Greetings! Seasonally speaking, that is, because we're here to help fan the flames that fuel the economy with a few gifty (and perhaps even thrifty!) ideas for your friends, family, loved ones, and any other sentient lifeforms you deem worthy of presenting a present. For the most part these items don't fall far from the extended branches of our tree (like most things, including but not limited to fonts, songs, and titles), but so it goes within our cloudy realm of nepotism. On that note, did you know that a nephophiliac is a person obsessed with clouds, like in a very loving and longing way? Consider that your word of the day—a free gift from us to you. Cheers!
If you didn't think this was going to start out with the Wildboyz, well, sister, you clearly haven't been a lifer in this wildery region. The gold standard by which all other shows on basic cable are measured by, Wildboyz was not merely one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind. The show enjoyed a brief run on Netflix, but a few random Twitter rallies have yet to bring the show back to America's favorite black hole of binge. So if you want to see Steve-O and Chris Pontius streak across the globe in a relatively naked manner, then you're gonna have to do the VOD deal, or—gasp!—acquire the DVDs of Season 1, Season 2, or the collected Season 3 & 4. Learn yourself good!
Did you know there have been like 19 seasons of Ridiculousness so far? Holy crap. What a behemoth Rob Dyrdek did doth make, but when you've got a rectum like the internet crapping out Lincoln Logs of ridiculous clips, what can you expect? No, don't respond, that was purely for rhetorical effect; however, if you're looking for a way to wile away the winter days when the mercury drops below freezing and all you want to do is tell ole Jack Frost to suck it, why not choke on god knows how many episodes until the springtime thaw comes around? Again, that was rhetorical, but now that I think about it this is probably ridiculousness in and of itself to even recommend considering MTV pretty much runs Boston marathons of Ridiculousness all the live long day. Shit. Well, we've come this far so let's just plow on. We all plow on. You can vee oh dee or dee vee dee—the technological choice is your god given American right. Exercise it.
During the online days of jackassworld.rip, Johnny Knoxville decided to play dress-up with the "skull and crutches" logo and customize it in a staggering number of ways. Many (actually most all) have gone the way of the dodo, but the offical JACKASS storefront remains open on merchmethod.com where you can pick up a seasonal shirt to wear to Christmas dinner at Me-Maws or Pe-Paws house. Then there are, of course, all the other shirts, hoodies, jerseys, and zip-ups to get goofy on with your mom or dad's credit card, so give a good gander and don't forget to peruse what's under the rainbow as well on the official DICKHOUSE emporium. Totes? Yeah, got them too.
For those of you who don't live in a world blanketed by the frozen white death, we have just the thing for you! An honest to goodness skateboard deck designed by next year's break out star of the silver screen, the one and only Chris Pontius. Don't have the skills but still have the will to enjoy the art? Hang them on your wall as a decorative fixture! Especially in those awkward narrow spaces where nothing else seems to work aside from broomsticks, fishing poles, didgeridoos, wizard staffs, javelins, two-handed broad swords, bazookas, gigantic novelty pencils, and a giraffe's neck if you severed it off at the base. Bonus: Not only has each of these boards been fondled and signed by Pontius himself, but you can swoop one now at a special sale price! See specs and learn more at paisleyskates.com.
Lastly, and mostly because the children are our future, you should consider clicking on over to gingkopress.com for a big, square, coffee table book of shit that details (sort of) the chronological history of Big Brother skateboard magazine—all the way from crappy Issue 1 in 1992 to the last gasp on Issue 106 in 2004. What does this offer that Dumb on Hulu did not? Words! And lots of them! Many of them so ridiculously small yet still legible with the aid of a magnifying glass and a good deal of eye strain. There's also some other naughtiness we weren't allowed to share in documentary form. That's worth the price of admission, right? Yep, that's right... rhetorical me, bemused you. Anyway, you should really just buy this book for the Issue 17 Mardi Gras spread, and don't forget to tell 'em that Chri$ Nieratko sent you!
Patrick O’Dell: Hulu called Jeff [Tremaine], and I don’t know if Jeff thought of it, you know, “let’s make a documentary about my magazine,” but I think Hulu thought, “let’s make one about the magazine and how it became jackass.” You know, it’s an interesting story, but Jeff was self–conscious about making a documentary about himself. So I think he thought, “I still kind of want to do it, but throw in a third party.” I’d barely even met these dudes at all, but I do a show on Vice, a skateboard documentary series called Epicly Later’d, and I’ve been making them for ten years. So Jeff thought of asking me to help. It was still third party, but he did hire me. So I think it was Hulu’s idea, they threw it to Jeff, Jeff threw it to me, and then we started shooting.
How did you first discover Big Brother magazine?
The very first issue at Dodge skate park where I skated. The guy who worked there had a copy. When I got it, the cover had fallen off and somebody had done their homework on the cover. It was weird; I don’t think the guy even wanted it. He was just like, “It’s some weird World Industries catalog,” so I grabbed it and treasured it. I don’t hang onto much anymore, or even at the time, but I have it still. I loved it and thought it was cool and great. It surprised me later hearing people say the first issue sucked, because I was already a fan. So that was my introduction to Big Brother—a ripped-up copy of issue one.
What were some of the challenges you faced making this documentary?
Well, one challenge, because Sean Cliver was a big part of helping with the documentary, but he was also part of the magazine. And doing my show and sort of being familiar with the documentary process, I knew we had to streamline the story. It sucks to say, but there would be times where there are things for the people involved that were really important, but I’m constantly listening for places to make things tighter. You want to have each topic segue from one to the next. I can tell a lot of people involved, it’s their life, and certain things happened that were very important to them, but I didn’t think it would be important to other people. Sort of like, these dudes getting drunk for the first time. I don’t think it would be interesting to an outsider, but to them it’s interesting—this is my first tour and it’s the first time I got drunk. I don’t know how to explain it, but I knew when we got into editing we needed to tighten this up. So I don’t know if it was a challenge, but it’s hard to tell someone, “Okay, that story of your life is not important.” Streamlining something into an hour-and-a-half timeline can be tough. It’s a big story with a lot of people and a lot of different side people need to get their shine. Plus, it’s also for people that are very interested in skateboarding, like there’s things they want to hear, but then there’s also the general audience stuff needs to be explained to people that don’t skate. So it was hard juggling the minutia… the behind-the-scenes footnotes that a fan would want. For instance, we turned a rough cut in to Hulu and they watched it and were like, “We don’t understand who Steve Rocco is, or we don’t understand what a zine is, or we don’t understand this Natas guy?” So we did have to resolve things for a general audience, but also balance it with something a diehard skater would be interested in. It’s hard to juggle those two sometimes.
So how long have you been a fan of the Bomfunk MCs?
That was a song that drove me insane. Now I like it, I’ve got to be honest, I’ve come around, but the theme song is something Jeff had been trying to use. He had this song and was like, “Check this out,” and I was like, “I hate it. I don’t like this at all.” It sounded like Prodigy or something to me. And Sean was like, “Oh yeah, he tried using this for the Wildboyz theme.” Jeff has been trying to use this song on a project after project and it never works out. Now there’s been a couple of revelations that where something I didn’t like, I learned to realize this is cool because we’re in Jeff’s world, like his creation, and putting things in like that it becomes like Big Brother—this weird song becomes like part of the story. Plus everyone else liked it and I was the only holdout that didn’t. Now I’ve got to admit that I’m happy the theme song is the Bomfunk MCs' “Freestyler.” I like it now.
Big Brother has been around for ten plus years, do you feel like you covered the whole span of the magazine existence in 90 minute documentary?
No. I really wish Clyde Singleton was in it. I hear Pat Canale was interesting. Rosa, she wasn’t Big Brother, she was Shorty’s, but still a big part of Big Brother. There are a few people missing and it sucks, you know, but my theory is that there are always more outlets for people to learn more about those things. Like this interview, we can talk about Clyde, or Jenkem can do a thing about Rosa or the “Washed-Up Skaters” article. There’s all kinds of stuff that people can talk about elsewhere and it doesn’t have to all fit in one documentary.
At any point did you feel like you crossed into the Twilight Zone and became a part of the Big Brother staff?
Yeah, there were definitely a couple times. And of course I was a fan of the magazine, I read it from cover to cover every issue, so when [Chris] Nieratko sent in an angry email about something, at first I was bummed and then I was like, “Oh, this is sick, I’m in Nieratko’s world.” Their various little arguing and in fighting. I would be sitting there and Jeff would throw footballs at me, like almost at my head, but it was cool to time warp into a thing I was a fan of.
If there were to be a DVD version of this documentary, what would be your top three deleted scenes?
For sure the thing about the “Washed-Up Skaters.” It’s so funny, it’s like [Mike] Valley being still salty that he was on this washed-up skaters list. Ed Templeton talks about it, Tony Hawk talks about it, and it’s really funny. Vallely was still mad about it, but then he looks at the issue for the first time and he was like, “It wasn’t that bad.” If there was a DVD, I would probably demand Jeff buy me a plane ticket to North Carolina so I can interview Clyde Singleton, because he was hilarious and a big part of the magazine. The geographics and the budget kept us from really having him in the movie. It was regrettable, so I would add him to the bonus section. I’d like to give Clyde his own mini doc. And always more with Earl. I watched the video you made about Earl and I loved the dude. It’s hard to explain even why I’m a fan of Earl, but when I see him I get stoked. He’s just interesting. He’s a character from that time and he hasn’t changed. He still even dresses the same, I feel like he has blue-tinted glasses or something. He could use his own documentary. And Marc McKee is tough, because he’s really quiet on camera, soft spoken and a little odd, but he was such a big part of changing the way skateboarding is and was one of the owners of Big Brother. He did all those graphics, he changed everything, and he’s a little underplayed in the doc only because of how he talks on camera. Some of these big personalities make a bigger presence in the doc. Marc gets a lot of credit but he should get more because if he never existed could you imagine how skating would be? Especially on the art side. So I would include more on Marc. And Rosa. I’m interested in Rosa, because she was skateboarding first and probably only sex symbol ever. It’s interesting, people said some funny stuff about how much they liked her.
A short featuring Earl Parker directed and produced by Rick Kosick.
How did it feel getting invited to Robert De Niro’s house and having the TriBeCa film festival premiere the movie?
I was stoked. Jeff had mentioned at one point that we were going to try and submit this to some film festivals and I was like, “Oh my god, you’re so insane that you would think this movie would be in festivals.” Plus it was early on and I was still nervous how this was even coming out. It was kind of rough and wasn’t very far a long and he’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to submit to TriBeCa,” and I thought he was high. Like they wouldn’t have it. The fact they did, I couldn’t believe it. The only odd thing, and this is me personally, I wasn’t too shocked by the documentary. You know, I was pretty used to all of the poop and the Poocano, Johnny Knoxville shooting himself, and like satanic stuff, I’m kind of used to it. But because it got into TriBeCa, my wife’s mom was like, “Oh, I want to go.” So we invited my wife’s mom and then she told my parents. So my parents are like, “Hey, we’re coming to your documentary at TriBeCa.” And then my nephew came and my sister came and she brought her nephew. I didn’t think much of it, and I was like, “Oh, cool.” They wanted to see this doc, because it was in TriBeCa and it was on their radar. And then watching the documentary in front of a crowd… in front of my wife’s mom and my parents… and my nephew… it kind of made me realize how gnarly the documentary was. The whole time I’m thinking like, “Oh, my parents are seeing this,” and it was a definitely a new spin watching it through their eyes. It made me nervous the whole time. And that was a huge crowd at TriBeCa. It made it a way bigger event that I wasn’t expecting when we were working on it. That was trippy.
Patrick interviews cutting room floor casualty Giovanni Reda.
So you interviewed a lot of different people for this documentary, how did you decide who stayed in the picture and who hit the cutting room floor?
Seth Casriel, our editor who’s awesome, he made a lot of calls like that. I feel like he would get in there and edit everything and then I would watch it. A lot of the editing is sort of up the discretion of the editor in a way, because there was so much footage. I would interview each person for 45 minutes—and I’m not talking about Jeff and you and Sean—I’m talking about dudes who were in it only a little bit. It would get boiled down to like two quotes and there were a few people who were cut altogether—it sucks. But yeah, we interviewed so many people for like 45 minutes to an hour each, and when we got into the editing room obviously things had to go and it was tough.
Can you explain why this movie is only on Hulu, so everyone will stop asking why it’s not on Netflix?
Hulu paid for it. Companies like Hulu do that so people will subscribe to their platform and that’s how pretty much how any bit of media ever gets released. Like HBO pays for it and it’s on HBO. Or ABC pays for it and it’s on ABC. Well this one was Hulu. Hulu paid for it and it lives on Hulu. I feel like most people have Hulu. I already had Hulu, because I’m a cord cutter myself and I don’t have cable. I just have Hulu, Netflix, and HBO.
When Andy Roy’s video surfaced demanding to be in the movie, were you a little bit nervous that he was going to Google your whereabouts?
Actually, I was scared. You know, it’s weird, I knew he was joking, but there was a little part of me that still wasn’t sure. Like is he joking, or this serious? I was a little nervous. I was 80-percent confident it was a joke and 20-percent a little shaky.
Setting up the shot to talk getting shot with Johnny Knoxville.
So what are some of your favorite parts of the movie?
One thing that was tough… I love Johnny Knoxville and I’m a huge fan. He’s gnarly and a great guy and has a good presence with his voice. To listen to him tell the story about how he got his start and he had a baby and the baby motivated him to shoot himself for a stunt—it was interesting. But one of the problems with the doc is once Johnny Knoxville shoots himself in the chest with a gun and a bulletproof vest, it was hard to then show anything after. It was basically like if it was a skate video and he filmed the last part, the after black hammer. I remember Dave Carnie and Chris Nieratko wanted more stuff in the movie from their years of Big Brother, and I had to be like, once Johnny Knoxville shoots himself I don’t know how we’re going to show anything that gnarly. It was tough because everything is going to look lame after this dude does that. One of my favorite parts of the documentary is Johnny Knoxville narrating that stunt, and it gave it so much more intensity, so that’s one of my favorite parts. And we have Nieratko fucking with Ronnie James Dio right before that—that was so intense to watch that footage for the first time. Just being in the editing room and getting the tape and sitting through and watching it. That was my favorite zone of the documentary.
Looking back at everything, what would you have done differently?
I’m pretty happy with it. There were things I was nervous about and now that it’s released I’m not nervous anymore. It just makes me want to interview Clyde for something else or do something else with Clyde… it’s the one thing I regret. Other than that, I’m stoked on it. We all did our best. I also feel like if there’s anything missing, there’s the Big Brother book, there’s The Chrome Ball Incident with so much of Big Brother scanned in that you can find out more, or you can buy some of the issues on eBay. I don’t know, I’m pretty stoked on it.
In Los Angeles. Last Friday. And Saturday, actually, but that was more of a public affair, whereas the previous night was the VIP extravaganza (with an extra helping of the vaganza). Anyway, as always, here is a smorgasbord of people photos to pick through and feast upon, kind of like the fried macaroni and cheese balls that Cinefamily served up as eventide whore dervz… or hors d'oeuvres, I suppose, if you want to get all fancy-pants about it.
Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine has since launched on Hulu and can be streamed on-demand in the privacy of your own home. Please be aware that this documentary features lots and lots of naughtiness, defecation, and full-frontal nudity—male full-frontal nudity—so maybe take Jeremy Klein's advice and not watch it with your mother. Historically speaking, Big Brother has never fared so well with the parental types.
Thanks again to Cinefamily and Hulu for pulling out all the stops on this West Coast event! Now on with the faces and traditionally dumb captions.
Left to right: Giovanni Reda may have wound up on the cutting room floor, but he was nominated to be the moderator of the post-screening Q&A; Johnny Knoxville was fresh off the boat from filming in South Africa; The Q&A panel consisted of almost all the mag's former staff, sans Chris Nieratko.
Left to right: Bret "Scan Boy" Banta with his twin-ish brother Bayard; Aaron "King of All Skate Nerds" with Mother Fuckin' David Deery; The Mansfield audio dudes.
Left to right: Rick Kosick curated a photography and ephemera show for the Cinefamily patio gallery; Keith "Blind Date" Hufnagel; Dave Carnie, Marc McKee, and Dimitry Elyashkevich anchored the left-side of the Q&A shitshow.
Left to right: Heather Lee Jones is now Heather Lee Dixon after getting hitched to Kenny; The one and only Earl Parker with Scott Manning, Jason Jessee, and the Carn Carn; Shanna Zablow Newton with the time zone-punched Chris Pontius.
Left to right: Longtime Dickhouse and Gorilla Flicks men Matt Kosinski, Barry Smoler, Seth Casriel, and Mike Kassak; Loomis Fall poses beside an original Wee-Man photo from 1995; Andy Roy did not have to goggle Dumb director Patrick O'Dell after all.
Left to right: Lionel Boyce makes a dwarf of Jeff Tremaine; Proud pee-er Kendra Gaeta and the barely present yet still accounted for Sean Cliver; The Beastie Boys were there! No, no they weren't. That's just Matt Probst and Josh Lingenfelter.
Left to right: Jason Shelton, Jason Searcy, and Bill "Not a Jason" Weiss; Duh, obviously; Photographer Tobin Yelland, artist Chad Muska, and musician Dave Roen cover all the creative bases.
(Photos by Rick Kosick and Jennica Abrams; courtesy of Cinefamily)
This past Wednesday night in the city of Los Angeles, Gorilla Flicks and Superjacket Productions came together in Voltron-like fashion to host a night of free comedy at the Covenant House. If you're like me and had no prior idea about the Covenant House, it's an organization that provides basic needs, e.g. shelter, food, crisis care, transitional living assistance, and several other services, to homeless and runaway youth. In addition to the laughs and stories provided by the night's special guests—MC Brandon Broady, Rob O'Reilly, Ryan Conner, Eric Andre, Wee-Man, Chris Pontius, and Steve-O—there was a crap ton of pizza and various goods available to the Covenant House residents before and after the show, all thanks to generous donations made by several companies and individuals. To learn more about the Covenant House or to make a donation, please visit: https://www.covenanthouse.org
Left to right: Chris Pontius regaled the crowd with a selection of timeless stories and giggles from his trip to Okinawa, Japan while filming for the first jackass movie; Eric Andre threw caution to the wind and gave a no holds barred performance that may have caused at least one person to urinate while laughing (I know that for a fact because I am that person and I should probably get my bladder checked out or at least start stocking up on Depends for my retirement years).
Left to right: Thanks to Rob O'Reilly, I now have a better understanding of the cervix, dilation, and what horrors may happen when a baby pops out bottom first; Wee-Man planted his flag in the grounds of urination and all the pee-pee that his wee-wee has sprayed over the years (and mostly on Tremaine); Ryan Conner, of NBC's Last Comic Standing fame, is also a writer on Ridiculousness.
Steve-O closed the night out with an amazing recount of his "worst protest ever," when he scaled a 150-foot high crane in Hollywood in defense of Shamu and wound up in a whole heap of trouble, a spot of jail time, and a really big bill from the city. Yeah, dude!
It's that festive time of year again where we bring you some semi-biased gift-giving and get-me-this ideas that are near and dear to our collective heart. Most all can be bought with a simple click and a valid credit card, so knock back some eggnog and do your online shopping part to keep this cyber economy butt-chugging along. Why? Because we're all in this together!
For starters, it's no mystery that we've got jackass and dickhouse shirts, hoodies, zip-ups, and totes (totes!) available over at merchmethod.com. If it is a mystery to you, well, I just don't know what to say other than that you really haven't been paying attention to our social media spree of late. Then again, algorithms are the devil's plaything, so who knows what Facebook or Instagram are allowing you to see or not see, because free is as free fucking does! Check the selections at merchmethod.com/jackass and merchmethod.com/dickhouse.
Don't want to sit in front of the TV? Feel like living life in the great paved outdoors? We have just the thing for you: skateboard decks featuring the art of Jeff Tremaine and Chris Pontius. Tremaine's is a gorilla-sized slick-bottom board measuring 8 3/4" in width for all you big-foots, while Pontius comes in a screen-printed, slimmer 8 1/4" width for maximum pleasure. Don't have the skills but still enjoy the art? Hang them on your wall as a decorative fixture! Especially in those awkward narrow spaces where nothing else seems to work. Bonus: each and every one of these fine boards has been fondled and signed by the artists. See specs and learn more at paisleyskates.com.
Feeling dumb? Need to be learned? We've got documentaries coming out the wazoo to enlighten you about the world we live in and the kick-ass people that populate it. First, go big with BMX legend and all around awesome human Mat Hoffman on The Birth of Big Air. Then go even bigger with the larger than life personality of Evel Knievel in the aptly titled Being Evel. And to totally go out of the world—or at least as near to out of this world as you could get as a truck driver and exotic pet dealer who moonlighted as an amateur astronaut in a time when space was still very spacey—with the tragic yet inspiring tale of Nick Piantanida and Angry Sky. All directed or produced by Captain Kickass himself, Jeff Tremaine.
If you're feeling sinister, please bypass the minister and go straight to gingkopress.com for a big, square, coffee table book of shit that details (sort of) the chronological history of Big Brother skateboard magazine—all the way from crappy Issue #1 in 1992 to the last gasp on Issue #106 in 2004. What does this have to do with the price of a corporate tea in Starbucks? Well, to put it bluntly, without our origins at Big Brother it's likely that the course of mankind would not have been sullied or altered from its upwardly mobile course by a little thing called jackass and all the dumb shit to follow (including a full blown documentary on the magazine that will be debuting on Hulu next year). Buy this book if only for the exclusive new piece written by Chris Pontius, because every penny is worth it for that alone.
And lastly, of course, we have the wildcard (and thematic!) gift for the person who has everything, especially stress, and needs an adult coloring book to sooth the pottymouth beast within. Don't be a tool and just give them the book, though, because nothing is more annoying than getting one gift that requires another item to be purchased to actually use the damn thing. It's kind of like giving someone a vibrating pocket dildo without the batteries, but in this instance, markers or colored pencils would be a most welcome accompaniment so do the right thing.
The phrase "all good things must come to an end" never rings truer than it does in Hollywood, where every production does indeed run its course in a fast, furious, and fun as hell fashion. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is always a wrap party—provided there's any gold left in the pot—and this one for the second season of Swerved took place at Mr. Furley's in Sherman Oaks, aka The Valley.
Left to right: Game, set, and match with Tremaine, Race Car Willie, and Producer Guy Barry Smoler; Set stalwart Jon Dockery and his significant other; The first and only AD Joe Oz and his clan over the rainbow.
Left to right: Play name that theme with Lacey! First, she plays the smoked ham to bread slices Charlene Weiss and Atousa Hojatpnah; Then she takes up a bookend position opposite Taryn "Hello Junior" Thordarson with Holly "The Defector" Bertelsen as the fierce Lucky Pierre; Lastly, Lacested posts up with Charlene and new kid on the Gorilla Flicks block Lizbeth Gonzales.
Left to right: Prank stunt woman Carly Adams, Race Car Willie, and Director Ben Pluimer; Editors Matthew Probst and Scott Simmons go ape with Tremaine; Faces that you've already seen but just not so handsy as here.
Left to right: Ryan Nemeth does his darndest to try and convince Barry to buy one of his Hardbody fitness books; Field Producer Allie Floering and Production Coordinator Kasey Bates with a friend of petite proportions; Executive Producer Shanna Zablow and the man who took all of these photos except this one, Rick Kosick.
Left to right: New intern in the troop Dalton Dondero and new Holly at the desk David Siev; Lionel Boyce and Shanna na na; SPFFs John Earnest and Charlene, who just so happens to be in the next photo as well with editor dudes Matt Kosinski and Stephan "Gentleman of the Evening" Olsen.
Chances are you don’t know. Probably don’t care. Or maybe you’re just wondering, “Who the fuck is this?” Well, this the fuck is Barry Smoler, a sentence fragment that truly illustrates the importance of a comma. For instance, say I’d written: “This, the fuck, is Barry Smoler," in which case you’d read what many of us have thought on at least one occasion or more. Regardless, all Strunk and White nonsense aside, come along and enjoy as Rick Kosick takes you into the professional world of Barry Smoler, a boy who began as a grunt in Dickhouse and eventually grew up to be a producing man for GORILLA FLICKS.
Rick: Who are you, what is your job title, and what does it entail?
Barry: My name is Barry Smoler. I’m a co-executive producer on Swerved, and my job is to fix shit, interface with all the different departments, and make sure we have a good time.
Rick Kosick: So what’s been going on since the Bad Grandpa movie?
Jackson Nicoll: I’ve got two things coming out. The Book of Henry, which I play a bully, and I'm in Still the King in a flashback scene. I’m the young Billy Ray Cyrus. I’m in about 15 seconds of each episode.
Did you get to hangout with Billy Ray Cyrus on set?
If you ever wondered why jackass the movie sounded so much better than jackass the TV show on MTV, it's because we hired professional mixer Cordell Mansfield to do the job. That was 2002 and he's been with us ever since through thick and thin. Now, for the first time ever in the history of the written word (actually this isn't true, he once had an interview in some random ass magazine devoted to the profession of sound and those who record it), the man who is usually the most quiet on set gets a chance to speak and make sounds all of his own in this revelatory interview by Rick Kosick. Bonus! This interview features the first ever use of pull quotes on the GORILLA FLICKS blog. Congratulations, Cordell! Not only are you the most handsome crew member but you're an inspiration to us all—a real Canadian wind beneath our wings.
RK: I called to talk with you about your career as a soundman.
CM: Well, what do you want to know?
How did you get started doing sound for TV and film productions?
I kind of stumbled into it. A buddy of mine that I grew up with, the day after school was done he moved out to Hollywood. He wanted to be an actor and started doing some extra work. He was on a Disney movie as an extra for a couple of months and he made friends with the sound mixer. Then he stated working with him. I came out a couple years after that and started working with him, carrying cases and driving trucks. He thought me how to do it and I did one job and never had go apply for another job again… the phone never stops ringing.
Yes, it's that time of the year when we make wholly biased recommendations on items you should buy to give friends, loved ones, countrymen, and creepy uncles. Warning: These gifts may cause recipients to experience a host of side effects, including sexual dysfunction, dry mouth, nausea, headache, diarrhea, nervousness, restlessness, agitation, increased sweating, weight gain, insomnia and drowsiness. Gift at your own risk.
First things first, right? Surprise the kids on Christmas morning or any of the 8 days of Hannukah by looking too legit to festively quit in one of our fine garments. Okay, so it's just a darn T-shirt, but it's a garment by definition just the same. Anyway, you can look bold in black with a Santa Skull 'n' Crutches, pure as the driven snow with a white Santa Skull 'n' Crutches, or back in black and ready to Torah with a Kippah Skull 'n' Crutches. All are available from merchmethod.com, where you can also find the merchandising end of the Dickhouse rainbow.
You know how the go-to staples of the Periodic Table of Elements are like oxygen, helium, hydrogen, and boron, right? Well, think of jackass just like that but in an Oxford English dictionary way used to illustrate the words dumb, stupid, idiot, and moron. But in a good way. A fun way. An all in good fun way! From the prehistoric days of the television series on MTV to the ridiculously advanced production value of turd dementia in the third dimension, jackass has always had that something special—call it a joie de vivre or tas de merde—that many have attempted to imitate but never succesfully replicate. So spread some joy and gift someone in the junk with an unrated three-pack or one of the other testaments to dumb.
Need to shut the kids up and occupy their holiday ADHD while you and the other adults get merloted on Christmas day? Give them one, two, three, four, or however many seasons of Ridiculousness you're able to charge on your card! At this time, we'd also like to thank the interweb hordes for annually feeding the online beast and giving Rob Dyrdek and Co. ample material to spotlight season after season. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving! So gift this and gift hard—so hard—and deck the shelves with seasons of Ridiculousnessfor generations of peckins to enjoy because this shit just doesn't get old.
Is there anything better than to give the gift of inspiration to a young child? The answer, though a rhetorically asked question, is quite obvious because Whitney Houston wasn't kidding around when she said that the children are the future. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the most unique observation in the history of the world, but she sang it and made millions, so good on her. Anyway, Mat Hoffman is one of those things that will never go out of style because legends live forever. Plus, Mat's an all-around great guy, so it's awesome that ESPN gave him due credit for his contributive boost to the action sports world in a big, big, big way—hence the whole "Birth of Big Air" titling treatment.
Art? Yes, art! Give the goddamn gift of art if you care enough to give more than a gift o' fart. This is a high quality, 11-color screened print of a skateboard graphic by Sean Cliver for Paisley Skates featuring a children's birthday party scene with top notch serial killer entertainment. It's not exactly what you'd find offered by the Franklin Mint or a timeless Americana classic ala Norman Rockwell, but it is what it is in this day and age of wonder and mystery and it's limited to an edition of 75 prints—each personally hand-numbered, signed, and touched by the artist himself. Oh yeah. Available only at paisleyskates.com.
It's all a logical progression and Wee Man has gone full circle Oroborus-style to his skateboard roots with Nullity Skateboards. You, the gift giving consumer of goods, can now acquire a skateboard directly from Wee Man, who will personally process your order, sign the board, pack it all up, and ship it off from his home base of operations in the South Bay of Los Angeles, California. Radical, right? Right! To jump on this truly unique item you can check out nullityskateboards.com or inquire direct at [email protected].
, jackass has always had that something special—call it a joie de vivre or tas de merde—that many have attempted to imitate but never succesfully replicate. So spread some joy and gift someone in the junk with an unrated three-pack or one of the other 
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for generations of peckins to enjoy because this shit just doesn't get old. 
is one of those things that will never go out of style because legends live forever. Plus, Mat's an all-around great guy, so it's awesome that ESPN gave him due credit for his contributive boost to the action sports world in a big, big, big way—hence the whole "Birth of Big Air" titling treatment.
