A little over a year ago, Jason Mewes was a one-way trip to Shitsville, courtesy of his old Lex Luthor: drugs. Sure, Mewes had danced with Mr. Brownstone & friends before and come out the victor -- but that was when he was single. It's much easier to fuck up your own life and try to rebuild than it is to fuck up your wife's life and hope she's still around to say you're sorry to once you've spanked the monkey off your back.
As human beings, we govern our actions with our deepest fears. But if you name that shit, you claim that shit: let enough people into your closet and you'll find there's no more room for skeletons. Leave yourself nowhere to hide and you can live life unguarded.
For years, I'd been telling Mewes "You have to start talking about the drugs, sir. Tell the stories, warts-and-all." But as fearless as Jay normally was in his approach to life, he was terrified to confess he'd used needles. He'd say "I'll never get another job if I tell people I've shot heroin."
Ironically, it was telling people all the dirty details of doing dope that finally set Jason Mewes free. Last fall, we started a podcast called Jay & Silent Bob Get Old, appropriating the names of the characters that made us famous and using them as an umbrella under which Jay could tell his stories and lay out his troubled (albeit hysterical) past every week. The legendary Bob Lefsetz came to one of the first few shows and summed it up thusly.
Turns out truth and candor were the gateways to sobriety and success for Jason. In less than a year, the podcast begat a sold-out live tour, where Mewes regaled over a thousand people every night with funny-as-fuck cautionary tales of his wasted (and wastoid) youth. One of the highlights of last year for me was watching Mewes' reaction at the Orlando Hard Rock Live, when he stepped out on stage and realized 1500 people were there because they wanted to help him stay clean by hearing him out.
A few weeks back, Jason Mewes and I started broadcasting a daily morning radio show from my living room. It's located at SMODCAST -- my podcast network. We call it Jay & Silent Bob Get Jobs and it runs from 10am to noon Mondays through Fridays, following the 8am to 10am show I do with my wife Jennifer every morning called Plus One Per Diem. The guy who didn't wanna tell the world he'd used needles now tells the world way more horrifying drug abuse tales than that on a daily basis, and always manages to do it with big laughs and bigger insight.
Check out a clip from the podcast that saved a man's life. Jason Mewes and I do Jay & Silent Bob Get Old every Friday night at 10pm up at Universal CityWalk, at The Jon Lovtiz Comedy Club (which becomes the Jon Lovitz Podcast Theatre as of May 29th, during PODDAMMIT -- a 12 hour pod-a-thon affair). Roll up and see not only a really funny show, but something even more unique: come see a man save his own life every Friday night. You'd be shocked how inspiring it is to watch a man battle substance abuse with the only weapons he's got left: his sense of humor and his lack of self-consciousness.
Also: they serve booze at the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club. So ironically, you can get drunk watching a guy stay dry.
S'worth every penny.