(Note: This post is from Richard Metzger, our guest blogger)
So, as promised earlier in the week, here’s the debut of “Dangerous Minds” a new talkshow pilot where I interview my friend Johnny Knoxville. (Check out his new Jackassworld website). We’re at Coop’s studio and there are some of his amazing paintings on the walls behind us.
The idea with Dangerous Minds is to create a multi-platform talkshow that would please a cross section of the folks who enjoy things like the TED Conference speeches, The Charlie Rose Show, Art Bell/George Noory’s conspiracy theory radio program and of course, Boing Boing. There seems to be a lot of overlap, at least that’s my perception, and now I’m trying to find a corporate sponsor. In any case, the idea is to have wide-ranging conversations with smart, fun and interesting people in the arts, science, politics and to mix it up with some weirder guests, too. Brian Eno, the Mighty Boosh, Nick Cave, Tilda Swinton, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, David Lynch, Malcolm Gladwell, Jeff Koons, etc. that’s that kind of offbeat guest list I’m dreaming of. I hope you’ll enjoy the pilot episode.
Most of the past interviews I’ve seen with Johnny Knoxville have taken place in front of a studio audience so they weren’t very intimate. This is the first time I’ve heard him discuss topics like the hazardous comedic craft that goes into creating Jackass as well as his own mortality, what his daughter thinks about her father’s line of work and the experience of becoming famous almost overnight. It’s a thoughtful side of him that you probably haven’t seen before, either.
I should add here that he is exactly the same in real life as he is when you see him on TV. I mean exactly exactly the same. No pretenses, nothing, that’s who he is 24/7. A 5000 watt light bulb hambone who spends his days at the office hard at work coming up with hilariously funny shit for your viewing pleasure. I see Jackass as an artistic hybrid of Fight Club, Tom and Jerry cartoons and Buster Keaton’s elaborate slapstick. What may seem like merely chugging milk until you puke, strapping yourself to a gigantic bottle rocket or provoking an angry bull to charge you for laughs is actually hard work. Why it’s a uniquely American art form!
Knoxville does something really funny about halfway in. Really funny and really unsanitary. You might say it’s “pee your pants” funny (!) Look for Coop’s cameo.
(Thanks Haim Silberstein, Coop, Nimrod Erez, Eric Mittleman, Tara McGinley and Brad Novicoff)
(Richard Metzger is guest blogger.)