Interview: Jason Mewes Talks Jay and Silent Bob, Twitch Streaming, and Fan Expo St. Louis

Ahead of Fan Expo St. Louis this weekend (May 13-15), Jason Mewes spoke with us about being back at conventions, meeting fans, and some of his new interests.

“You know, it’s been awesome. Not only do I get to come back… I love the vibe and nostalgia of going to comic book conventions in general. But also, I get to get away for a week and hang out with people. And on top of that, I’m getting to do shows with Kevin,” says Mewes.

Jason’s friend and longtime collaborator Kevin Smith, who gave him his first acting gig in Clerks, will be performing alongside him during “The Jay and Silent Bob Show” on Saturday night.

“It’s really nice to not only be there at the con, but to be there with Kevin – and Bryan, and Jeff there – it’s pretty dope.”

Fan Expo will be a reunion of sorts for the cast of Clerks, just in time for the highly-anticipated third installment in the series expected to be released sometime in the next year. Jason (Jay), Kevin Smith (Silent Bob), Brian O’Halloran (Dante), Jeff Anderson (Randal), and Trevor Fehrman (Elias from Clerks II) will be in attendance for a special photo op.

“I don’t get to see Jeff or Brian on a regular basis. Brian is in Pennsylvania, Jeff lives up in the mountains. You know, everyone’s got their own thing going on. So it’s cool, you get like three or four days to hang out with people that you’ve known for over 20 years.”

Speaking of Clerks, the third film wrapped shooting last year, and a trailer should be released before long. Jason says it was a great feeling to be back on set with his old friends again.

“It was definitely an experience,” says Mewes. “The last thing we did was Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. That was interesting because it had been many, many years since we played Jay and Bob. So to try and get back into the character, and be on set, was definitely awesome – but you know, a little bit of an adjustment. But then, years later, to do Clerks – it was so much fun. And again, that one was different because Jay and Bob was mainly Kevin and I. And we had people who made cameos, but Clerks III was just straight up us back at the Quick Stop in New Jersey.”

And much like riding a bike, slipping into these characters feels natural for the actor after nearly three decades.

“When I first walked into the Quick Stop, and smelled that smell, it gave me this whole rush of memories, sensory… I don’t know. It was so interesting, and it was so cool to see Brian as Dante behind the counter, and Randal. It was definitely pretty amazing.”

As for the new film, Jason has seen an early cut but is anxious to watch the final version when it hits theaters.

“We got to do like a private screening, and I got to see it a while ago. The exciting thing for me is there have been some other edits and different music put in place that Kevin did. So when I get to see it when it comes out in hopefully August or September, it’ll be like watching it for the first time… So I’m excited to sit and see it at the premiere whenever that winds up happening.”

In addition to the cast of Clerks, Michael Rooker – who played Mr. Svenning in Mallrats – will also be in attendance. And while fans will surely be excited to talk to Jason about his acting roles, he now has fans in the gaming community as well – thanks to the Twitch channel he started during the last couple of years. He now has over 100k followers.

“I’ve been streaming on Twitch every day and I’d love it. What’s cool about that is a lot of people in my community now for almost two years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of them – just from chatting, and playing games with them. And now I’m coming to their city. So I’m getting to meet a lot of people, like this one gentleman I’ve been playing with for about a year now. We talk all the time playing games together, and in chat, and he lives in St. Louis, so I’m going to get to finally meet him in person.”

Jason has taken his love of gaming and turned it into a career – something that seemed unfathomable not long ago.

“It’s something me and the wife talk about all the time,” he says. “There’s a small part of me that wishes that I had, you know, triple the community and made triple the money, because I would love to do it full-time. But I honestly wouldn’t say I would never do movies. I’d probably do movies with Kevin always, because I enjoy it so much. But I would my ideal scenario would be to stream full-time every day, do a movie with Kevin whenever he makes one, and do guest spots on TV shows… and go to comic book conventions like [Fan Expo], this would be my ideal living.”

Although he plays a variety of titles, Fortnite is his game of choice these days.

“I’m really stuck on Fortnite, man. I love Call of Duty. I love Apex. I like World of Warcraft. There are a ton of games I really do enjoy, but I always want to play Fortnite when I stream because they keep updating it constantly. And it’s so much fun. Like because of May 4th, they brought lightsabers into the game, and you can literally like have a lightsaber fight with others. It’s just awesome. They had spider webs when Spider-Man came out. Yeah, I’m hooked on Fortnite, I really am,” He says. “I’ll wake up and be like, ‘Well, let’s just start by playing a couple of games of Fortnite, then we’ll get into [something else]. Then I’ll wind up playing four hours of Fortnite because I’ll be having so much fun.”

Follow Jason on Twitch at twitch.tv/jaymewes.

Jason even says he’s created concepts of what Jay and Silent Bob skins could look like in the game, but he’s still waiting to hear back from someone at Epic, the game’s developer.

“My buddy even sketched up an idea of what they can look like… I think it’d be so cool if they had Jay and Bob, and you hit the emote and they maybe spin around, and turn into Bluntman and Chronic. I know they couldn’t [call him] Bluntman in the game, but it could be whatever… My buddy even brought up ideas of like, the pickax being the [Clerks] stop sign, and the back bling would be Suzanne the Orangutan. ‘I Assure You, We’re Open!’ would be the glider. Yeah, so we’ll see.”

Meet Jason Mewes at Fan Expo St. Louis, Friday through Sunday (May 13-15). To purchase tickets for photographs, autographs, and “The Jay and Silent Bob Show,” visit fanexpohq.com/fanexpostlouis.