Oh man, where do I begin? Should I tell you about the pot shots he took at Jonathan Ross for scathing personal attacks masquerading as reviews? Should I, perhaps, tell you about his growing understanding when it came to directing Bruce Willis in the upcoming A Couple Of Dicks? How about the stories about filmmaking and the disappointing performance of Zack & Miri?

No, I won’t tell you those things. Instead, I’ll tell you about a man who could have stood on stage for the three hours of the show and told us self-agrandising stories about himself, but instead chose to talk to his audience and really involve them in precedings.

You see, Kevin Smith may have directed some highly respected (in some circles) movies in the past 20 years, but he’s a humble man and possible the most amiable celebrity you’re ever likely to meet. His humour is adult, but you know this if you’re a fan of his films. Nothing is off limits, be it his sexual shenanigans with his wife or his ever growing waistline. He’s shameless, in a good way.

Standing on the stage, from the start of the show he had the audience gripped with stories of sex and debauchery. When he brought a Liverpool comedian onto the stage so that he could do a two minute set, it was clear he’d won the crowd over. This was further reinforced by a conversation he had with a man who was in the process of becoming a woman – seriously, it might as well have been just the pair of them as he sensitively asked questions and invited Bethany (born Ben) to share her story with us all.

It wasn’t all about the audience, however. Admittedly, a handful of questions, mainly about films, came from the audience and Smith handled them with flair and wit; who would have thought that a twenty minute lecture on the career of Wayne Gretsky would have led to an answer on the lack of commentary on the Zack & Miri DVD. But, it did… and it was funny.

When he talks about films, he has interesting stories that are self-effacing and honest. Asked about whether he’d be interested in writing or directing a superhero movie with Batman: The Animated Series creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, he admits that Dini and Timm could get a deal far quicker than he ever could, even going to so far as to admit their talent outweighs his own. He talks about directing Bruce Willis and discovering that the director sometimes can’t change a performance, but it doesn’t matter when you’re dealing with Bruce Willis.

He invited fans onstage for hugs and photos. He helped a soon-to-be-30-year-old accept that his life doesn’t suck, and being offered advice from a guy who was a millionaire at 30 probably wasn’t going to be productive. He made sexual suggestions to the audience and called Jonathan Ross many names, pointing out that British insults actually really insult – a c***sucker, for example, is someone who is good to know, surely.

More than anything, Kevin Smith comes across as honest. He knows he doesn’t know everything about the movie business… and admits it. He has a curiosity about the world and the people in it that comes across as insatiable – how easy would it have been to brush over Ben/Bethany’s life choice, instead of discussing it in an open and honest way? He’s honest in his despair at people who criticise him or things he loves simply through a lack of understanding – Jonathan Ross and a critic who misunderstood comics and claimed they were misogynistic on Newsnight Extra were both the butt of a handful of cutting comments. More than anything, he comes across as genuinely human and genuinely happy with who he is and what he does.

I had heard some of his stuff before, but that’s the nature of the beast. If you ask him why there isn’t a DVD commentary on Zack & Miri, he’s already covered it on his SMODcasts. This isn’t the same as a comedian rolling out the same joke over and over again, but here it doesn’t stop it being gripping, nor does it take away from three hours of pure entertainment.

Hopefully, some of the show will appear on the inevitable DVD. In the meantime, if you’ve never heard Kevin Smith speak, and want to be amused, check out the regular SMODcasts (available from wherever you download podcasts), or the three previous Evening With Kevin Smith DVD releases. You definitely won’t be disappointed.

Check back tomorrow for our full interview with Mr Kevin Smith...