Interview with Cartoon Comedy Star Carey Means

Category Arts & Living
Supercon promises to be, well, super “Clerks” star to appear
Published on November 18, 2008 by The Sentinel

If coming face to face with the creative forces behind Aqua Teen
Hunger Force, Wolverine, The Venture Brothers, Clerks, and many other
icons responsible for spinning their own subcultures, be sure to put
aside some quality time from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23.

The Renaissance Atlanta Hotel will be the scene of the Atlanta Supercon, where you, the fan, can get the inside scoop.

Among those appearing will be Brian O’Halloran, who plays Dante in the “Clerks” movies. In a recent interview, O’Halloran described the similarities between real life and the parallel universe of the Clerks movies.

“When Kevin [Smith, director of “Clerks”] was writing the characters of Dante and Randal, he was literally living that life; he was working that convenience store.”

O’Halloran commented on the archetypal nature of the clerks most fans know and love.

“Randal was the clerk he really was; Dante was the character he wanted to be.”

An unpretentious man not unlike the character he portrays, O’Halloran doesn’t hesitate to sympathize with convenience store clerks everywhere.

“People can relate to those feelings of frustration, while at the same time, the Dante character is polite…worried about moving on to his next station in life.”

In their interpersonal interactions, Dante and Randal do not discuss broad philosophical subjects or try to solve universal problems or existential questions. They speak like two good friends often do, musing on matters others might consider petty for a movie but normal in actual conversation. O’Halloran considers an important aspect of his character to be his ability to be entertained simply by strangeness.

“Mixed into all that conversation is the discussion about Star Wars and hermaphroditic porn.”

Everyone who has seen Clerks, regardless of his state of mind at the time, can remember the scene in which Dante’s ex-girlfriend has sex with a recently deceased older man. A description of the event as humorous delineates clearly the divide between actor and viewer:

“I don’t know how hilarious it would be if one of your girlfriends had sex with a dead guy. I would be like, ‘You need to get some shots, see a doctor.’”

According to O’Halloran, Smith has filled his films with increasingly perverted erotica. On the bestiality that occurs in the second “Clerks” film, O’Halloran said, “I was like, what, so we’ve moved on to interspecies erotica? You might ask him [Smith] about his obsession with not-so-normal sex.”

The Atlanta Supercon may be just the place for such questions.

When asked what would happen if the roles of Dante and Randall were superimposed on the convenience store from the opening scene of “From Dusk Till Dawn,” O’Halloran replied thoughtfully, “Um, hmm. I think they would have made it to Mexico. I think we would have been so entertaining that they [Tarantino and Clooney] would have spared us.”

Another artist slated to attend, Carey Means, who plays the role of Frylock, keeps his character so close to his own personality that he doesn’t mind being called by name.

“A lot of what we do is ad-lib,” said Means. “Some actors have their scripts advanced to them. I don’t use a script.”

When asked about the entertainment business and publicity, Means commented on the incident in which an Adult Swim sign became a target of the War on Terror in Boston. The Aqua Teen team then made an episode about the fiasco in Boston and the paranoia associated with the War on Terror.

“It hasn’t gotten past ‘Standards and Practices’ [the public censorship branch of the FCC]. There’s cloak and dagger stuff going on here.”

Relating other publicity strategies to his own, Means mentioned what happened recently with rapper T.I., who was caught buying guns in broad daylight at a major Atlanta intersection.

“Quote me on this: That was something his publicist cooked up.”

If you want to know something only an insider can, go to the Supercon; if you just want to know what you’re told to know, stay at home.

A three-day, general admission pass for the event is $35. Single-day tickets are $20 on Fri. and Sun. and $35 on Sat.