Long haul day yesterday! I had bought tickets for Kevin Smith’s first ever Irish Q&A a while back, just before it sold out. Little did I know I’d be introducing him. That came about when he asked me was I going to the gig during an interview last week, to which the conversation continued with Kev asking me to intro him as he’s been coming on the show for so long!
The wife got home from work early and we hit the road around 1:40pm. All was straight forward until we got to the shithole that is Abbeyleix. Well maybe shithole is too strong a word, but the traffic was just unbelievable. And speaking of traffic, we took about 50 minutes to drive a distance of 5 minutes, in Dublin rush hour. Bonkers (In a Dizze Rascal way too). Between the jigs and reels we got into the worlds narrowest car park for around 530pm and after a 58 point turn managed to get into a space. Then I had to ring Kevin and on the first attempt no joy as I got the “Out of coverage” (here we go says I) and then on the second one he answered and we sorted out the details which basically I had to ask for a dude in Vicar Street. So after a bout of food we met up with Roar (who was also going) and rocked on to the venue. The nice blokes at the door had no idea who I was looking for and the box office folks were a little bit unsure, but then Carl (The legend) sorted us out and brought us to a green room of sorts.
I then get my Access all Areas badge and Kev turns up with his beautiful wife Jen. A small bit of chit chat before hand and I’m on the stage stairs at Vicar Street, with it undecided whether I’m going on stage or just using an offstage mic. Kevin confirms me going on stage and then another few minutes are spent hanging by the curtain until I’m told “GO”. Kevin shakes my hand says something I can’t remember and tells me we’ll hug when he comes on. So I go do the spiel we hug and I eventually make my way back to the wife at our table and Kevin Smith absolutely blows the roof right off Vicar Street.
We got to hang out afterwards with the legend himself for a bit and then we hit the road, getting home just after 3am!
Anyways, the important parts….