(02/01) GAS Hour 1 - Kevin Smith Fills In

Gary and Shannon are off and Kevin Smith fills!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you'relistening to kf I Am six forty,
the Gary and Shannon Show on demandon the iHeartRadio app. Kevin Smith's sitting
in for Gary and Shannon. Theydidn't call out because of the rain.
They're doing whatever they're doing, it'snone of your business. I'm sitting in
for them. That's all you needto know about, kids. I'll be
here for a while. Sold Bobspeaks on your radio. If you're like,

(00:20):
who is this, I'm tuned infor the gas. This ain't gas.
This is gas lighting. I've madesome movies, I've made some messes,
made some podcasts, made some TV. I've been around for a while.
I've been smearing myself across the popculture landscape for quite some time,
and that makes me qualified. Comein here and sit in for Gary and

(00:44):
Shannon. Not just today kids onThursday, but tomorrow is well on Friday.
If you're if you're here, man, it's Kevin Smith's sitting in for
Gary and Shannon. K I AMsix forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
The one of the beautiful things aboutdoing this gig is they put you
in a room and it's got microphones, he's got like TV screens and stuff

(01:07):
is branded everywhere. It's got hugewindows so you could look out in the
world. So I can look outon Burbank right now, and it's gloomy.
Kids, it's raining here in Burdbank. But we don't have to treat
it like one of those days,although everybody on the road getting here certainly
did. I'm from the East Coast. I'm from New Jersey. Please don't
turn off the radio. I amused to driving and inclement weather. I

(01:33):
don't prefer it, but you know, it's a fact of life. And
so when I drive out here inthe rain, and I've lived out here
for oh heavens full time for liketwenty three years, you know, I
got to consider myself and Angelina atthis point, even in the rain.
I love Los Angeles. But folksaround here, of course, they you

(01:53):
know, they're like, oh mygod, a drop and every break light
goes on. I'm the other guy. I'm probably the guy that you just
saw you're sitting in your car listening, passed you ten minutes ago, and
were you called me names? ProbablyI can't even say him the names.

(02:14):
We're not even allowed to say I'mka if I am. Let me tell
you something on my way to earningsome of that AM radio money, kids,
And the only thing I have todo to earn it is not say
some bad words. So I'm notgoing to say what the people probably said
to me as I was passing,because I do drive like an age,
especially in the rain. Man,for heaven's sakes, but here we are,

(02:36):
we aren't gonna let that rain affectus. Kids. It's a happy
day, man. Every day aboveground is a positive day because the little
wet outside opened the doors this morning, tried to let my shepherds out.
Got two shepherds, mom and herkid, and the kids like one years
old. Her name is Birdie andthe mom is Lucky. And you know

(02:57):
most dogs get rid of their kids, right everyone, They don't get rid
of them, but somebody adopts apuppy or just flat out takes the puppy.
Point is I've seen over years likedogs. They're if a dog's puppy
stays with a dog, it's notlike, oh man, all the other
kids went and I miss them allLike this this mom dog Lucky is so

(03:20):
like, oh my god, canyou please adopt the little one out to
somebody else, like you know,she would like to take the spotlight all
by herself. And the little oneis just pure joy at life. She's
like, hey, lucky, it'sa day with a y in it.
So she is not accustomed to therain. Big dog is, Big Dog's

(03:42):
seen some action. She's seven yearsold. She came out of a kill
shelter. Little one was born ina kill shelter. But she'd never know
it, or maybe you would.Maybe she just lives like like she was
born to kill shelter. Every day'sa gad fluggy that kind of thing.
So this dog is game for anything. Man, you can throw a tennis
ball off the roof of the threestory house, She'll dive after it opened

(04:04):
the door. This morning, shewent jetting to go outside and then froze
like a Warner Brothers cartoon character atthe first drop on her nose. Man
like, oh, this is likekryptonite tors like watching Superman crumble at the
feet of Lex Luthor. She wouldnot go out, and I was like,

(04:24):
look, come on, and Iwent outside to show her that it
was okay. Within two seconds,I was like, this dog is smarter
than me. It was so thefeeling of getting rained one man, just
I mean, here's my hot take. It's not great kids. So I
acclimated for the dog. I puta towel down in the bathroom and I

(04:48):
was like, you know, Iget it. I ain't going outside either.
So my wife's gonna wake up andbe like, did you like allow
the dogs to go to the bathroomIn the bathroom, It's like, yeah,
unronically, yes. You see whatkind of rain we're dealing with out
there. You can't ask these shepherdsgo outside so much for German engineering.
Man, neither of these dogs wouldgo out in the rain. Tells you

(05:09):
a thing or two. But I'mgonna tell you like I told them,
every day, even if it's raining, it's glorious, glorious, happy day.
Kids. Are you out there listeningin your radio in your car you're
driving in this weather? Are youlistening at home by yourself? Most cats,

(05:30):
I guess they tend to listen tothe radio solo. But when we
join together like this, it's communal. Man. This was beautiful about radio
is we may all be alone,but we're together. We're together alone,
We're gonna be for the next fourhours right now. The lines are blown
up with like, oh I can'tstand this guy. Bring back Gary and
Shannon. They're coming back. Don'tworry, they got a contract. They'll

(05:54):
be back me contract free. SoI'm here for the next two days.
Man, you could reach us andtell us how how's our driving? Reach
out to us at gas bag atour heeartmedia dot com man, or you
can hit me on Twitter formerly Twitternow x this was called Twitter at that

(06:15):
Kevin Smith, that's my name.Don't be alarmed when you see nearly three
million followers. He humble bragged.I bought them all cost surprisingly little,
cost me eight million dollars to getthree million followers. No, I've just
been a creature of online for solong that when Twitter happened, I was
there. I was like an earlyadopter, kind of like Ashton Kutcher,

(06:39):
but no money in the deal whatsoever. He got rich. I just got
a bunch of followers and a lotof misery. Social media. Good lord,
it gives it, it takes,but you know what's given lately because
I made something that they're happy with. I love when the internet's happy with
me. I made a thing forNetflix called Masters of the Universal Revolution,

(07:00):
and boy, the Internet likes it. And because of that, the Internet
is like, you're okay this week? So I got that going for me.
William Shatner is gonna call in talkabout his role on Masters the Universe
Revolution, something I have absolutely nothingto do with. We're also gonna have
some tech talk later on, anda twelve o'clock hour we're gonna have Maggie

(07:20):
McKay from Vidiots come in talk aboutVidiots over an Eagle Rock nonprofit theater where
like every filmmaker has been showing filmslately and stuff, except this one,
we're gonna change that. I'm gonnause KFI to get all the things I
want in life. Climb that AMradio man, make that AM radio money,
and make all my dreams come true. That should be your aim.

(07:43):
On this beautiful Burdbank deck wrapped inrain. Kids, Hey, we gotta
do news because it's k I am. So guess what. The House passes
a bill to enhance child's tax creditand it revives key tax breaks for business.
All those words together mean thing toan idiot like myself, So we
go to ABC News correspondent j O'Briento break it down for his JAYU there,

(08:07):
I am here. This is prettypretty big. I will try to
understand it a smidge better, eventhough it's tax policy. But the biggest
takeaway, if you remember nothing else, is that the House of Representatives,
amid all of the chaos of thelast few months, whoever you want to
blame for that, past a bipartisanbill expanding the child tax credit and providing

(08:31):
tax breaks for businesses in a bipartisonblowout, really more than three hundred and
fifty votes last night. Now,it had to be done in a kind
of a procedural loophole way so thatthe hardliners in the House Republican conference didn't
tank the bill over some oppositions toit. But it had the backing of
Speaker Johnson and Republican leadership. It'sa big win for Republican leadership because one

(08:52):
of their guys negotiated this. It'sa big win for Democrats too, who
these are some policy priorities of theirsand this bipartisanship in Congress. I mean,
who would have thought that is thesexy? For sure? But that's
the sexy for them. What's itmean for the rest of us? I
mean, you know, nice tosee Washington working when it does, so
all credit is due there. Butwhat's the meat on these bones? What

(09:16):
does that actually mean? What arewe what are those cats celebrating and why
should we? So, yeah,that's a great question. So the child
tax credit portion of it is thepart that's getting the most headlined, so
I'll talk about that first. Sowhat it does is it expands the child
tax credit by increasing the refundable partof the tax credit. So when you
get the child tax credit back,there's a portion of it that's refundable.

(09:39):
It was capped at sixteen hundred dollars. Now it's capped at eighteen hundred for
one year, than for the nextyear. I think it's nineteen hundred,
and then twenty one hundred, etcetera, et cetera. So essentially,
you get more money in your pocketif you receive the child tax credit if
you have a kit. That ishuge because the child tax credit, as
we've seen in the past, thinkduring COVID, was massively important in terms
of juicing child poverty. When theCOVID era expansions of the child tax credit

(10:03):
went away, there was one analysisthat found that in child poverty jumped from
twelve percent during the covid era expansionof the child tax credit to seventeen percent.
That's pretty significant. There's one estimatethat says this is going to impact
about sixteen million families. On thebusiness side of things, these are taxed.
Hold on, Jay, let's takeit. Let's jay, jay,

(10:24):
Jay, you there, let's takeLet's take a breath. Let's just take
a breath and appreciate the first partof that equation. So good first people
with kids, Yes, very goodfor people with kids, all right?
Or that being it if it passesthe Senate. Well, well you're to
start seeing what if it passes theSenate this tax year. It has a
bit of a rocky road in theSenate. We can get into that in

(10:46):
a second, but go ahead,all right. So the first half of
it is for the better min ofkids. The second half of it is
where the small business comes in.And how are these things related in any
way, shape or form. Isit something like we're kind on a child
tax credit and somebody tacked this otherthing on at the same time. How
are they how are they connected?Kind of like that a little bit more

(11:07):
in the way of think about itthis way. You needed something to get
a sweetener in there to get Republicanvotes, right, because the child tax
credit element of this wasn't necessarily goingto pick up Republican votes. So these
tax credits for businesses are something thatRepublicans that wanted for a really long time.
They're particularly targeted at research and development, So if you're a business and

(11:30):
you're doing R and D, youcan write certain elements off of the cost
of R and D in a waythat you couldn't before. It will expand
that out. That's one element ofthings. There's a bunch more in there
for businesses as well. There's alsoaffordable housing programs in there too. Point
being, this is kind of abig melting pot of a lot of policy
issues that frankly, Republicans and Democratswanted to tackle. So they put it

(11:52):
all into this one vehicle so itcould have an easier time in passing,
and it did in the House.Now what are the chances that it passes
the Senate after this? It's alittle rockier in the Senate. So this
was a deal that was struck bya House Republican and a Senate Democrat trying

(12:13):
to get it through both chambers.Right in this Senate Democrats back it,
and it has backing across the isleamongst Republicans too. Republicans have pumped the
brakes on it a little bit.They have said, look, we want
to look at this a little bitlonger. We were not really in on
the inside of this deal, sowe want to take a little bit of
a broader look at this legislation.And then there are some Republicans like Chuck

(12:35):
Rassley who have come out and saidthey don't like this because it could potentially
give an election year win to PresidentBiden. Chuck Rassley, in a quote
yesterday, equated it to giving checksto voters in an election year, and
his reasoning for saying that's why hedoesn't like it is that if that was
a political benefit for President Biden,then you might have a second Biden term

(12:58):
and you might not end the twentyseventeen Trump era tax cuts, which Grassly
viewed as very necessary. So thatwas his political calculus and things. So
at the goal line here in theSenate, there might be some politics that
makes its way into this bipartisan deal, but it at least has the juice
at the moment, having passed inthe House in such a bipartisan way.

(13:20):
And the big story coming out ofthe big story isn't the big story about
the actual text credit as much aslike, ay, we all agreed on
a thing, isn't that amazing?That's the news. I mean, this
Congress is not known for just gettingalong in things, and it's agreeing on
something that is really important to people. And so much time, like when
everybody agrees on something, it's nevera bill that really is going to cut

(13:43):
through and hit businesses and families andthings of that nature. I know every
time along KFI there are a couplecongressional staffers who listen consistently to KFI and
they're going to text me and takeissue with what I'm about to say.
But this Congress has not been knownfor a getting along and b passing stuff.
So that is extremely significant in thatway. And let's look at the
silver line to the cloud between thisand what maybe the scuttled border built.

(14:07):
It does seem like Congress is tryingto work, which is always a good
signe right. Yeah, And inan election year too, I mean on
Capitol Hill when there's a presidential election, as you know, things kind of
slow down. Everybody kind of goesinto their corners and just kind of backs
their candidate and prepares for when they, in theory, will take the White

(14:28):
House, right and nothing really getsdone legislatively. We are seeing some serious
legislative moves right now. The questionreally becomes, will the presidential election on
this issue of immigration and now onthis tax deal be the spoiler that keeps
these from getting all the way tothe goal line that we have to wait
to see. Excellent reporting by ABCNews correspondent j O'Brien, Jay, thank

(14:50):
you, thank you. Hey.So there's a story that I saw on
Twitter where it's thieves targeted Cooper Youngbookshop and toy store. This was in
Memphis, and people throw it intomy social media stream because the cat who
owned the store, they had abreak in. They put up a sign

(15:11):
that says, I assure you wewere open. That was a sign that
we our main character had put upin the window and clerks. A movie
I made way back in nineteen ninetythree came out in ninety four. So
periodically, whenever there's like a stormor some or break ins or cargoes through
a window of a storefront on socialmedia to go on Twitter, people will

(15:35):
post and kind of throw my way. These pictures of people who use the
exact same wording, you know,and sometimes people know what it is,
sometimes they don't. So these catsdid. And then the dude was doing
a recap on the news about athrilling story, which we're going to hear
about in one second. But theyasked, you know, he talked about

(15:56):
the sign on the window because it'sa bizarre thesology. I assure you were
open, and he gave a shoutout to Clerks. He was like,
oh, it's from the movie Clerks. Kevin Smith made it and he's uh,
he's known in our world. Andthat tickled me. So I tweeted
last night. I was like,hey, man, get me the address
so I can send him some signsstuff to sell. And lots of folks

(16:21):
did for me the info, andso I said to Mando this morning,
I was like, let's let's havehim on. And here he is,
Man from Live from Memphis, Tennessee. Man, Shannon Man, Merrit Shannon
You there, yeah, Man,how are you doing today? So good
man? So number one, I'msorry about the incident that happened in the
store, but tell these listeners thrillthese listeners with with how you encountered and

(16:47):
single handedly stop the crime yourself.This this, this is the stuff of
dreams. It's kind of a crazystory. So and awesome. Thank you
for having me on. This isan amazing experience. Last week, I
think I'm trying for the stores,but you know, also I'm like,
hey, we're gonna gives you lemons. You make lemonade, right. So,

(17:08):
uh So, oddly enough, thenight before the break ins at I
have a toy store and a comicbook store like two doors down from each
other, and the people who burgledthem, they targeted both stores nine to
one comics and nine oh one toys, And uh it's a Memphis kid.

(17:29):
So when you're there, when youwhen you head out of burd Bank and
you hit Memphis, go there,keep going right. Uh So, well,
I had literally I'm prepping because I'mgoing to be on the Cruise of
Skew later this month. Yeah man, oh yeah, I'm gonna be.
I'm watching all your movies kind ofyou know, brushing up. So I

(17:55):
watched Clerks too that night, andI went to bed, and then I
got the toad. I rushed overthere. Of course, the burglars were
gone and I was putting up thewood and I was like, oh,
I got to I got a spraycan in the in the storage room.
I was gonna go down and spraythis on there. You know, just
kind of like has got to beright, because it's fate. Uh So

(18:15):
timing is what It's more timing thananything else. But you encountered the crime
and action right now. So whathappened is those three there were three people
that broke into those stores and wegot video of it. But they didn't
take anything. This is where itgets kind of weird. Uh So they
didn't take anything. They checked thecash registers and went on and you know,
please take a report everything. Iwas up all night. I ended

(18:37):
up sleeping in the afternoon that afternoon. Fire afternoon. Well, I got
a call from another con book storethat afternoon that uh one of the cool
convice store across the uh across thecity, and they were like, hey,
man, I think somebody stole insome of your stolen stuff. And
I was like what. And hesent me a picture of the guy with
a whole bunch of stuff and hewas like, yeah, there's nine o
one stickers on that on that product. I'm like, yeah, but they

(19:00):
didn't take anything. And then Ihave a little shipping office and I was
like, oh no. And aseparate incident across town, somebody had broken
into my shipping office and stole aboutthree thousand dollars worth product. Oh my
lord, man. And for smallbusiness kids like that's that's devastating. And

(19:21):
you could because of the stock ina comic book store. You know,
it's not always on the floor,it's in the back. It's understandable that
you wouldn't have known. Sitting infor Gary and Shannon k If, I
am six forty Live Everywhere on theiHeartRadio app. We were talking to Shannon
Merritt before the break. He's gota comic book store in Memphis, nine
oh one Comics and nine oh oneToys Memphis, of course, being one

(19:45):
town over from Burbank. It's betweenBurbank and Hollywood Kids, Memphis, Tennessee.
Anyway, when last we left thestory, h Shannon had just heard
that people had broken in taking somestuff in his backroom and they were trying
to sell it and there was apicture of the guys there. Correct.
Yeah, so it was I havea shipping office like a little ways away

(20:08):
across town and they had broken inthere. And the other comic book store
send me pictures of the guy withthe stuff in the parking lot trying to
sell it to a customer, andI was like, man, I think
that's my stuff. And I wentover to the building and verified that somebody
had broken into my building, andso I called the police. Police showed

(20:29):
up, and you know, I'mtrying to secure the building while they're taking
the report. Police officers sitting inhis car, and you know, I'm
there for about ten fifteen minutes andI look up and I see a guy
walking down the street. And it'skind of dark, so maybe he didn't
see us sitting there. And hewalked by down the street and I said,
that's the guy in the picture.Oh good lord, And I was
like, hey man. He turnedaround, looked at me, and I

(20:52):
said, hey man, come here, and he didn't really want to come
come to me, and he keptlooking at the building. I was like,
all let them, uh, andso I just kind of ran over
there and snatched him up, andI was like, you need to come
over here, and I dragged abouthalf a block back to the building.
Uh. And my wife happened tobe there, and she grabbed the police

(21:14):
officer that was in the car,pulled him out of the car and was
like, my husband just called theguy, and the officer came over there,
showed him the picture on my phone. He's wearing the same exact clothes
and he's like, oh, man, that's him. So we ended up
I ended up catching him, uh, which was, you know, serendipitous,
but you know, it was quitean experience. You're gonna look at

(21:37):
you, man, You're a combook store owner who did a total batman.
So I got to let you inon a little secret that it up.
So my background and I do notsuggest people to go out chasing down
criminals and things like that, butbefore not without a mask. Not without
a mask and a what you're sayingright, yes, yeah, So I

(22:00):
before I was a while I wasa police officer, I opened up the
comic book store, did you Iwas a police officer in Memphis for thirteen
years, and in twenty sixteen Iopened up the comic book store and I
was like, hey man, thisis what makes me happy. And I
quit the police department and I've beencomic books and toy stores. It was
a dream of mine, all mylife, and so now that's what I

(22:22):
do. So I have a littlebit of experience with that. So I
don't suggest people going and running downcriminals, but I knew the cops were
right there, and I only knowit's going to be safe. Number one,
Thanks for pointing that out, Shannon. Number two, I got to
ask, so, did you doyou think he wound up in law enforcement
because you like comic Did you likecomics as a kid? Did superheroes lead
you into a life and law enforcement? One hundred percent. Comic books have

(22:49):
goted my whole entire life. I'vebeen combico fan ever since I can remember.
As a matter of fact, Igave a speech earlier this year a
local thing called Nerd Night about likehow comic books have affected every bit of
my life. I was in theMarines before I was a police officer,
and I use like, you know, superhero references like Captain America, Like

(23:11):
Captain America wouldn't give up. I'mnot giving up. Look at the deep
cuts influence. Man, like youput your life on the line in the
service and in the police service becauseof some fictional stories that a bunch of
old people told a long time ago, people in very colorful outfits. That's
how powerful that medium is. Itmakes you want to do good, doesn't

(23:32):
it. When you're a combook fan. I just I just always loved it,
and just I've always been a comboguy, and and honestly it's just
been a thread to my whole entirelife. So I just now I just
get to do what I love.That's a feel good story, right there,
Shannon. You've you cracked the code, you figured it out. I've
said on Twitter last night, I'mgonna send you a bunch of signed stuff

(23:57):
for you to sell, and somepeople said, well, some people were
like, well, if I wasin I wouldn't sell. No, sell
it, Like, that's the point. Make money off off me, if
you can trust me. I've beentrying to make money off Kevin Smith for
thirty years. It doesn't work.But if it helps nine oh one comics,
one iota it will. But man, number one, I love that
story. But number two, Ilove the deep cuts, the real story

(24:21):
of why you have a store inthe first place. And you did your
time and your service to others,like putting your life on the line in
the military and in the in lawenforcement. But Now you're also looking out
for others with a comic book store. Now you're nurturing their souls and their
imaginations. You're going to create awhole new wave of folks that are like,

(24:45):
I want to do the right thingbecause you're doing something that you love,
I hope. So that's all.I just want to make Mphis a
better place. I want to makemy community better place. So we put
ourselves and being atreunity store. Soyou know that's my focus there. It
is kids. Uh take that LosAngeles Shanon Merritt doing it right down there

(25:06):
in Memphis. H Shannon, excellenttalking you. Look for my stuff coming
to you very very soon. Man. I appreciate it. I'll see it.
Yeah. Make sure you come upand introduce yourself. Man. I'll
be like, oh my lord,you're famous. You're on AM radio.
All right, man, thank youso much for this. Excellent talking to
you. I'll talk to you lateron all right. Bye. See man,

(25:26):
that's a feel good story right there. Here's another feel good story.
We're a news station kf I AMsix forty, so you know it's our
in our charter. I guess Inever read it manifest whatever to give you
the news. The news doesn't alwayshave to be like, oh man,
get ready, clench you up.This is going to be depressing, like

(25:47):
this, like that news you justheard about the combook store. How about
this Ben, Remember we were talkinglast week about the eagle had the egg
and we all cucked out. Thewhole nation was staring at this eagle giving
birth and whatnot. Here's a followup, am NBC Los Angeles talk about
excitement Number one. Props for somegood copy. Right there, fantastic right

(26:11):
there, Jackiet, a big bearbald eagle just laid not a second,
but her third egg. Here.It is meant more eagles in the world.
We like that. We're America.It's a symbol. Nice to have
more eagles around. This is scarywhen people are like, you know,
the symbol of America, there's notmany left. We gome good Lord.
I hate living in a metaphor.But now there's like three brand new eagles

(26:32):
coming your way. Man, there'sgood news. You always got to check
in with people, see how they'redoing. Give them good news. Man.
You know I we're gossipy by natureand for some reason, as human
beings, the condition is to sharemisery and bad news. And you know
you got to check in on people. You know who did that just recently
Elmo from the Washington Post. ManElmo asked how everyone's doing, and uh,

(26:57):
they're not great. It was aMonday morning, at the end of
a long January double whammy of devastation. Elmo had a question. I'm not
even gonna try to do the voice. I'm not going to culturally appropriate Elmo's
Muppet voice, So I'm just gonnaread it like Kevin Smith silent Bob playing
Almo right here. Elmo is justchecking it. Gotta get in the spirit.

(27:17):
I think Elmo is just checking in. Call me Sesame Street. You
know that's on point. You knowI could pass. Elmo is just checking
in the love. Sesame Street characterwrote on social media, how's every baggy
chewing? And all of Twitter camewith the truth. Man. Even Rachel

(27:41):
Ziggler, the actress, was likeresisting the urge. Tell Elmo that I'm
kind of sad. Everybody was like, Elmo, life sucks. They Elmo
asked. Elmo asked, and theytold Almo like crazy, how they were
feeling. Man. One guy wrote, Elmo, take a hit of this
bong. I thought that was hysterical. Important to check in on folks,

(28:03):
kids always. We're going to checkin on somebody when we come back.
Man a little bit loven o' clock. Our William Shatner, cap Kirk himself
in Masters of the Universe, theNetflix show that I'm doing Revolution. You've
been listening to The Gary and ShannonShow. You can always hear us live
on KFI AM six forty nine amto one pm every Monday through Friday,

(28:27):
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadioapp.