Recap Kevin Smith at the Chicago Theatre

Not long into Kevin Smith's Friday night appearance at the Chicago Theatre, the writer/director entered into what would be, for almost any other speaker, immensely private, if not remarkably embarrassing, territory. In the second of two anecdotes that veered off into supremely personal bathroom tales, Smith recounted how, just by sitting on it, he ended up breaking a toilet bowl in half at a DVD shop in LA. Self-deprecatingly, the director admitted it takes “Hulk-like strength to break a toilet—or a Hulk-like ass.”

And it takes a Hulk-like ego to talk about yourself for three hours, but as the turnout and Smith’s reception suggested, he could have gone even longer. Smith talked, at varying lengths, about everything from his podcast (SModcast) to feeling comfortable walking away from his View Askewniverse movies and characters (like Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob). He spoke about the size of his fans (if the crowd were to rush for the theater's fire exits that night, Smith explained, "women and children get killed first."), and how Wayne Gretzky and his father Walter Gretzky have become his new personal and professional inspirations. But mostly, he just talked. So much so, that the answer to the first question spanned over an hour, touching upon, among other points, Seth Rogen, smoking weed, weight gain, and the opening gross for his film Zack And Miri Make A Porno—all of that from an inquiry about working with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan on Smith's upcoming project, A Couple Of Dicks.

Some of the night's most humorous moments came from Smith's attempts to play matchmaker to one of the twentysomethings who asked a question. "Let's get you laid tonight!" Smith exclaimed, in the middle of the college-aged fan's inquiry. "Only if you film it," he replied, not missing a beat. Offering up his hotel suite to whoever left the theater with his newfound friend that evening, Smith scoured the audience until a redhead from the theater's upper level came down and agreed to go out for drinks with him after the show. Upon learning how much the young man paid to be in attendance at the venue that night, Smith declared, "Seventy-five dollars? The least I could do is get you laid."

The evening closed on a surprisingly heavy note, when a seemingly sensitive fan asked Smith to share a memory of his late father, as the 15-year-old at the mic had been to his fair share of funerals lately. The filmmaker did his best to keep his response relatively light-hearted, attempting to interject good-spirited humor into the story of his father's last night alive with his family. Nevertheless, the question proved disarming, and Smith clearly choked up a few times while revisiting his more personal terrain. It was a strangely fitting end to the night, wherein Smith had no problem sharing intimate bathroom anecdotes about his ass, but ended up revealing even greater personal details of his already exposed life. Throughout it all, Smith maintained that he still could keep a room's attention, no matter the topic’s inanity or gravity.