Standing on the edge of a glider with no parachute, Stephen Glover jumped into the ocean nearly 50 feet below.
His body never hit anything so hard.
“That was nuts,” recalled the professional stuntman and star of the Paramount “Jackass” movies and MTV series, who fans know as Steve-O.
That’s also not the first time he has done anything insane – and certainly not the last.
There were also the times when he dangled from building tops and dived into shallow swimming pools.
But now, Steve-O, age 37, is taking an even deeper plunge into madness as he performs stand-up comedy during his “The Entirely Too Much Information Tour.” He will perform at Laughs Comedy Spot in Kirkland on Dec. 8-10 as part of the tour.
And he plans to bring his old bag of tricks – and stunts – along with him.
“I never do a show without doing some wild tricks and stunts at the end. But my heart is really just working on comedy today,” Steve-O told the Reporter over the phone from his Glendale, Calif. home. “I like to roll out my experience as a semi-famous, drug addicted, male slut and being a part of this thing that’s ‘Jackass’ for over 10 years now has really been the source of a lot of material for comedy. It’s been a ridiculous life.”
It all started when Steve-O snatched a video camera from his father’s closet when he was 15 years old. He produced homemade skateboarding videos featuring dangerous stunts mixed with comical behavior.
After finishing high school in London, he went to the University of Miami and got involved again in skateboarding and swimming.
“All I wanted to do was just get drunk and sun tan at the pool, jump off the diving boards and ride my skateboard,” said Steve-O. “Going to class was not my strong suit.”
Apparently, neither were women.
When his girlfriend realized he was failing his classes and not heading anywhere in life, she dumped him.
“I was totally heartbroken,” he recalled. “I wanted this girl to worry about me.”
To get her attention, Steve-O employed the help of some divers at the school, who taught him backflips and dives. He filmed himself climbing to the top of buildings and doing crazy jumps and dives into shallow pools.
He tied rock-climbing ropes to building tops and threw himself over the sides.
But what he got instead was the attention of the entire University of Miami dive team. When he came back from his stunt missions, he showed the team his film footage.
“They would have trouble watching it,” said Steve-O. “People were like, ‘holy crap, you’re crazy!’ I remember just saying, wow, these world-class divers are looking at me. It was like the most validation ever. I was just like man, I’m totally on to something. This is what I want to do, I want to shock people with crazy stuff.”
He later enrolled in Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College to further his goal of becoming a professional stuntman. After graduating Clown College, he pitched his home videos to producers and “Jackass” creator Jeff Tremaine took an interest in them. Tremaine was working with actor Johnny Knoxville to create a stunt-based reality show.
MTV aired the first season of “Jackass” in 2000 featuring, amongst others, Steve-O, who also starred in several “Jackass” movies.
Some of the craziest stunts that he did during the show and movies involved big cats.
“There’s been a lot of lions and tigers and jaguars – anything with big cats is pretty much the most dangerous. And also bears and venomous snakes and sharks are worthy of concern,” he said.
Steve-0 first tried stand up in 2006 when someone asked him to go to a comedy club and do something crazy on stage.
“I agreed to show up, but gave no thought to the game plan,” he said. “When I showed up, it immediately occurred to me that I couldn’t think of anything crazier than trying stand up comedy on that stage, so that’s what I did. I had some time to think of what I was going to say while waiting for my turn, and I came up with a few things that were absurd enough to get real laughs. From that very first time, I was determined to pursue stand up.”
During the tour, he says he will remain faithful to his brand “by still doing crazy crap, too.”
But the audience can still expect the unexpected.
When asked if there was one stunt that he hasn’t done yet, but wants to do, he said: “I get this question a lot, and I like to answer it on stage.”
More information
Steve-O will perform at Laughs on Dec. 8-10. Performances begin at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 8 (18 and up); 8 p.m. Dec. 9-10 (18 and up); and 10:30 p.m. Dec. 9-10 (21 and up, ID required). Tickets cost $25. Laughs is located at 12099 124th Ave. N.E., Kirkland.
For information, visit www.laughscomedy.com or call 425-823-6306. For more information about Steve-O, visit www.steveo.com.
