Stunt celebrity and “Jackass” alum Steve-O will perform a new multimedia set at The Stage at Santa Ana Star Casino on Oct. 23 and 24.
(Courtesy photo)

It’s been nearly a decade since “Jackass” star Stephen “Steve-O” Glover has been part of the stunt crew that made him famous.

It has been equally as long since he’s hit the stage as a standup comedian, rehashing behind the scene antics at Jackass shoots, his brief stint in Clown College, and his once overt dependency on drugs and alcohol.

But Steve-O, who changed his once infamous persona into one of sobriety and healthy eating, is ready to show the world a change in his standup routine.

“It’s an entirely new show,” he said. “What’s different about my routine now is it’s a multi-media show.”

Steve-O said while he was preparing for his second comedy special it occurred to him that all the stories he was telling on stage were all things that had happened on camera.

“So then I thought I could edit in footage of the stories I was telling and it would act as an interstitial (a short film between acts)? to illustrate the story,” he said. “I thought that was so exciting, so I started recording my performances.”

Steve-O said he was forced to really study his performances, which brought improvements to his stage presence. At this same time, he was ready to part with retelling old stories, which spotlighted his crazy history.

“It just makes me feel like I’m living in the past, so I set out to do all new (s@#*expletive),” he said.

Steve-O said there were still a handful of ideas he wanted to try called the bucket list.

“The ideas on this bucket list are not new; for the most part I’ve had these ideas forever, but never planned to do them for obvious and good reasons,” he said.

According to Steve-O, this new show marries everything he’s ever done like a “Jackass” premiere meets standup comedy.

“This footage I will be showing only lives on my tour, it has never been seen before, so I am excited to see the audience’s reaction,” he said.

Sobriety

Steve-O has been an advocate for a sober lifestyle ever since he hit rock bottom on March 8 2008.

Since then he has done many interviews talking about what it took for him to ask for help. Just three years after Steve-O walked into a sober living facility, “Jackass” alum Ryan Dunn died after crashing his Porsche while intoxicated.

“I ended up in a psychiatric ward on March 9,” he said. “My first day of not drinking or using drugs was March 10. That was over 11 years ago now and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”

Steve-O said he suffered from alcoholism so badly that he absolutely had to stop or he would’ve ended up dead.

“Since I sobered up I don’t necessarily make good decisions, but I make decisions that I give thought to and that I really want to be making,” he said. “I’ve been for the most part very focused and live without distractions.”

Steve-O said his sobriety comes up organically in his sets without him really being heavy-handed about his decision.

The stunt that got away

A stunt that Steve-O said he always wanted to do but never got around to involved being shot with a tranquilizer gun before lining up for a foot race.

“The idea was to shoot a tranquilizer dart into me and my buddy and then start the race with a gun and sprint for distance,” he said. “This was one of the items on my bucket list but it became a real conflict because of the tranquilizer.”

All of the drugs that are used to create a tranquilizer are against Steve-O’s vow for sobriety, so he had to think of another way to pull it off.

“It then struck me that I’ve had so many surgeries since being sober where I’ve been knocked out with general anesthesia. It’s sad to say, but this is really routine for me,” he said, laughing.

Steve-O changed the idea to the general anesthesia challenge, where he would be injected with an anesthetic through an IV while riding a bicycle to see how long it would take before he passed out.

Making that happen, he said was not only 100 percent illegal but questionable in every way.

Being Vegan

“Right now I’m on a tuskaterrian diet,” he said. “I haven’t eaten any meat other than fish for well over a decade.”

Steve-O began his new diet right around the same time as his decision to become sober because of his compassion for animals.

“I found out the more compassionate the diet, the more healthy the diet is for the body,” he said. “I tried it as one-stop shopping, where I can feel good about not harming animals and become a healthier person.”

Steve-O said there was so much to be ashamed of during the early days of his sobriety that he wanted to do something good.

“I tried to restore my self esteem through ‘esteemable’ acts,” he said. “So I went the route of eating a veggieburger instead of a hamburger, and it made me feel good about myself.”

Steve-O verified that there have been some ideas for him to write or curate a cook book with some of his favorite recipes in it.

“I know there was a book on the best sellers list called the ‘Gang Bangers Approach to Veganism,’ which a lot people found interesting,” he said. “My literary agent said after pointing to this book that if I did a book like that it would probably do very well.”

 

If you go:

What: Steve-O performing his Bucket List.

When: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Oct. 23-24

Where: The Stage at Santa Ana Star Casino

Tickets: $20, $25 and $50

More info: https://www.thestageatthestar.com/event/steveo/