Photo courtesy Ticketmaster
Podcaster and ‘Jackass’ star Steve-O perforns at the Dr. Phil
Steve-O said he’s transitioned from “celebration mode” to “acceptance mode” since celebrating his 50th birthday earlier this month.
Of course, for him, accepting age looks like performing back-to-back stunt shows in Orlando this weekend and then getting launched out of a pontoon boat at Mike Busey’s Sausage Castle the following day.
The stunt-performing star of the Jackass MTV show and films will bring his newest tour, tentatively titled “Steve-O’s Gone Too Far,” to the Dr. Phillips Center’s Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater for two shows at 5 and 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 30.
The multimedia event will combine live stunts with video footage from old, unaired Jackass sequences cut from the original films because they were deemed unairable, Steve-O says.
“The powers that be would want to have completely scrubbed them from existence. But unfortunately, I have all the video,” he says. “I was nervous about it because I genuinely felt that maybe the stuff I’m presenting is just too horrific.”
But Steve-O has been delighted by audiences’ enthusiastic reactions at the shows he’s performed so far, he says. He considers live reactions the “only way” to get honest feedback — as opposed to comments on his podcast or YouTube channel, which can be disingenuous.
“A whole room can’t pretend to laugh out loud … people can’t fake their response in a live situation, so it’s really the only way to find out which jokes work,” he says. “That’s what this run is all about.”
Over the past 13 years, Steve-O’s live performances have come a long way from a simple stage and microphone. This tour will be his second to include multimedia elements after he introduced the format during his 2023 tour, “Steve-O’s Bucket List.” But after wrapping Steve-O’s Gone Too Far, he may retire from live physical stunts, he said.
“I don’t care to have to keep pushing the boundaries of all the physical stuff that I do anymore,” he says. “But to get better and better at something and then just stop entirely might not make sense, so I just don’t know what the future looks like.”
Steve-O recounted a conversation with media personality Caitlyn Jenner where she compared him to Elton John. The beloved British songwriter used to perform in increasingly elaborate, outrageous outfits on tour, until at a certain point he couldn’t keep topping himself, relates Steve-O.
At a certain point, John gave up and started wearing normal suits. Steve-O compares this tour to his “Elton John moment,” while his next tour may feature him donning a metaphorical suit, dropping physical stunts in favor of a simple microphone.
Performing for Florida is a homecoming of sorts for Steve-O, who lived in the state off and on throughout his childhood and graduated from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Sarasota in 1997.
Steve-O still has family in Florida, including his father, who will attend his performance in West Palm Beach a couple of days before the Orlando stop. Although nervous for his father to attend the show, Steve-O says he has no plans to tone it down for his sake.
“I’ve always said about my live comedy, ‘Dad, don’t judge the show based on what you think of me,’” he says. “‘Judge the show based on how the audience responds to it.’”
The Jackass MTV series was filmed partially in Orlando, including a stunt from the first episode of Season 3 when Steve-O walks down Rosalind Avenue in an Uncle Sam costume and stilts and exaggeratedly falls over to gauge reactions from passersby.
Steve-O hopes his return to Orlando will leave Dr. Phillips Center audiences horrified by exploits ranging from “feats of anal penetration” to gun-shooting stunts, he says.
“I’m an entertainer, which I believe is synonymous with ‘attention whore,’” he says. “I want everyone to pay attention to me, and I want them to be glad that they did, because they had a good time at my show.”
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