Writer-Director-Actor Kevin Smith to be Honored with the 24th Presentation of the UCLA Jack Benny Award for Comedy

Writer-director-actor Kevin Smith will accept the UCLA Jack Benny Award for Comedy at a special ceremony on Wednesday, April 12. The award will be presented by the students of the UCLA Campus Events Commission in recognition of Smith’s outstanding contribution to comedy.

Special Events Director of UCLA Campus Events Commission, Nish Chari, said of the event, “We are incredibly proud — on behalf of the UCLA student body — not only to honor Kevin Smith for his outstanding contribution to comedy as a writer, director, and actor, but also to recognize the incredible legacy of Jack Benny. Much like Jack Benny and past recipients of the award, Smith’s films have had an undeniable impact on the world of comedy.”

A special video retrospective of Smith’s career will precede the award presentation. The clip package will include work from his classic films Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, as well as a sneak peek from his upcoming film, Clerks II, featuring the original cast members Jason Mewes, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, as well as Rosario Dawson. There will be a question and answer period with the UCLA audience following the award presentation.

Past recipients of the prestigious UCLA Jack Benny Award include Johnny Carson, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Rodney Dangerfield, George Burns, Joan Rivers, David Letterman, Bill Murray, Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, John Cleese, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Carol Burnett, Candice Bergen, Roseanne Arnold, Leslie Nielsen, Kelsey Grammer, Ellen DeGeneres, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler, and most recently Mike Myers.

Regarding the award, Smith said, “Point blank, this sh*t means the world to me. Getting an award for being funny – as opposed to, say, funny-looking – lifts my self-esteem just enough to keep my overdose pills on the medicine cabinet shelf instead of in my gut for at least one more year. I like college students and I like awards, so receiving an award from college students – the audience that has always responded the most enthusiastically to my flicks – beats winning an Oscar in my book (though, strangely, not a Golden Globe). I can’t thank UCLA enough for this honor, as it just might make me more attractive in my wife’s eyes – which may translate to more n**kie for me.”

The ceremony will be held in Royce Hall on the UCLA campus at noon. Admission is restricted to students, faculty and staff.

“…This v.2 of “Battlestar Galactica” is so insanely amazing, I’m sometimes flummoxed watching it. When I started seeing billboards around town advertising the show when it debuted, I remember thinking “Wow. Why?” The OG “B-Star-G” (as we’ve taken to calling it around the house) was a fun piece of disposable youth cheese that, even as a ’70’s pre-teen, was easy to recognize for what it was: a “Star Wars” rip-off. Granted, I had a Colonial Viper and a Cylon Raider as a kid; but my Mother bought them for me from the sale rack at the now-defunct Two Guys store, where each set her back less than a buck. Compared to the hundreds (maybe thousands) she and my Father spent on Kenner’s “Star Wars” line of action figures and accessories for me over the years, the two bits she dropped on “Galactica” crap probably made her wish I was a bigger fan of Starbuck than Han Solo.”

“… I mean, my affection for this program actually inspired me to go to a fucking panel and sit in the audience like every other fanboy and fangirl, gawking dopily at the cast and crew behind its creation.

The highlight of said panel was a screening of the episode that was running that night – the penultimate chapter in the second part of Season Two. This was an unexpected delight, as I’d never watched the show with anyone but Jen. Sitting amidst three hundred or so other “B-Star G” enthusiasts and hearing what they responded to was pretty cool.

After the screening, the cast and crew were brought up and interviewed, and I was reminded why I don’t go to panels in the first place: there are no gods behind the stuff (movies, tv, comics) you’re drawn to or love; there are actual people. Some folks came off as arrogant; some folks came off as boring; thankfully, a few realized that, if you’re gonna stand up in front of a crowd, you should try to be funny, or at least entertaining (the Brit contingency especially – the guy who plays Apollo and the guy who plays Balthar – made the sit much easier). When all was said and done, I’m glad I attended, but in the future, I will limit my enthusiasm for a show to the show itself (and to hours of web-investigation on the subject).”

The need to make those comedies came about for Reitman around age 14 when he had a pure cinematic experience by first watching Kevin Smith’s ”Clerks,” then Richard Linklater’s ”Slacker,” and later Wes Anderson’s ”Bottle Rocket,” three independent comedies that helped usher in the independent cinema renaissance.

”That changed my life,” Reitman said. ”Up till then, I thought what a comedy was was the kind of films my dad made. But when I saw ”Clerks” it was like . . . it was like getting hit by a hammer.

”It was just so different,” he added. ”Here’s this completely independent, different movie by people in Jersey who I had never heard of. . . . My goals in life became really specific at that point. That’s the kind of filmmaker I wanted to be, and it seemed like in doing that I could be a filmmaker on my own terms, and I’d have to deal a little less with all this daddy’s boy [garbage].”

SOUTHLAND TALES BOOK 2: FINGERPRINTS GN
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