Kevin Smith Opens Podcast Theater In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Kevin Smith is coming back home to Leonardo, where it all started.

Filmmaker Smith, of the award-winning cult hit "Clerks," "Dogma," and "Chasing Amy," plus other movies, is opening a first-of-its-kind podcast theater in the Leonardo section of Middletown. Opening day is this Friday evening, July 9.

It's called SModcastle and it will be located at 58 Leonard Ave., only a few feet away from the original Quick Stop Groceries, the small convenience store that so famously appeared in "Clerks."

What the heck is a podcast theater, you might ask?

"SModcastle is Kevin Smith's podcast playhouse," writes Smith on a website for the concept, adding that it's the first podcast theater in the state of New Jersey. "Receive amazing oral from real live podcasters ... all within the walls of this incredibly intimate black box theater."

It's a place where Smith and others will broadcast podcasts, and people can sit in the audience and listen to live podcasts being recorded. You can also rent the space out. The New Jersey Herald reports Smodcastle will open this Friday, July 9. Here is their line-up of opening weekend shows: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/s...

Smodcastle was supposed to open last year, but hit a year-long delay due to the pandemic, Smith tweeted on his personal Twitter account.

Smith is a Central Jersey cult hero: Born in Red Bank, he attended Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands and went on to become a comedian, filmmaker and writer.

A lover of comic books since he was a boy, Smith wrote, directed, starred in and co-produced "Clerks." He sold his comic book collection to finance the movie and set the movie at the site of the Leonardo convenience store where he worked at the time, Quick Stop Groceries.

Winning multiple awards at the Cannes film festival, "Clerks" became such a hit that its distribution rights were purchased by Harvey Weinstein, then at Miramax.

Smith then went on to direct "Mallrats," starring Jason Lee, "Chasing Amy," with Lee again, Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams, "Dogma" with Affleck, Salma Hayek and Chris Rock, plus George Carlin and Alan Rickman and then "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," followed by "Jersey Girl," "Clerks II" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

Smith also owns and operates a comic book store in Red Bank, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, at 65 Broad Street. Read more: Red Bank Cult Comic Book Shop Reopens On Broad Street (Feb. 2021)

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