How Kevin Smith's 'Clerks III' tour offers comedy, catharsis

It sounds excessive to drive to Kansas City and spend money on a premium ticket to see a silly comedy already streaming.

Yet, last Thursday night, I trekked to The Midland Theatre to see Kevin Smith’s “Clerks III.” The difference in renting the seemingly unnecessary sequel from your couch is the presence of Smith himself, doing a live Q&A that makes the experience not only entertaining but incredibly emotional. That’s no joke.

Smith’s evolution as a cultural staple is truly fascinating. He financed his first film — the original “Clerks” — with $27 thousand in maxed-out credit cards to become a critical and cult sensation. One can quibble with his technical eye as a director, as Smith himself does, but not with the raw energy of his dialogue. At their best, his characters are foul, smart and breathless at once.

Critic Andrew Sarris still takes heat for calling Smith “the next Scorsese” back in the day, but “Clerks” and follow-ups such as “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” — perhaps one of the best modern films about the Christian faith — certainly made the case plausible.

Then, Smith found new venues for his fast and furious style of storytelling. He would do town hall-style shows that went on for hours as he told stories about filmmaking. He would sell DVD recordings of those shows online.

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At the dawn of podcasts, Smith built a network of broadcasts devoted to geek culture. They cover the same things his characters would talk about. But now, the rest of us had caught up. Some might argue Smith helped everyone catch up. 

As Smith expanded his media expire, the films became less important. With the exception of the scarily straight “Red State,” his cinematic excursions became more like self-referential in-jokes. If Smith isn’t making reboots and sequels of his earlier films, he is giving daughter Harley Quinn Smith starring roles in stoner comedies like “Yoga Hosers.”

Such films are programmed exclusively for die-hard fans who cheer through these live shows. For most of its runtime, “Clerks III” fits the mold. It’s the second sequel following Dante and Randal (Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson) through their lifetime journey in the service industry, killing time talking about pop culture and bodily functions.

Right away, Randal has a heart attack similar to the “widow maker” Smith suffered in 2018. Facing death, this clerk decides to stop talking about movies and make one. He envisions a smart-alecky comedy about working at a convenience store, and we follow Randal’s path to becoming an indie filmmaker.

Very meta, but Smith primarily uses this set-up to repeat jokes from the first two films. Whenever I hear a film reference another film, it usually makes me wish I were watching the other one instead. The crowd around me, fueled on adrenaline and Boulevard on tap, ate it up.

There is, however, plenty of room for introspection in a filmmaker looking back at their career with mortality in mind. One notable character is killed offscreen and another fan favorite dies at the film’s climax. The Midland crowd wasn’t so excited about this. The first question in the Q&A came from someone wondering why Smith had such disregard for a character so integral to his adolescence.

I want to be careful about spoiling the film since I didn’t know this detail going in. But it seems important to understanding Smith’s response. Let me say this: The character who dies here died in the original ending of “Clerks.” The studio was so put off by the development he begged Smith to change the ending. To which he did.

Smith explains “Clerks III” as the story of two heart attacks. The first heart attack — suffered by Randal — is Smith’s heart attack. It put the filmmaker in direct contact with the meaning of his life and career.

He thought about what it meant to elicit emotions from his audience beyond guffaws. He recalled seeing movies with his dad. Don Smith was not a talkative guy, Kevin notes. But in empty matinee screenings, young Smith would see his dad become effusively chatty about what he was seeing.

One afternoon, Dad and Kevin went to see “Raging Bull.” Not a great family film, but Smith recalled his father openly weeping throughout. Dad was at a bit of a loss afterwards to explain to why the film made him sad. Then, Smith fast forwards to his time as a dad and his five-year-old daughter crying about a song on the radio.

Smith explained, after his dad died, he was trying to make sense of what made art emotional. What would make someone feel whatever Don Smith felt watching “Raging Bull.”

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“I realized that death gives meaning to life,” Smith said. “In turn, that life gives meaning to art. I realize killing off (that character) in the first film was the act of a 24-year-old narcissist. I didn’t understand death then. Now I do. I understand how we have to face it and how it has made my life worth living. Because sometimes we don’t get to survive like I did.

“Which is to say the second heart attack in the film was really about my dad’s heart attack and how he would never get to experience anything like crying in a movie again.”

Folks, I was sitting here at the cusp of my 45th birthday still wrestling with my father’s sudden death two years ago, trying to figure out how to be a dad myself. My eyes welled up and I had to catch my breath. Yeah, I cried watching a screening of “Clerks III.” That’s the power of Smith’s stage presence and storytelling.

One might say the film fails if you don't understand this without Smith's explanation. But I think he intended for a live crowd to hear him talk about how even a goofy comedy can give meaning to some of life’s bigger issues.

Smith talked for two hours after the film was over. He talked about his thoughts on Harvey Weinstein and a host of other topics. I could have listened to him into the wee hours. So was driving to Kansas City on a dreary fall night to see “Clerks III” worth it?  I cannot imagine seeing it any other way.

James Owen is the Tribune’s film columnist. In real life, he is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. A graduate of Drury University and the University of Kansas, he created Filmsnobs.com, where he co-hosts a podcast. He enjoyed an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield, and now regularly guests on Columbia radio station KFRU.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Kevin Smith's 'Clerks III' tour offers comedy, catharsis