Best night of my life. Thanks so much, Kevin Smith, Marc Bernardin & J.C. Reifenberg ❤️
FULL 3 1/2 HOUR EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG7VFaatjEE&t=10884s
Last night (April 12, 2021) during Kevin Smith’s & Marc Bernardin’s Live “Fatman Beyond” podcast show, where they talk everything comics, movies, TV & other fandom, of which is also my FAVORITE show to listen to every week, I decided I’d go for the live chat and take my chances with submitting (what I hoped would be) a fun question for them to answer not expecting anything from it, as there were over 13,000 people watching live and commenting. Almost immediately, J.C. Reifenberg (the incredible moderator / owner of “The Scum & Villainy Cantina” in LA) responded with “Good Q”. I was so happy that J.C. even saw my silly question, ready to leave with just that. This was already becoming one of my favorite episodes they’ve ever done on “Fatman Beyond”.
For some better context, Kevin Smith, for one, is a true hero of mine, if not THE biggest hero of mine. My late mom, Claudia, introduced me and friend Ruben to him early on, falling in love with the characters of Jay & Silent Bob, but in my teens would grow to appreciate the heart and soul of Smith’s storytelling and characters. He truly is one of my heroes, imaginary mentors, and inspiration to be kinder, more positive and do what I love even more passionately. “Tusk” (2014) was phenomenal to me and highly underrated. I cannot wait for “Clerks III”.
Marc Bernardin was introduced to me through being a Kevin Smith fan, of which he’s grown to be one of my favorite human beings. He is so f***ing smart, brilliant, honest, and god damn passionate. So lovable on all levels. I cannot wait to see his and Kevin’s work on “Masters of the Universe” for Netflix. He’s been kind enough to give me some personal writing advice during an open DM session on Twitter, he continues to inspire me in so many ways and helps me see things in a better and wider perspective.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Smith, Marc Bernardin and the incredible moderator J.C. Reifenberg at their “Scum and Villainy Cantina” in LA with my fiance Rachel in July, 2019 when “Spider-Man: Far From Home” was released and fans got to watch with Marc and J.C. then meet up with Kevin at the Cantina for the “Fatman Beyond” live show to talk about the movie. It was incredible, I ran into Kevin and Marc backstage before it started and all I said was “Thank you guys so much for doing this” and sat down in my seat. As much as I would’ve loved a picture to take home, I knew that this would mean more to me (and them) in the long run. They said thank you back, and Marc even liked my Tweet about it later that evening.
But back to last night’s show!!! Again, for more context, the show was going later than usual. They normally don’t start it that late, and their INCREDIBLE guest, comic book veteran and creator of the character “The Winter Soldier”, ED BRUBAKER, had already kind of gone overtime. So I was predicting that they probably wouldn’t get to a Q&A and I should save my question for next week’s episode. Just happy that J.C. had even seen it.
So when they wrap up their guest speaker for the week, it was already hittin’ the 10pm mark, and I throw in a comment just to show some love and wrote “News & Q&A please? Don’t leave us yet! ❤️” and for some magical reason with some magical timing, Kevin Smith said “Let’s take a look at the chat”, looked down and READ MY COMMENT out loud. I nearly sh** a brick! Just HEARING Kevin Smith say my name gave me chills. Hearing the full name of my website in HIS mouth made my movie reviews feel more REAL than ever before. I felt so inspired and just wanted to create immediately after that. I was about to shut it down and watch the rest later, but then Kevin said “Let’s do the news and one question!”. The news they did was great, but started to go a bit longer than I predicted, and once again I assumed they would not get to a Q&A. By the end of the news, Kevin Smith asked J.C. for ONE question only and to pick the BEST one. I got nervous of course, but still not expecting me to be that one and rightly so they went with something else which was great! Again, thought I’d just save mine for next week…
THEN Kevin Smith just says “I’m having so much fun let’s do another question!” and it became the start of the GREATEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE..
J.C. chose my question for the 2nd (of 3, they always pick 3 at the end of every show). I’m not saying my question is the greatest thing ever, the subject of the show was pretty heavy, and they were looking for FUN questions and I came up with that on one on the spot because I knew they loved comic book questions and Kevin Smith always brings weed back into the conversation anyways! Brubaker too! So great! Thought it was fitting for the show.
And now the video above tells the rest of this story… I hope you guys enjoy!
I was overwhelmed by how much the chat loved it, so many great answers! Love the support! Someone in the chat even said “do the weed question”! It was incredible! Felt so inspired and was reminded of why I started in film in the first place. Why I started these reviews. I just want to give even more to this.
Thank you guys SO much for answering my question! It means so much to me, I hope you guys had as much fun as I did watching. For as long as I’ve loved you guys and have been watching… it was a dream come true. I hope one day I can give back as much as you guys have given to me ❤️
HUGE SHOUTOUT to comic book legend; ED BRUBAKER. Watch the FULL episode to hear his story about how he created THE WINTER SOLDIER and why he is NOT excited for Disney+’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (won’t spoil the episode, if you like that type of stuff, check it out!). Off to buy your comic books, good sir!
Check out “Fatman Beyond” and @scumandvillainycantina