Now today would be the first time I've seen Kevin Smith since the premiere of 'J&SBSB' last August. And it's here, where he stands at the front doors of the theater meeting and greeting each and every fan, taking pictures, and addressing them which theater they'll be in - Theater 1 or Theater 2 - #1 being the main house.

Malcolm Ingram soon sees me standing in line and waves me over. He greets me warmly as he stands beside Smith, who then finally sees me and offers me an even warmer greeting. Which was just fine with me as it was fuckin' cold as hell that morning. I left sunny, warm 70-degree L.A. weather for this?!?!

Once inside, Gail Stanley, Smith's personal assistant who handles all of Smith's press relations, and whom so graciously assisted me in my reports throughout my 'J&SBSB' coverage, greets me and gives me the dish on what's what.

Just after Smith obliges everyone outside, he soon shuffles into the main theater and his job today is to primarily introduce the films, and Q&A's to follow, all of which is being orchestrated between two houses, flip-flopping the lineup. Meaning as 'VULGAR' shows in House #1, 'NOW YOU KNOW' is showing in House #2, so a lot of running back and forth is required, meaning two runs of the shows and two Q&A sets are happening each day. *** INSERT "Vulgar" picture HERE ***

I take my seat in the main theater, preparing myself for the assault that is Bryan Johnson's 'VULGAR'. Now originally this film premiered in Toronto last year, to walkouts and luke-warm responses at best. I didn't know too much about this flick, other than the infamous clown-rape sequence, and that the idea was based loosely on Walt Flanagan's original View Askew mascot drawing, aptly named and christened, "Vulgar", hence which the title character derives from. Let me tell you, after watching this film, there's something very uneasy about watching a clown getting violated at 10:30am. Although well made, with a harrowing performance from Brian O'Halloran, I can see now how the subject matter will turn off most mainstream audiences. Simply put, it's not a "Hollywood" film. It's a film that, like "Vulgar" the clown, leaves you feeling emotionally violated, as from one minute to the next your left to the point wondering, "Wait a minute. This isn't funny any more." Then you get taken down a different, much darker path than you were expecting - only to soon turn around another corner and find a hilarious cameo by Jason Mewes, or a disturbing one by Kevin Smith.

In polling the outside audience, reaction was clearly mixed. Some dug it; others were just left to wonder, while some (particularly some girls) were clearly left traumatized. For me, it's at best a midnight film, in which when I asked Smith if he thought the film was made for his audience he remarked back with, "I don't think it's made for even my audience!"

Essentially it took me awhile to let the film sink it, as after I exited the theater, I was left uncomfortable and feeling a bit dirty upon having seen it. "Feel good movie of the year" - not by a long shot. Depending on your film taste, it may or may not be a movie for you. If your still into the film after the first 20 minutes or so, then consider yourself game and hang on - for this ride is a bumpy one, steering you through one unpredictable turn after another.

When Smith asked me what my reaction was just a few short minutes after seeing it, I couldn't field him an immediate reaction, but after seeing the flick and having it sink in, it's one of those films that leaves you feeling a bit shaken and stirred, but provokes you at the same time, often daring you to take that chicken exit out (as some did). I chose not to, and hung on for the duration of the ride and ultimately I'm glad I did.

For most, I'd say 9 out of 10 people will probably react negatively to the film, but that one just might dig it immensely. So you've got to ask yourself, "Could I be that one?" If so, you can catch 'VULGAR', playing in LA and NY in a limited run of about 12-14 theaters next month. You may never look at clowns the same way again.

In the Q&A immediately following, Smith introduces writer/director Johnson and actor, O'Halloran to the stage to field audience questions.

'VULGAR' - Q & A - Bryan Johnson & Brian O'Halloran

Both Bryan and Brian run late into the Q&A as Smith explains on the mike:

Kevin Smith: After this picture, I would be inclined to get in here as quickly as possibleŠ to explain myself.

Both Bryan and Brian enter, and run down the aisle.

As they take the stage, the crowd cheers, just as the first question is fielded from a fan in the back.

QUESTION: You got all this from a fuckin' cartoon?

Bryan Johnson: WellŠ yeah. Sittin' around with Kevin and Walter at the Quick Stop, when you run out of things to talk about you're like "what would this guy's story be?"

BRIAN O'HALLORAN ON PREPARING FOR THE RAPE SCENE

QUESTION: How do you prepare for a role like that?

Brian O'Halloran: UmŠ get loadedŠ ask to get dumped off in New York and have a cameraman to document the whole thing.

BO'H: Bryan actually just had everybody really quiet, and just a minimal amount of people in the building we shot it in. It was just like amplifying the worst, worst, worst, worst, worst things that you've had done to you and just amplified like ten times. And then it was just the rage of that - of trying to think about being violated in any sense of the word is just horrible - and just flipping out where there are times that you just want to kill.

BRIAN O'HALLORAN ON PREVIOUS CLOWN EXPERIENCE

BO'H: Unless you talk about getting drunk and acting like an ass, the only type of clown experience I had was going to the circus at age 8 and a lot of Krusty - "Hey, hey kids!!! UghhhŠ"

ON PLAYING DANTE VERSUS VULGAR

QUESTION: Which was easier for you to play?

BO'H: I think the Dante one is a given. I never was assaulted by three men wanting to stick things in meŠ unless you consider the cigarette thing an assault. I'd say definitely hands down that Dante is easier.

ON RECRUITING O'HALLORAN FOR THE LEAD ROLE

BJ: I just gave him a script and was like, "I'll see ya later!" Then we met at a Mongolian restaurant, he called me names, his girlfriend called me names and we talked about it.

QUESTION: Did you write it with Brian in mind?

BJ: I did. I wrote it for Brian. It really makes you think about like, "What are you thinking about me if you're writing thisŠ"

BO'H: What? You've always wanted to see my ass?

And when he said we called him names, my girlfriend, who didn't really know him well at the time, was just like - "You're a sick fuck!" So at that point I'm like, "Yeah, what's up with this man?!?!"

QUESTION: What do you hope that people, who aren't familiar with VA stuff, will get out of the film?

BJ: I think the movie can stand apart from the VA references, as it's not your typical VA film. It's not a straight comedy.

QUESTION: Do you worry that if VULGAR gets a wide release that most people might not catch on any VA references?

BJ: One thing I don't think we have to worry about is a wide release for this film. We've been told that it'll open in 10-12 theatres and then if it does well it'll go into more, but this is not going to be at the multiplexŠ ever.

QUESTION: What's holding it back?

Audience laughs.

BJ: It's hard to say. Let's get a checklist. It's unrated for one. We submitted it to the MPAA, they wanted us to cut out a lot of stuff, which I thought was kind of bullshit. You don't really see that much, if you really think about that scene. There is a little bit of violence and a lot of language, but you don't see anything. I don't think it should've ever gotten an unrated or NC-17, so I said, "Fuck it. Just send it out unrated."

ON GOING OUT UNRATED VESUS NC17

QUESTION: Why release it unrated and not NC17?

BJ: You can't advertise NC-17 in some papers and theatres, but unrated you can.

RESPECT THE CLOWN

QUESTION: Did you ever have any respect for clowns?

BJ: Nah, not really.

ON THE IDEA AND CONCEPT

BJ: It was from Walter's drawing. Like I said, we'd sit around Quick Stop and just toss some ideas around and ask ourselves, "Does that guy exist?"

ON KEVIN'S ROLE IN THE FILM

QUESTION: Did you write the role for Kevin?

BJ: No I didn't because I didn't think Kevin would want a big part, if anything I thought he'd want to play something small. He came down one day to the Stash and asked, "What am I gonna play?" And I was like, "Well I was thinking of this," which was something small and he was like, "What? Why don't you let me play Martan?" And I was like, "Yeah, alright. I just didn't think you'd want something that big." So I said, "Sure, why not."

ON DIRECTING HIS FIRST FILM

QUESTION: How did you like directing your first film?

BJ: Directing it, I liked. Acting in it, I wish I hadn't. If I had it to do over, I would try to pay more attention to the directing aspect.

ON THE SCRIPT

BJ: I wrote the script in '95 and showed it to Kevin and he wanted to do it right away, but then we couldn't get it together that fast, so we were going to shoot it in '96 and having never done anything like this before, needed some instruction so we decided to wait until to following year to shoot it. So we shot it in '97 and we had such a long post-production because we didn't have enough money and because Mosier was a huge part of the post-production process, he took off to do 'DOGMA'.

QUESTION: Is Affleck aware his name is in the movie?

BJ: I don't think so. Originally, it was written so far back that Affleck was really not "Affleck" at the time, so he was going to be in it, originally playing Scott Mosier's partŠ but then fuckin' turned on us.

ON CASTING HIS FATHER IN A ROLE

BJ: Ah, sweet, sweet revenge.

And finallyŠ

ON CLOSURE

BJ: I'm not a huge fan on having everything being wrapped up in nice packages. Some things in life aren't resolved and that's just the way it is.

After 'VULGAR' the next film on tap was 'JAY and SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK', the fifth and final film closing out the "Jersey" chronicles. I can just about recite every line in this film by now, so any further public showings might illicit an almost 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'-like response from me in the audience. So I choose to sit this one out, only occasionally peeking in here and there. The only reasoning I can fathom that Smith would show this in the lineup is as a precursor to the first public showing of outtakes and deleted scenes from the film. I hadn't seen these since filming, so it was great fun to sit in with the audience and relive those glory days of not so long ago.

There's a full breakdown of detailed scenes and descriptions over at www.newsaskew.com, and a whole lot more, if you feel so inclined to know just what was shown and cut. And of note, Smith later informs me that these deleted scenes and outtakes - which include more than was shown, will indeed be included on the DVD release scheduled for February 26th in a 2-disc collector's set.

Then there was a special video greeting to Vulgarthon attendees from fan fave Jason Lee, which literally arrives right before the event, so much in fact that even Smith himself is viewing it with the audience for the first time. From Lee's message, it's clear that he misses the 'Thon just as much as the fans miss him for not being there as he self shoots himself from a balcony over looking Vancouver, Canada where he's currently filming, 'A GUY THING' with Julia Stiles.

Almost as if you were there is Lee's transcript in its entirety:

JASON LEE'S VIDEO GREETING TO 'VULGATHON 3' ATTENDEES

"Are we rolling?"