Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, TV | Tagged: amc, comic book men, film, jason mewes, kevin smith, syfy, todd and the book of pure evil, tv

Jason Mewes On Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil – "There's A Giant Penis And All Sorts Of Great Stuff"

Todd And The Book of Pure Evil recently aired the final episode of its second season at home in Canada, but on Tuesday March 6th the show is finally going to be making its UK debut on Syfy. The show has already been nominated for eight Gemini Awards (for those unfortunate enough not to have been exposed to Very North American culture, Geminis are like the Canadian TV BAFTAs), winning Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program for the season one musical episode The Phantom of Crowley High.

Cast member Jason Mewes, long-time staple of Kevin Smith's movies, was in the UK last month for the Jay And Silent Bob Get Old stand-up tour, and I managed to catch him just before he charged off to browse the shelves of Forbidden Planet.

Bleeding Cool: For the uninitiated, who is Todd and what is the Book of Pure Evil?

Jason Mewes: Todd is … a kid in high school, and Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is about this kid who's going through this stuff … all this stuff is happening, and he's not sure why at first, but he's starting to learn. He starts discovering more and more that he is … special, I guess, in a way … for some reason. They explain why later on, but the show itself is … I'd say it's a cross between Buffy, 90210, DeGrassi, Angel and Tales From The Crypt. With comedy.

'Cause, y'know, it sort of has that high school thing going where they, it's the whole, like, "I'm not pretty enough." And all the kids are sort of like are, you know, like when you're in school and you're not feeling like you're pretty enough or smart enough or what have you, and there's a bunch of different kids going through that, and the Book sort of feeds off that. And then the Book sort of grants a wish, if you will, but there's consequences to all that. So, you know, each episode is a different sort of wish coming true and a different consequence.

You know, each episode is pretty awesome. There's different types of monsters and people turn into this and that, and it's awesome. The special effects is awesome, the writing's great, and I play Jimmy, who's the janitor at the school, and he's sort of the Yoda to Todd, the master Jedi. But he sort of mentors him and gives him advice throughout the episodes and throughout the season. But then you start realising there's more to it than that. The story-telling is great because it goes from an episodic thing to more and more you start learning about the characters and why the Book's there, why Jimmy's there, why is Todd this… and I don't want to give too much away so…

But yeah, man, that's sort of what it is and I find it awesome.

BC: Has Jimmy had his turn to make a wish with the book, or do you think he'll ever get to?

JM: Ummm … They do explain if he does… but I don't wanna say, because that'll give it away. Because at this point people who don't know, won't know. So we don't want to give it away, but … possibly.

BC: The Book itself is rocking a kind of Evil Dead Necronomicon look. Were horror movies from the seventies and eighties a big influence for the show?

JM: I don't know, I mean, I wouldn't, I would say maybe, because I would think … I mean the Book is awesome, I mean the book they have is great, the book from Evil Dead, that whole eighties sort of thing is, I would imagine is somewhat of an influence, but I'm not 100% sure, because I don't want to speak for the guys who created the Book.

BC: Is the humour in the show very Canadian, or do you think it will translate well for a British audience?

JM: I would think it would translate well, because… Again, I haven't spent enough time out here to say, definitely, but the reason I would think that is because it's close to our humour – mine and Kevin's humour – and because people seem to be interested in watching us do our podcasts and watch our shows, and watch our movies also. I would think that it would translate well because it's somewhat that sense of humour, like talking about … You know, there's a giant penis and dildos and all sorts of great stuff in it.

BC: What's going on with season three? Are we going to get one, is it looking hopeful?

JM: I think … I would hope so. We've been out a few times doing commentary and stuff and spoke to the producers, but there's been no word yet, they've just been waiting to tell us. I asked them a few weeks back and they said they'd been writing episodes and getting ready but they haven't got the word yet. So I'm just waiting. I really do hope so, because I really enjoy shooting the show, and I think the show's good, and there's definitely… When people see the last episode of season two, how it ended, it leaves it even more to be… like, it can go a lot of places is what I'm saying. They already had a lot of places they could go with the stories but at season two when it ends, you'll see, when people get to see it, the third season could go so many places. I know it would be definitely better than one. Two, I felt like, was better than One and I feel like Three will definitely be better than One and Two because they have so many places to go with it, more story-telling, backstory to go with, and all that.

BC: Do you have a favourite episode so far?

JM: Yeah, there's a musical episode and I got to sing, so … and … yeah. I'll only say that much because, again, I don't know how much to give away.

BC:  So the reason you're in the UK right now is that you're doing your stand-up show with Kevin Smith. How does the stand-up life compare to doing comedy for TV or films?

JM: I would say it's a little harder, but fun. The travelling's awesome, travelling around with everybody. And it's not as long, you know, each show is about two hours, so that's cool because it's like you're on stage, you're waiting, there's the build-up, you get on stage and it's like two hours, and it's fun to see the audience right there and see how they're reacting and laughing and really getting into it … It really sort of amps me up and gets me going. So it's fun to see that live and that's what I like about the live shows and all that. There's many things I like about the live shows, and I would say it's a little bit harder in the sense that we don't script it and none of our shows are the same. Like, we might talk a little bit about something we've already talked about, but all to get to another story. So I would say that it's harder because of that reason … and the travelling. We've done a lot of travelling and I wouldn't say it's necessarily hard but I don't like flying and the anxiety of getting to the airport and being on time and missing flights. But they're both awesome, and I'm very grateful to do both.

BC: There's a new reality TV show out now called Comic Book Men, which is about Kevin Smith's comic book store Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. What do you think of the show?

JM: It was good, I really like it, I think it's awesome. Because it's my friends, so it's cool to see my friends, it's cool to see the comic book store on AMC, but the actual way they put it together and stuff is really good too. I actually watch a couple of reality shows and I get made fun of… [Laughs] You know, like Storage Wars, and The Kardashians and stuff, but they always do those solo interviews, like, "You know what, she was being a real brat and I don't wanna do this" or "So I found this in the storage and…" But on their show they do like a podcast, where they're cutting back and forth to the podcast. I don't know, I just think it gives it more character than the other reality shows, so yeah it's awesome.

I'm excited too because it's like comics… You know, they have a storage show, they have people, you know families, the Kardashians, and they have the Pawn Stars, and now they have the moving show where you have the .. the what's-it-called? Anyway, I'm saying there's all these reality shows and wives and The Bachelor and frickin' Biggest Loser and Survivor, and now comics.

BC: Do you think it's a sign that comics are becoming cool? There are a lot of comic book movies coming out right now.

JM: I definitely think it's changed. I don't know what really started it, how many years ago now that the first comic book movies started, that sort of got popular. Was it X-Men, do you know? Or maybe Batman.

BC: Probably X-Men.

JM: Yeah, so before that I wouldn't say then if I had asked about a comic book villain that wasn't in Batman, Superman or The Hulk stuff … Now people actually know comic book characters and you see more and more out there. So yeah, I think it seems to be a little cooler, people seem to be more interested in that because of the movies.

I even like, well a long time ago they made a Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren, and then they made the old Fantastic Four movie way back … But my point is that I even liked them because to me it was like those were the first ones, way back, and I watched them … And remember frickin' David Hasselhoff was S.H.I.E.L.D! They had a S.H.I.E.L.D movie. Anyway, it started there and now they have these, so hopefully there'll be more and more.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil starts screening on SyFy in the UK this Tuesday. There's a giant penis and all kinds of great stuff.

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