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\u201cGetting old sucks,\u201d says Steve-O, his voice a barely audible rasp. \u201cMiddle age is a tough one for anybody \u2013 but when you\u2019re Steve-O, it\u2019s particularly tough.\u201d The Jackass\u00a0star begins assessing his body from the top down, listing everything wrong with it. \u201cThe worst thing going on is degenerative disc disease,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe space between vertebrae in my neck is becoming smaller and smaller.\u201d His vision has gone bad: \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s from all the hot sauce and lemon juice I\u2019ve squeezed into my eyes\u201d. He has a \u201cbig hole\u201d in his septum from years of cocaine use: \u201cI\u2019ve been able to thread it with a shoelace\u201d. He also lives with Barrett\u2019s oesophagus, a cellular disfiguration in the food pipe that can lead to cancer and requires regular endoscopies. And his collarbone is \u201call messed up\u201d. He takes a breath. We haven\u2019t even got as far as his torso.<\/p>\n
The man born Stephen Gilchrist Glover \u2013 but known widely and mononymously as Steve-O \u2013 sits on a sofa across from me in the bar of a London hotel, jaded from jetlag, his bare feet up by his side. Anyone familiar with his work (three seasons of the scatological stunt series Jackass, four Jackass\u00a0movies, and numerous other body-punishing ventures) will likely find his medley of medical ailments no surprise. Over the years he\u2019s pierced a fish hook through his cheek, attached a leech to his eyeball and ensconced his genitals in a swarm of angry bees, making the 49-year-old one of our foremost professional masochists. Think of him as the Lionel Messi of getting splattered by faeces and snapped at by alligators.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s in town ahead of a UK tour of his latest live show, which will conclude with a two-night stint in London, the first of which will be filmed. The show, titled The Bucket List, intersperses live comedy segments with screenings of pre-recorded stunts. \u201cI\u2019ve made a livelihood out of being childish and immature,\u201d he says, with an air of unbothered self-awareness. \u201cI\u2019m reaching a point where it doesn\u2019t make sense to keep doing this stuff. So The Bucket List\u00a0is a frantic effort to do the craziest stuff ever before it becomes creepy to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
For most performers, the phrase \u201ccraziest stuff ever\u201d would read like sweaty marketing spiel. Likewise, the way he describes the Bucket List tour\u2019s \u201cforbidden\u201d stunts as being \u201ctoo hot for Jackass\u201d \u2013 \u201cnot only life-threatening but flagrantly illegal\u201d. But I dare say it\u2019s true. In one video, he is put under general anesthesia while riding a bicycle. In another, a drug is injected into his spinal cavity using a four-inch needle, which renders him paralysed \u2013 while in a full sprint. Yet another sees him leap from an airplane, completely naked and strapped to another man\u2019s back, while \u201cfuriously masturbating\u201d to completion. \u201cIt\u2019s safe to say I\u2019m the only person that\u2019s ever done that,\u201d he says. \u201cI love that I\u2019ve done so many things that make me a pioneer.\u201d He breaks into a long, gravelly laugh.<\/p>\n
Of course, not every idea makes it to fruition. Steve-O previously described abandoning plans for a stunt involving a firearm after \u201closing [his] sense of humour for guns\u201d. I ask him what exactly this means. \u201cThe gun culture in America is beyond upsetting. It\u2019s gotten to a point that it\u2019s mass shootings all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t really care to get involved in debates over the second amendment and all the gun stuff. I think that\u2019s a losing proposition. But everybody\u2019s had enough with all the mass shootings.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the stunt itself? \u201cIt occurred to me, if I really opened up my mouth as wide as I could, I could probably fit a bullet in between my teeth, firing it through both my cheeks,\u201d he recalls, with a chipper matter-of-factness that seems at odds with the frankly unhinged thought process he\u2019s describing. Ultimately, the plan he arrived at is now to \u201cgo into gun shops and explain that I was thinking about shooting myself. That should disqualify me from being able to buy a gun,\u201d he continues. \u201cSo I\u2019m testing that theory. I won\u2019t stop until I\u2019m able to buy a gun anyway. And then what I want to do is melt that gun down and fit it entirely up my ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK live dates represent the end of a long road for Steve-O, who has been touring versions of The Bucket List\u00a0for years. It\u2019s also a homecoming of sorts \u2013 he was born in Wimbledon, before moving to Brazil, Venezuela and the US, and then returning to live in the UK for two other periods during his childhood. The run hasn\u2019t been without a few \u201cbad experiences\u201d, mostly involving hecklers. \u201cThere is a contingent in my audience that feels like being rowdy and crazy is called for,\u201d he says, sincerity creeping into his tone. \u201cIt always really bothers me, if I\u2019m honest. Performing live comedy is such a vulnerable art. When people are screaming out, it\u2019s like vandalising the performance, and it drives me nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machine Gun Kelly, Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O in \u2018Jackass Forever’ <\/p>\n
(Sean Cliver)<\/p>\n
For a stretch of the tour last year, Steve-O was joined by his former Jackass\u00a0co-star Bam Margera, who was, at the time, trying to get sober. Margera had been acrimoniously dropped from the recent reunion film Jackass Forever\u00a0(2022) after violating a sobriety agreement. He left The\u00a0Bucket List tour after falling off the wagon, sharing a vitriolic post about Jackass\u00a0collaborators Johnny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine on Instagram. Steve-O responded with his own social media comment, pleading with his friend to seek more help. \u201cI left that comment and deleted it within two minutes\u2026 it was everywhere in the world,\u201d Steve-O says, with a trace of annoyance. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the last communication I had with Bam, but it\u2019s the last thing I\u2019ve had to say publicly about it. I can\u2019t make him want to get better. I\u2019ve tried, and it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a struggle that Steve-O knows all too well. He has been sober now for a decade and a half, having undergone treatment for drug addiction (predominantly nitrous oxide, ketamine, cocaine and alcohol) and mental health issues in the Noughties. His \u201crock bottom\u201d and early recovery were documented in the 2009 MTV special Steve-O: Demise and Rise. \u201cThere\u2019s something that people find inherently compelling about the misfortune of others,\u201d he reflects. \u201cEntertainment and recovery are almost mutually exclusive concepts. There\u2019s nothing entertaining about recovery \u2013 but it\u2019s super entertaining to watch somebody out of control on drugs. I think there was something super lurid about the documentary, but there was something inspirational to some people too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The need to help others in crisis is \u201cbuilt into\u201d the ethos of recovery, he says. \u201cThe whole idea is to keep what you have by giving it away.\u201d It\u2019s an approach that requires compassion \u2013 and an openness to second chances. This, says Steve-O, is something that\u2019s increasingly scarce in the world today. \u201cI think there\u2019s this mob mentality about persecuting people for the things they\u2019ve done wrong,\u201d he claims. \u201cThe idea that something you said a long time ago is something you should pay for forever. By that measure, I should not be allowed to walk the streets freely.\u201d<\/p>\n
I believed the world was gonna end in 2012. I don\u2019t know if that was a conspiracy theory… I think that was just plain cuckoo<\/p>\n
Steve-O<\/p>\n
In 2006, Steve-O signed on to ITV\u2019s celebrity dating show Love Island, long before it would be retooled and transformed into the reality TV juggernaut of recent years. \u201cI remember being belligerently drunk, on drugs, and throwing a massive temper tantrum,\u201d he says. \u201cI think I quit the show.\u201d (He did, after just two days.) \u201cTo me, what\u2019s notable about my experience on Love Island is after how despicable my behaviour was, I went on to work on multiple subsequent television projects with the producer \u2013 she gave me another chance in recovery. So people can and do change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drugs weren\u2019t his only vice. In his 2022 memoir A Hard Kick in the Nuts, he recounts ten years of \u201caddiction Whac-A-Mole: sex, sugar, fame, work, spending, meditation\u201d. Treatment for sex addiction a decade ago led to a 431-day period of total sexual abstinence. He was also, at one point, an avid conspiracy theorist. \u201cI believed the world was gonna end in 2012,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that was a conspiracy theory, I think that was just plain cuckoo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve-O pictured duct-taping himself to a billboard in 2020 as a promotional stunt<\/p>\n
(Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Since 2018, Steve-O has been happily engaged to 36-year-old stylist and production designer Lux Wright. She is discussed extensively in The Bucket List\u00a0\u2013 he describes the entire show as a \u201clove story\u201d. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have carried out these absurd, forbidden stunts without that having implications on my relationship,\u201d he remarks. As our interview begins to wrap up, Wright arrives at the hotel. She walks over to check on him and introduces herself. She seems immediately affable and laid-back \u2013 I suppose anyone seriously involved with Steve-O would probably have to be.<\/p>\n
With a wedding very much on the horizon, I ask if he thinks guests will be expecting some Jackass-style monkeyshines at the ceremony. A turd in the wedding cake? Scorpions in the boutonni\u00e8re? That sort of thing. \u201cNo,\u201d he replies, almost sternly. \u201cShe\u2019s just so wonderful, I don\u2019t have any desire to bum her out\u201d. Even Steve-O has to draw the line somewhere.<\/p>\n
Steve-O\u2019s \u2018The Bucket List Tour\u2019 is travelling around the UK and finishing with two special shows at London\u2019s Hackney Empire on 13 and 14 July. Tickets are on sale now at steveo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviewsSign up to our free IndyArts newsletter \u201cGetting old sucks,\u201d says Steve-O, his voice a barely audible rasp. \u201cMiddle age is a tough one for anybody \u2013 but when you\u2019re Steve-O, it\u2019s particularly tough.\u201d The Jackass\u00a0star begins assessing his body from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n