Star Apps: Steve-O
"Jackass" alum Steve-O is best known as the notorious MTV stunt show's enfant terrible, entertaining audiences with hilarious exploits such as stapling his testicles together and jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Off camera, the comedian born Stephen Glover had a life that was no laughing matter, as he struggled through substance abuse and depression. Today a sober Steve-O engages viewers with his own YouTube show. I chatted with the prankster about stunts, sobriety, the secret that never made it into his autobiography, and his favorite software.
Steve-O proves that comedians can be sober and funny at the same time.
(Credit: True Public Relations)
You got your role on "Jackass" by sending stunt tapes to prospective producers. Now you're doing YouTube videos, which you seem tailor-made for.
Yeah, I think that YouTube was essentially made for me.
I think that if YouTube had been around in the '90s, you'd have been the first video star with your own channel.
Yeah, but I'm thankful that it wasn't around, 'cause if it was, that may have been all that I had. Like with Twitter and Facebook, it's so easy to get lost in all that and to not pay attention to it. So it was a real bonus for me back then to be dealing in VHS tapes and not a lot of competition. Now anyone with a camera and a computer can make a video and send it with the click of a mouse.
How did you decide to launch your own YouTube series?
It was something I probably should have done a lot sooner than I did. But I went in to take a meeting with a potential manager, and the guy was really emphatic that it's all about the digital space: "You gotta do a YouTube channel, you gotta do a podcast." And it came across to me that the guy's advice was to create a whole bunch of content myself and give him 10 percent. That seemed a little silly. I just walked out of his office, thinking it valid advice and that I'd go ahead and take that advice and do it on my own. Then another component of that was an old friend of mine, who I used to do drugs with for days on end. When I got sober and was in rehab, it was clear that I had to take a look at my relationships, and the relationships that revolved around drugs or alcohol had to be cut out.
There was that one, Sam Macaroni, that was very difficult to cut out. He cared about me so much that he respected that. I got an email from him, when I came out of the manager's office, that read: "Dude, I've been sober for six months now." So we got in touch, and over the past five years, he put together a huge YouTube career. He was gung ho about it, and now we're both best friends again, we're both sober, we're both big on YouTube, and he's been an incredible mentor and encourager.
After doing the bloody underwear experiment prank, were you surprised that most of the spectators were more interested in documenting your suffering than helping out their fellow man?
I was surprised by that. I thought I was going to freak people out, but as it turned out, nobody really cared, and they just wanted my picture. So then it turned into a tragic social experiment. It was crazy. Apparently it's turning out that when people are being mugged or beaten up, bystanders will pull out their phones and film the crime rather than use their phones to call 911. It's a sad world we live in.
Watch Steve-O's tragic social experiment:
How do you come up with the concepts?
There are different ways. The condom one, for example -- I'm going back a few years. I went on a booty call. I was staying at my sister's house, and she lives in this gated community. I didn't really know the woman. I met up with her for coffee, and she said, "You should come meet my dog." So I said OK and followed her to her house. She texted me, asking, "Do you have a condom?" I thought, "Wow, that's pretty forward." So I pull into a gas station, and I get this little three-pack of condoms, go over to her place, we do the deed, and I was terribly unimpressed by how poorly I performed. I took this condom off, tied it in a knot, and put it back in the box and then in my pocket. I'm thinking to myself that there's not a trashcan in my sister's house that I'm comfortable throwing this away in. I'm pulling up to the guard gate, and I think what I want to do is hand it to the guard and say, "Hey, can you throw this out?" I didn't do it, but right there came the idea, that handing someone a used condom is classic. I also had an idea for a TV show of other people doing stunts that I'm too recognizable to do, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get it picked up. Finally I thought the flaw is having the other people do it, and between the management meeting, my buddy getting sober, and my getting frustrated, I thought I'm gonna do it how I wanna do it, and broadcast it off my own computer.
How do you handle playing pranks on people when you're so recognizable?
It's important for me to be in disguise. There are a lot of ways I can disguise myself. One I wanna do is the old poo dollar one. You smooth dog s--- on a $1 bill, and then you put it down on the sidewalk with the clean side up. People come walking along and discover the dollar bill. They pick it up, and you get that moment where they realize they picked up a dollar bill with s--- on it. What do they do? It's still a dollar bill, so do they throw it away, clean it off, or stick it in their pocket? No matter what happens, it pays off. But now you'd have to put chocolate pudding on it, 'cause people could say it's a biological hazard. That's a great example of a prank where I'm not recognized.
What's the hardest thing you've ever had to do on camera?
What I hated doing the most was probably jumping out of a plane into the ocean without a parachute. It was the scariest and hardest to do.
If you had to either redo that stunt or rejoin the "Dancing With the Stars" cast, which would you choose?
I would have to say I'd go for the stunt. "Dancing With the Stars" was appropriate for me to do, but it was uncomfortable and not for me.
You released the autobiography "Professional Idiot: A Memoir" in 2011. Was there anything that was too racy to reveal?
If you read it, you know there was all kinds of uncomfortable stuff, and it's not a flattering story. I could have called it "Confessions of a Douchebag," and it would have been an appropriate title. But even though it's not flattering, I'm so proud of that book. I'm an open book and don't hold a lot back.
There was one story that I reached out to Johnny Knoxville about and said, "Hey, I want to include this, but not without your blessing." And he wrote back, "Eh, let's not put that in print. My parents are still alive. Let's save that story for telling at bar mitzvahs."
Would you share it now?
Eh. I have been telling that story in my standup, and I'm really conflicted about it, too. I was just at my therapist's and said when Knoxville said "Don't put it in print," I interpreted it as permission to tell the story. But the fact that I'm bringing it up in therapy shows that it just doesn't sit well with me. I need to just reach out to Knoxville, and he'll either not care or whatever. That's an unresolved issue for me.
Your tattoos probably say as much about you as your autobiography. How many do you have?
In the high 20s.
Do you have a favorite?
S--- and f--- on my knuckles has always been my favorite, but I just started the process of getting it removed, which is weird. Why would I get my favorite tattoo removed? I'm seriously proud of myself for carving out a place in my life where I can have the words s--- and f--- permanently tattooed on my knuckles but not hold me back. But when I got it, I was going to be a legend, outdoing the Ozzy tattoos on his knuckles. Ten years later, whoever I was trying to impress never really cared that much.
So now I'm at an interesting point in my life where I have that same sense of humor I always had, but it's time for me to grow up a little bit. Like I said, I've been in therapy. I got sober, got healthy, changed my diet, and now I'm in therapy trying to be in a healthy relationship. I've sworn off my slutty ways, so I'm really working diligently to become the man that the love of my life deserves. I mean that in a serious way. I don't want to become the lonely miserable person with two dogs for the rest of my life. I want to be the healthy person in a healthy relationship. When I imagine meeting that right person's parents, s--- f--- doesn't work. So it's my favorite tattoo, but I'm letting it go. I will always be Steve-O and never give a f--- if I staple my balls, but I gotta give this guy Steven Glover a chance, 'cause if I only identify as Steve-O, then the rest of my life is a f---ing tragedy. So I have to live a double life and need to do a lot of work on developing the regular life.
There's that old cliche that laughter is the best medicine, yet it seems like a lot of comedians are depressed behind the scenes. You came out as bipolar?
Yeah, to be clear, that's when I was detoxing from a lot of drugs, and I believe that if anyone piled that many chemicals into their body, they'd be diagnosed as bipolar as well. At this point, I've been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and hyper-manic tendencies, but bipolar is not something they're telling me about.
Do you struggle with depression?
Yeah. I can be pretty depressive. And who knows? Maybe I am bipolar. I don't even know what bipolar is. But the good news is that over the course of the last six years of sobriety, it kinda mellowed out a bit.
Do you think comedians are more prone to depression?
Absolutely. I think that it's evident in that the only reason to become a comedian is if you need some kind of validation from a source outside of yourself. The attention-seeking and self-absorbedness, these are also all traits of alcoholism, and all it is is evidence of a disconnect from a higher power and spiritual health. So these people are not going to be happy.
You cheer up a lot of people with your comedy. How do you find relief when you're feeling down?
I think that fellowship is really key, and the whole concept of getting support from different people.
What are your top mobile apps?
1.HappyCow - Vegan & Vegetarian World Restaurant uses GPS to locate the nearest vegetarian- and vegan-friendly food options.
2. SiriusXM. I gotta listen to Howard Stern. I'm on that all the time.
3. I use TMZ a lot.
4. 1Password's pretty dope. You can store all your passwords safely, and that helps me out a lot.
5. Wi-Fi SD for iPad, because I can take an 18-megapixel photo on the camera, and it shows up on my device. You don't need a Wi-Fi-ready camera. It's actually a Wi-Fi memory card that generates the signal, so you can use any camera as long as it has a Wi-Fi-ready card.
6. I love Pic Stitch. You can piece together different photos, and it's great.
7. Flixster is great for figuring out movies. I wanted to see "The Wolf of Wall Street," but it might be triggering for me.
