Kevin Smith talk show: if it's shit, it's the critics' fault

Just jokes, Kev: it's all love.

Erstwhile writer-actor-director turned podcaster-stand-up-comic-toys-out-of-pram-thrower Kevin Smith is filming a pilot for a nightly talk show, bolstering his new-found status as a professional raconteur.

It will be, according to an email New York Magazine got hold of:

You could be forgiven for having missed a lot of his recent output unless you're a die-hard fan, as his podcast network and new internet radio station (page will start talking and probably swearing at you straight away so mute it up if you're at work, folks) have been successfully targeted at his existing fanbase, with ' deliberately ' no effort made to expand it.

You also probably won't have seen his recent self-distributed film Red State, because it's not out in the UK till October, and if you had a ticket for the London press screening earlier this month you will, like Matt and me, have been turned away after he cancelled it and had to resort instead to drinking and debating the flaws in Dexter's narrative structure. (Yes, this is the kind of conversation we have.)

It's been a successful strategy for him, but you've got to wonder whether a step into TV (sorry, make that two steps: he's also developing a reality show for AMC set in his comic-book store) will make his output tougher to defend. It's deliberately in-jokey, specifically targeted at existing fans, and as such who knows if it'll work in a syndicated TV slot unless diluted for a broader audience?

But hey, I'd like to think so. Say what you like about the guy, but he sure knows how to tell an anecdote.