By Kidman J. Williams

Dan Allen is just your average regular guy who, like most men, wanted to make his marriage proposal extraordinary, amazing and untouchable for the woman that he loves.  Many men fail in the amazing category; there are a lot of YouTube wedding proposal fail videos to back that statement up.

Dan Allen and Sophie Hung have been courting each other for a year, they cosplay together, they work out together, they are a couple truly in love.  It was on a recent trip to visit Sophie’s parents in the breathtaking landscape of Taiwan where Dan took Sophie’s father aside and asked for her hand in marriage.  This is a lesson in chivalry that has been quite lost.  Her Father respected him so much for it and welcomed Dan into the family with open arms, even stating that he was already a part of the family.

This set everything in motion.  Dan originally planned a nice normal proposal at an upscale restaurant, still romantic, but not really an unforgettable kind of a proposal.  That is when he came up with the idea for a proposal that Alzheimer’s disease couldn’t even get rid of.

Dan took a shot in the dark and reached out to his and Sophie’s favorite celebrity and former fatty, Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Clerks 2).  He managed to get in touch via email with Jason (Jay Snoogins) Mewes’ wife Jordan.  He drafted her an email and dropped a shot in the mouth of destiny.

Dan felt like it was a long shot and it was.  Out of nowhere and a couple months later, Mrs. Mewes got back to Dan.  He was ecstatic to find that Kevin and Jay were more than willing to let him propose on the stage of their podcast, Jay and Silent Bob Get Old, at C2E2.  This was the big one.  This was the shot of a lifetime!

C2E2 at The McCormick Place in Chicago

 

Fast-forward to C2E2.  They get to the show at McCormick Place in Chicago.  Dan had invited some friends to the show to witness and share in the joy that Sophie would no doubt experience, along with the thousands watching Kevin and Jay do their thing onstage.  They got to the end segment, ‘Let Us Fuck,’ where Kevin brings random strangers on the stage to grind on Jay.  Dan said, “Kevin was supposed to call us up on the stage at the end of the show and I was sitting there and Kevin says, THANK YOU CHICAGO and walks off the stage!”  He continues, “Now, my heart is blowing out of my chest and our friends are coming up to me mouthing, what’s going on, what happened?  I’m steaming and screaming on the inside and I’m looking at Sophie just smiling, because she didn’t know what I had planned.”

Dan had people waiting at the Hyatt bar to have a surprise party for the engagement.  On his way down he is texting his brother trying to tell them not to say anything and that the proposal did NOT happen at the podcast.  Dan said, “I wasn’t going to get thrown off my game just because they dropped the ball.  Now it is a Friday night at the Hyatt bar and the place is packed full of people for the Hawks game and all of the overflow from C2E2.”

He said that it was so loud in the bar that you couldn’t hear anything.  Dan said that he gave her a “Silent Bob” kind of a proposal.  It was a cute little proposal with friends and family at the Hyatt Bar.  When they got back to their hotel room Dan checked his phone and he had an email from Jordan Mewes.  The email said, “I’m sorry I don’t know what happened, what can we do to make it up to you?  If you’d like to redo the proposal at the NIght With Kevin Smith stage show in St Louis, we will bring you out there and you can do it with Jason Mewes and Ming from Comic Book Men.”

Dan told him that he would be more than happy to take the tickets, but he didn’t want to recreate the proposal because, “it was a moment that you can’t recreate.”

The next day, Jordan emailed Dan back and said that Kevin felt so bad about what happened he wanted to fly them out to St Louis put them up in a hotel next to the theater he was performing at with all expenses paid.  She wanted to throw the proposal idea at him again.  Dan said yes to the trip and meeting Kevin Smith, but he still said no to the recreation of the proposal, because as Dan said before, “it would just be too fake.”

The next day at C2E2 in Chicago, Jordan hit Dan up again saying that Jay wants to talk to him and Sophie to apologize for what had happened at the podcast.  They met up with Jay and he went on to explain to Dan and Sophie that Kevin felt so bad about what had happened.  Dan told him about what his wife set up for them down in St Louis.  They talked some more with Jay and Ming and Jay told him that they should definitely come down.

Backstage with Lunchbox

They took their fateful flight down to St Louis where Kevin Smith had a car set up for them to take them to their beautiful hotel room right across from The Pageant in St Louis.

Kevin brought them into the backstage area to his dressing room where they got to hang out and talk and of course take tons of pictures of the already memorable night.  Dan said, “Kevin couldn’t stop apologizing for the mix up that happened at C2E2 in Chicago.  He almost started crying his bottom lip started to quiver and I thought to myself, if Kevin Smith starts crying I’m just going to lose it!”

Kevin Smith went on to tell Dan, “This is the least we can do, I feel like such a fucking idiot for dropping the ball.  I want to make this right.”

Dan went on to tell him, “I’ve been a fan for so long.  I was the guy in ’94 walking around with a VHS of Clerks telling all my friends that they have to see this!”

Kevin shouted, “You were one of the converters!”

Sophie went on to tell Smith that she loves Tusk.  Kevin just sent a simple and loving reply, “I love you.”

 

On the Stage at The Pageant

Kevin started telling a little story on the stage about his daughter and him.  It was a story about how Kevin’s daughter (Harley) calls him Senile Bob.  This story led into forgetting about the proposal.  Kevin said that they were going over their checklist to make sure that they hit everything during the show.  Kevin said that he looked at Jay and was like, “Oh!  Someone was supposed to get engaged and all this guys’ family saw was the Let Us Fuck segment!”

That is when he gave a huge introduction to Dan and Sophie to come on the stage and the crowd blew up for the happy couple.  The couple both gave Kevin a great big hug and a thank you for all that he had done.  Smith went on to say, “Alright, let’s have some fun.” Kevin continued, “I understand, you can’t recreate the moment, but I’m a director and a good one sometimes.  If I can direct Jason Mewes, I’m pretty sure I can do this.”

Kevin set the scene at the bar where Dan did the proposal.  Kevin gets down on all fours and states, “I’m the bar!”

Dan got down on one knee next to Sophie and looks up to her eyes and said, “For the past year, you have been my breast friend.”  The crowd went insane with laughter.

Kevin gives an eyebrow raise, “Cut, cut!”  He walks over to Dan, still giggling, and asks, “What did you say when you proposed?”

“When I was at the bar it was so loud so I didn’t say much.  I had something to say at the podcast, but it wouldn’t have been relevant at the bar.”

“OK,” Kevin said, “It will be a Silent Bob proposal.  Let’s do that.”

Dan got down on a knee and pulled out the diamond ring and put it on her finger and pulled her in tight for a long kiss in front of the roaring crowd.  It was truly a great and romantic moment staged by the director of Dogma and Chasing Amy.

Examples of generosity like this goes to show that Hollywood isn’t all superficial and self-absorbed.  Smith is a real person, no silicon, no butt implants, not just nice for the sake of a camera in his face.  He is a real romantic who has feelings.  Kevin made this engagement between two nobodies in love, an engagement story that will last through generations of their family.