gorilla flicks

jukka dudeson on the ideology of being a dudeson

Do you to the YouTubes? If so, be sure to check out Jukka's new show Ultimate Expedition, debuting today on the YouTube Red label (not to be confused with John Lucero's Black Label). But that's just part of what you can read below, where Rick Kosick went into the depths of Dudeson psychology and the worldwide monster it grew into from its Finnish house party origins.

Rick Kosick: So what’s the life of a Dudeson like nowadays?

Jukka: Being 37 and being a Dudeson, you still have the same mentality and attitude you are born with that you do first and think later. Just kidding, but I still live off what always was my passion—to create something new, original, and unique and have fucking fun in life. Never forget that inner kid. I’m 37 and I think I’m the most childish person in my family and I've got a 5- and a 3-year-old.

So you’re always trying to out do your kids?

Jukka: I try to out do my kids and I always tell them that playing is a kid’s most important job. That’s my job, too. Actually, right before I came here, I spent the morning with my kids building a Batmobile out of cardboard boxes. So being a Dudeson there’s two sides to me: I’m going to constantly keep pushing my limits, keep learning new things and skills in life, and keep walking into every situation with the confidence I've always had. You know, I got this, and when I get to the place and I don't, I say, "Oh, I so didn’t have this." Haha... but that’s where humor comes from.

The other thing is, I’m running Rabbit USA here in the US, so we're producing a lot of shows. In Finland, we're the biggest independent production company. We do 15 shows a year. Outside the original and unique Ideas we do, we produce Saturday Night Live, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and Shark Tank Hollywood Game Night. Everything else is something we created and I take those shows and try to sell them here. We-re in post-production for the biggest non-scripted YouTube Red series, a show called Ultimate Expedition that will air in January.

Why did you decide to move to America, is this something you always wanted to do?

I’m from a small town in Finland that only has 500 people. My dad can’t read or write. I’m from a very poor family and I had never traveled before I was seventeen. I had this ambition inside me to do something big… I wanted to inspire people to live their life to the fullest and push their limits, and that’s what drove me to America. First of all, I’ve been traveling back and forth for 15 years now, and I spend more time every time I'm here. I just wanted to make something happen, because Finland isn't big enough for four crazy Dudesons. So I decided to move to the US and spearhead the Dudeson’s brand, running Rabbit USA here. You know, what’s actually scary, is you have a certain status, a successful company, great people working for you, and then leaving that all behind to come to the US and start from scratch and you take your family with you. But it’s worth it.

You were a big fish in a small pond in Finland and now you're in America.

It’s a fucking ocean and I’m not even a shrimp! Even though I have a shrimp—but not anymore. In Finland I had a shrimp, because it was so damn cold. Haha… but I love America. You know why? Every place has a good and bad side, that’s obvious, but I always concentrate on the positive. You come here, the dream still lives on, and it’s so freaking inspiring. Everyday you might meet somebody that can change your life. There are people who are self-made and had their dreams come true. You got Netflix, Google, and everybody in entertainment is out here. What I want to do is to make miracles. I want to preach about positive anarchy, so that the kids will know how to live their life and believe in their dreams. I think that comes from a skateboarding background. Skateboarders are so critical—that’s the biggest thing I got from being a skateboarder. Whatever somebody tells me, I don’t believe it. I challenge it. Until I see it myself, then I'll believe it. There’s so much BS people are trying to shove down your throat.

I always thought skateboarders were more creative, because they've always been on the forefront of fashion and what’s hip in today's culture. It always trickles out from there.

I think so, too. First of all, it’s a lifestyle. You go hang with your friends and you bust balls everyday skating at a mall. You constantly keep trying a trick and pushing your limits. You get hurt, but you get up and go again. That’s the mentality in life, because life will throw you down but you've just got to get up. Sometimes I thought skateboarders were a little too cool for school, but I see why. They don’t take shit. That’s what Iove about it. I had a blessing to grow up with one of the best skateboarders I know, Arto Saari. He was my next-door neighbor when I was thirteen. Later on, he bought a house for his mom across from my house. It was funny, he came over and knocked on my window like seven years ago. He goes, "Hey Jukka, I got a place for my mom across the way." Obviously he had way more skateboarding skills than me, but I was pretty good about falling off the board. 

Let’s take a step back. How did the Dudesons get started?

The Dudesons have a similar growth story like jackass. We were a bunch of friends that all met in elementary school, but it’s the same cultural background we had coming from skateboarding and snowboarding that sort of made us film all the stuff were doing. We wanted to film and make something cool, like, "Look, this is what we're doing: we're blowing up mailboxes, we're pulled 80 mph behind a bus on a sled, pulling backside 360 flips on a snowboard, doing something at a ditch on a skateboard." So it’s a combination of all of that craziness and lifestyle. We were like the Power Rangers and needed all four of us to make that magic happen. Jarno filmed and edited all the footage, and every Friday when I was in high school we would throw a house party and get everybody around to show them what we did last week. That was our audience until '97 when we put out our first movie. We did it all ourselves and mailed the VHS tapes to all of the sporting stores, begging them to put it on their shelves, and ended up selling a few of them. Luckily enough, Jarno  applied for a job at this small underground cable channel called Moon TV. It doesn’t exist anymore, but at the time he was like, "We've got to make our own show." So he threw out the idea, we sold the show, and it premiered January 2001.

Wow, that’s really cool. And then it snowballed into something bigger?

Yeah, the fun thing is, all these people started reaching out to us. These big producers in Finland said they wanted to produce the show. We were like, "No, we don’t want anybody to touch this," because we all came from that skateboarding background, saying, "No, we don’t take any advice. We're going to do it ourselves, because we know what the young kids want to see." When we first did the show, we thought, "Okay, it won't be the worst show on the network," and all the sudden it was a success on that little cable channel. The second season, Channel 4, the second biggest commercial channel in Finland, reached out to us and said they wanted the second season. From there it snowballed into where we should do something international. We started about the same time as jackass on TV in Finland, and we were like, "Jackass is doing this in English. We can speak good enough English. We should do something worldwide." The funny thing is, nothing was ever sold from Finland outside of Finland before—like nothing international had ever been sold. We were the first show ever to be sold outside of Finland. So we went to the biggest TV market in Europe and walked around with a trailer where I put my balls into a mousetrap. We would walk into Disney and I’m looking at a Mickey Mouse Club trailer playing in the background as I’m showing my trailer to the Disney executives. When they saw me put my balls in a mousetrap with all the aftermath and how much it hurt, right then they said, "We might not be the right home for this, but you should go talk to Viacom and MTV." So we just went around. We didn’t know what we were selling, but we wanted to get something out there. After a year, we sold the first season to Australia and 150 other countries.

How did you meet Jeff Tremaine?

First I meet Steve-O. And we knew Bam, because he loved Finland. We were doing live festivals at the same time, where we had a band playing in the background and I was shooting a shotgun with a bulletproof vest and other big, crazy stunts onstage. Steve-o was on his world tour then and he was coming to Finland, so I got ahold of him through his management. When Steve-O came to Finland to do press, we met up and shot a couple of things. We bonded and really liked each other. We were supposed to do a show the next day, but before doing that Steve-O flew to Sweden to do a show and was bragging about how he swallowed bunch of weed in Holland. The Swedish cops busted him and put him in jail, so the show never happened. We had all the footage we filmed with Steve-O, but I didn’t have any appearance release forms and we really wanted to put this in our new Dudesons movie. So I flew to LA and hit up Steve-O to show him what we wanted to use. He came to the motel I was staying at and he was like, "I love it, but I can’t really call the shots. It’s a Jeff Tremaine question." At the time, Jeff was editing a video for Turbonegro at Hollywood Sound and I had a DVD with me. I was like, "Can we go meet Tremaine?" This is how it felt for me being a 19-year-old little boy from Finland. So I came in and Steve-O introduced me to Jeff. I told him what I do and Jeff is like, "Let's watch the DVD." So I’m trying to make it play, but my DVD is in PAL mode and not NTSE, so it’s not working. Tremaine is standing on his ivory tower saying, "Time is money, boy." Finally I got it working and it’s a seven-minute presentation reel. When it was finished playing, Tremaine was like, "Hell fucking yeah. I love you guys, and go ahead, Steve-O." That’s when we got to use Steve-O in our DVD, and then we met Bam. Ever since then, Tremaine has become a dear family friend. He has definitely been a big inspiration, and it all started by meeting Steve-O. I love Steve-O. We’ve been friends for fourteen years now. I’ve seen him change and how he’s got that burning will to live and evolve as a person.

Now that you’re living in Los Angeles, do you miss seeing your fellow Dudeson brothers?

We all own the company together, so the Dudesons come here all the time. Jarppi just left, and Jarno was here just before that. So the way we look at is, I’m filming the Dudeson vlog for YouTube from my point of view, being the spearhead, and we try to have each guy come here for ten days throughout the year. So we still get to do things together, because it’s obvious we grew up together and can count on each other. There’s definitely a chemistry every time they come here. I do miss them a lot, but thank god I have the pleasure of having them come here as well.

That’s great. And it’s a good thing for them, too, because it’s warm.

Yeah, it’s warm. Palm trees, sunshine. Jarno lived here for a year. He came to help launch all this with me, but he moved back to Finland for family reasons.

So how gnarly is too gnarly? Are there any limits as to how far you will take a stunt?

You know what, it’s tough to judge beforehand… usually that’s a call I make too late. Haha... I don’t give up, I just always want to go at it. And if something is ridiculously stupid and will just kill you, you’re not going to go at it, but you’re going to change it in a way that you can do it. The most important thing is, whatever I’m going to do I believe in myself 100-percent, like "I got this." And rarely do I have it. Also, I think it's more about having a unique perspective or an original idea that you just freaking love, to go out there and do it in real life. Sometimes the funniest bits are the ones that won't end up breaking bones. Some of the things we’ve done, like during Dudesons in America, when Knoxville and Tremaine introduced us to bulls and bull-riding—walking into a bullring on stilts while wearing a red shirt was such a blast. You hear Gary Leffew, the legendary bull rider say, "Release the beast!" and you can see it eyeballing you. You can tell it’s thinking, "I’m going to take you down." Then it swept the stilts right out from underneath me and I fell on the ground. I could see the bull circle, and I’m like, "All right, here it comes." I just jumped a little bit, so he could give a little bump on my butt, but he ends up hammering me. I do a backflip over the bull and end up on my feet. If I didn’t end up landing on my feet, I would have been screwed—the bull would have done a headstand on me.

There are two things I love to do: one is where you need some kind of skills, like this year I set my goals to learn a double backflip and a full twist backflip on a trampoline, and I learned them at Tempest. So I love the things you need some skill, but I love also the fear factor, like on jackass 3D when I did the stunt with Johnny Knoxville where we climbed a huge tree while Jarppi and everyone else were sawing the bottom. We were waiting to fall down with the tree and I’m talking to Knoxville and I'd never seen him so scared. I asked him, "What are you afraid of?" He’s like, "Jukka, I don’t like heights. I like the kind of stunts where it’s not up to you if you screw it up, it’s just luck." So I love to go out of my comfort zone and take that leap of faith to do something crazy.

I also like to do creative builds. We duct taped an inflatable mattress on the side of a van and then I wore double-sided duct tape and I’m jumping on the trampoline waiting for the van to pass. Then I jumped on the mattress on the side of the van to see if it sticks, and it freaking stuck! That’s always crazy. Can we build a trampoline out of Saran Wrap and then jump from the roof onto the trampoline? There are certain times you are fucking scared, but then there’s that whole process of building it and seeing it come together and you're like, "All right, I’ll go for it."

With YouTube as big as it is now and kids creating content, making their own shows, how much can you make from doing this?

It's stupid money. If you’re successful on YouTube it’s ridiculous. First of all, I love YouTube in a way that I can shoot something today and post it tomorrow and everyone around the world will get it and the fans will comment on it. So I think the YouTube viewers are more engaged than anyone else. Plus, you get to see your product come out with a fast turnaround, rather than shooting a movie or a show and have it come out in nine months. Like you get to react to what you do and what people like and what you like. At the same time, so many people are doing it to be pranksters and I fucking hate the pranksters. They're just shocking the world for the sake of shocking and most of the shit is fake. What I love about jackass and how I grew up is let's keep shit real. Some of the YouTube videos aren't like that. I’ve heard people say things like, "Big influencers, why would we even try to do it for real, because fake shit does so much better for us." I was like, "Who said that and who do I punch in the face?" YouTube used to pay a thousand dollars per million views, but they want to become the next Netflix, so they went from paying not per view but minutes watched. So let's say you make a ten-minute video and 80-percent of your audience watches eight minutes of it. You’re going to make two- or three-thousand dollars per million views. So if Jake Paul did 400 million views, that’s almost a million dollars per month. That’s not bad for being a YouTube kid. I would say the rule is like if you get 50 million views a month you get between 50- to a hundred-thousand.

Maybe it’s because I’m older, but I just don’t think these new generation of YouTubers have a tangible quality and come off a little cheesy.

I think so, too. There are a lot of people that have potential, but there are even more people who have no charisma ad are used to talking to their cat. That’s the beauty of you and our upside, the strength in Rabbit USA and The Dudesons, we come from the 20th century of making content. We know how to tell stories from the beginning, middle, and end. We respect working with the crew, but we also understand how you have to do the digital content for the millennial audience, where you have to be intimate and talk directly at them. Whereas TV, you go directly to a lot of people, so how do you put those two things together? That’s the magic of it. I think a lot of these people have grown up with nobody telling them what to do, they just do their thing and found a niche audience and they're not willing to make any comprise. But they don’t even know how to work with a crew. They are very black and white, like TV is dead and YouTube is all there is. But they're also anal and going through the comments, looking at what somebody said negative and deleting. That becomes their whole little hamster wheel of living in that world and they’re not happy. They’re stressing because they have to put out content daily and the worst life they are living. I’m worried about that, all of the sudden, you have to tell a story in two or five minutes and the way you cut the footage in the first six seconds you have to have a cute butt and the next six seconds you have to have a funny face, where we're used to telling stories and giving something time to breathe. So I’m determined to find a way to make this work, and I think we just cracked it with this new YouTube show I did called Ultimate Expedition. I respect TV and the silver screen, and I know if you can reach that level of charisma you can have something successful. You’re set for life. These YouTubers will have an audience for a few years and then go away if they don’t have the charisma to step up to the next level.

So what can we expect to see from you in 2018?

We have a killer show coming out called Ultimate Expedition on YouTube Red. It’s a very organic show, where I take eight celebrities—all from the traditional world to digital influencers—to this mountain that’s 20,000-feet high. Eight people died trying to summit the mountain in the past, and all these celebrities have zero skills in mountain climbing. We got Steve-O, Chuck Liddell, the former UFC champion, Gus Kenworthy, the first openly gay athlete who is competing in the Winter Olympics… all of them trying to climb this mountain from zero to a hundred and every day only gets tougher. You’re so high up everybody is struggling with altitude sickness and running into the danger of getting liquid lungs and evacuated off the mountain. There are crevices and the possibility of avalanches.

This is the biggest non-scripted YouTube Red show they’ve ever done. It’s produced and shot in Peru, in the mountains called Tocllaraju, and I think that combines the filmmaking look. We have Emmy award-winning camera guys, a sound guy that sounded Mount Everest, and a great digital team that are building videos for Steve-O. They made 22 videos just for his channel, like getting choked out by Chuck Liddel to whatever, so he can have his own story. Throughout the ten weeks that each episode is coming out, the cast members are going to be uploading content on their own channels as well, so when you’re watching the show you can learn more about Steve-O and see what else he did during that episode. So it’s like this new ecosystem with the existing fans and the cast members feeding into the show and the show feeding into the cast members and collaborating with each other. It’s the first time YouTube has done something like that and I’m really excited on how the show looks.

I am a Dudeson for life and I believe in positive anarchy, but I also want to be the modern Indiana Jones that takes these people and keeps it real and pushes their limits with my own example. It was none of that Bear Grylls bullshit where he takes Ben Stiller to a jungle on a helicopter for a day and then they go back and stay at a 5-star hotel and then take a helicopter back the next day. On our show, everybody stays at the basecamp at 14,000 feet, struggling with sickness and everyone pooped at the same hole. What’s great about the show, we isolated everyone because there’s no cellphone service. You get away from today's noise and hecticness, you start asking yourself what you really want out of life. It really focuses you. You start asking yourself, "Am I happy?" Steve-O is battling with his addiction. Chuck Liddell, who’s retired from the UFC, needs a mental reset and wants to know what to do next. Then there’s Furious Pete, who had testicular cancer six months earlier and didn’t know if he was going to be alive. Then all of sudden he’s trying to summit a mountain, one of the most beautiful places Mother Earth has to offer. So the show is going to be quite an adventure.

On top of that, I’ll use the Dudeson’s vlog to set an example on how not to forget your inner kid. You can be 37-years-old and running a business, but stay fun! Laugh at yourself. You don’t have to become too serious, but at the same time push your limits. Learn new skills. I want to learn how to fly a plane this year and go diving with sharks. So I’m using my vlog as a vehicle to share the cool shit in life. At the same time, when kids are watching it, hopefully they get inspired and want to do something special with their life. I always say in my vlog, "What’s your Dudeson’s goal for the year. Say it out loud. What’s your dream? Say it out loud. What are you doing this week to get yourself close to your dream? How are you going to surprise yourself today or this week?" When they say, "I want to become a soccer player, or I want to learn how to play the guitar, or I want to put together a heavy metal band, or I want to learn a backflip," when they say that out loud, they are already part of the Dudesons and you're part of the family. You say, "What is a Dudeson?" A Dudeson is a feeling when you achieve something and feel alive—that’s what a Dudeson is.

meet jackass fan artist jericho vilar

Kosick: Who are you?

Jericho: My name is Jericho Vilar. I’m just an average artist that has never done anything outside of Instagram, to be perfectly honest.  

Where are you from?

I was originally born in the Philippines, but I grew up in Glendale, California. I relocated to Santa Ana when I got married and had a family.

When did you start drawing and doing artsy stuff?

I started drawing ever since I was a kid. When I came over from the Philippines I got super enamored by American comic books and cartoons. I latched onto that as a way to learn about the language and the culture, and it stuck with me ever since. I’m super into the storytelling and the colors, the creativity and the imagination.

How would you describe your style?

It’s been changing over the years. I’m self-taught and I never went to college for art. I’m into loose portraiture… a little bit realistic but not too in depth because I don’t think I have the acumen to get in there with super crazy details for realistic stuff. But I try and change up stuff up and keep my style as loose as possible.

Who are some of the other artists you look to for inspiration?

Tony Harris is comic book artist that I always love. He did Starman for DC. Gabriel Bá, he did The Umbrella Academy and Casanova. A lot of Instagram artists that I follow have been a great source of inspiration, too, and my brother is a classically trained animator. He’s actually animating the Unkitty on WB, so he’s always been a major influence on me. Obviously there’s always going to be a civil rivalry between us, but I’ve always been a huge fan of his work.

Well, one thing you got over your brother is he’s not getting interviewed today.

Haha… Thank you again. This is an unbelievable opportunity.

What made you want to draw all of the jackass cast members? 

Earlier in the year, I did the same thing with The Lost cast. There are like 50 some odd creatures, so I went deep there. I did it for kind of a cool down, like a moment of relaxation, because I usually do this stuff at the end of the day just to wind down. I saw the episode of Epicly Later’d of Spike Jonze and that just kickstarted all of it. I was like, man, I have to revisit jackass, because it was such an important moment for me when I was in high school when I first saw it. Then I started watching all the movies and I thought, why not, I think it would be fun wind down my night by drawing the characters from jackass.

Who was the first one you drew?

Oh, it was Knoxville.

Where do you see yourself going with all of this?

To be honest, I don’t know. Recently in July I started a T-shirt brand on Instagram and that’s going okay. I just don’t think I have enough connections, because I came into this late in the game… especially with the social media aspect. I usually just draw for myself or my family. I was never really one for displaying my art to the public. A lot of it is just a hobby to keep myself sane and wind down. I guess I’m just focusing on the T-shirt brand and to put myself out there a little bit more. Hopefully something will pop and I’ll take it from there.

I don’t think it’s ever too late. It’s great what you are doing. I think if you’re consistent with it and keep going something will come from it, and right now this interview is a testament to it.

Awesome, and thank you again. I was completely blown away when you left a comment and liked my Instagram post.

Hey, you know what, sometimes it’s the little things that help people get going in life.

director patrick o'dell on the making of dumb

Rick Kosick: So how did you get this gig to direct Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine?

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.

(Photos by Sean Cliver; 2016)

last call: the dumb big brother premiere at tribeca

I don't think any of us ever imagined a documentary about Big Brother skateboard magazine would find its wayward way into a film festival, but by god it did! The Tribeca film festival no less. So it was with great grandeur and a little red carpet that several of us (and Tony Hawk!) kicked Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine into the spotlight at New York City on Thursday, April 27th. A jam-packed Q&A session followed the premiere, during which time questions were asked, some were answered, and a brief but ludicrous debate ensued regarding the metal talents of Dio versus that of Ozzy in Black Sabbath.

Unfortunately the formal after-party will not go down in history as a legendary Big Brother shit show, as so many have in the past, so there are no new tales to tell of tallied up damages. Several more screenings and Q&As followed in the days after, but now the documentary is back in the can until the wide release happens June 3rd on Hulu.

Photos left to right: Tony Hawk was always a good friend to the magazine and he proved it once again by happily talking us up on the red carpet; And here Tony proves yet again how good of a sport he is by making ridiculous poses for a press feature on the premiere; Oddly enough, and appropriately enough, Dimitry Elyashkevich was the only one to wear Dave Carnie's signature pro model DC Shoes shoes.

Photos left to right: The Q&A session that followed the premiere was not the shit show it was widely anticipated to be. Rick Kosick was the monkey in the middle of all 10 dudes with varying levels of hair gel or loss at play.

Photos left to right: Dimitry poses with Alex Corcoran, a staple feature of the New York skate scene; Fun fact: Brendan Canty, the drummer of Fugazi, did the original scoring for the Dumb documentary, and he's shown here interlocked with Supervising Post-Producer Volney Howard IV; Assistant editor Lacey Reilly and Associate Producer Lizbeth Gonzalez hang tough with Director Patrick O'dell of Epicly Later'd fame.

Photos left to right: Former Big Brother editors Dave Carnie and Chri$ Nieratko; Steve-O was perhaps the most handsomely dressed dude of the night; Travis Pastrana and Lyn-z Pastrana made an East Coast leap to attend the event and sit beside the right arm of Gorilla Flicks, Shanna Zablow Newton.

Photos left to right: Former Big Brother editor Sean Cliver with fiancee Donna Stack; Former Big Brother art/editorial director Jeff Tremaine with wife Laura; Scene-stealer and maker Atiba Jefferson with the man who was pretty in pink, Steve-O.

Photos left to right: Portrait of a man asking a question at the post-premiere Q&A; Matt Deis, Jess Margera, Brandon Novak, and Raab Himself brought an air of CKY ambience to the affair; Can you spot Rick Kosick in this photo from the world famous bathrooms of Max Fish?

(Photos by Rick Kosick, Donna Stack, and Sean Cliver; 2017)

comedy night at the covenant house

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!

(All photos by Rick Kosick; 2017)

a photo ode to sable ranch

Los Angeles burned again, which comes as no surprise if you know anything about this drought in Southern California. The El Niño that never came did little to no good in the moisture department for 2016 and it's been dry as a desert tortoise fart. Sadly, Sable Ranch, one of the great wildery locations we'd used on both Wildboyz and jackass 3D, was incinerated during the recent "Sand Fire" that blazed through over 40,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest in the Santa Clarita Valley, aka Greater Los Angeles. The following represents a li'l photo ode (photode?) to a few of our more stunty times on the Sable Ranch property, which included a pond, a shack, a strip of the "wild west," and many other grassy, meadowy, and foresty formations—all of which now are charred to a crisp. R.I.P.

You might remember this shot from a little movie called Jackass 3D, where Steve-O went to the moon and back in the great port-a-potty-o-poo.

Photos left to right: Wieners and the California bears that gobble them (and the Wildboyz); Remember that time the Wildboyz went to the old west with Manny Puig and Method Man in 2005? It was our single most expensive episode of the show (not that that was Method Man's fault, nor Manny Puig's).

The little old west village from 2005 that is no more in 2016—but hey, there's the man who now runs the Viceland network (third white shirt from left)!

Photos left to right: Johnny Knoxville had a dream to be bitten on the butt by a Belgian Malinois and we made it come true at the Sable Ranch; Before the "Sand Fire" came along, Sable Ranch was first devastated by one of the most powerful poo waves to ever waft through the Santa Clarita Valley in 2010.

the steve-o interview

In the week before Steve-O was supposed to be placed in protective custody, Rick Kosick sat down with him and his menagerie of animals to talk about standup, animal activism, and the finding of oneself. Since that time, Steve-O spent less than eight hours in jail before being released back onto the streets—well, maybe a few less streets as now required by law, but he’s a free man just the same.

Kosick: I’m sitting here with the one and only Steve-O and his dog Walter who’s trying to attack and bite me. So, it seems like you’ve been consistently on the road for work… or is it pleasure?

Steve-O: Oh no, dude, I’m always on the road. Except for this past week because I just taped my comedy special, which I’m thrilled about. It went really well. I had a week off and I’m getting ready to go to Atlanta. Then I come home from Atlanta and then I go to jail. And then I guess I go home and visit my family for the holidays. Then from the beginning of the year it gets fucking stupid.

Standup comedy is your main focus right now?

I always have time to do dumb stuff, like if I want to make a video, but other than building the social media and putting content online it’s been standup and, of course, the special. Now my focus is going towards a movie project that I’m trying to get off the ground. I’m really excited about it. I got a deal with a movie producer guy who does super legit shit and we got a rad idea.

happy birthday to preston lacy!

I'm the opposite of Wilt Chamberlain when it comes to intimate encounters. In fact, I've probably had more intimate professional encounters than I have personal—and no, I'm not talking about the institution of prostitution. I mean my very own profession, which, at times, bears a strikingly close resemblance to acts that normally take place in back alleyways, unmarked S&M joints in urban warehouse districts, and certain Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous mansions where "Fidelio" may be used to gain entrance. Take my acquaintanceship with Preston Lacy for example. I've personally tied up the backdoor of his mawashi in a men's public restroom facility in Tokyo… I've watched him poop in both extremely close quarters and the middle of a football field… I've gone macro and focused on his buttocks and balls after he'd just been plugged with a rubber bullet… I've laughed as he's besmirched the spirit of Christmas... and these are just a few experiences off the top of my head. All on a strictly professional basis, of course, and it is indeed a wonderful life. Happy Birthday, Preston!

(Photos by Sean Cliver)

talking stand-up with chris pontius

New reporter in the Gorilla Flicks thicket Rick Kosick managed to pin down Chris Pontius to elucidate on the recent rash of stand-up comedy shows in and around the LA area put on by him and his fellow jackass mates, Steve-O, Dave England, Preston Lacy, and Danger Ehren. This is what he had to say—or at least a portion of it, because Pontius is no stranger to beating around a bush and makes an editor work hard—so hard—for the money.

RK: So when did you find out you were funny?

CP: I never really tried to be funny. It’s more just like people would laugh at the stuff that I did, and then maybe I wasn’t trying to be funny, but I guess it was funny, so … I don’t know? I have no idea. I’ve always been kind of a late bloomer in life to tell you the truth.

happy birthday to steve-o!

Coming hot on the heels of Steve-O's latest video release—a monster flip into Lake Hollywood (guest starring the sage-like advice of Johnny Knoxville)—I can't help but dredge up but a few random flicks from throughout the jackass years to celebrate his birthday. The first comes from a 4th of July stunting episode of Steve-O's that took place in a parking lot adjacent to our original TV production offices on Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood and was later featured in Don't Try This at Home, his first home video foray in 2001. Traveling just to the right, we then come to a signature upchuck of Steve-O's that took place at a company dinner our first night in Tokyo, Japan, for jackass the movie in 2002. Lower left and four years later in 2006, Steve-O tongued a lobster in New Orleans for our second cinematic dump, a/k/a jackass number two. And that brings us to the last Hollywood square in 2010, when Steve-O took it fartily on the chin for jackass 3D—the only film of its time that had the balls to take the third dimension exactly where it needed to go.