In 1994 New Jersey filmmaker Kevin Smith made a name for himself by maxing out every credit card he had to make a small black and white movie called Clerks. The total budget was $27,000. Noticed in film festivals it caught on enough to gross over $3 million domestically. It made 116 times its budget.

And to think, he wasn't even supposed to BE there that day!

By 2006, after movies like Chasing Amy (my personal favorite by Smith), Dogma and other films, he returned to the scene of the crime with Clerks 2. That budget was $5 million and it earned more than $27 million.

If you miss the play between Dante and Randal (Brian C. O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, both Jersey guys), you're in luck. Kevin Smith had long wanted to make a Clerks 3 but Jeff Anderson wasn't feeling it. In an Instagram announcement Tuesday, Smith says Anderson has come around.

Says Kevin, “This means I’m gonna get to play with my two favorite inaction figures again: Dante & Randal!”

These type of Kevin Smith movies may not be some people's cup of tea. But what I've always admired about them is no matter how coarse, how ridiculous some of the jokes and plots get, there's always been intelligence behind the dialogue. There's a human condition that plays out, even in a character like Randal. And Kevin Smith is an amazing story teller.

We had him on our show in 1994, our first year on the air at NJ101.5 right when Clerks came out. He was gracious and entertaining. By the next time we had him on our show when we were doing it in Detroit, he spent an unforgettable hour with us telling some of the funniest Hollywood stories I've heard. One involving Jennifer Lopez and a bathroom that would probably get me fired if I tried to tell it today.

According to imdb.com Kevin Smith was once quoted as saying, "Storytelling is my currency. It's my only worth. The only thing of value I have in this life is my ability to tell a story, whether in print, orating, writing it down or having people act it out. That's why I'm always hoping society never collapses because the first ones to go will be entertainers."

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