A view askew night

Saturday night Angela and I ventured downtown L.A. to the Orpheum theater - a beautiful, very ornate old building with surprisingly easy to find parking. We went to see Kevin Smith on stage for one of his Q & A shows. We'd gotten the tickets in June, a birthday gift from my parents, and we had second row center (yet on an aisle!) seats. We were excited.

Kevin Smith, for those of you who don't know, is a screenwriter, director and actor. He made his first movie, Clerks, in 1994 in the convenience store where he worked. His films are known for their fast-paced dialogue, for introducing the world to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, for being completely past the line of taste at time, and most of all for being funny.

I first discovered Kevin Smith in college, when his movie Dogma came out. It the film Smith skewers the Catholic church and religion as a whole. But he does it in only the way a lifelong Catholic could do and get away with it. And there's a poop monster in the movie. You have to see it to understand. And laugh. But anyway, I was told by some friends that Dogma probably wasn't the movie for me seeings how I was very active in church and a person of strong faith. I shrugged and said okay. Then I saw it for myself. And loved it.

So fast forward over ten years. Kevin's made a bunch more movies, written blogs, produced hundreds of hours of podcasts and I've been a loyal fan all along. So Saturday, getting to sit and listen to this master storyteller talk about working with George Carlin and Bruce Willis and ordering eight hundred dollars of food online was just pure enjoyment. It was also very cool to sit mere feet across the aisle from Jason Mewes, one of Kevin's best friends and fellow actor in all his movies, and to see his wife in the balcony laugh along with stories she's probably okay with never hearing again.

It was just such a unique experience. And one I'm still amazed I had. Especially that I had it so easily. It took us twenty minutes to drive downtown (and there was a lot of traffic and an out light!) and we were there. Back as a college student at Olivet seeing a Kevin Smith movie for the first time I never would have dreamed I'd arrive the point in my life where one night in October I'd get to drive a few miles and sit right in front of the man who wrote all these movies that have entertained me countless times. So thanks Mom and Dad, for giving me one of the best birthday presents yet!