Smith’s gift for gab also made him a natural pioneer for the emerging world of podcasts. In 2007, he and his former producing partner, Scott Mosier, launched a weekly SModcast, serving his dedicated fanbase more fresh content that, once again, didn’t initially come with a price tag. “I put them up for free, but never realized how much it cost me until I got the server bill,” he jokes.
That’s when Smith tossed the keys to Business Kev, who turned those audio-only bull sessions into its own live touring attraction. Sponsors were eventually recruited to bring advertising dollars to SModcast and the host of other Smith-backed podcasts that debuted with the 2010 launch of the SModcast Podcast Network, which is still casting and now streaming on the internet and YouTube nearly 15 years later.
Smith says his DTC ventures kept him active and earning as his cinematic fortunes waxed and waned in the mid-2000s with commercial disappointments like Jersey Girl and Cop Out.
“The brand has buoyed a career that should have been over a long time ago,” he admits candidly. “There are a bunch of filmmakers I started with that don’t make movies anymore.”
In fact, Smith assumed that his own directing career was finished after 2011’s Red State, a return to his low-budget indie roots that he self-distributed via a cross-country roadshow tour.
“I was like, ‘I’m done making films,’” he says, adding that he assumed his fanbase would scatter elsewhere.
Instead, his core audience didn’t just remain intact—it grew, as the Clerks generation started bringing their own kids to Smith-hosted screenings of his ‘90s movies. His self-described “nostalgia guy” status made it possible for him to keep on making films for his fans that also feed his various other business pipelines.
“The refrain I’ve heard time and time again from financiers is, ‘Well, he’s got that audience,’” Smith says. “They’ve always been there for me because I’ve always been there for them.”
Mistakes, he’s made a few
Failure can follow success as Silent Bob follows Jay, and Business Kev owns up to a few of his missteps over the years. In 2010, he lowered the drawbridge on the SModcastle, a 50-seat L.A. theater intended as a live space for his panoply of podcasts, as well as other events. But Smith soon discovered the downside of being the face of the brand when it comes to real estate.
“If I was doing a show, it would sell out,” he says. But the Smith-free podcasts didn’t have the same draw, and nights where the theater was dark put additional strains on the budget. “The economics of it didn’t really make sense,” Smith admits.
