Many years ago I discovered podcasts and my world became a lot more entertaining. During a conversation with a total stranger I was informed that Kevin Smith, one my personal heroes had a podcast of his own, dubbed Smodcast.
At the time there were 14 episodes and I gobbled them up in the course of a few days. A mindless warehouse job enabled me to listen to 8 full hours of audio every day. I’ve since left the concrete hell I once inhabited and Kevin Smith has turned one podcast into an audio empire with more podcasts than I can count, but the sultry sounds of Smith and Mosier are still my favorite audio adventure and I wait (sometimes impatiently) for my weekly dose.
When I think about Smodcast I have a short list of favorite episodes, most of them pretty early. Because there wasn’t a whole lot of content in the early days I would listen and re-listen to my favorite episodes. “The Pretty Good Worker” and “Forgeticus” stick out in my mind. The scenarios and jokes they set up resulted in such laughs and inside jokes that they’ve permanently entered my lexicon.
A relatively recent episode hit me in a way that was reminiscent of those early days and sparked conversations with those close to me. Episode 259 titled “The Walrus and the Carpenter” featured a discussion about an advertisement Smith had discovered online, created by Chris Parkinson (pictured below) regarding a room for rent. The ad explained that the home’s owner had in years past developed a meaningful relationship with a walrus called Gregory and missed him dearly. He had spent the last couple of years creating a life-like walrus costume and was willing to give a room and full access to the house (except for their room and workshop) in exchange for the tenant wearing the costume and behaving in the manners of a walrus.
The ad itself was entertaining enough but as Smith and Mosier are wont to do, they took it a few steps further. What resulted was an idea for a movie that involved the unsuspecting renter being turned, against their will, into a human walrus.
I never expected that Smith would actually go anywhere with this. He and Mosier pump out ideas like this on the regular, most of them live and die on the pod and are good for a strange thought and a good laugh but go no further. I’m so glad that I was wrong about this. Smith took to Twitter asking his followers to tweet #WalrusYes or WalrusNo to indicate if this was something they were actually interested in seeing. It was no contest, everyone wanted to see it.
Only five months later Smith delivers, the film has been shot, wrapping last Friday. Judging from the handful of blurbs and a couple of pictures Smith has tossed up online I’m excited in a way I haven’t been for a long time, especially about a horror movie.
Michael Parks (Red State) is returning to the Smith horror train as the walrus loving villain and Justin Long (Zach and Miri Make a Porno) returns as well, this time he’ll be getting in the walrus rather than the walrus being put in him. Zing.
Smith teased the walrus/man hybrid with the following image and it looks horrifying and wonderful. For my money I can’t think of a better poster, if that doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will. Plus I want it on my wall.
Kevin Smith feels like an everyman and interacts with his fans in a way that no other filmmaker does. He has, for as long as I can remember, encouraged those around him to do exactly what he does, make your movie, write your book, paint your painting, because no one else will. In his own words “So long as it never involves hurting others, chase all your dreams, kids – no matter the size. We can’t stop our eventual demise so we might as well try to do some cool shit before that ol’ clock runs out. Don’t ever listen to the common consensus, just grab YOUR walrus by the tail and make it happen. NOW.” Create something wonderful.
I think that type of person is someone worth supporting, and it doesn’t hurt that he keeps making movies and podcasts that are entertaining.
I hope post production moves along with the same urgency that production did, I want to see it. I can’t wait.
#WalrusYes Indeed.