Big talker

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This article was published 08/12/2011 (5277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JAY and Silent Bob are hitting the road again with their podcast-inspired comedy tour, but for Jason Mewes, the Canadian leg of their travelling roadshow also feels a bit like a homecoming.

Mewes, a longtime friend and onscreen sidekick to indie filmmaker Kevin Smith in such big-screen features as Clerks, Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, developed a definite affection for Winnipeg while shooting the first two seasons of the Gemini Award-winning series Todd & the Book of Pure Evil.

“I’m very excited about getting back there,” Mewes said earlier this week from his home in Los Angeles, a day before heading north to Vancouver to begin a whirlwind five-city tour of the western provinces that includes a stop this Sunday at the Burton Cummings Theatre (tickets are $50 at Ticketmaster). “I’ve been up there three or four times now — a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there — and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve been there enough that I’ve got some interesting stories to tell in the show.”

Mewes says he was attracted to the shot-in-Winnipeg series after being sent the pilot script by a Canadian friend he met while he and Smith were in Toronto shooting a guest appearance on TV’s Degrassi.

“I just loved it — to me, it’s almost like Tales from the Crypt meets 90210, and my character (Jimmy the janitor) is like the Crypt Keeper,” he says. “He’s only in the episodes for a minute or two, but he’s always giving Todd advice or showing him how the world works.”

Interestingly, the guy who solidified his onscreen partnership with Smith (as foul-mouthed drug dealer Jay alongside mostly mute Silent Bob) in the 1995 feature Mallrats says many of his fondest memories of this city revolve around a shopping centre.

“The last few times we’ve been there, we stayed close to the Polo Park mall,” he explains. “I head into the mall every few days go grab a few things that I need… and it’s always an adventure.”

The five-city western-Canadian tour is the third live-show foray for Mewes and Smith, who have successfully adapted the banter and horseplay of their Jay and Silent Bob Get Old podcast into a live show that features tales from their movies, Q&A sessions and a few audience-participation games that occasionally venture into rather risqué territory.

“I definitely feel like it’s still a seat-of-the-pants thing,” he says. “I wouldn’t say that it’s structured, but as time goes on and we do more and more of them, I think we’re getting more of a vibe of what people like and we’ve changed it up a bit.

“The only structure is that if I’m in a city that I’ve spent time in and things have happened to me — good, bad, funny or whatever — I’ll try to tell those stories, because people can relate to them. If I’m talking about Polo Park mall in Winnipeg, people will get it.

“It’s just us telling stories about what’s going on with us, whether it happened 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago on the way to the show.”

Mewes admits that there was a period of adjustment when he first started performing in front of a live audience.

“It took me a while to get used to it,” he says. “I started out by going up onstage to do Q&As with Kevin, and then I went out on my own and started booking Q&As at colleges in Canada and all over the States. And I found that being up onstage, I could keep people entertained by answering questions and telling stories. At first, about an hour was all I could do, but after a few months of doing it, I got more comfortable and I could do two hours.

“It was the same with the podcasts — when I first went on, I would sit there and Kevin would do most of the talking and would lead me in with a few questions; now that I’m more comfortable, I want to get more animated and tell more stories. I’ve gotten more comfortable, and it’s more fun and more entertaining.”

The New Jersey-born performer, who has a well-documented history of substance abuse, rehabs and relapses, credits the Jay and Silent Bob Get Old podcasts and tours as a key element in helping him stay clean and sober for nearly two years.

“Just sharing my story helps me,” he says. “When I’m telling these stories — even if it’s about me, in a bathroom, curled up in a ball, (soiling) myself — I can laugh about it now, but at the same time it reminds me how bad it was and that I don’t ever want to be there again.

“Talking about it helps, instead of holding it all inside and keeping it secret. And if someone comes up and tells me that his brother’s been battling drugs for three years but now he’s six months sober because my story inspired him, that lifts my spirits and makes me not want to disappoint them and not want to disappoint my family or myself, either.”

Beyond the therapeutic benefits of hitting the road with Jay and Silent Bob, however, Mewes is just happy for another opportunity to cross the Canada-U.S. border.

“I love Canada,” he says. “It’s the place where I’ve now won two awards, which is amazing. I’ve done a lot of work in the States, and I haven’t won anything; in Canada, I’ve got a Gemini for best comedy ensemble, and a speaker of the year award (in 2009, from the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities) for going around and telling my story at colleges all over Canada. That’s pretty cool. Canada’s a good place.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca