While actor Jason Mewes is best known for his role as Jay, the mouthy, filthy-minded sidekick to Silent Bob in many of director Kevin Smith's movies, he has suffered his ups and downs, going through many bouts of rehab for various addictions to smack and pills. Over the past year, however, he has become a model citizen. In addition to his many film and television roles, his podcast with Smith, Jay and Silent Bob Get Old, was named one of iTunes' Best Podcasts of 2010.
A live taping of Jay and Silent Bob Get Old comes to the Midland on Monday, May 2, along with SModcast, the podcast Smith does with producer Scott Mosier. Mewes spoke with us by phone about the podcast, acting, and living a life with no secrets.
The Pitch: I guess a lot of these Jay and Silent Bob Get Old live shows have been combined with SModcast?
Jason Mewes: Yeah, that's what we just got back from. We went to Florida, and then we went to Pittsburgh, and then we did Philly. We're doing two shows for one, or so I guess. We do SModcast for an hour, hour and 15 minutes, then we do a 15-minute break, then we do an hour and a half, depending. It's three hours - we do an opener, then a break, then a star show.
You've been doing the show for six months now?
Yeah, it's about six months. We're at about the 27th or 28th episode. I'm a little lost, because the last week we've been on a bus and traveling. But it's been about six months, I'd say.
With the podcast and Kevin Smith's "Me and My Shadow," what's it like having your life be pretty much an open book?
Awhile ago, when Kevin did the book [My Boring Ass Life], he asked me if I was all right, and I was fine with it, because people had known - not that many details, but they had known a good chunk of it. So, I was fine with him writing that, and then after that, a lot of it was out there. I mean, I'm fine with it. To me, the good thing is that I get good feedback from Twitter or Facebook or private messages on View Askew. People come up to me and say that it's helped them, or helped their cousin, or their brother, because they were in bad shape, and they listened or read the book, and it sort of encouraged them to get help and stuff. And that really makes me feel good, y'know?
For me, it's like if it's an open book, and people know, the fans aren't going to stop watching the movies or listening to the show because of it. It just seems the opposite - it seems to be good because it's helping people, and if I can help even one person, that makes me feel really good.
The original idea behind the podcast is accountability, and keeping it out there in the public eye, right?
Yeah, that's how it started. I mean, I always wanted to do a podcast, because I had filled in for SModcast a couple times. Kevin was like, "Hey, Mosier's out of town, and I want to put up an episode. Why don't you jump on?" and I enjoyed it. I was, like, I want to start meeting every week and doing one together. It seems fun. I wasn't sure what our show would be about, and then we started talking about me being sober. When I got sober again, I was like, Man, I really gotta stick with this this time. And Kevin asked, "Why do you think you feel off?" And I was like, Well, when I got surgery and got the pain medicine for the surgery, I wasn't accountable to anyone. I was sitting at home by myself, and I wasn't going to meeting, and I didn't have to see anyone, I didn't have to tell anyone, and I wasn't accountable. That was a big part of my feeling as to how it was so easy to fall back into [addiction].
So, Kevin was like, "Well, you want to do a podcast, and I think this would be perfect for that." Perfect place to be accountable to other people. So, it worked out, y'know? It helps me be accountable, and we also get to do a podcast. It seems to be going well.
It seems you've gotten a lot more comfortable and confident over the course of the show. Is that what's led to you doing your own Q&As now?
Part of it's that. I had been doing my own Q&As before the podcast. Again, I had jumped on a couple of Kevin's, and I was uncomfortable being in front of all those people. But then I had done more and longer with Kevin, and then I got an offer to do one by myself, and it was only for 45 minutes and a 45-minute signing. I did that 45 minutes pretty easy, and then the next one, I said to [my booking agent] Natty in Canada, "Hey, if you get another offer for a Q&A, if they ask for longer, tell them I can do longer. Let's try an hour and a half of the actual Q&A."
And that's what I did, and an hour and a half wound up being easier, and more and more, and I've wound up doing one that was, like, three hours by myself. So, yeah - the more and more I've done, the more and more it's helped. But, yes, doing the Q&As by myself and doing the podcast has definitely helped.
What do you discuss during your Q&As?
It's more movie stuff. It ain't like the podcast. It's more what the fans ask me. A lot of time I get asked if I'm like the Jay character, when's the first time I met Kevin, and how do I like acting, what's my next role, and if I could do any role, what would it be, and stuff like that. Whatever the questions are for, I give them answers for.
I guess I have a question along those lines. You've done a lot of horror flicks, right?
Yeah, I've done a decent amount now. I didn't realize I had done that many until my buddy Billy was like, "Hey, there's this horror convention in Florida, Spooky Empire, and they want you to come out." So, I was like, It's all about horror? I haven't really done that much horror. And he's like, "What do you mean? You've done this, this, this, and this," and it was like, Whoa, I guess I have.
But, yeah, I've done a decent amount of horror. I enjoy 'em. Different characters, and different from the Jay and Bob and comedies and stuff, so I like it for that, in itself, not to mention, like, if the script's good and all that.
How do these Jay and Silent Bob Get Old shows on the road differ from the shows at the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club?
We started a new game, for one. We're going to do it at Lovitz, but we started this new game for the road, specifically because we wanted to do something different. The first seven episodes are also the story of Kevin and I meeting and when we did the first movie, and a chunk of when I got really bad. There was, like, a two-month period where I left L.A. and drove to New Jersey, and I went to New York to do a show and a photo shoot for something else, and we're sort of filling in the blanks of that, and then, when we were in Pittsburgh, we sort of stuck with stuff from Dogma and Zach & Miri. So, in Pittsburgh, we sort of focused on Pittsburgh stories, and then, in Florida, we sort of filled in stories on our road trip.
No "Let Us Fuck" on the road, then?
No, we're not. We did another game, and I think it went really well. We'll see what people think.
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