…And indeed it was rather special, not only because Smith, Mosier, Mewes, Klein, O’Halloran, Anderson and Ghigliotti had not been in the same room for a number of years, let alone in so public a fashion. This group of guests and the presence of the DVD crew meant that audience questions had to be primarily focused on the specific subject of CLERKS. The restrictions on the questions, however, did not mean that this Q&A session was any less freewheeling than the norm. The night’s first running jokes were set up by a couple of the very first questions, one of which was rather obsessively concerned with the whole gum-in-the-lock conceit, the other insistent on how bad the film looks. While these developed into running threads throughout the evening, Smith and company did not hit their true comedic stride until he related a story about the unusual and unlikely influence of a true-life incident where a guy was kidnapped by NAMBLA folk. Needless to say, I cannot do justice to neither the story nor the many hilarious jokes mined from it, but should the whole thing be included on the DVD, I imagine “boots and a sandwich” will become quite the catchphrase among the Askew fandom.

But, of course, it wasn’t all fun and games, as a lot of information imparted (including an off-topic tidbit here and there, as Jeff Anderson’s long-completed directorial debut NOW YOU KNOW has finally been picked up for widespread distribution, by Miramax), not to mention amusing anecdotes about the shoot and how everyone came together for what turned out to be such an influential production. Undoubtedly the editing shears will remove some of the more redundant queries about budget, but as a whole the audience did a good job of staying generally on topic and asking soundbite-ready, DVD-supplement-friendly questions directed at the entire panel. Queries along the lines of “What was the most valuable thing you learned from working on the film?” may not be the most original nor initially promising, but when you have as interesting a bunch as those who were assembled here, it makes for fascinating and entertaining listening–and should definitely make for likewise DVD viewing in the fall.