Kevin Smith Provides Tough Sh*t and Advice

Mar 25, 2012

I have to say actor/director/writer/podcaster Kevin Smith is one of my heroes. Alright, maybe “hero” is too strong a word but I’ve been a fan since Clerks first hit theaters and follow just about everything Smith has been involved in. I’m even one of those people who think Mallrats is a riot, no matter what critics say, and Jersey Girl got much harder knocks than it deserved!

One thing that’s always stuck in my mind about Kevin Smith is, no matter the ups and downs his career has taken, he always comes across as one of us. That’s certainly not something you run across with the vast majority of people involved in show biz. A good case in point is a visit Elliot and I made to the old Wizard World con, in Chicago, where we had the pleasure of talking with Smith for a few minutes. Interestingly enough, he just came strolling up next to us while we were standing at the View Askew booth buying some Clerks animated series figures and we proceeded to chat for a few.

Smith has built an elaborate network of over 30 podcasts at SModcast, one of which was turned into a reality show called Comic Book Men, that just wrapped its first season a week ago on AMC. I enjoyed Comic Book Men – mainly because I like comics – even knowing that many of the random customers coming into the store weren’t actually random. As far as SModcast, the entire network is pretty much geek nirvana and I tend to listen quite a lot while I’m working on the site.

Now Kevin Smith has a new book on stands called Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good.

Here’s the breakdown on the book from Barnes & Noble:

Profane, honest, and totally real advice from comedian and director Kevin Smith – one of America’s most original voices

Take one look at Kevin Smith: He’s a balding fatty who wears a size XXL hockey jersey, shorts, and slippers year-round. Not a likely source for life advice. But take a second look at Kevin Smith: He changed filmmaking forever when he was twenty-four with the release of Clerks, and since then has gone on to make nine more profitable movies, runs his own production company, wrote a bestselling graphic novel, and has a beautiful wife and kids. So he must be doing something right.

As Kevin’s millions of Twitter followers and millions of podcast listeners know, he’s the first one to admit his flaws and the last one to care about them. In early 2011, he began using his platform to answer big questions from fans-like “What should I do with my life?”- and he discovered that he had a lot to say. Tough Sh*t distills his four decades of breaking all the rules down to direct and brutally honest advice, including:

Why he has accepted Ferris Bueller as his personal savior, and what the Tenets of Buellerism can teach about hiding in plain sight and lip-syncing in the face of danger
Why it’s really fun to eat but not so fun to be fat
What to do about people who don’t like your policies ( for starters, tell them to pucker up and smooch your big ol’ butt)
What Kevin’s idol Wayne Gretzky can teach us about creativity and direction

For anyone who’s out of a job, out of luck, or just out of sugary snack foods, Tough Sh*t is an unabashedly honest guide to getting the most out of doing the least.

Here’s Kevin talking to Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill about his book, his career and his life on CBS This Morning.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...