So tonight started off with me and the wife watching our usual television show together and I was already getting sleepy, of course, by 7:30pm. I asked Shannon to make me a fresh coffee since I had already told Ernie I would come by (and have often dropped the ball in this area) so I wasn’t going to bail on him again. Tonight was a “special event night” he was hosting of Jay & Silent Bob’s Xmas Special where they were going to do their podcast live at their private studio, “The Smodcastle” where I had just shot my short a couple weeks ago that Ernie co-produced with me.

I had never actually met Kevin Smith or Jay Mewes. I think I was at a party he (JAY MEWES) showed up to back in the day, but I can’t really remember cause that was back in high school and, well, we’ll just leave it at that.

I first met Ernie at my premiere of “Jerseyboy Hero” over a decade ago and we have remained close friends over the years. He had often tried to get me back into the field after my costly and traumatic delays with the films post production process. It took me years to recover from that project. I went into a very deep depression. He and I had been trying to work together for years, but I had always been a bit flakey when it comes to committing and returning to the thankless world of self sacrifice to strangers that Entertainment is for most of the artists in the world. To his credit, (and he always reminds me) it has always been me that has been too “stressed, tired, uninspired, or busy” and his encouragement over the years had often come right when I needed it:

ERNIE:
Hey Vaughn, I got this film called “100 Acres of Hell” that Jason’s doing and I want you to be one of the friends! …Jerseyboy, you gotta come and “whisper in my ear on this short on doing about the dirty pedos” …. Hey Bro, I can definitely get you on Clerks III, wanna drive a truck? 

I think Ernie is one of cool guys from Jersey that has a very bright future doing his own films. I finally came through and helped direct a bit on his short (The Seventh Day: exposing the pedos roped me in) which I think he did an amazing job with. I am pretty sure it just got picked up, so when I find out, I will be promoting it. It is a really cool short film about the angelic dialogue between Angels dispatched to “deal with the pedophiles in the church.” I will say the artistic approach to the material, and the ending, are worthy of every minute of viewing.

Anyway, back to the Clerks night… So I arrived to a sold out “packed house” and a pretty large crowd gathered in front of the famous strip mall where Kevin Smith started it all (THE QUICK STOP) and has now set up one of his several venues (SMODCASTLE) to help cater to his fanbase and give back to the local community. Thankfully,  I was able to go around to avoid the crowds and head to the stage door, where a divine appointment was waiting for me. One of my old friend’s sons “Christian Cordes” was heading in the studio to do sound. Christian is the oldest son of Prince Be of PM DAWN; and we go way back, his father and I were very close friends. We met while I was recording “Speak” in the BLISS STUDIO with his uncle, and former partner, DJ MINUTEMIX (NOW ETERNAL) . It was so good to see him doing his thing and it reminded me of the years I spent in his basement recording songs with his father and uncle. I was also blessed by the divine connection of dots that seems to follow ( or lead) all of us on a daily basis. We talked a bit about the drama with Greg (ugh, see PM DAWN DRAMA WHICH I AM GONNA ASK HIM OR HIS MOM TO WRITE ONE DAY) as I caught up with him backstage and we even spent some time talking about his new script (which I hear is amazing). Another fun fact about Christian that everyone should know… His father wrote this song about him!

I poured myself some coffee and watched Kevin get prepped to go on stage by Ernie as they waited for Jay to arrive. Ernie called me over and introduced me to Kevin:

ERNIE:
Kev, this is a very good friend of mine, Chris Vaughn, he’s a fellow filmmaker and the guy that did that movie with Springsteen I told you about… He also the same guy that filmed that short here a couple weeks ago.  

KEVIN SMITH:
“Oh, yea, right on man, cool. Nice to finally meet you. I can’t wait to see the film. It interestingly never occurred to me to use my own fully functioning studio to do a film.

I was greeted with a warm handshake and smile from Kevin Smith and he was every bit the approachable, warm friendly guy he appears to be on screen and in interviews. As soon as Jay Mewes showed up they both were ushered on stage to begin their live podcast and after Ernie introduced them to the crowd we met backstage to discuss our current projects and casually listen to Jay tells his airplane luggage story which Kevin and he volleyed nicely, much like their comic book personas, the dynamic duo. Their performance often received many applause and laughs from the live studio audience full of loyal subjects.

After hearing about Clerks III from behind the scenes, I expect some of his loyal fans that are in his fan club (some of which had driven hours to attend this show) were excited to be hand selected to preview the “almost finished version of Clerks III before it is offered to the world. I have heard a lot about it from Ernie who seemed very impressed with how it came together so I foresee his fans will be pleasantly surprised by the film’s direction.

Hollywood returns to Jerseywood. Keep your eyes and ears out for anything that Ernie O’Donnell, Christian Cordes, Brandon Cordes or Mia Cordes are doing.