Kevin Smith was so stoned last night he couldn’t even form complete sentences. And this was the man who was, hypothetically, moderating the Q&A at the screening of Spaced at the Arclight last night. When he came out announcing he was baked, the audience laughed, but it soon became clear that he wasn’t joking, and was in fact blitzed out of his head.
For a man who is usually, I think it’s fair to say, quite a chatterbox, Smith was rather comatose last night. It was my first time seeing Smith in the flesh and I was a little alarmed at how out of it he seemed, but hey. If you can’t get stoned before a screening of Spaced with your friends, when can you?
The screening was free and first come, first serve, which meant that fans were lining up since early that morning. Three episodes of Spaced were shown on the big screen (what a treat!!) and was followed by a rather rambling Q&A with Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright, Jessica Hynes and Simon Pegg.
The affection and excitement in the room was palpable, and the fans were eating up every minute of it. In a sort of a pre-comic-con frenzy, the audience were simply shouting out questions and applauding at everything. It was the best possible way to watch Spaced.
The show itself is incredible. The creativity of Wright, Pegg and Hynes leaps off of the screen and makes the show, more than anything, FUN. Honestly, when was the last time you watched a television show that was fun to watch and that you can tell the cast and crew had fun making? I think one of the keys to any sort of art is the love of what you’re doing coming through, and this is certainly this case with Spaced. The DVD of the full series is out now, and comes complete with extras, commentaries and silliness.