Last time we spoke, Steve-O made it abundantly clear he really didn’t want to talk to me. I was hopeful to artfully dodge his disdain for interviews and ease into some good old fashioned conversation, when I got him on the phone, and realized he was mid-Taco Bell-drive-through-ordering— it was apparent that this guy just does not give a shit. After a few moments of sitting, waiting patiently and awkwardly on the phone line between him ordering his “vegan burrito” and overhearing the squawk of the drive-thru employee, we eventually settled in and got to talking— while he drove to the police station.
If the stuntman, author, actor, comedian, activist, vegan, Steve-O is, at his core, any one thing, it is an attention whore. In case you aren’t an avid TMZ enthusiast, you probably wouldn’t know he was recently sentenced to 30 days in jail for climbing up a crane in protest of Seaworld’s treatment of animals. This may seem ironic coming from the guy who once swallowed a goldfish on camera, but he seems to have made peace with it. “I’m just a fucking idiot and I kind of pride myself on that a little bit. I’d actually say I’m an intelligent individual with a propensity for making bad decisions. But ever since my days in the circus, I’ve always been bothered by people treating animals poorly,” Steve O reminisced. He’s not sweating the possibility of doing hard time though, “I doubt I’ll do more than 2 weeks.”
A shameless SOB
He’s been doing a lot more than just grabbing the headlines, since Steve-O’s last Midwest tour, he’s inked a deal to film his first ever, one-hour special for Showtime. “Toledo is going to be great for me because I have all of this new stuff to try out for the new special. I would say it’ll be 50% new. It’s like a one man show. It’s got stunts, stories, jokes— it’s all intensely personal and revealing.” While I was not sure what else the guy (who’s been naked in almost every film or video I’ve seen him in) had left to reveal, he assured me he’d leave it all on stage. “I am a shameless son of a bitch and a reckless one at that, so there’s nothing I won’t admit. I really put it all out there. I’m good at not wasting people’s time— so far as making it juicy right away and not having any lulls in the show.”
As I learned talking with him last time, it’s better to just let him cut his own promo rather than to try to get clever with it, so he simply left me with this: “I still do my meet and greet after every show and take pictures with everyone who comes out. I’m fucking ready to kick ass and it’s going to be a great show. Anybody who’s a fan of Jackass, or of stand-up in general, is gonna have a great time and would be stupid to miss it.”
7:30pm & 10:30pm, Friday, November 6 & Saturday, November 7 | $22.50/in advance, $25/at the door | Laff’s Inc., 3922 Secor Rd. 419-214-0700 | laffsinc.com
