It was just an invasion by this plant species living off my poop.
And it was all clogged up with those little fucking flushable wipes.
Those flushable wipes don't go anywhere.
unidentified
You know how the flushable wipe comes in that little treasure chest and you can just get refills and throw it in there?
brian redban
Don't do that for that long because if you look at the taint or the button of the thing, sometimes if you get a second wipe, you might have a little poo on your hand and that builds up.
unidentified
If you smell that, it smells like an asshole.
kevin smith
I never use the button thing.
I just open it and draw them out, man.
For that very reason, I don't want to touch poo button ever.
joe rogan
Yeah, what's up with that, right?
kevin smith
Yeah, poo button.
joe rogan
That's a silly move.
Did they give you a rubber glove to use that thing with?
kevin smith
That's what they should fucking do.
joe rogan
Yeah, they should give you a rubber glove.
That should be what...
kevin smith
I'm into the sincere wipe, to the deep, sincere...
I'll go knuckle deep to wipe clean.
unidentified
Why not?
joe rogan
You're cleaning yourself out.
unidentified
There's nothing wrong with that.
kevin smith
Exactly.
You never know if somebody's going to be like, tonight's tonight, I'm going to eat your ass.
joe rogan
People are so funny about assholes.
unidentified
Who are these people?
joe rogan
Uncomfortable about it.
Don't like you talking about your own.
Just certain things you can talk about.
You can talk all day about, oh, I have psoriasis on my elbow.
It's really annoying.
It's itchy and scratchy.
kevin smith
Yeah, look at my eczema.
Yeah, you can talk about that.
joe rogan
But you start talking about, man, I just...
You guys ever like just massaging your asshole?
Do you massage your asshole?
People are like, what the fuck are you talking about?
You know, you could say, dude, when I get home, I'd massage my neck on the way home.
You know, sometimes it gets so stiff.
I just give it a solid massage on my own.
I feel so much better.
Yeah, yeah, me too.
I know what you mean.
I like to massage my asshole.
It feels really good.
unidentified
You do?
joe rogan
No, I don't.
But if someone said that, you know...
unidentified
But do you?
joe rogan
No, no.
unidentified
That'd be awesome.
joe rogan
But it's something about you talking about your asshole and pleasure that makes me terrified.
kevin smith
Does it really?
joe rogan
Yeah, something.
kevin smith
I'll tell you a pain story about the asshole.
Because of sitting on the turlet, as you said, for all that time, I got an anal fissure.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus.
kevin smith
You ever had one of those?
joe rogan
No.
kevin smith
You never want one of these.
I've never been punched in the face or choked at or anything fucking cool, but this was the most pain I think I've ever felt in my entire life.
joe rogan
Really?
kevin smith
It's that ring, that sphincter, it's the fulcrum of your entire body you start to discover.
Anything you do...
Reverberates in your asshole.
I know, it sounds deep, it's not.
Move your finger, you can feel it.
Move an arm, you can feel it.
And you only really realize it when there's something wrong down there.
And an anal fissure...
Is when there's a tear right on the fucking lip of your asshole.
Somewhere on the ring.
Or this one extended a little deeper.
And I didn't know what it was.
It was painful, man.
Like, so painful that, like, I asked my wife.
Like, my wife's never fucking seen me completely naked, let alone my asshole.
I literally was like, I'm going to ask you to do that fucking thing I never imagined I'd ask another human being to do.
And she's like, what?
And I was like, I'm going to lay on the bed.
I'm gonna fucking crane open my two fucking cheeks.
I'm gonna need you to look in there and tell me if something looks funky.
I've never even seen my own asshole, but I know for a fact, I'm a dude.
I've got hair down there, too.
So I'm telling her, I'm like, now...
You might have to deal with a little shrubbery down there.
There's no manscaping, so if that's the case, you might have to move hair.
And she's like, oh my god, please don't make me do this.
I was like, there's no one but you.
I was like, I'm sorry, I wouldn't have you do it.
I was in pain, dude.
I was crying.
It's hurt so much.
So I lay down, and she's looking at it, and she's like, I don't know.
There's just so many rolls.
You know, she couldn't get to it.
I was like, come on.
Do you see any blood?
She's like, I think I see some...
I think I see an inflamed area.
And I went to a doctor, and the doctor was like, get up on the table and whatnot.
And I never went to a proctologist.
And I'm laying on the table, and he opens my cheek.
And he puts a flashlight on the outside of my fucking ring piece.
I'm waiting for the Fletch move.
We're moving on the river.
He takes a look with just the flashlight.
He goes, oh, anal fissure.
I go, really?
Is that what it is?
He goes, yeah.
I was like, you don't want to go deeper?
He's going, I don't need to.
He's going, you don't want me to either.
And I said, what do you do about them?
He's going, I'm going to give you two creams.
One's a topical, one a little more insertion.
He's going, basically, what was the figure he said?
God, I can't remember.
He said, in eight to ten weeks, you'll start feeling 50% better.
And I looked at him like, what?
Are you kidding me?
And it may not have been 8, 10. It may have been 4 or 5. But it was a long period of time, only 50% better.
And I was like, dude, I don't like these odds.
He's like, that's the best I could do.
He's like, that's either that or you can go for surgery.
But trust me, you don't want that.
He's like, what surgery?
He's like, well, basically, we get in there with a needle and sew you up.
I'm like, forget it.
I'll wait for it to heal.
And it was fucking misery.
joe rogan
They get in with a needle and sew you up, and then how long does it take before it heals?
unidentified
That's the thing.
kevin smith
And then it takes for a while to fucking heal.
So their whole thing is like, just keep rubbing this topical on it.
Nature will heal itself.
Try not to...
Fucking rough around with it.
I'm like, I don't want to even go near it.
joe rogan
Rough around with your butthole?
Did the doctor use those terms?
I said, Doc, I like to...
unidentified
I said, like Joe Rogan, I like to massage my asshole.
kevin smith
What will this mean for that?
But he said, he was like, it's very common.
He goes, if you're in a room, 45% of the people in the room are dealing with anal fissure.
He's gone.
Nobody talks about it.
I said, why?
He's going, because it has everything to do with your asshole.
He's going, people, he was saying the exact same thing.
He's like, people don't talk about this kind of thing publicly.
It's going to be much easier because you wouldn't have people waiting as long as they do to come in.
He's going, it's common practice.
He says, you know how yours happened?
And I was like, I don't know.
I thought it was going to be like a lot of fucking bathroom activity, man.
A lot of fucking glory holes and shit.
I said, no, no, I don't know how it happened.
And he said, you sit on the toilet a lot, I bet.
I said, I do, as a matter of fact.
He's going, well, your weight's sitting on that toilet.
And he's going, I bet you don't just go and leave.
You sit there for a while.
I said, yeah.
He's going, it's just, think about it.
Gravity's just pulling at that, you know, as you sit there.
It's not like you're sitting on the toilet and your butt cheeks are clenched and your asshole is fucking tight or retracted.
Is that how you do it?
unidentified
Nothing's getting in here.
joe rogan
Excellent posture.
unidentified
Your shit comes out through your balls.
My shit comes out when I tell it to.
kevin smith
Look out for it, dude.
You never want that.
joe rogan
Oh my god, that sounds horrible.
So six weeks, only 50%?
kevin smith
Six weeks, 50%.
joe rogan
When did it take until it was 100%?
kevin smith
Honestly, it felt like months.
I think it was months.
And for months, all I could do literally was lay on the bed, belly down, And if I took a...
Oddly enough, when I took a shit, it felt better.
But it only felt better for the moment I was taking the shit.
Because then, I guess what...
I don't know.
I can't even tell you the science of it.
But when I took a shit, I felt better as soon as I was done taking a shit.
That's when the agony kicked in of reminding you it was there.
And you would literally just flinch and squirm on the bed like fucking you were withdrawn or something like that.
It was mad nasty.
joe rogan
Yeah, the last thing you want is asshole problems.
Get off those toilets.
unidentified
Yeah.
kevin smith
It's the fulcrum of your body.
unidentified
I had the internal hemorrhoid for that reason.
And they had to do the rubber band technique where they tie a rubber band inside your asshole.
And they tie it super tight so it gets no blood supply and it falls off.
Well, I'm like, is this going to hurt?
And he goes, no, it's more of an annoying pain.
And I'm like, alright.
brian redban
I go home and it was like somebody shoving their fingernail into your asshole from the inside and just sitting there and twisting it and turning it like a fucking knife.
kevin smith
How did you shit pass it?
Did shit get caught up on the rubber band?
unidentified
No.
I don't know.
joe rogan
So how big is this thing that you could wrap a rubber band around it?
unidentified
It was pretty big.
kevin smith
You ever had a hemorrhoid or a grape or whatever?
joe rogan
Yeah, I've had a hemorrhoid before.
unidentified
They said that I was supposed to go back maybe two or three times.
This is a whole process.
The first time is probably not going to do it.
I wouldn't go back to the second one.
So now I live with the little guy.
And he's just this little teeny guy now.
But once in a while, if I eat the wrong thing, it blows up.
He's like, yo, bitch.
Not Jew clam style.
joe rogan
You still have it in there, tied up?
unidentified
No, the rubber band is dissolved.
joe rogan
But the internal hemorrhoid still exists?
kevin smith
He's got a clit and a sphincter.
joe rogan
So it just returns whenever it wants to?
brian redban
Whenever I get crazy and eat a bunch of hot peppers or something.
kevin smith
Is that what it is?
It's for eating?
unidentified
It's hot peppers, it's a lot of fucking caffeine, it's a lot of...
joe rogan
Really?
I had heard that it's from forcing your shit out.
kevin smith
I was going to say, mine is from pushing.
Like, I've got a resident just like yours that's mostly quiet, lodger, but periodically, hey, I'm down here.
And it's always from fucking, like, on the toilet and I'm fucking pushing.
Maybe I'm not ready to go, but I'm like, if I don't go now, I'm not going to be able to go for a couple hours.
unidentified
Once in a while, he shoots somebody and there's blood everywhere, you know?
It's like a crime scene.
joe rogan
Oh.
kevin smith
Yes.
My buddy.
Oh.
joe rogan
Yeah, bloody nose, no big deal.
Bloody asshole.
unidentified
Oh, Jesus, for reals.
kevin smith
I want to go to the fights, dude.
I remember last time you were coming to the fights.
We've got to do it and roll a camera on me, though.
joe rogan
Okay.
kevin smith
So you could watch me vomit on Q. For sure.
joe rogan
Well, there's going to be a big card on Fox coming up real soon.
I think it's November.
I don't want to say.
I think it's the 14th.
I have to look at the schedule.
But it's going to be on Fox, and I think they're announcing tomorrow...
Who the fighters are, but that'll be in Anaheim.
kevin smith
Oh, that's fucking close.
And you do all of them?
Are you always the guy?
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you got to hook up?
Yeah, yeah.
kevin smith
I don't have to buy tickets for this shit?
joe rogan
No, we'll hook you up, man.
Come on, dog.
We'll make you spend your money.
unidentified
Kevin Smith.
joe rogan
You're Kevin Smith.
kevin smith
I'm happy.
joe rogan
I want to make sure.
kevin smith
Dudes are getting punched in that ring.
I want to make sure they get paid.
I'm happy.
joe rogan
Oh, they get paid a motherfucker now.
kevin smith
But they must get paid a little bit of our gate, right?
That's how they make it.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, it's different.
I mean, they get different deals.
But, you know, the gates, it's almost always sold out.
Almost all the domestic UFC sell out.
We've had a few problems in other countries where they weren't, like, hip on the UFC. You know, Germany wasn't, like, the biggest success when we were over there.
kevin smith
We don't like this!
Stop hitting each other!
joe rogan
It wasn't like Australia.
Australia sells out in, like, an hour.
Whenever we put on a show in Australia, people go fucking nuts.
kevin smith
But Germany was a little more difficult.
unidentified
What about Canada?
joe rogan
They blocked us from television or something in Germany, too.
There was something crazy where you could only get it on pay-per-view.
They couldn't have it on live television in Germany.
kevin smith
What about Canada?
joe rogan
Canada is great.
kevin smith
Canada I always find is very similar to Australia and vice versa.
joe rogan
Canada is awesome.
I fucking love Canada.
I would live there if it wasn't so confusing.
If I didn't have to pay taxes to two different countries.
unidentified
GST and PST? I think Vancouver is one of the greatest cities in the world.
kevin smith
It's government and the province.
It's essentially federal and state taxes.
joe rogan
Yeah, but then you also have to pay for American too, unless you want to...
What Americans do?
If you want to live in another country, unless you want to give up your citizenship, you have to pay American taxes as well.
kevin smith
Oh, if you're talking about doing dual citizenship.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm not saying I hate America.
I would live in Vancouver.
Vancouver is the shit.
It's one of the greatest fucking cities ever.
kevin smith
I'd go for Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame.
joe rogan
I love Toronto, but it gets cold as a motherfucker.
kevin smith
I don't mind whether I grew up on the East Coast.
joe rogan
I grew up in Boston.
kevin smith
Yeah, so you know whether.
joe rogan
I'm scared.
kevin smith
You don't want to go back to it.
Edmonton.
I would live in Edmonton too.
But my lady would never let me live in Canada, man.
unidentified
You guys don't like Vancouver?
kevin smith
I like Vancouver.
I went to school there.
I shot a TV show there and a movie there.
I do, but I'm not into whale art.
unidentified
Alright.
kevin smith
There's a lot of that up there, man.
That and trees.
Fuck trees.
joe rogan
As a comic, you know, I travel too much, man.
With stand-up and with the UFC, I travel too much to risk being snowed in.
So if I live somewhere like Toronto, I would always risk being stuck.
You know, Boston, you risk being stuck.
It's not a sensible place to live if you're a traveler.
Unless, of course, you know, you can, you know, figure out how to get out of town before the snow hits.
kevin smith
He calls Scatman Crothers, man.
He shows up in the snowcat and shit.
joe rogan
That snowcat up that mountain.
kevin smith
Totally, man.
Just look out for the dude behind the fucking...
With the axe.
joe rogan
I do think that I like people better.
kevin smith
Didn't see that coming, did you?
joe rogan
Didn't see that.
That Jack Nicholson motherfucker.
kevin smith
Shining.
He couldn't shine that at all.
joe rogan
That was a great goddamn movie.
kevin smith
Oh, that's brilliant.
joe rogan
And Stephen King doesn't like it, you know that?
kevin smith
Yeah, so much so that he made sure they made another one.
Make a worse one.
Make a terrible one.
This other one was too good.
Make a bad one.
Yeah, the TV movie one is tough.
joe rogan
I never saw the TV movie one.
Or if I did, I don't remember it.
kevin smith
Steven Weber from Wings replaces Jack Nicholson right then and there.
I mean, my hat goes off to Steven Weber because that's balls of steel, dude.
You know what I'm saying?
To be like...
All right, I'll give it a shot.
But, to be fair, it's what Heath Ledger did years later.
He stepped into a role that Jack Nicholson made iconic and stuff.
That all being said, hats off to Steven Weber, that movie's a tough sit.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, Heath Ledger apparently was on so many pills, he didn't even know what fucking, you know, what position he was taking.
When Heath Ledger died, he was on so many different pills.
unidentified
Is that what they said?
joe rogan
Yeah, who knows, yeah.
He was a state of mind.
I mean, when you hear all the different shit that he was on when he died, There's a lot of those don't give a fuck guys that can put in spectacular performances like that.
Like that Heath Ledger Joker was a fucking pretty spectacular performance.
unidentified
Phenomenal, yeah.
joe rogan
When a dude has something like that inside of him, that's an amazing abundance of energy and you're not exactly sure how he's controlling that.
Not everybody can have that kind of a burst of energy inside of them and put it under control.
Some people literally aren't capable of that kind of a performance.
kevin smith
You think he was?
joe rogan
I think he's probably had a little bit of crazy in him, man.
kevin smith
No, come on.
joe rogan
A little bit of crazy, and then he gets on pills.
kevin smith
Some cats just make pretend real well.
joe rogan
Yeah, for sure.
No doubt about it.
But with all the pill thing and that...
kevin smith
I don't want to believe that he was fucking like, I got into the headspace of the Joker.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
I don't even think that.
kevin smith
You think he has pain in his life?
joe rogan
No, I just think he's just good, but I'm just thinking that...
Being really brilliant at something like acting and being completely fucking insane are like next door neighbors, man.
kevin smith
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a thin line.
I'll agree with that.
unidentified
Totally.
joe rogan
The ability to lock onto a character so completely and captivating.
unidentified
Yes.
kevin smith
And create it real.
Make it so real that you're sitting there.
Like, look, I love that Joker performance.
It's spellbinding.
But I say dial, like, one movie back and look at him in the gay cowboy picture.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
kevin smith
The performance he gives in that movie, that dude exists.
The Joker performance is big, and it needs to be big.
Pray you never meet someone like that in your life.
But you would meet the character, I think it was Enos or Enos he played, the character he played in Brokeback Mountain.
That performance is so fucking frighteningly real.
That was the first time I was like, this motherfucker's an actor.
I thought he was that dude from Ten Things I Hate About You.
But he had chops, because he made only one other actor...
Well, two others.
Parks.
Michael Parks did that for me in From Dusk Till Dawn.
Like, that's why Red State exists.
Because I watched the opening 10 minutes of From Dusk Till Dawn back in 95. I was like, this motherfucker's Yoda.
Like, how do you...
I want to spend a month on set with a dude who can drop performance science this fucking brilliant, this laser sharp, this otherworldly.
But then the other one...
God, who was I? I just had it on my head.
What was the other one?
I said Parks.
Oh!
Billy Bob Thornton in A Simple Plan.
Did you ever see A Simple Plan?
That fucking movie is...
What's his name?
The guy that did Spider-Man.
joe rogan
What movie was this?
kevin smith
It was a movie with Bill Paxton.
joe rogan
A simple plan.
kevin smith
Bill Paxton.
Bill...
What did I say his name was?
You know, Billy...
What's his face?
unidentified
Billy Roy Cyrus.
kevin smith
I was going on that.
joe rogan
The guy who fucked Angelina Jolie.
kevin smith
Yeah, what?
Joe...
unidentified
Billy Bob.
joe rogan
Billy Bob Thornton.
Jesus Christ.
kevin smith
Billy Bob Thornton and who else?
Oh, Bridget Fond is in it.
This fucking movie is so good.
It's so well done.
It's about dudes who find money in the woods.
Drug money.
And then they're trying to...
It's a simple plan.
We're going to hold it and whack it up together.
We're going to wait some time.
And then it just gets more and more complicated and fucking horrible things start happening and shit.
Excellent movie.
Well done.
But...
Billy Bob Thornton gives a performance in this movie where he ceases to be Billy Bob Thornton, and you're just like, that character exists.
The man who is in this movie, there's no connection to Billy Bob Thornton.
It's literally a dude being possessed of someone else or something like that.
He changes his look, changes his deliveries, everything.
joe rogan
Perfect example.
I think that to be that good, there has to be a part of you that's a little bit fucking crazy.
And we know Billy Bob Thornton is a little bit fucking crazy.
No doubt about it.
kevin smith
Meryl Streep, do you think she's a little bit crazy?
joe rogan
Maybe she just keeps it together better than him.
Maybe she just has better composure.
Maybe she just has better composure.
More self-aware, but that demon inside her beats just as freely as it does in Billy Bob.
She just knows how to control it in her social life.
But she can blast it out when she's pretending to be some other person.
She can just let that fucking demon free.
You know?
Is that what acting is?
Billy Bob Thornton is crazy as fuck, yes.
I think to a certain extent.
Yes and no.
I think it's completely containable.
I've seen Daniel Day-Lewis get interviewed, and I think he's a brilliant guy who's clearly doing it as an artist.
He's clearly got a good handle on the whole celebrity thing.
The guy quit movies to be a fucking shoe cobbler.
He's this crazy, deep, interesting, weirdo dude.
kevin smith
That is one of those stories that everybody knows that Daniel Day-Lewis It captured everybody's imagination.
Whether he was serious about it or not, it may have been his most brilliant fucking move.
Because for the next ten years, whenever somebody says Daniel Day-Lewis, somewhere in the next minute they're going to go, you know, he quit to be a cobbler?
He studied shoemaking.
Like, it captured people's imagination.
Like, why would a guy this good at the job go off, quit, and make shoes?
Well, he came back sooner or later.
But that shoe thing captures people's imagination.
And you think he probably went to it because it wasn't acting.
It was the furthest thing from acting, because you're right.
You look at a dude who gets into a role like he does, he probably does go to someplace fucking dark, and you...
You know, a crew, a bunch of years of doing that, one after another, maybe going to fucking make shoes in Milan feels good, sounds good, simple, doesn't require much, use a different part of your brain, no darkness and fucking cobbling, you know, unless one of those fucking witches show up.
joe rogan
Some of his movies where he does go dark are the darkest characters in the history of cinema.
Gangs in New York?
unidentified
Love it.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
Bill the Butcher, that's what his name was, right?
Jesus Christ was at a fucking scary performance.
kevin smith
Isn't the accent great, too?
joe rogan
Yeah, and he seems like he really would cut your fucking head off with a machete.
It's real.
You're feeling it.
kevin smith
All the way.
One of the only conversations I ever had with Martin Scorsese was after screening that movie.
I was coming out of the theater.
I hear somebody go, Kevin, and it sounds like Martin Scorsese.
I was like, no way Martin Scorsese would be fucking saying Kevin.
And I turn around and Martin Scorsese was saying Kevin.
He was talking to me.
And I was like, holy shit, man, how are you?
joe rogan
Did your ball tingle?
kevin smith
Very much.
You know what I'm saying?
The way he called me wasn't quite pure, but he had no reason to know my name.
Exactly.
And he's like, what did you think?
I said, I fucking loved it, man.
And I had stayed through all the credits and shit.
I said, oh my god, I loved it.
You've got to tell me, how did he arrive at that accent?
And he goes, we found cylinders.
Old cylinders recorded around, what was it, 18-whatever, turn of the century, 19-whatever-that-period flick was set.
He said, we found cylinders, which we just sat there and played.
And Daniel took the accent from there, worked on it a little bit, and took the accent from there.
And I was like, what did the cylinders sound like?
He goes, surprisingly crystal clear.
And you could literally hear what that guy sounded like in that era.
Isn't that amazing?
joe rogan
Daniel Day-Lewis is probably our best representation of it, because I bet he nailed it.
kevin smith
He must have.
We've never heard the cylinders.
joe rogan
I've never seen him not nail something.
He played a boxer, and it's the best version of an actor playing a boxer ever.
He really looks like a boxer.
As he's moving, he's doing everything correctly.
The way he's holding his hands, the way he's responding to being hit, the way he's following through with his punches, with his footwork.
He literally looked like he could be a professional boxer.
It takes so much energy and focus to get that good.
He didn't just look like an actor that they taught how to box.
He's a perfect example.
I don't mean to diss him, but Marky Mark, Mark Wahlberg, whatever.
kevin smith
The Fighter?
joe rogan
The Fighter.
It was a great movie.
I love this performance in the movie, but when you watch him boxing, it looks like an actor is boxing.
Really?
kevin smith
Because I thought he was street smart.
joe rogan
He looks like he can box.
I bet he can box.
I bet he can box.
But it doesn't look like when you watch Daniel Day-Lewis do it.
Daniel Day-Lewis is moving like a real professional boxer.
When you're watching the Mark Wahlberg thing, it seems like I'm watching a movie.
I'm watching a movie where there's boxing in it.
There's a difference in the reality.
kevin smith
What about Stallone?
Did he convince?
joe rogan
No.
kevin smith
He didn't look like a boxer?
joe rogan
No.
I mean, he looks like a guy who can kick your ass.
Don't get me wrong.
The way a professional fighter moves is very specific.
Unless you're some Roy Jones Jr. freak of nature athlete who can keep your hands down and do all kinds of crazy shit because nobody can touch you because you're so fast and your timing is so good, but there's only a few of those guys ever.
If you look at a classic boxer, they have very simple characteristics.
The hands are always up high, the chin's tucked, the shoulders are up.
Nobody does that in a movie.
In a movie, everybody's Their hands are down, they're throwing wild punches and flexing their muscles, and it's my turn to hit you, and then it's your turn to hit me, and it looks very obvious.
kevin smith
And nobody, they never get into like a 30 second, 40 second hug embrace, kind of like where they have to get split up.
joe rogan
Well, you can't do it realistically unless you're going to let people hit people.
And you don't want to do that because you're only going to get one shot at it and people aren't going to like it.
No one's going to like a halfway fight.
It's like, I'm going to let you hit me and then I'm going to hit you back.
We're going to agree that there's a certain amount of times we're going to hit each other and we're going to hit each other realistically hard.
You can't do that.
You can't do it.
You can't fake it.
unidentified
I could do it.
joe rogan
You could do it?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Do you think you can do it realistically?
unidentified
Real easy.
kevin smith
Let me ask you this.
unidentified
Just kidding.
kevin smith
Other than Daniel Day-Lewis, who has convincingly fought in a movie that earned your respect where you're like, alright, that looks like it.
Other than Daniel Day-Lewis.
Because that bar's too fucking high, dude.
joe rogan
Yeah.
kevin smith
You know what I'm saying?
joe rogan
Denzel Washington.
Denzel Washington when he played Reuben Herrick Carter.
kevin smith
That bar's too fucking high.
joe rogan
Can't you give me somebody that's just like, No, you need a guy like that.
You need a bad motherfucker.
kevin smith
Who just really commit, over-commit.
joe rogan
My friend Terry Claibon trained him for some of that, and he would go down to the Hollywood boxing gym.
It was on La Brea.
And he said that guy would be out there every fucking morning at 7 o'clock, blaring his music in the parking lot, Fired up, and he said he would run up the stairs and he would train like a professional boxer.
He said he did everything I asked him to do, did it exactly the way I told him to do it, skipped rope, sit-ups, and he's in there every day.
He literally transformed himself into a professional boxer.
There's only a few guys who can hit that level, that Daniel Day-Lewis, that Denzel Washington level of commitment.
There's only a few guys who can do that.
kevin smith
So Daniel...
joe rogan
Those are the only two guys that I've ever seen that look like real fighters.
kevin smith
Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington fight each other.
Who wins?
unidentified
Daniel Lewis.
kevin smith
Get the fuck out of here.
unidentified
I would say Denzel.
joe rogan
That's a crazy way.
kevin smith
It's gotta be Denzel.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
He'll get tired.
He'll gas out.
He'll start off strong.
Daniel will take the punches.
unidentified
What do you base this on?
Glory?
joe rogan
Just fucking talking shit, bro.
unidentified
Just fucking shit.
kevin smith
We're both talking shit.
joe rogan
I just have to guess.
If I looked at the boxer that Daniel Day-Lewis was and I looked at the boxer that Denzel Washington was, I think Denzel Washington looks like a very good athlete, moves very well, but it looks more like Daniel Day-Lewis is a real boxer.
kevin smith
If we base it on their movie rules, then Daniel Day-Lewis held out a long time as John Proctor in The Crucible.
joe rogan
LAUGHTER Denzel Washington, one of the best actors ever, right?
kevin smith
Yeah, totally.
Oh, God, yeah.
And you know what?
When they gave him the Oscar for, what was it?
Was it Malcolm X? No, that was the thing.
They should have given him to him for Malcolm X. That performance, if you ever go watch Malcolm X footage on YouTube, which you can now, they've got tons of it, nothing but free.
Fascinating.
You look at that and you realize, you want to talk about a Denzel Washington up at six training like a boxer.
He didn't even have YouTube to pull clips from.
He became Malcolm X. The mannerisms, the way he holds his hand as he speaks, it's crazy.
I think he got nominated.
He should have won that year.
He didn't.
Then they gave it to him years later for the...
King Kong ain't got nothing on me.
joe rogan
Yeah, that was the training day?
kevin smith
Training day.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He was really good in it.
kevin smith
That's the thing.
I remember when they first gave him the award, I hadn't seen the movie.
I was like, oh, they're making up for fucking overlooking Malcolm X. But then you see his performance in that movie, and what could be a simple programmer or a simple good guy, bad guy...
He took that role to the next level.
So it may have been overdue payback for a fantastic performance he didn't get enough credit for, but I think he earned that 10 on training day.
joe rogan
I agree 100%.
kevin smith
With his performance alone.
joe rogan
He legitimately seemed like a corrupt cop.
kevin smith
Yeah.
joe rogan
He becomes it.
He's one of those guys, those Russell Crowe guys.
kevin smith
And sociopathic.
You believed he was sociopathic.
And him giving him the smoking, he's like, you're smoking the wet.
And he enjoyed it.
He was a little malicious and shit like that.
joe rogan
It seemed real.
unidentified
Very real.
joe rogan
It seemed very real when he was enjoying it.
Yeah, I mean, to put your mind into that place to allow yourself to go there, you've got to get real close to crazy.
You've got to get right next door to neighbors to crazy.
You've got to see crazy every morning when you're getting in your car.
More than crazy.
unidentified
More than crazy.
kevin smith
What's the craziest you've seen?
Who you worked with that you're like, I've seen someone go to that place?
On Red State, we were with Michael Parks.
I don't think I've ever seen Michael Parks and Melissa Lea went to weird places, like incredible places where I'm like, oh shit, this is otherworldly stuff.
Like true fucking actors, man.
True across the board.
joe rogan
Michael Parks is the preacher?
kevin smith
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Listen, folks, if you see one movie this year, see Red State.
unidentified
Nah.
joe rogan
Kevin invited me to this movie.
Now listen, I had known nothing.
I knew nothing of what this movie was.
I had no idea.
And I showed up.
I showed up with Aubrey.
And we had not a fucking clue in the world as to what this movie was about.
I assumed it was a comedy.
I heard some whisper online.
I heard it was a horror film, question mark.
That's all I saw.
So I go in with an awesome blank slate.
And halfway into the movie, I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
I'm like, maybe 35, 45 minutes in, I was like, this is the craziest fucking...
unidentified
This is Kevin Smith's movie?
joe rogan
You don't even...
It's like, you have to throw out everything you think of as a Kevin Smith movie.
Kevin Smith movies are always fun comedies.
And this movie just gets so fucking crazy so quick...
And just keeps, and goes, and you know, I really, I appreciate so much about that movie, but what I really, well, the one thing that's staggering right off the bat was that guy who played the preacher, Michael Parks.
kevin smith
Amazing.
joe rogan
If that guy doesn't get nominated for the Academy Award, he deserves so much attention.
Yeah.
Fuck awards, right?
Fuck the, who cares?
But still, you know what?
kevin smith
To a 70-year-old man who this business turned its back on a long time ago and clearly has better chops than most of his peers who went on to other things, It means something.
It may not mean shit to me, like me getting awards, but him, that award means something.
He comes from an era where it does mean something.
joe rogan
I wish we could substitute that with the greater opinion of...
Whatever people, nice people all across the country, people discerning individuals.
If you watch this movie and don't think this guy's a fucking super genius, all that shit that I said about Daniel Day-Lewis, exact same shit I'm saying about this guy.
kevin smith
He's one of those very special talents.
unidentified
Right there.
joe rogan
He was playing this fucking preacher, and he had this one long, non-cut monologue.
I mean, the camera is on him for a long fucking time.
And it's all one run.
And it's brilliant.
kevin smith
Thank you.
joe rogan
It's brilliant.
He sucks you in to the point where you're shitting your...
You know this is gonna...
Something terrible is gonna happen.
You don't know when.
You don't know what.
And it keeps...
He just holds you there.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
With this conviction in this character and this character's belief that is fucking scary.
It's fucking scary.
kevin smith
You know there's imminent death.
joe rogan
Yeah.
kevin smith
Like it's set up right there.
But his performance is so riveting.
He's so fucking good at the craft.
That you'll put, because the movie's moving along in a nice clip right there.
We put the movie on pause and be like, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Parks.
And he does a fucking, essentially, a guitar solo.
The most amazing guitar solo you've ever heard.
And rather than be like, move on!
Fucking get to the murders that we knew were coming.
People like kick back and go like, oh my god, that's so beautiful.
And he finishes his solo and the movie begins again.
It's pretty, it's so weird.
It's pretty astounding.
joe rogan
A guitar solo?
What kind of music?
kevin smith
You saw it.
It's him.
It's his voice I'm talking about.
I'm talking more metaphorical.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus Christ.
kevin smith
Did I lose you?
joe rogan
I'm so high.
kevin smith
Are you more stoned than me?
joe rogan
I must be.
kevin smith
How is that possible?
joe rogan
Because you keep going.
You keep going and dragging me in with you.
I thought you were being literal.
kevin smith
Put down the rabbit hole, bitch.
joe rogan
Wow.
I'm an idiot.
kevin smith
This ain't even happening.
We're in this meditation tank.
You're in the meditation tank and we're just having this conversation.
joe rogan
How did that character come about?
kevin smith
I gotta see the meditation tank before I go.
joe rogan
Oh yeah, for sure.
I'll let you know.
kevin smith
How did the character come about?
joe rogan
How did that guy...
kevin smith
Fred Phelps.
I saw a Westboro Baptist Church guy.
And basically, that dude created that character for me.
joe rogan
Did that create the movie for you?
kevin smith
Nah, a little bit.
I mean, it was kind of a two- or three-pronged thing.
Like, number one, I saw Parks in From Dusk Till Dawn, which was Quentin's movie with Robert Rodriguez.
And he's in the opening ten minutes.
He's astounding.
Like, I love acting.
Love actors.
Love people, actresses.
People that can take the words off page and make it sing.
But, you know, there's only so many ways to skin a cat and fuck.
And even the best of them, you pretty much can see the strings and whatnot.
You know how acting works.
Every once in a while, you meet one of these performers or see a performer.
You're lucky you get to meet him.
That takes it off the fucking grid, off the charts.
This guy does this.
In the opening of this movie, which from Dusk Till Dawn is a fun vampire fucking romp.
This guy comes in and drops a performance that in a fair, just world would have won a supporting Oscar.
Like, you know, Judi Dench gets one for Shakespeare in Love, and she's in the movie, what, seven or nine minutes?
Parks is in From Dusk Till Dawn roughly at the same time and gives a performance that's as electric, as believable, as off-the-charts wonderful, but, you know, it's a genre film, so he don't get the attention and stuff.
This guy fell in love with him.
I'm watching From Dusk Till Dawn, 1995 to Lumley Sunset 5. I was like, yeah, fuck yeah, I want to see the vampire movie.
And I went to go see this vampire movie made by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
But what I left there was, I have to work with that man.
I don't know who that fucking man is, that sheriff guy, in the first 10 minutes, who, spoiler, spoilers, the movie's fucking 16 years old, but just in case, he gets killed in the first fucking 10 minutes.
Whole movie, I'm like, no!
That dude was the fucking truth!
The absolute truth!
I walk out of that theater, I go, I gotta work with that guy.
Just sit at the fucking feet of a Yoda like that, and for a month on a set, Imagine the amount of fucking information you could glean, steal, fucking benefit from.
joe rogan
He's pure genius in acting form.
A clear genius.
When you're watching him, it's so spectacular and riveting.
kevin smith
He inspired it.
I told him there were days on set like I did.
We didn't do many takes at all because we didn't have a lot of money and shit.
It was a low budget movie.
And when the performances are that good, man, you got John Goodman, Melissa Leo, you got Parks, they're crushing it, take one and shit.
So, you know, I leave it up to them and they're like, I'm good if you're good.
I'm like, I don't direct the movie as much as I sit there and edit it in my head on set.
Because you don't direct Michael Parks.
I'm going to go up to him and be like, here's how I do it based on all my experience playing Silent Bob over the years.
joe rogan
Did he ad-lib any of that?
unidentified
Totally.
kevin smith
Oh, yeah.
He got in there and definitely...
joe rogan
Because it seemed like he could probably just start talking in that guy.
He seemed so in tune with that fucking character, man.
kevin smith
Yeah, he was...
Well, he had that script for, what, two, three months ahead of time.
By the time he came to the set...
And I have...
No, I'm not the author of that performance.
That guy authored his own performance, hands down.
Across the boards.
You don't direct a movie.
Like Red State.
You just let it happen.
And you make sure you keep it on the tracks.
This dude's...
He had the script for a while.
When he came to the set...
He's like, can I have the space?
Can you show me the space?
And we brought him to the chapel and went on.
They were still putting the finishing touches on it.
But he kind of did a laid out like the way you would lay out a dance.
He essentially kind of didn't say the dialogue out loud, but he would just sit there and you'd watch him kind of moving his arms and stuff.
And it looked like he was slowly waltzing by himself.
And then he'd stop somewhere and ask somebody to put a mark here, blah, blah, blah, put a mark here.
Then he put it all together.
I got to see what he was doing the next morning.
He had choreographed this fucking thing.
He could do it from top to bottom.
He could do the entire scene, which was, I think in the script, 12 pages.
12 pages of dialogue or something ridiculous like that.
And he could fucking do it from beginning to end.
And you watch him hit his marks.
He knew exactly where he wanted to be and stuff.
So much so that, like, I had done a draft right before shooting, and I was like, hey, man, this is the new version of the sermon.
And he fucking bristled because he was like, no, no, no, no.
I mean, that other stuff's great.
What do you need this for?
And what I realized was because he was dialed in.
He knew what was going to happen when he hit that stage.
He knew where to be so that he could just let his art come out of his mouth.
But he was still framing the movie for it, still commanding the stage.
It's a movie, let's keep things moving.
He wasn't content to just stand there and deliver dialogue, which he could have and he still would have fucking captivated you.
Instead, he choreographed his movement.
It was fantastic.
He was a dude that just gave...
Beyond Given.
You know, I wrote it with him in mind, going, I know what it's going to sound like, because I'm a big fan of this dude's work now.
And even getting to the set, he would still deliver over what I heard in my head.
Like, oh, like I remember, I'll never forget.
What, a month?
A month before we started shooting, we're in my kitchen.
It's me, John Gordon, and Bruce through the movie.
And Parks.
And we're just talking about when we're going to go.
It took us a while to get money together.
And so we're leaving the kitchen, and we're talking about something in the script.
And he stops, and he goes...
He delivers one of the lines, and he delivers it so flawlessly.
And it was the first time I heard Parks do what would be Abe and Cooper.
And so I was like, oh my god, Parks, my heart skipped a beat and shit.
He left, and I turned to John Gordon, and I was like, dude, he's going to win an award.
I don't know what it is, but there's no way people don't cite him.
For that one line, he slipped into Abe and Cooper.
You could hear it.
The gravitas of the life that Michael Parks has led in forming every job he did or didn't get, an entire life.
He brought to bear on this.
He gave a monster some soul.
Like, you look at that character on the page, very two-dimensional, easy to hate.
Michael put a soul on him, where, you know, you still hate him, but you're like, oh, there's somebody under there.
You know, he's not just like a two-dimensional cartoon you could easily write off.
He brought something to it, and I wanted him to do a two-dimensional cartoon.
Like, I was just like, I'm going to put you in tracksuits, because that's what Fred Phelps wears.
And, you know, you can talk like him.
He goes, I don't want to do that.
If you want me to do a Fred Phelps impression, get somebody else.
He's going, that man's fucking boring.
He's like, I came to act.
I was like, right on.
And he did charismatic instead.
Wow.
He's a dude, man.
He don't fuck around.
This is a dude who's a straight shooter.
70 years old.
He's not pulling punches.
He's going to tell you exactly how he fucking feels.
And he...
joe rogan
What is it that has to be a little intimidating, though, when you're having that kind of a conversation with him?
You wanted him to do that, though, right?
kevin smith
Yeah.
joe rogan
You wanted him to take it and own it.
kevin smith
It all exists because of him.
And, like, he'll give you...
You know, like, I'm a grown-up, so I can take good ideas, leave stuff behind.
He gave me the wonderful idea you've seen the movie.
Like, it ends with somebody going, shut the fuck up, from off-camera.
Spoiler, spoilers.
Um, that came from parks.
It wasn't in the script.
It was just, you know, uh, just ended where it kind of ended without that.
And parks was like, how about instead you go off of me and I'm trying to be vague.
So as not to spoil it, but I hope you remember what I'm talking about.
joe rogan
Totally.
kevin smith
off of me singing and then you go down to another cell and there you are you know and you You're giving away way too much of your movie right now.
A little bit, but again, I said spoilers, but...
joe rogan
Tune out, folks.
kevin smith
Yeah.
But anyway, he goes, you say blah, blah, blah, you say that line.
And I was just like, I said, Parks, I would love to, but I think it'd be weird in this moment.
I said, I like the idea of that line.
I said, but cut to me in the movie.
I'm not in the movie, and I think people would take people out of the movie.
And he goes, why?
And I was going, because people would recognize me.
And he goes, from what?
And I realized, like, oh my God, this guy, like...
He has no clue that I've had this whole other career.
As far as he knows, it's Red State and Red State only.
He knows I made some movies.
He has no idea what they are.
Didn't know I was in them or anything.
That was so sweet.
It was going in pure, you know what I'm saying?
This dude went in all about the craft.
And he dropped science on that performance.
And he would sit there from time to time and be like, can I grab one more take?
And I'd be like, Parks, you can have as many takes as you want.
We're literally all here.
Because of you.
Because I saw that performance in From Dusk Till Dawn.
So it was kind of like the whole movie was kind of a park celebration.
People that didn't know him fell in love with him as we made the movie because the dude just...
Every day you were awed by something he did.
You were sitting there going, oh my god, do you remember?
He started singing in the movie.
At one point, we had the whole chapel, everyone in the chapel singing.
And I said, for some other part of the movie, I said, hey man, while this thing's going on over here on camera, I'm going to push in on you.
You want to sing one of those gospel hymnals?
Because he picked the other one, Old Rugged Cross.
I said, you got another one you want to go with?
And he's like, yeah, man, I can sing farther along.
You want that?
And I was like, yeah, whatever.
Sure, totally.
And we shoot him.
We're pushing in on him.
And he sings farther along.
And it's kind of as it is in the movie.
He's got this beautiful, soulful voice.
The man had made records.
So...
Oh, it sweeps me off my feet.
And it's a church song, but I'm still way into it.
Next day, I come into work.
Everyone on set, periodically, you hear them going, like, Father in love.
And they're all singing it.
And I'm like, it's good.
I said, right?
Like, it's catchy?
They're like, yeah, for a Jesus song, it's pretty catchy and stuff.
So he brought that to it, too, the elements of singing.
joe rogan
Charisma.
kevin smith
Charisma.
And that's what he went for.
He said he wanted to play it as a charismatic.
He had this whole backstory for, like, you know, not only Abe and Cooper's father, but his grandfather.
He's like, oh, he's very close with his grandfather.
joe rogan
He wrote a backstory himself to create for the character?
kevin smith
Yeah, he told me.
He's just like, look...
He was tight with his grandfather.
And his grandfather was still fire and brimstone.
He was charismatic, but he was still strict.
But his grandfather still also had a sense of humor for the kids.
So his grandfather would be the one in the kitchen, you know, pulling like a train whistle down with one fist and lifting a leg and farting with the other.
So he was still kind of human.
So he loved his grandfather, Ivan Cooper, even though he preached the holy word and he loved him for it.
His father also preached the holy word.
This killed me because part's going on all eloquently.
He goes, His father also preached the Holy Word, but he probably touched his dick, so he don't talk about his father ever.
I was like, that's astounding, dude.
That's amazing.
joe rogan
That's so bizarre.
kevin smith
But he gave it thought.
He gave thought into buying the outfit, dude.
He went out and picked out the wardrobe person.
Picked every piece.
He was just like, never really done that before.
Gone out with girls who are looking for specific sizes, but...
He, right down to the underwear and the socks, the dude had to be involved in picking the choices that what Abin wore.
joe rogan
He felt represented.
kevin smith
Yeah, and he put the outfit together.
I remember the first time she showed me a picture of him in the outfit.
Beth shows me pictures of Abin in his outfit.
Michael Parks.
And I'm going, oh man, that ain't it at all.
I was looking for a tracksuit.
Like, this dude wearing some khakis and a button-down shirt and a tie.
Looks like a schoolteacher.
And I had, you know, I'd written, I'd read State on my brain for like five years.
You know, wrote it five years ago.
And I'd always had a very specific idea of what he looked like, which was stolen from the look of Fred Phelps.
And...
I remember going, like, I don't know, man.
Like, how do I dress this?
I don't want him to wear this.
And she was like, you might want to go with it.
He's dialed into the costume.
And it was such a good choice because the clothes made the man, like, I don't even know how else to say it.
It sounds corny.
But the outfit made him, just allowed him to do what he had to do up there.
He felt like, if you see him early in the movie, at one point he's at the protest, holding a cup of coffee outside.
He's wearing just a jacket, a windbreaker, and a t-shirt or something.
But whenever he spoke the holy word, he would put on his Sunday best, essentially.
And this was his Sunday best, like the button-down shirt with the tie.
And he believed in presenting, particularly if you're going to go up there and preach the Holy Word, you should look respectable.
All this philosophy behind just the outfit.
And the whole time, I feared it until we went in front of cameras and I was like, this looks beautiful.
Like the outfit is perfect in some weird way because it gives him this just air of respectability.
And that makes the shit coming out of his mouth that much more heinous.
I realize I'm still standing.
joe rogan
He was...
Yeah, that guy's a unique talent.
It's hard to believe that it's taken him this long for, well, it's taken me this long to find out who he is.
You know, like, why doesn't America...
kevin smith
Quentin and Robert.
Quentin and Tarantino particularly.
This is my charming Quentin story.
I love this story because it shows you that we're all like fucking kids in this business.
We go see the movie.
Quentin's got his own fucking movie theater at his house.
Looks like a fucking real movie theater.
Movie seats, fucking popcorn and shit.
He's got these awesome sculptures from his movies all around by this artist named Cleet Shields.
Great.
Own personal movie theater sits about 50 or 60 or something like that.
Maybe a little less.
So we go watch Red State.
There's me, Quentin, and Parks.
Michael Parks.
And he liked it.
He liked it.
He really loved it.
I don't want to oversell it.
But he dug the movie so much, he watched it without us when he wasn't supposed to.
Like, he got the print two days early.
We were supposed to watch it with him the day that we joined him.
And he was like, I'm going to be honest with you.
I watched it already.
Twice.
Fucking love it.
You know, I was like, oh, you don't have to apologize.
That's fucking awesome and shit.
So he watched it with us again.
Then afterwards he goes, come in the house, because the theater is separate from the house.
And he brings us in the house, and this fucking charmed me.
I will never forget this.
He goes, I've got to show you my tape.
I've got to show you my Michael Parks tape.
And he goes into, you know, he's got big entertainment centers, DVDs everywhere and stuff, high tech everywhere, but he also still has VHS. And the dude lays hands on a fucking VHS tape, almost as if I thought I hit the fucking flux capacitor, because I ain't seen one in a while.
And there, scribble on the fucking side and marker, because remember, we used to write on the side of our videotapes when we made our own tapes.
Um...
The best of Michael Parks.
And Quentin throws this tape in.
And what it is, is he's such a fan of this guy's work.
He loves him going back to then-came Bronson.
He loves this dude's work so much.
Anytime this dude's going to turn up on TV or gets a video of him, he records from tape to tape or from TV to tape.
The segments of his performance, everything that involves Michael Parks, and particularly the highlights and shit.
So what you have is a collection of some of the cheesiest exploitation straight-to-TV movies, about a high school volleyball team or college volleyball team and stuff like that, murder mysteries and whatnot.
Like, real programmers.
And as he's showing you the clips, even though it's programmers all around him, Michael Parks is still in each one of these scenes that Quentin has pulled off and put onto this VHS, dropping science, performance science, where you're just like, this is crazy.
Like, this dude's doing Shakespeare in the middle of shit.
And not to put anybody who made those movies down or off or whatever, but clearly, like, everyone else is kind of like, you know, here we are collecting a check and this is about the furthest we can go.
And this dude is like...
Crushing it.
Crushing it.
joe rogan
Like what movies?
kevin smith
A lot of TV movies.
I don't even know them, dude.
They're all TV movies from the 60s and 70s and a little bit into the 80s.
And that's what Quentin had collected.
He's got an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and even bad trash cinema.
But there is no such thing as trash cinema to this guy.
He watched that movie and he found gold.
Like diamonds in the midst of shit that was just maybe simple or fucking programming material.
And he collected them for years on a fucking VHS tape.
Long before he ever knew he would be a filmmaker.
Long before he ever knew he'd meet Michael Parks.
Let alone become a filmmaker, make movies with Michael Parks in them, direct Michael Parks and inspire me to make a fucking movie where I put Michael Parks in it.
Like, that's what he said to me.
He's like...
Oh my God, he's going, as a Michael Parks fan, I love this.
This is the ultimate Michael Parks movie.
I was like, right, right!
So for me, I loved that.
The tape, dude.
He still had it.
If he had just told us the story of, I used to have this tape, man.
That would have been cool enough, dude.
But he produced it, and we all watched it together.
And I sat in a chair off to the side, and him and Parks sat on the couch.
I would have rolled a tear if it wouldn't have embarrassed them both or made them be like, get out.
But there they were.
The man whose work that this kid filmmaker loved so much.
Think about the shit you made mixtapes of when you were a kid.
He made this guy's performance and there he is watching that very same tape With the guy on the tape.
The actor he loves.
Oh, it was touching.
joe rogan
That's inspiring, but it's also inspiring that there's guys like Tarantino out there.
Real enthusiasts.
Dudes who get really fucking super excited about some shit.
kevin smith
But that's like you with fucking MMA or whatever the fuck.
The shit that you're into, you're super into.
You get geeky about.
joe rogan
Yeah, yeah.
kevin smith
He gets geeky about fucking movies.
joe rogan
Yeah.
kevin smith
And that passion will translate to an audience.
joe rogan
For everything.
Whatever it is that you're doing, man.
kevin smith
I never wanted to see a fucking single UFC fight.
But when you talked about it on the show, when you came on our show, I was like, you know, I would go see this now.
When you talk about it with the passion and enthusiasm you do, it translates to somebody who was never sold before.
And I wasn't even on the fence, really.
But then when I watch you talk about it, I'm like, this motherfucker's smart.
He's one of the smartest dudes I ever met.
joe rogan
Everyone running the organization is intelligent.
It's a totally different thing than what people expect.
You hear the term cage fighting, you think, well, there's going to be a bunch of barbaric assholes and mean people beating up other mean people.
That's not what it is at all.
kevin smith
Mean people.
joe rogan
What it is, is people that are trying to attempt to do the most difficult thing in all of sport.
Put your body and your health at risk to go after another person's body and shut it down and take it out.
It's the craziest game of all time.
kevin smith
Yeah.
joe rogan
But it's the oldest game of all time.
Male dominance over other men.
And look, we have a society where obviously that's illegal.
You can't beat people up.
It's good.
We want everything to be civilized.
But in the midst of evolution where we find ourselves in this stage along the way from changing from a wild animal to a conscious being, we still got a lot of chimpanzee DNA that needs to be satisfied.
And there's one or two ways to do it.
Either you can suppress it, you can pretend it doesn't exist, or you can give it something like porn or violence on television and movies and in sports.
You could give it something to live vicariously through.
kevin smith
Is that why I like porn?
joe rogan
Yes!
Because if you don't have these other ways to live vicariously through, there's only one other way around it.
You have to go find whatever it is you're looking for, whether it's find violence or find sex.
But if you can get violence and sex in a television form, you can eliminate it from real life.
The Japanese have believed this forever.
The Japanese believe that you're much more likely to commit heinous sexual crimes if it's difficult to get laid.
They're so freaky over there, you can buy used women's panties and dispensers.
It's ridiculous.
You put some cash, you buy underwear.
kevin smith
And their porn, there's no pubic hair.
It's only nipples, and even those are kind of taken out.
joe rogan
Very strange.
kevin smith
But their animation and their comic books...
Yeah, are fucking intense, a lot of bondage, a lot of fucking...
joe rogan
It's giant cocks, too.
kevin smith
Yeah.
joe rogan
Giant vein-laden...
kevin smith
You're not allowed to see hair, pubic hair.
joe rogan
So bizarre.
kevin smith
Very strange.
joe rogan
Yeah, they have...
It's got to be weird when an entire country looks so similar physically.
I mean, obviously you can tell the difference between one Japanese guy to another.
I know a lot of Japanese people, but essentially the vast majority of the people that live in Japan have this one look, dark hair, you know, the Japanese look.
I mean, they are a clear race.
It's got to be so strange to be a part of such a specific ethnicity.
I'm a mutt.
You look like you're probably a mutt.
You're a mutt.
We're a combination.
I'm a little bit Irish, a little bit Italian.
I'm just a white guy to most people.
Japanese people, that is a very clear race.
It's got to be very strange to be a part of a real powerful, dominant...
You know what I'm saying?
You look at...
Some Italians you can see this in.
You look at them and you go, oh, clearly that guy's some sort of an Italian guy.
Or if not, he's Armenian or something like that.
That sort of dark look.
But it could be a bunch of different things.
Japanese guys look like Japanese guys.
If you understand what Asian people look like, Koreans have a different look to them, but it must be interesting to be a part of one of, I mean, how many millions of Japanese people are there?
And to have such a similar look with all these different people like you that you could be recognized immediately somewhere else in the country.
kevin smith
I think it'd be awesome to have a culture.
Like, they have a culture.
I mean, we have pop culture, which thank God, because that's why I have a job.
But they have a culture that goes back eons.
And we don't really have that.
And as white mutts, we don't really have...
A culture that goes back eons.
joe rogan
What always impressed me about the Japanese is the culture of discipline.
They've had this culture of discipline and of martial arts.
The discipline of war and strategy way before any of the European countries ever figured out what the fuck was going on.
Like Shogun.
This tattoo that I have on my arm is Miyamoto Musashi battling a tiger.
This famous samurai guy, and he wrote this book called The Book of Five Rings.
It's an amazing book, man, where you've got to get into this guy's head that he's living, I believe it was the 15th century.
So I think it was like the 1400s.
I might be wrong.
Whenever he was writing this book, basically, he was a ronin.
So he would travel the earth.
He had no master.
He had no emperor.
So he was traveling the earth, basically having fucking sword fights with people.
He had, like, 60 duels, one-on-one duels with other men and killed them in hand-to-hand, one-on-one combat.
I mean, it's a crazy thought, the thing about killing people with swords.
This guy did it to, like, 60 different guys.
Swords, and in some situations he thought swords were too easy, so he would let them use a sword and he would use a stick.
I mean, he was fucking...
He was a fascinating character.
But his...
His whole life was based on balance.
It was about art.
It was about philosophy.
It was about seeking the correct way.
And for him, the way of the sword was simply the way to be successful, the most successful movements in any given situation as far as what combat is.
But he equated this combat to artistic integrity, The ability to create things freely, the ability to draw and paint, the ability to write poetry and to elegantly express your feelings.
To him, it was all connected.
It was all one piece of excellence and that is like a guide to live your life by.
And he had this statement that I read when I was a kid and it always stuck with me.
Once you understand the way broadly, you can see it in all things.
The idea being that once you find out how to tap into anything, like find out how to be a great movie director, find out how to be a great guy who draws animation, a fucking singer, a chess player.
kevin smith
Say it again.
Once you find the...
joe rogan
Once you understand the way broadly you can see it in all things.
This is a translation from Japanese, so it's not...
Probably not totally accurate.
But that's what he meant, is that you find greatness.
You find greatness as a carpenter.
You find greatness as a samurai.
There's that same thing when you just tap into the zone where you're just really tuning into whatever the fuck you're doing, and then you let creativity sort of spread it out for you.
kevin smith
Comes better with age too, doesn't it?
Comes better with what?
joe rogan
With awareness, I think.
kevin smith
With awareness?
Not even just with age?
joe rogan
I think the age is just experience.
kevin smith
And that's awareness?
unidentified
Yeah.
kevin smith
Or eventually equates to awareness?
joe rogan
I don't think it's necessarily just age.
There's a lot of people that get older and they put that box closer and closer to their head.
They want to see less and less of the world.
It's all you're seeking as well.
You're not trapped in some sort of a box every day.
So as you get older, of course you're going to get more tuned into things.
You're constantly still asking the questions.
You're not trapped in a slave box.
kevin smith
I used to be a destination guy.
I talked about it with Moser on Smodcast quite a bit back in the day.
I was Destination.
He was very journey-oriented for him.
It was all about like, hey man, everything's a journey and, you know, it's like the journey is the fucking fun and blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, no, Destination, get there.
I just want to get to where we're supposed to be.
And the last few years I've flipped and now I am kind of like...
The journey is more important to me.
joe rogan
You know why that is?
kevin smith
Why?
joe rogan
Because you're rich as fuck.
kevin smith
No, weed.
joe rogan
I think it's weed.
It's that too, but it's also you're successful.
kevin smith
You think so?
joe rogan
You don't have to worry about it anymore.
Yeah, you're fucking Kevin Smith.
You've got two million followers on Twitter.
You can talk to them whenever you want to.
They want to come and see your movies.
You're in this weird zone where you don't have to give a fuck anymore.
kevin smith
Yeah, you know what it is?
unidentified
It's beautiful.
kevin smith
Somebody put it best, and I love the expression...
And I've co-opted it, but they said, Kevin doesn't have to work for anyone anymore because he works for the audience.
And I was like, oh, God, that's perfect.
joe rogan
It's true.
kevin smith
That's it.
If you could get to that place where it's not about, like, fuck everyone.
joe rogan
No, no, no.
kevin smith
But you don't rely on anybody for anything.
It's all coming from within you, your camp, or something like that.
Not like there's no help.
Of course you get help within your world, but...
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