gorilla flicks

last call: the 2017 gorilla flicks holiday party

This year, like every other for the past three to be precise, Tremaine locks down a location and rounds us all up from our various corners of the universe for a family-style night of drinks, food, and fun—the pinnacle of fun being a certain "White Elephant" gift exchange game that has only grown and amped up in energy over time. Catch LA was the restaurant of choice, and they wisely provided us with a room and bar all unto our own, thereby minimizing any collateral damage to other patrons of more intimate, eating minds and tolerances. But look at the photos, look at the silly little photos, and have yourself a good one this holiday season!

Please make note how all the photos are nicely composed and well lit, because it's not going to last long. This was still early in the evening, so Barry Smoler and Jen look pretty in black at far left; middlemen Wee-Man and Chris Pontius could be Dasher and Dancer; and Wayne and Shanna Newton came totally correct in their very formal party attire at very far right.

And it just wouldn't be a big time Hollywood night if Tremaine wasn't taking a call, so Sean Cliver and Mae Quijada adapted to the moment in kind at left, while Rick Kosick at right later caught him off the phone and in a shirt bearing his bang-a-gong likeness from jackass the movie!

Once the food hit the table, so did the people. At far left, Shad reflects upon his life choices and the watershed of reasons he doesn't allow people to comment on his Instagram profile, while Guch remains the eternal sage; Joe Oz ran the middle of the table in pitch perfect 1st AD form, while his next door neighbor David Siev made sure all the strings were orchestrated behind the scenes and running smooth, just as he does at the office; and then of course Amanda Adelson had to tell everyone to "Go To 15" via sign language amid an animated Spike Jonze, a bemused Kosick, and a confused Tremaine at far right.

Shanna and Spike eventually managed to coerce Amanda into not doing something unladylike for a photo at far left, while Lucky Pierre's Johnny Knoxville and Sean Cliver went the complete opposite direction. Wee-Man, on the other hand, grabbed the bull by the beef and filled his stomach accordingly at far right.

And so we finally arrive at the "White Elephant" game of thrills, where Dimitry Elyashkevich arguably came up on one of the true premiums of the night, a coveted #MAGA hat, at far left; or, did Shanna score the score of scores in the middle with Spike's original drawing of "Jeff and PJ Forever"? No, it was definitely Tremaine at far right who locked up the prize possession with some cockamamie if not outright disturbing Edward Scissorhands-esque straightjacket fresh off the racks of Hot fucking Topic.

Thanks again to Tremaine and Shanna for throwing down for the night of extended family fun. Thanks also to Kosick, Wee-Man, and Mae for having the presence of mind and wherewithal to take photos amid the revelry!

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.

summer loving with bam margera

This past summer, Bam Margera came down to Tremaine’s lake house and spent a few days lake lifing. During that time, Kosick asked him if he’d be up for an interview and here’s the final answer: an interview! Consider this an hors d’oeuvre to the forthcoming Epicly Later’d featuring a life in skateboarding with Bam (September 6 on Viceland).

Kosick: Where are you at this moment with your life?

Bam: Well, I went to Spain for about six months to relearn how to skate, because I let maybe four years go by without skating. I was injured and just in the rock 'n' roll scene, so like when you’re on a tour, you know, your bandmates are waking up at 11am drinking a beer, so I’d follow their lead. Then, slowly but surely, I put myself on a scale and realized I was well over 200 pounds. I was like, “Oh my god, I gotta start skating again.” So I went to Spain. I figured that was the best place to get unrecognized. I wasn’t in Barcelona, I was in like the smallest town but one that still had skating—like their skate parks and all this crazy architecture with perfect banks made out of marble. And then on that trip Nikki found out she was pregnant, so she’s about four months into it now. Due December 25 on Christmas. 

Do you feel like you’ve grown as a person now? 

I guess I’m forced to kinda grow up now… if I have to take care of someone else, then I have to take care of me first. I’ve definitely cooled it on drinking and everything, especially from the help—believe it or not—of Brandon Novak, who has been a heroin addict for well over 15 years. He’s now almost three years sober and he’s working with the rehabilitation center, putting people in rehab. So he’s really into it and it kinda inspired me. I was like, “Man, if that motherfucker could do it, anyone can.”

Are you surprised by Brandon’s turnaround? He made a big 180 degree turn in his life.

One-hundred percent. I never thought he could even have money or a credit card or just be responsible at all as a person. I didn’t see him for a year when I was in Europe—I spent five months in Estonia and then six months in Spain—and when I came back, this guy has five credit cards now, he’s buying me lunch—which has been the first time ever—and then I got a parking ticket when I visited him and he paid that. Then he picked up his girlfriend from the airport, and I was like, “Well, who’s this?” and it’s some Grammy award-winning singer chick from Los Angeles, her name is Sirah. She did that song “Bangarang” with Skrillex. I’m like, “What’s going on with you?! Jesus Christ, you have everything put together.” You know, he has his schedule. He takes it day by day. Now his addiction is like flavored teas. 

The last few years you’ve been on a pretty dark path of self-destruction. Has the dust finally settled or are you still working through some stuff? What changes did you have to make?

Yeah, here’s the thing about rock ‘n’ roll: anybody who can play guitar or drums or sing can always rock like fuck while they’re wasted. Skaters can’t do that. So when I’m trying to follow the lead of all these rock stars who show up shit-faced and still kill it on guitar, like with skating you can’t do that and the skating part of me just fizzled away… I guess I was having too much fun sipping drinks, cracking jokes, and going on stage. But one day, I guess I hadn’t stepped on a scale for a year, but I gained well over thirty to forty pounds and I was like, “Oh my god, is this scale broken or is it real?” I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but it said like 230, and I was like, “Holy shit.” So, I just cancelled the tour and stopped drinking. I went to Estonia to exercise and hike and bike ’cause I didn’t want to go to Spain all fat and try to skate. I was doing 300 push-ups and 300 sit-ups a day, then after five months of that I went to Barcelona to meet up with my buddy Winkle who films and we just took a five-month road trip to each and every town in Spain. We hit up every one of them.

That sounds like fun. 

Yeah, it was. At the beginning it was a bit frustrating just because my go-to tricks weren’t exactly my go-to tricks anymore. It was more like taking 30 tries to do a 360-flip on a bank that you know some little kid could probably learn in four days. But after I was skating every day, the soreness started to go away and my legs started to get a bit more flexible. Then it started to become fun. But when I saw the doctor after that tour of yearlong partying, he looked at my legs and he was like, “Your legs are like dry-rotted rubber bands. You could stretch a little bit too far and your muscle would just pop.” And that happened. I started doing yoga and I leaned too much toward my toes trying to stretch and my whole back hamstring on my left ass-cheek just popped. I was super dehydrated and unhealthy. 

Well, it’s good you’re on a better path right now. 

Yeah. You know, it’s the type of thing where the people I look up to, like watching MTV and seeing Mötley Crüe, you know, they have all these hot chicks in limos in their rock ‘n’ roll music videos, sipping on Jack Daniels and throwing it out the window, I was like, “Hell yeah! I want to be that.” It’s cool when you’re in your twenties, but if Nikki Sixx at 50 was still doing that, I would be like, “Man, that’s pathetic.”

Yeah, but Nikki’s doing all kinds of real cool, positive things with his life now, you know? Like he’s an amazing photographer.

He chose the right thing to do. When you’re 20 and doing that, it’s like, “This guy’s the man!” but as soon as you start getting older, you’re not the man anymore because it looks pathetic. So good move on Nikki Sixx. He understands.

Sobriety has a lot of good things to offer. It’s just up to us to recognize that and run with it because the world is your oyster and you can do whatever you want, you know? 

There’s been a lot of flukes, like where I'd see the doctor and it still wouldn’t stop me. They did bloodwork on me and they were like, “You have this thing called acute pancreatitis from drinking too much. Your liver is fucked.” When I left, he was like, “You need to stop drinking,” and at the time I had a vodka and Gatorade in my hand. I fucking finished it without hesitation and went right to the bar and kept drinking. I didn’t care. Then after that, I cooled it and got bloodwork done from the same place about a month later and it went away. So I guess it fixed itself, but like I said, I was on such a path of destruction that I didn’t give a fuck.

Do you have any personal regrets? 

Yeah, a lot. I would spend a full day at the bar just sipping on drinks, cracking jokes with friends, thinking I was having the greatest time when, but when you look at it like at it, it’s like I just spent a year drinking at the bar cracking jokes. Like, what did I do? Nothing. I didn’t do anything. I wasted so much time just being at a fucking bar. Everyone’s like, “Holy shit, Bam’s here! You want a shot?” I was like, “Yeah, whatever, I’ll do a shot.” Like, “Yay, I’m having a grand old time,” but really I just spent that whole summer taking shots with random strangers. My main regret is just how I slowly stopped skating. Now I have dreams of tricks that I know that I could do that no one’s done before in my head, but I know it’s going to take skating every single day for a year to even get to that level of trying a new trick that I haven’t done yet. Right now, I’m just having fun skating FDR, but all I’m basically doing is all the tricks I’ve already done. There’s no progression of me getting ready to try some new trick that I’ve never done yet. If I would’ve kept skating, I would’ve never had this problem. 

Since you’ve been back on your board, what have you noticed that’s changed in skateboarding? 

It’s honestly unbelievable what I see on skate videos. When I used to watch skate videos I was like, “Hell yeah, that dude looks rad, he just did a front-board down a five-stair rail that’s insane,” and now it’s like a kick-flip front-board switch down ten stairs is a warm up trick for some people. For instance, Nyjah Houston had a DC ad doing a backside nose-blunt slide down the big side of Hollywood High. That is fucking insane to me. If you gave me a suitcase of a million dollars and said try that, I would be like, “Hell no!” because I would just fall right on my back and head and probably die. People get gnarly these days. It’s crazy. 

I’ve been filming on the King of the Road TV show and seeing the abilities some of these guys have it’s just unbelievable how good they are now. 

When I was in Spain, I would meet people on the road and start following their Instagrams. This one dude had an entire video part of just flat ground tricks and you would think that would be the most boring thing ever, but they’re all tricks that I could never even fathom. Stuff I never thought could even be possible to do, like what the fuck is this?

What do you think about the return of CKY? Is there a song you really like off their new album?

I heard the new album when I flew to England to see them on tour, like before the big Warped Tour that they’re still on—I think it’s like 90 days or something ridiculous like that—but I heard the album and it was amazing. Their first song is called, “Replaceable” and the whole album is really catchy. I’m just super proud of Chad and the band, because it’s been seven years since they got back together. They had so many problems with the original singer. Darren's attitude was just really negative, like if he would do an interview and they’d ask, “So you’re on the Warped Tour with Linkin Park and Slayer, how do you feel about that?” he would say, “Slayer is the worst metal band ever and Linkin Park—I don’t even know how they’re signed, they suck so bad.” It’s like, why talk all this shit on these bands, dude? It’s the dumbest thing ever and now you’re just making enemies. If you don’t like them just say no comment or it’s not my cup of tea. He burned so many bridges that no nobody wanted to work with CKY anymore, so when people found out that the band was back together, the ones with the good attitudes, they started to get shows booked. And they don’t drink before the shows, Chad takes it super seriously and that’s why it always sounds good. When I saw them play in London I was blown away with how tight they sounded. After the show they would have two or three drinks, but everybody’s grown up now and it’s not how it used to be, you know? 

They say idle hands are the devil’s play thing. What are you working on at this moment? 

I’ve been shooting at FDR. All my editing equipment is still in Spain, so I need to go get that in order to work on putting anything out. Other than that, I’ve just been skating and working out if I’m in Philly. I’ve been doing a lot of hiking and camping lately, it’s fun. When I left South Carolina it took me until yesterday to get home because I’ve been camping in North Carolina, then Virginia, then West Virginia, then Maryland. 

You’ve done just about everything from being a professional skateboarder and having your own TV show, to making your own movies, being an artist, and making music. If you had to choose one to focus all your attention on, which would it be? 

The big problem with me is that I can’t stand the internet and YouTube. It gives me no motivation whatsoever to film anything, because all that’s going to happen is it’s going to wind up on YouTube and you’re going to have to call up and tell them to take it down and then two seconds later some fuckhead from Ohio will put it up. Then you have to call again. You spend an entire day calling up YouTube. What’s the point of doing anything funny, or to hurt yourself or do some cool skate trick, if it’s just going to end up for free online? That’s my major issue, but I guess if I had to choose it would be doing comedy shit and skating. But I’m at the point where my skating wouldn’t be at a pro level. It would just be for fun. 

How does it feel knowing you have a baby on the way? Do you feel like you’re ready to become a father?

I’m excited, but I’m also nervous. I know I’ll have a lot of help from my mom and dad, ’cause they love that. They’re like, “Yay!! Whenever I get too frustrated or just want to take a couple day vacation, I know they’d be more than happy to take care. But yeah, it’s a boy, so now there’s going to be a little shit just like me. What am I going to do? I’m sure that it’ll be tough, but I’m at this point now, I’m 37-years-old, it’s now or never.

You’ve lived a pretty extravagant lifestyle. What’s the most ridiculous situation you’ve ever found yourself in where you thought, “I can’t believe I’m doing this right now”? 

I think when we went to Finland. Joe Frantz had tickets for me and all my friends to go to Finland for a surprise and he wouldn’t tell us what it was. So, we’re like all right let’s go. Turns out I’m hosting a sex convention thing. It was me and Belladonna the porn star hosting. People are walking around with hard-ons getting ready to fuck on stage and shit. We’re in the dressing room and as I’m getting ready to go out and intro, “Welcome to sex stuff in Finland!” I look to my left and there’s this dude just jacking off in the mirror because after I was done he was going out on stage to go fuck somebody. I looked at Ryan Dunn and he’s like, “Frantz, first of all, you’re the biggest asshole in the world. Second of all, this is the lowest of all low. We’ve had a number one hit movie with jackass, we had Viva La Bam for 15 episodes, and now we’ve resorted to dudes jerking off in the corner getting ready to fuck and we’re intro-ing that. Thanks, Frantz.”

What were some of your favorite memories while making the jackass TV show and movies? 

I think just being on set. The downtime waiting for a shot to be set up, because usually we have two or three bits to film a day and it would take a while to set up the props and everything, but the best footage we would get was sitting around waiting. That’s when something like the “Rocky” would happen. You know, those things that happen when we’re just bored and waiting, but besides seeing you, Wee-Man, Pontius, and Tremaine in South Carolina, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen anybody. So it made me really miss everybody and I want to film something again. 

By the way, I owe you one. 

You do owe me one. Yeah, you, Preston, and Steve-O—I broke his nose doing it. I felt terrible about that, but I was trying to get everybody. And I think Knoxville was so nervous and on point, he couldn’t even pay attention to what anyone was saying because he was always looking behind him to see if I was sneaking up with the boxing glove. So I never got Knoxville. 

Well, hopefully one day it’ll happen again, but if there was ever to be a final jackass installment do you think your body could take the physical and mental abuse? 

I would like to… see, this is my idea and I don’t want to tell too much of it, but it should just be called “Hotel Jackass” where everybody is checking into this hotel thinking they’re going to film jackass 4, but everybody gets fucked with in every way. Before they know it we just film the movie without anyone’s knowledge. We fuck with everybody. Every room is rigged, everybody’s there to prank everybody. Prank after prank after prank. You don’t necessarily have to get annihilated like before, but anytime we’re all together funny shit always happens. Us being around each other and fucking with each other will at least get three awesome things out of a day even if they’re quick things. 

You know, to this day, Danger Ehren says that he knew about the pubes being put on his face. 

Is that what he said? 

Yeah. 

Well, let him keep thinking that. I mean having pubes put on your face is pretty sucky, but then there was crabs in somebody’s pubes. There was actual crabs in the pubes that were glued to his fucking face. That’s horrible.

Do you have any closing thoughts? 

Yeah. Dear Tremaine… Let’s figure out something to film again, whether it’s a jackass or a something else. I like this new Viceland channel and I have a couple ideas, so I’m ready to film again. I’ve spent a lot of time sitting at bars and drinking, but I’m over that now. I’ve had enough. 

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 screening at cinefamily

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)

wee-man's chronic tacos—now in long beach!

Rick Kosick: So I’m here with Wee-Man at his new Chronic Tacos location. Where are we?

Wee-Man: This location is off Bellflower and Stearns, in the city of Long Beach. Right down the street is Cal State Long Beach.

How long has this location been open?

This location was open before; it was already a Chronic Tacos location. The previous franchise let it die down, so Ricardo and I took it over to remodel and put it back on its feet. The local people around here were bummed when we closed for three months, but we came in quick and put up signs saying we were remodeling and going to be opening soon, so it stoked them out.

Do you still have your Redondo Beach location?

No, we closed that location. I was over that location two years into it. I didn’t even like the location.

What happened?

It was in a bad spot. I always got a lot of complaints about the location. People coming on north PCH from the Torrance/Redondo area couldn’t even see the place. It was hard to get to and hidden behind cement pillars that were on the property. Parking was hard. The building itself and the front patio were awesome, and we had great parties, but the location sucked.

Preston Lacy eats Chronic Tacos!

Now that you’re here in Long Beach it seems like it’s a great area and has easy access.

Easy access off the street and easy to get here from the freeway. I love this spot. It’s central to everything. We’re close to a neighborhood where families can walk over. When we first opened, one lady said it took them an hour to get across the street because she had a one-year-old who walks really slow. But they were still determined to come here and have tacos.

So everyone in Long Beach is happy you’re here?

We’re in the fourth district of Long Beach, and I know that because the councilman of this area always comes in and he’s stoked. He came to our grand opening, he came to our taco-eating contest, and when we were on the news. He loves this store and he loves we’re a part of his district.

Do you have any specials?

We have Monday Madness, and it’s a big burrito. Then we have Taco Tuesday. On Wednesday Unwrapped you can get bowls, so it’s for the healthy that don’t want a tortilla—you get a burrito or a taco in a bowl, so we do different versions of that. Thursday, Friday, and the weekend are busy days, so nothing special on those.

Are you going to bring back Wee-Man Wednesdays?

I don’t know… maybe eventually. Lately I’ve been busy on the road and I don’t have the time to be consistent enough with it, but I can see it happening in the near future. We do want to do more parties. Our grand opening party went off without a hitch. The landlord was super stoked and so were all the tenants around us—everyone had more business the day of the party. Starbucks is our neighbor and Trader Joe’s is the other neighbor. Everybody was pumped and it brought a good feeling to the area. So yeah, we’re going to do more parties and have things going on all the time.

Are you a bigger part of the Chronic Tacos spectrum?

Yeah, I’m one of the business partners that own all the Chronic Tacos. There are seven of us. It’s me, the two original founders Dan and Randy, and then four brothers from Canada. Once we went into Canada, they were really stoked on it, so they came down and invested in the company.

How many Chronic Tacos are in North America?

There are about 38, with four or five up in Canada, and we’re all over the United States. We’re in North Carolina, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and soon to be in Washington state.

Someone told me you should open one up in Long Island, New York. They said there isn’t even a Chipotle there.

Ooooo, I didn’t know that. We’ve had interest with groups that were supposed to do franchises in the New York and New Jersey area. We need a good group to come in so they can watch over that location. Like in Washington, we have a family that does that one, and in Arizona we have a group that runs that area. Las Vegas, there’s a family that used to be a part of the McDonald’s franchise and now they’ve bought into the Chronic Taco franchise. So you need people who have heart behind the name and product to watch over it. Like if I opened it up there, I wouldn’t be able to go in once a week and check things out. So it would have to be a New Yorker who wants to run a business.

So after all these years, you became a restaurateur selling burritos and tacos.

I actually became a businessman—a business wee-man. Hahahaha…

Chronic Tacos restaurateurs Richardo Torres and Wee-Man.

(Photos by Rick Kosick; 2017)

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)

endless summer: the 2016 wake-surf safari

What does summertime mean to you? It could be many things, I suppose, like enjoying time off barbecuing with family and friends, going on a fancy European vacation, swimming at the pubic pool, taking a nap on a hammock in your backyard, camping in the wilderness, riding bikes, hanging out at the beach and sitting around a fire pit... the ideas are endless. Now that it’s winter, though, I’ve been thinking about the time I spent this past summer with Jeff Tremaine at his lake house. Wee-Man and I met up there with one of our other work colleagues, Shanna, and we all had blowout weekend wake-surfing until our legs fell off—and then we surfed even more. I mean, what can I say, it was a lot of fun hanging out on a boat, relaxing and watching my friends shred on a little surfboard. Especially Wee-Man, because he caught the longest rides and had the best style. That’s why I took the time to shoot this video, so we can remember our "endless summer" of 2016. —Rick Kosick

the jackass standup comedy eastern canada tour

Today's debate: How big is Canada, anyway? Apparently it's pretty big, or at least big enough to support beef between the Eastern and Western inhabitants. Although none of this would have been known if it weren't for a few of the jackass guys going out on their upcoming standup stint in North America's attic this June. Once again, Rick Kosick gets the scoop, this time straight from the King of Poop, Dave England… 

Rick Kosick: I’m talking with Dave England, but Preston Lacy is welcome to chime in anytime during this discussion. You guys are about to kick off your Canadian tour, what’s it called, does it have a name?

Dave England: It’s called the Jackass Standup Comedy Eastern Canada Tour. At first we called it the Canada Tour, as we posted on social media, but then Western Canada had a lot to say about that. We’re only doing Eastern part, but I’m sure we will go back and hit the Western.