Red Bank celebrates their favorite son in a big way!

Starting at 6 AM this morning, fans flooded the New Jersey town of Red Back to celebrate Kevin Smith’s 47th birthday, and the 20th anniversary of Smith’s comic store, Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. To memorialize the occasion, fans tried to set a Guinness World Record of the largest amount of people dressed as Jay and Silent Bob. 

I arrived in Red Bank around 8:30 and there was a large line of people being counted by the Guinness Book official. While that was going on, AMC was there filming an episode of Comic Book Men. If you haven’t seen it, Comic Book Men is a reality TV program about the guys that work in the Stash. So today’s event will be on a future episode.

Around 9:30, Jason Mewes came out to help organize the crowd. Mewes was his hilarious self as always. It was funny to hear him trying to hold back on swearing. Part of it had to do with some of the kids that came dresses up and I think the other reason is that he’s a father himself. 

Finally, around 10, the man himself, Kevin Smith, came out. And the crowd went wild. Jay and Kevin joined the crowd and everyone had to remain in their place for 5 minutes to make it official. While the clock was ticking, Smith and Mewes went around to their fans taking selfies with them.

When time was up, the Guinness official gave the official count: 284 people dressed as Jay and Silent Bob. The minimum requirement to make it a record is 250 people. So now it’s an official Guinness record. Hopefully, it can be broken too!

The mayor of Red Bank then presented Kevin Smith with a key to the city and proclaimed it Kevin Smith Day. Afterward, Smith, Mewes, and the cast of Comic Book Men stuck around to sign autographic and take pictures with fans. 

The celebration continues later tonight with a screening of the docu-drama Shooting Clerks. The film details the story of how Kevin Smith made Clerks. And after the film, Kevin Smith is having one of his famous Q&A with the cast and crew of the film.

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By Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher

An avid comic collector/reader for over 50 years and self-proclaimed professor of comicology, Brian originally started up the site Pendragon's Post to share his voice. Well, that voice has been shared and evolved into The Fanboy Factor. Brian is an advocate for remembering comic roots, and that we don't forget what was created in the past, and encourage everyone to read it as well. When not swimming in geek culture, he can be seen corrupting..introducing his young son to comics, much to his wife's chagrin.