Jason Mewes has been inseparable from Kevin Smith since he debuted as Jay the drug dealer in Clerks. Since his last appearance in Clerks II, Mewes and Smith have done a podcast called “Jay and Silent Bob Get Old” where they reflect on Mewes’ struggles with addiction and discuss their latest life stories.
Epix filmed their Australian tour for the special “Jay and Silent Bob Go Down Under” which recently premiered. Some of the highlights include a story about how Mewes won sexual favors in a game of Trouble, his latest clumsy escapade with his wife in the Australian hotel room, and the audience participation game Let Us F*** where he invents and acts out sexual positions.
I had the privilege of answering my phone to hear, “Is this Fred? This is Jason Mewes.” And we talked about his naughty storytelling and the upcoming Jay and Silent Bob animated movie.
CraveOnline: I watched “Jay and Silent Bob Go Down Under” and when you tell the story of playing Trouble for sexual favors, Kevin disagreed with you that there’s a strategy to Trouble. I want to know the strategy for Trouble.
Jason Mewes: I feel that the strategy of debating, if you roll a six, and you can get one of your guys out or eat somebody, or do you move your ones forward all the way in? So do you move all four of them all in front trying to get them all around as fast as possible?
Or do you try to take one out and leave it behind someone so you can eat them if they get out. So there are decisions to be made, one being if you roll a six and you can eat someone, do you go six spots, eat that person, send them back home? Or do you take your guy out, roll again and go around the board?
CraveOnline: So even though the dice are random, how you play your moves is still strategic.
Jason Mewes: Because you pop the bubble and you have to roll a six. You’ve got four guys and you roll a six and then you can get out of your home base. So if you roll a six, but you already have two guys out and one of them can go six spaces and gobble up the other one and send them back home, do you do that? Do you send them back home or do you take one of your guys out? So there’s some strategy to it.
CraveOnline: Your sex story from the hotel room was pretty epic. Did you know while that was happening that it would be a good story?
Jason Mewes: No, not then but I feel like right after a lot of times I’ll think of stuff, and then I’ll also of course ask my lady, “Hey, I think I want to talk about this tonight. How do you feel about this?” I would say if there was, and I can’t even think of one, maybe there’s been one out of 100 stories that she would say, “No, don’t mention that.”
I think at this point I know there’s only a couple things I feel like she would be upset if I talked about. Again, it hasn’t happened, but I know for example, which hasn’t happened ever, but I’m sure if she ever crapped herself during a session, I don’t think she’d let me tell that one. But again, usually nothing like that happens, so there isn’t a reason for me not to talk about whatever it is.
For me, whenever we travel and we go somewhere, definitely the surroundings play a part in whether I’m going to try to do stuff outside or in the hotel room, on the porch or whatever it might be. I feel that that can add to the show if it happens, if she doesn’t refuse 100 times.
CraveOnline: Whereas if you crap yourself, then you can tell that story.
Jason Mewes: Oh for sure, and I’d want to tell that. I almost hope for that sometimes. I don’t think I could crap while I’m having sex but I definitely feel it would have to be told if I did.
CraveOnline: But your bathroom story was pretty amazing.
Jason Mewes: Yes. There’s been some fun bathroom things that have happened. It’s definitely slowed down some. Like I told Kevin recently, I was like, “Wow, we’re almost at 100 episodes. While I was single and having sex with a bunch of different girls, there definitely was [more].”
There’s definitely sex stories, but they’re not necessarily entertaining or fun in any part. It might be just missionary and maybe a sliparound here or there, so I’m not going to necessarily tell every story. But all the fun, sort of crazy, outlandish things that have happened over the years have sort of slowed down now that I’m married and just me and my wife, besides when we’re, again, out of town and I’m trying to have sex on balconies and bathrooms and stuff.
CraveOnline: To me, that’s the dream, to have one woman I can count on.
Jason Mewes: That’s true, that’s true. Believe me, it’s definitely nice. I definitely enjoy being married. Again, every once in a while, not that I want to mention anyone else, but it’s like wow, remember when I used to go out of town.
When I went to Vegas is a good example. You’re there to gamble but there’s always like, “Hey, am I going to get to bring someone home?” Where now if we’re in Vegas, we gamble for a couple hours and her and I are usually like, “You know, let’s go back to the room and watch a movie.” Stuff like that, but it’s great. That’s also nice. It’s also nice to just go back and cuddle and watch a movie.
CraveOnline: I remember you used to be quiet when Kevin would bring you on stage during the Q&As. Did the podcast really open you up?
Jason Mewes: It’s definitely helped. When I used to get up on stage during the Q&As, I couldn’t necessarily put a finger on exactly what it was, but I definitely know now. The difference is when we used to do the Q&As, and I understand, a lot of people would be there mainly to see him. I’d sit there and part of the reason I’d be quiet is because someone would say, “Hey Kevin, why did you do this?” And then he would go into his answer and that answer would last 40 minutes, 30 minutes.
I didn’t really have anything to say because it would be a question like, “When you wrote Dogma or Clerks, why did you do this?” and I don’t really have anything to say about why he wrote it or anything. Then the next question, same thing, they’d ask him something and then ask him something. Next thing you know, it’d be two hours of him talking about why he wrote Clerks, why he cast so and so, why he did this, and then all of a sudden, someone would throw a question at me and I’d be like almost shocked, like oh, what, me?
I’d dazed off listening to him because even though I’ve heard some of the stories or I’m sitting up there with him, most of the time I get into listening to him. So he starts telling a story, and that actually happened by our sixth or seventh podcast. In the beginning, he was telling his perspective and point of view on my drug history and our relationship over the years with the drugs and stuff, so for the first six, seven episodes of “Jay and Bob Get Old,” I would sit there and listen to him and be like, “Wow, that’s what he thought when this happened. Oh, he saw this when that happened.”
I was so used to listening and getting into it and maybe chiming in a little bit here, a little bit there, that when he was done telling his story, we were like maybe 15 minutes into episode seven or eight, an all of a sudden he said, “Okay, Jay, now tell your story. What do you think?” And I’m like, “What? What?” because I was still listening every week to him talk about me and talk about this. So that was sort of the one where afterwards he’s like, “Yo, you’re going to have to start talking a lot so you need to start being ready to talk about whatever you want to talk about.”
The podcast has definitely helped me be able to chime in. Timing-wise it has definitely helped, but I feel like a difference also again is people when they’re there, they’re there to see Kevin and I both, and not just there to ask Kevin questions and me listen and sit next to him.
CraveOnline: You can definitely tell he plays a part in prompting you to talk. When did you come up with the game Let Us F***?
Jason Mewes: I forget because I know we started playing that in the earlier episodes. Then we tried to switch it up and we had fun with some of the other things we’d do. Let Us Act where we picked scenes from Twilight or Brokeback Mountain or Black Swan and played it out with a couple of the audience members.
That was definitely fun but I feel like we just keep going back to Let Us F*** because it’s definitely one of the easier ones and people seem to dig it. I don’t remember how we came up with that. It’s a good question. I have to go back and listen to podcasts and remember. Maybe it’ll jog my memory, what was the first episode we did that and why, but I’m not sure.
CraveOnline: Are you ever stumped by one of those? You seem to have an answer for any sexual position.
Jason Mewes: There’s definitely been a couple. There’s been two where I almost had to stop in the middle because it deals with the city we’re in. It’s like The Denver Broncos Bunghole, well Denver Broncos I know, but sometimes they’ll say a state’s known for whatever, corn or pies or whatever it might be and I have to ask the audience, I don’t know. “You live here, I don’t know, I don’t live here, so what is this?” We’ll ask the room and try to think.
There’ve been a few where I don’t know how to get across this part of the Let Us F*** but this part, we can definitely do this, this and this. I try to definitely go with it and improvise. It seems to work out usually because again it’s such a funny, silly game that I feel like if we don’t get a name across right, as long as we do something the audience member gets into, that’s the other thing. It’s hard sometimes.
Some of them will want to play but they’re not really into it. I feel like if they’re into it, we’ve done stuff where it didn’t make sense at all but the audience member was so into it and joking that they were pounding and had a weird face and everyone was cracking up, so it’ll work. It’s fun. It’s a fun game. We’ll be able to figure stuff out usually.
CraveOnline: What’s going on with the animated Jay and Silent Bob movie?
Jason Mewes: It’s coming together, man. I’m really excited about it. Honestly, each time the animator sends clips and little pieces of what he’s animated or even started rough drawings of what he’s animating, each time I feel like it’s getting better and better. We’re starting to get a score together and sound effects and music.
The people we’ve got to join in and do the voices for different characters have just elevated it. It’s coming together well but we’re hoping that in May or June we’ll have a finished product with everything and we’ll be able to start showing it. We’re not sure yet, we haven’t decided 100% but we’re thinking about doing a Red State type of tour where we show the movie and we do a Q&A afterwards or a podcast.
We get to watch the cartoon and afterwards talk about it. We haven’t decided exactly the format and if we’re doing it and how we’re going to start it but it’s looking pretty good like we’re going to start doing it on the east coast and come across country.
CraveOnline: I understood that it was going to be the next road show. Does the story pick up after we saw them in Clerks II?
Jason Mewes: The characters, no. It’s something Kevin wrote. It’s similar to the movie within the movie Bluntman and Chronic. It’s just them roaming. I don’t know how much we want to give away but it’s not really a continuation I would say from Clerks II. It’s just a continuation of Jay and Bob going out and discover some stuff. Next thing you know, they’re in some fun business.
CraveOnline: Well, none of them are direct continuations, but they evolve.
Jason Mewes: Oh, I will say there’s definitely tie-ins. It’ll be part of the View Askewniverse world for sure.
CraveOnline: It’s funny to think the live action Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back 11 years ago was such a poignant commentary on internet haters. Have you thought about how much worse internet haters have gotten in the last 10 years?
Jason Mewes: Oh definitely. Internet and I just think critics and everything altogether. Who knows, we might throw a little bit of business in with that too, in the cartoon that is. We’ll see.
CraveOnline: What’s been your favorite Kevin Smith movie?
Jason Mewes: Mallrats.
CraveOnline: Really, one of the early ones?
Jason Mewes: That’s why. Even though we did Clerks, I do count it, but I don’t count it because it was 10 people on no budget. I worked a normal job, I was a roofer and after work I’d go home for a few hours, then at 11 o’clock at night we’d start shooting Clerks.
But Mallrats for me was the first studio movie, 40 crew members, a per diem, wardrobe, makeup, hair, trailers. It was just so surreal to me that I’ll never forget it. Every day I just was like, “I can’t believe I’m out in Minnesota staying in a hotel shooting a real movie with Stan Lee and Shannon Doherty who I watched on ‘90210.’” It was just super surreal to me, and I was younger so it was the first time I was ever out of Jersey besides New York. The whole process was just super surreal and I’ll never forget it, so definitely Mallrats.
CraveOnline: Did they cut any good stories out of the “Down Under” special?
Jason Mewes: They definitely had to cut because there was a bunch of hours. Between the different podcasts, I think there was a ton of hours of footage of behind the scenes stuff. I don’t know anything specifically that they cut out that I could say would be awesome for them to have in there, but there definitely was some more footage.
Hopefully we see how this goes and then maybe we take the rest of the footage and compile it and make another one. Again, we went to five different cities out there. We did five or six shows out there.
CraveOnline: Lastly, when did you cut your hair?
Jason Mewes: I cut it in ’03 or ’04. I cut it to my shoulders, then I cut it really short because I did a movie with David Arquette, The Tripper. Then another movie called Repo and they’d asked me if I’d cut it short and dye it black, and then I did.
Then I got used to it being short so I kept it short and then I started letting it grow again. It got to my shoulders and then I’d cut it short again, and now I’m letting it grow again. Now it’s down past my shoulders I’d say. I’m going to let it grow again now and see how long I can let it get before it gets aggravating, or someone asks me to cut it for something else.
CraveOnline: I tried letting my hair grow that long but mine’s curly.
Jason Mewes: It can get nice, though, right? Nice and round. That’s awesome.
