Being from Jersey, I can’t stress enough how much of a hero Kevin Smith was to me. Even if I don’t always find the quality of his work pleasing, and I’ll be the first to admit his record is spotty, he still remains a hometown hero. He’s proof that no one can be too lazy to find success, and every day I wonder if I’d ever have enough guys to max out a dozen credit cards just to make a movie that may or may not be worth it.
At New York Comic-Con, I had the pleasure of sitting right next to the man himself and hear him talk about the next season of Comic Book Men. While he’s always more of a standby guy, just hearing about what happened in the store, the man is still hands-on with the show, thus making one of the few reality TV shows I find myself ever tolerating.
To any Kevin Smith fan, you should know how much the dude loves talking. He’s built an entire career on it. At the press rooms of New York Comic-Con, he was no different.
On the unique construction of Comic Book Men: Didn’t even create it, happened by accident because we wanted to include the podcast and one of the only reality shows where there’s never a moment where you’re the camera and somebody is fucking looking at you going, “You know what happened? I hate this guy.” Or, “Fucking, I was there.” Like the podcast table allows us the device of they have to tell me the stories as opposed to telling it to the camera. One thing I really love [about the show] in terms of the medium, I thought that as clever in terms of, “Wow, we got away with what they call OTF, on the flight, talking to the camera.” I’ll sit there for three days and record and then come out, we do that two more times. The editors go produce it. I start seeing cuts like I started seeing cuts maybe five weeks before. And then basically watch the episode; note it if there’s stuff to cut. And I’m first and foremost, more than anything even more than a writer anymore, I’m an editor.
That’s what I love to do and I got a good sharp attention for it. So I’ll go through an episode and watch it and they’ve done all the heavy lifting, it’s all there but then I’ll just be like, “Cut 12:10 to 12:15.” It’s a strenuous work. There was one I first cut it the episode of Shatner was like, he didn’t show up till the last five minutes and I was like, “Are you kidding me, we spoke for two hours and he did some wonderful shit.” We went back in and it’s one of the best episodes we ever did. So I’m going like, “I made that happen.”Sometimes you just the person on the outside who’s like, “Come on dude. I was there and I know we got more with this guy and if we’re going to sit down with Will Shatner, let’s fucking sit down.” So that episode took a nice jump. So that’s what I doubt really it’s those dudes, and I keep pointing at, those four dudes, produced all the material.
I know it’s an unscripted show, [but] we’re not reality. They’re aware of cameras, they’re fucking everywhere. Otherwise why would they agree to do the show? So some people in season one got shitty about that but, look it’s not reality, it’s of course not. But we never called it that. It’s unscripted. Those cameras show up and then Brian will say, “Okay, the transaction will start.” And they start bringing him through and it just happens that way. And if they’re doing a story episode he sets them in a four shot and then he goes, “Okay, start talking.” And they start generating conversation.
I give them all props, all the content of that show is on their minds, they’re paid as on-camera performers of themselves because it’s not technically performance, they’re playing themselves. But they’re writers as well and those are my friends like the dudes least likely to be writing TV fucking writers and they back doored into it. They generate same thing a writer’s room would do for a bunch of actors so, they get to be themselves but come up with the material. And all their bickering, like Brian and Walter, they’ve been practically married for 40 years.
All that bickering and shit talking became this show, like it became their podcast first on Steve, Dave and that podcast became this show. So I don’t know, it’s a real testimony to everyone else, it may be the most successful I’ve ever been involved with and that’s because I have very little to do with it other than show up and be myself sometimes but, it’s a joy, I love it so much.
How his expectations from the first season have changed now that they’re on season five: I’ve always had zero expectations in regards to the show at all, came together organically and accidentally. If I tried to make it happen, it wouldn’t happen, this dude Charlie Collier wanted original media. I met him through Ellis Siden one of the producers on the show and he said, “AMC is looking for a geek program, cheap geek program.” I said, “Why?” It was because they had, The Walking Dead that worked very well, but they got to go shoot season two and they’re afraid that the audience that showed up is going to lose interest and go away. So they want to keep the geek attention and they thought, “You might know how to do that.” I was like, “Never, oh my God. No.” And so I said, “If you were ever going to do something inexpensive,” I said, “If you put Pawn Stars in a comic book store, that’s be amazing.” As I grew up watching Antiques Roadshow I always fucking watched it with my father, no comics. Toys, every once in a while.
And every time they did it, you’re fucking [gestures excitedly] and you wished for an All Berries episode where it was nothing but toys and fucking comics and so that’s what I pitched. I was like, “Do that man, because I know my audience would watch that, I’d fucking watch that.” So, didn’t even pitch my store or my friends, just pitched that idea. So I had no expectations that it would be some of my store or these guys would be it, eventually it wound up being those dudes. What I said to this dude Charlie Crewman, I was like … he said, and “AMC is interested in shooting a pilot so you’ve got 10K to do it. So is that good?” He goes, “Well, we’ll eat up most of that in location fee, and I was like, “What do you mean location fee?” He goes, “Well, we got to pay a comic book store to shoot there.” The idea was to find the most acerbic comic book store staff in America in a nationwide search and then go shoot there. I said, “Well, I got a comic book store.” And that’s the first time I’d said it in one month that we’d been talking about this fucking show. And he goes, “You’re serious?” And was like, “Yeah, I’m right behind New Jersey, I got a comic book store.” He goes, “Why didn’t you ever say anything?” And I was like, “I don’t know, I guess it sound braggy if I say bit out loud.” [laughs] And he goes, “Really?”I said,”Yeah, and the dudes that work there are very, very funny. Like they do this podcast together called Tell ‘Em Steve Dave so, they could stand in for however is going to be the most acerbic comic book store and staff that we find in our nationwide search.
And he said, “Well, how can I see ’em and hear ’em?” I said, “Here’s a link to their podcast.” And then next day Charlie calls up and he goes, “You’re a fucking idiot, this is the show.”
I never thought to put them forward because they’re not interested in this shit.” Like Ming loves this. and was like, “Oh my God let’s do this of course.” Bryan and Walter, no interest. Like they come up from straight up Jersey style, where they’re terrified of somebody making them look stupid and that was the reason they didn’t want the show. I called Walter, “You want to do the show? AMC, they do Mad Men, they do Walking Dead. They could do a show at Secret Stash.” I was like, it’d be amazing. And Walter was like, “No, I don’t want to do it.” And I said, “Why?” And he goes, “Because I don’t want to be Snooki.” [laughs] Which just shows you how far back this shit started man.
And I was like, “Dude, why wouldn’t you want to be Snooki? She made a lot of money last year.” And he didn’t want to do it for any reason other than I’ve talked him into it because the store was like, I said like years prior, “We’ve got about two years left on that store. So ride it out because I ain’t making anymore Jay & Bob movies so we’re not making anything that would make anyone come into the store anymore.” Most places are going digital, brick and mortar’s dying and shit. We’ve had a great run over ten years, we’re going to shut it within the next two or three. And so as I was talking to him on the phone and like almost at the two year mark, I was like, “I’ll tell you what dude; having a show in fucking AMC is like a commercial for the fucking store, it might make people come into the store.” And that’s the only reason he did it, he goes, “Well, if it keeps the store open, I’ll do it.” And now look at him, his the fucking star of the show it’s fucking crazy.
So I had no expectations then it organically just fucking happened. If I went pitching this and tried to make it happen have my heart in it, I know this business, it wouldn’t happen, This happened by accident and shit.
The fact that it happened by accident and then found a little audience at night with a million people watching, helps that we have two juggernaut shows leading in, in front of us and what not. It’s a gift every year when they renew it and then when do renew it, since I’ve really never had the biggest influence on the show I’ve always hesitated to be like, “All right, this is what we’re doing this year.” It best when I let those dudes do it.
The show kind of works the way it works the way it works, where it’s like I come in, I don’t know what the fuck happened and they tell me a story. And so I never wanted to interrupt that flow. Every once in a while I’m like, “Oh, we should do this.” Like if we go to season six, I know for a fact there’s an episode where I desperately want to do. Years ago I got into my alma mater, Henry Hudson Regional High School, they have this like dopey wall of fame, like hall of fame shit. It’s like me and ten other people. And the boys have been on TV for like five years, so I was there the other week and, I was like,“Oh, my God. You should induct the boys.” And the school was like, “Yeah, we’ll totally do that next year.” So I was like, “Oh my God, if we can go back to high school with this TV show, like I’ll drop the mic, I’ll walk away.” So if we get to season six maybe we’ll get too do that but other than that, I’m just happy to be the guy who comes in. The exact role I play on the show is the exact role I play off camera as well.
Comic Book Men premieres Oct. 18th at midnight EST.