Oklahoma Comedians Channel Kevin Smith

Earlier this month, Kevin Smith hinted via Twitter that he was finally tilting towards the idea of a Clerks trilogy, with the third installment to be his final directorial effort. In the meantime, there's Clerks Too.

Shot over the span of a year by a collective of Oklahoma comedians, the 37-minute comedy premieres tonight at the City Arts Center in Oklahoma City. The project started with the simple tribute-idea of remaking Clerks shot-for-shot. Later on, there was more of a Luis Bunuel flavor contemplated, with three different sets of actors envisioned as swapping out the same two lead roles. But the end result is something quite different.



Clerks Too tells the story of a would-be filmmaker (Josh Lathe) who tries to win back his girlfriend (Crystal Ecker) by remaking Clerks. Think of it as an earlier-film-idea-within-a-film. Adding some Smith-ian authenticity to the enterprise is the fact that wirter-director James Nghiem does indeed have a principal on-screen role as well, playing the lovelorn dude's best friend.

The short is being presented tonight as part of the cheekily named live comedy show "The Post-Apocalypse Bash." Brad Chad Porter is opening, Spencer Hicks is the middle act and Derek Smith is headlining. One assumes at least one of these guys, if not more, will ask at one point, “Do we have any Mayans in the audience?”

[Robot Saves City]