Kevin Smith is a legendary filmmaker and comedian. One of the fathers of stoner comedies, Smith came onto the scene with his first film, Clerks, a micro-budget film shot in black and white in between hours at the convenience store where he was working. Since then, Smith has made many more films, ranging from comedy to science fiction and even extreme horror. Smith, once tied to a specific style and genre, has proven time and time again that he can display more versatility than it seems.
Aside from movies, Smith also worked on television shows and several podcasts. He reviews movies, discusses pop culture, and retells events of his life, especially around the production of his films. Smith even owns a comic book store of his own in New Jersey, which became the location of one of his scripted TV shows, Comic Book Men. However, Smith’s few stand-up specials are where he shines the most due to the mixing of elements of scripted and unscripted comedy.
Kevin Smith Has an Incredible Career That Started From Nothing
Kevin Smith truly started from the ground up. Clerks was entirely self-funded and shot on a total budget of $27,575 in the convenience and video stores where he worked in real life. He employed his friends and found the cheapest film he could, giving the film its untimely black-and-white coloring. After Clerks, which got two sequels over time, Smith expanded upon what he calls his “View Askewniverse,” releasing other stoner comedies such as Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a reference to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (even reusing the style and font of the titles), Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and the less-loved Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
Smith also dipped his toes in completely different genres from comedy, albeit retaining some elements of absurdity. His 1999 movie Dogma, starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Alan Rickman, with a budget of $10 million, tells the story of two fallen angels who try to return to heaven. The film was highly controversial due to its religious nature, but it became a cult classic nonetheless. There is also the example of Tusk, a gruesome body horror movie where a mad scientist turns his captive into a walrus through a series of forced surgeries.
Kevin Smith’s Move to Television and Podcasts
Kevin Smith is good at writing comedy. His success as a director landed him a few television shows, including the Hulu talk show Spoilers, where he hosts and his guests give their honest reviews of newly released movies. He also wrote a scripted television show for AMC, titled Comic Book Men, which was even shot in his own comic book store. Among more projects, he got to direct three episodes of The Flash, four episodes of Supergirl, and three episodes of The Goldbergs.
Here again, Smith shows his many talents, capable of running both a less-scripted talk show for over 10 years and a scripted series over two seasons and directing ongoing big shows. Finally, Smith has had several successful and long-running podcasts. The most famous is SModcast, a comedy podcast with fellow comedian Scott Mosier. The other ones range from reviewing movies and comics to discussing the behind-the-scenes of his various projects and discussing events from his day-to-day life. Smith is naturally funny in those many unscripted formats, to the delight of his fans.
Kevin Smith Is Great at Stand-Up
On top of all the aforementioned projects, Kevin Smith also starred in several Q&A session documentaries and comedy specials. Examples include An Evening with Kevin Smith, which had two sequels, where he answers questions from fans, or Too Fat for 40, where the comedian answers only one question and goes on a tangent including a variety of topics, from Bruce Willis to marijuana, to the making of Zack and Miri Make a Porno. In Silent but Deadly, which follows a more traditional form of stand-up specials, Smith jokes about his personal life and his career — just one hour before suffering a thankfully non-fatal heart attack.
The freeform stand-up format is a perfect fit for Smith. The comedian can express himself freely, not stuck in the Bob character, not behind the camera, not puppeteered by a network, just being himself. He gets to chat about things that genuinely matter to him, such as pop culture and his own life, with a natural flair for comedy that lightens the mood when things get dark. The thing is, Smith is a likable man, and those who can sit through a 3-hour special with him ranting will have the best time of their lives.
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Best Kevin Smith Films, Ranked
Writer/director Kevin Smith burst onto the scene in a big way in 1994 with Clerks, introducing us to the cast of characters in his Askewniverse.
Kevin Smith has had a prolific career that is still on the rise over the past three decades. Ultimately, what someone might prefer to see from Kevin Smith depends on the kind of humor and content they like. Nonetheless, few can deny that Smith’s directing career has gone a bit downhill over time: Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Clerks II are some of his movies that got terrible critiques. With that being said, his most recent project, The 4:30 Movie, has received positive reviews and was praised for its well-thought-out love letter to the world of cinema and the youth of today and yesterday. Kevin Smith’s Silent but Deadly is streaming on Freevee.