20 YEARS AGO TODAY: "But I'm Not Even Supposed to BE Here Today!"

[cooleddie74]

I've been in New Jersey, but never in Red Bank or Leonardo or on the shore. That's probably the closest I've come to being in a location where Kevin shot one or more of his projects unless he's been to Virginia, Maryland or D.C. to film some scenes, and as far as I'm aware he hasn't.

Never been to Minnesota.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I've been to Atlantic City. But that's all as far as Jersey is concerned.

 

[Toxteth O´Grady]

^^^^When you visited the Quick Stop was RST Video still open? I thought I heard it was closed down recently (which isn't too surprising considering the way rental shops are going).

I went there over 10 years ago so I imagine it likely was open, but we never went in.

 

[Data Holmes]

I've driven passed the "dirt mall", the flea market in new brunswick, growing up, but never went to it. That's the closest I've been to a filming location that I am aware of. Even though we live in NJ, my family never ventured south all that far, we stuck with the northern corner. And family was all north in NY and west in PA so...

I would like to visit the stash at some point, though.

 

[cooleddie74]

It should be a rite of passage for all fans to visit the Secret Stash and get cheerfully insulted by Bryan Johnson.

 

[ITL]

It should be a rite of passage for all fans to visit the Secret Stash and get cheerfully insulted by Bryan Johnson.

Damn, that guy has an intense stare. And a tattoo of his niece as a zombie...

Poor old Ming the chew toy...

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, he's something alright. He's a good guy, but he definitely has his....ways.

The forums could use a staring Bryan Johnson threadbomb saying "You're an idiot" or "Shut up, Nerd Boy." A lot of people wouldn't recognize him, but that'd be part of the fun of using it.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I've driven passed the "dirt mall", the flea market in new brunswick,

Nope. The flea market they used in the film is also in Minnesota, Monticello to be exact.

 

[Data Holmes]

I've driven passed the "dirt mall", the flea market in new brunswick,

Nope. The flea market they used in the film is also in Minnesota, Monticello to be exact.

I thought it was the U.S. 1 flea market in New Brunswick NJ? They got rid of it in like 97 or 98 I think, so it no longer exists.

 

[CorporalClegg]

They probably look the similar. I know The Osowski one is run by an out-of-state conglomerate that "owns" flea markets everywhere. No doubt they try to make them uniform.

 

[Trekker4747]

Comic Book Men is a lot of fun, but, yeah I do feel sorry for poor Ming but dammit if I don't laugh when Bryan (or even Walt) tease Ming. But one of the funniest moments came during one of the mid-commercial pod-case asides from an episode a couple of weeks ago when the guys are talking about being stranded and who they would eat first. Bryan says Ming, Kevin quips "but the problem with eating him is that you're just hungry again 20 minutes later!"

 

[cooleddie74]

Plus, I wouldn't leave poor Ming alone for five minutes with Bryan or Kevin. They're still big guys.

Bryan looks like he could strip any one of us to the bone in under thirty minutes and then laugh like a drunken Viking as he picks his teeth clean with a blade from a Wolverine claw.

 

[Trekker4747]

Plus, I wouldn't leave poor Ming alone for five minutes with Bryan or Kevin. They're still big guys.

Bryan looks like he could strip any one of us to the bone in under thirty minutes and then laugh like a drunken Viking as he picks his teeth clean with a blade from a Wolverine claw.

The "Bryan the Barbarian" throwing the Mjolnir-like hammer in the opening titles is great. Oddly, Bryan seems the "least into-comics" compared to everyone else on the show yet he (according to the "setup" of the show) hangs out there all of the time like he's Norm. I also wonder how much of the "still living in mom's basement loser" he really is considering his age and career, he has done some work in movies and television, largely working as, I believe, a DP on Smith's movies.

EDIT: Checked, on Smith's movies he largely worked as an actor, though he did serve as a crew member on Mallrats and Chasing Amy as well as, it seems, writer/director of his own work. He also has done some work in the comic book field.

 

[cooleddie74]

I suppose it's possible Bryan might still live with his mom when he's in the local area and not off on some production with Kevin or involved in his own projects. Reality shows always exaggerate something to try to make the participants in the program more interesting or amusing to the viewer, so I'm sure the image of Bryan hanging out at the Stash all day and then heading home at night to crash in his mom's basement is something that helps play into the theme that these four guys are grown (and in most of their cases middle aged) comic and sci-fi/horror geeks.

Remember, this show is aimed at grown comic and sci-fi/horror geeks and folks who love Kevin Smith. They want the average audience member to feel like Bryan is a lot like them.

 

[Trekker4747]

Honestly, I feel more like Ming. And, really, I love the show and want to see it continue but they need to teach Walt how to laugh without giving himself a pulmonary embolism.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm more like Mike.

He's the only one of the four who likes Star Trek.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm more like Mike.

He's the only one of the four who likes Star Trek.

True, I'll give him that.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I've driven passed the "dirt mall", the flea market in new brunswick,

Nope. The flea market they used in the film is also in Minnesota, Monticello to be exact.

I thought it was the U.S. 1 flea market in New Brunswick NJ? They got rid of it in like 97 or 98 I think, so it no longer exists.

You are correct. There use to be a huge flea market on Rt. 1 in New Brunswick. I think you are correct about the time frame for it closing.

While I have never been to Quick Stop, I have been to the Secret Stash and Red Bank many, many times. I have a friend who performs in town for Red Bank Green during the summer and have seen him perform there many times.

 

[Toxteth O´Grady]

If you listen to Bryan and Walt's podcast "Tell 'Em Steve-Dave" they talk about their home lives quite a bit, especially Bryan's.

He doesn't give a shit about comics (except when he writes for them). But apparently when a member of Alpha Flight came out of the closet, he bought every issue he could find.

He lived in LA for a few years not too long ago and actually managed the Secret Stash they had out there. But once he left Kevin shut it down, because he didn't want somebody he didn't know running it.

The jokes about living with his parents aren't that far off from the truth. I'm not sure that's still his situation, but it definitely was when they started the podcast.

He's never said how he makes any money, but he does have the means to travel a lot, so who knows?

 

[Data Holmes]

I suppose it's possible Bryan might still live with his mom when he's in the local area and not off on some production with Kevin or involved in his own projects. Reality shows always exaggerate something to try to make the participants in the program more interesting or amusing to the viewer, so I'm sure the image of Bryan hanging out at the Stash all day and then heading home at night to crash in his mom's basement is something that helps play into the theme that these four guys are grown (and in most of their cases middle aged) comic and sci-fi/horror geeks.

Remember, this show is aimed at grown comic and sci-fi/horror geeks and folks who love Kevin Smith. They want the average audience member to feel like Bryan is a lot like them.

Don't forget that he is Randal. Smith based Randal and Dante off of Bryan and himself respectively.