Epicly Later'd (2011–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Bam Margera - full transcript
Bam Margera, legendary pro skater and star of Jackass, struggles to overcome substance abuse and the loss of his best friend as he works to make a return to skateboarding.
[ Rustling ]
[ Clattering ]
Bam:
Should we give it a go?
Winkle:
Ready whenever you are.
[ Metal clangs ]
[ Glass clatters ]
Fuckin' pretty full of glass, B.
Welcome back to the
skateboarding business.
**
First and foremost,
he was a really solid skater.
He would kill it
at every situation.
Novak: He was the kind of fellow
on a skateboard
that, if he believed it,
he could see it.
Saari:
He would skate transition.
He'd skate ledges.
He'd skate switch.
You know, it's like, one thing,
it'd be, like, something
more technical,
and then he'd just go full blast
on some crazy sculpture
or whatever.
He's just balls to the wall.
He would drop in on everything.
It just went bigger and bigger.
[ Whistle blows, women scream ]
Evans: There's all these crazy
skateboarding tricks
that Bam would film, but then
also, all this just chaos.
[ Tires screech ]
[ Laughter ]
Templeton: It's kind of amazing
to see some of the early stuff
that ended up becoming
a hit TV show.
Tremaine: You get to vicariously
beat up your dad through Bam
and this loving mom
in this funny, chaotic world,
but Bam was starting to get
a little off the deep end.
Phil: After the show left,
he just thought
it still should be a show,
and nothing was happening.
He got bored.
He got crazy.
Drinking and drugs was
definitely a bit of a problem.
Thomas: He got to a point where
he floated away, I think,
and just became the dick
he was pretending to be.
That level of fame is not --
it's not healthy.
Hawk: You know, at some point,
it just got to be
that the chaos was louder
than the product.
[ Crowd chanting "CKY" ]
Man: Oh, my God.
Bad.
Bad.
And we try to hide it all.
"Hey, how's Bam?"
Great.
Phil: That was perfect.
**
**
**
[ Siren wailing in distance ]
What's up? Welcome back
to "Epicly Later'd."
We're here in Barcelona
to film with Bam Margera.
A lot of people,
when they think of Bam,
they think of "Jackass"
and "Viva La Bam"
and all his, like,
MTV celebrity.
[ Crowd cheering ]
But I always think of him
as an amazing pro skater.
Whoo!
I think of
the Eastern Exposure video.
I think of Toy Machines,
"Jump Off a Building,"
all his years on
Element skateboards.
But you know, after that,
he got into MTV.
Kind of really got
sucked into, like,
a rock star kind of lifestyle.
Practically quit skating
and just became
a full-blown celebrity.
But once "Viva La Bam" ended
and one of his best friends,
Ryan Dunn, passed away
from a drunk driving accident,
it really sent Bam
into a dark space.
And now, suddenly, we hope,
it seems like he's coming out
of his mourning period.
Trying to get my skate on today.
[ Laughs ]
[ Doorbell dings ]
Hola.
I'm looking for Bam.
Good.
How are you?
Whoever that was said
they knew me,
so...
I don't know who it was.
Winkle: Hello.
Hey. What's up?
Hi, Patrick.
Winkle?
Yeah.
I'm Patrick.
Top of the morning.
Morning. Good to see you.
What up? How's it going?
What up?
This is your house?
Yeah.
So, we're, uh -- we're staying
right here at the moment.
It's really hard fucking,
but it reminds me
of, like, a tour bus bunk
which I sleep really good in,
so there's some goods and bads
to this.
What was your plan to come here?
Like, why'd you come here?
Because, um, I figured...
See, I haven't skated
in, like, a long time.
And I figured if I was gonna
relearn, it would be here.
[ Clears throat ]
And it took a long fucking time
to get the muscle memory back.
Like, I couldn't even, like,
axle stall on a --
on a half-pipe for, like --
It took like five days
to even get that dialed.
Honestly, like, if you want to
say street skating,
nearly a decade
I haven't skated.
I went and saw a doctor,
and he was like,
"Your legs and body
are so dehydrated from alcohol
that they're, like,
dry-rotted rubber bands.
And if you think that
you're gonna skate again,
I'd be careful because it --
it could snap just like that."
That really
fucked my head up bad
because I'm like, "How am I
gonna skate again?"
Well, about a year ago, um,
Bam asked me
if I would drive him to
the airport, he and Nikki.
But on the way to the airport,
he says, "You know what?
I just --
I'm just sick of this shit."
I can't even explain
how many people
I had nothing in common with
except drinking.
And I didn't realize,
if we take away these drinks,
we're gonna all look at
each other and say,
"What the fuck are we doing?"
[ Laughs ]
These are not people
who we should be around
because these people want to,
like,
"Hey, Bam,
let's go out to the bar."
Knowing that Bam will pay.
So he just decided that he was
just gonna bail
on the situation, period.
Winkle:
I didn't get no phone calls.
I haven't heard from him.
He hasn't wrote me or anything.
He just showed up at my door,
like, "Let's go skating.
Knock, I'm here."
Yeah, it's been really good.
You've been out here for how long?
Oh, God. Uh...
Well, in Barcelona how long?
Yeah.
Four months?
Four months. Wow.
Four months, yeah.
But, no, we've been in Europe
for like eight months now.
Wow.
He just came out here to get healthy.
That one's rad.
He just said it the other day
before you guys got here.
He's like, "So, like,
the booze don't help me out,
the people back at home
don't help me out.
The only thing
that keeps me good
is on the fucking skateboard."
And I'm just like, "Stay there."
This is basically a normal,
everyday routine right here.
By the way, a year ago, I could
almost not even see my own dick.
It was that big --
and my dick's not so big, so...
But it was still like that.
I was like,
"Something has to be done."
In the Toy Machine days and when
I had to go do an Element demo,
like, I was stoked to show up.
And I was stoked
to slap kids' fives
because I knew I was gonna
fucking rip the park.
Now it's like,
I don't want anybody to see me.
I need somebody to skate with,
but I don't want people
to watch me suck.
Fail hill.
You gotta taste it before
you roll away from it, right?
Yeah.
[ Grunts ]
[ Panting ]
Yeah!
[ Laughter ]
Fuck!
[ Laughs ]
I don't know what you
want to call that one.
Winkle: Perfection's hard
to achieve, my friend.
[ Laughs ]
When you are a skater
and you know what you can do,
you carry that around
in your heart.
And if you can't do it,
it hurts you.
He knows how good of a skater
he is.
He knows what he can do.
Fuck!
Oh!
[ Panting ]
O'Dell: What's it been like
trying to get tricks for a video?
Um, that's the place
that I wanted to, um --
I don't know. I'm not --
I'm just kind of just filming,
you know?
And if -- I'm just -- just
learning all my tricks again.
Man: Oh!
[ Laughs ]
Board smash.
Yeah, my fat ass,
I broke two boards.
[ Chuckles ]
April visited Bam in Spain
this year in March.
He was on a sober kick
trying to get sober,
but she said
he started to have a --
just wine with dinner,
maybe two.
I said, "Ap, it's not a good
sign that he's doing that."
And she says, "No, he's fine
in Spain, he's fine in Spain."
And then, uh, like,
a couple weeks later,
he started drinking
until he was crazy.
So, he still hasn't conquered
drinking, but he's trying.
All right.
This is what's scaring me
about Bam right now.
When he had his comeback,
they put that line out
in that interview.
Yeah! Fuck yeah!
But I know Bam,
and I know the issues
that he's battling right now.
And I know that he's doing
much better than he was,
but he's not cured by any means.
I know he's on that fine line.
All right. Okay, thanks, buddy.
Yeah, yeah.
Novak: Bam's kind of like
how I was in the beginning.
He does want to get sober
and stay sober,
but he's not willing to do
the certain things that it takes
to get to where
he's trying to get to.
[ Guitar playing ]
* I'm all that
and a bag of chips *
* I can't rap
[ Laughs ]
[ Doorbell ringing ]
What up?
After a year in Europe,
I'm back.
We're at Ap and Phil's house
in Thornton, Pennsylvania.
[ Laughs ]
Hi!
How are you?
O'Dell: Good.
How's it going?
I know, the kid's back.
[ Laughs ]
He's been gone for a year.
Where's Phil's Elvis mug?
Well, I put it
in the dishwasher.
You want the Christmas Elvis?
April:
You want a cappuccino?
Yeah, that sounds right today.
That'll work.
He was like that kid that would
jump from couch to couch
really, like,
flying through the air.
You know what I mean?
My father-in-law,
he started calling Bam Bam-Bam.
I mean,
he kind of looked like him
'cause he was very
square-shouldered,
you know, with the curly hair.
And, you know,
I think for a while,
he was dragging a bat around.
**
Bam's whole life,
skating or otherwise,
has been, like, filmed.
Phil was shooting video
the whole time.
But you're gorgeous, though.
Stop.
Oh, yeah, the, uh, VHS, a big
one, got heavy after a while.
I'm filming.
Yeah, I would, uh,
24 hours a day,
just take 'em wherever
they wanted to go.
Bam: It didn't matter
what I was doing.
The minute we got there,
he was already filming with
this VHS camera, you know?
He filmed everything,
bails and all,
and then we'd get home
and just watch it all.
Phil: Love Park, took him there
all the time.
There's a place called the
Dustbowl in King of Prussia,
took him to that a lot.
And then as skate parks
opened up,
we went to all the skate parks.
April: He would take him
to a drainage ditch
and make a picnic day out of it.
So, I mean, he was just, like,
the greatest dad.
Oh, I enjoyed it. I, uh...
I was a huge baseball, football,
you know,
the regular sports fan.
From the time they skated until
they could drive themselves,
I didn't even know who was
playing in the Super Bowl.
I didn't know what the Pirates
were doing, I didn't know.
It was 24 hours a day
skateboarding.
It looks big enough, believe me.
No, sit down.
I want to make it look bigger.
Boy: Do it!
Man, I'm scared.
Just do it!
O'Connor:
You'd go to their house,
and they were the most
hospitable people in the world.
They let their kids
do everything,
but then their kids were so loving towards
their parents and everything like that.
Like, for me who is not like
this with my family at all,
they were always hugging and
kissing one another and stuff.
I'm like, "Whoa, what the...
Weird.
Like, you, like,
kiss your dad and stuff?"
Uh, yeah, me and my dad
would never do that.
Just like a firm handshake.
Like, "All right,
see you later."
Aah!
April: He always seemed like
a really busy kid to me.
Like, you know, I was just
one of those moms.
It's like, "Look,
you're not a kid forever.
Go out, be busy."
I'm not gonna kind of,
like, bore my kids
with a ton of chores.
Like, my parents didn't do that
to me, either.
They're like, "Go be kids."
But maybe I should have
because maybe he would do
a little more for himself.
**
Phil: Jess, you try one.
All right, well, do something.
I'll film you.
April: You know, Jesse
was a great skater, too,
but it was just, like,
it seemed like
nobody could kind of keep up
with Bam.
And Bam, even though he was
the youngest of the group,
he was definitely the boss.
Aah! Say it!
Say it!
[ Yells ]
Bossing everybody,
"Do it again!"
Who says that, you know,
when you're 10?
[ Groans ]
[ Laughs ]
I won, I won.
Raab:
He had this thing called Team X,
which was like this little group
of guys that skated.
Bam: Team X search for
fast wheels, part two.
Yeah.
We were just, like,
messing with each other
and, you know,
filming the skating stuff
but also filming, like, us kind
of doing stupid little skits.
Yeah, Bam!
Phil: Bam at 10 years old
started being pretty noticeable.
He's tied, if you don't know.
Me and Bucky would go up to the
skate park called Cheapskates.
All of a sudden, we saw this kid
popping humongous ollies
and just had all this energy.
I'm like, "Oh, fuck,
I've just met my match,
and, like, this isn't good."
Me and Bam became, like,
inseparable at that point on
because we made each other
want to excel,
and we were really,
uh, consistent, too.
We were good contest skaters.
One year,
Bam did better than Novak,
then the next year,
Novak did better than Bam,
and then Bam did better.
So a little bit of
love/hate there.
**
He had like 25, 30 friends
in the area,
and he'd invite 'em all
to watch the skate videos,
and only a dozen of 'em
would be interested
because it was
pure skateboarding.
The other 13 would roam off
and walk off.
April: He started taking
the daily skate footage,
and then he would kind of
edit it down.
He would do
like four skate tricks
and then put the funny stuff in,
and everybody, like, loved that.
Phil: So now, all 25 kids
would stay and watch
because there'd be 5 minutes
of skating,
3 minutes of funny stuff,
and then 2 minutes of skating,
5 minutes of funny stuff.
[ Grunts ]
What up?
How's it going?
Good to see you.
Yeah, you, too.
How you been? Good.
Good.
I was gonna put a board
together, but I just found one.
I thought it was stolen,
and nobody stole it. [ Laughs ]
First sponsor was Fairman's.
I was about 13.
This would be our meeting point
whenever we'd go skating.
It's just all the, um, people
who used to ride for --
Oh, yeah, there's me
doing the one foot
at the, uh, Turks Head Festival.
**
Well, when we rode for 'em,
I think we were allowed,
like, two skate decks a month.
And then maybe some wheels.
I was always skating
with Mike Moldonado,
and Mike Moldonado got sponsored
by Toy Machine,
so he was flying out
to Huntington Beach
to stay with Ed Templeton.
Kerry Getz and I
came along with.
Getz: You know, he was just always,
like, see something in a video
or see a spot
or hear about a spot,
and he's like, "We gotta go to that spot.
We gotta go to that spot."
So his motivation level
was beyond most people's.
That's what really kind of
made Sessions happen.
Steamer: We were all the ants --
me, Mike, Bam, and Kerry.
Me and Moldonado
smoked a lot of pot,
and Bam was, like,
young and didn't.
And he was just, like,
discovering women and stuff like that.
Bam was focused and ambitious.
I knew early on that
he was gonna succeed
because he was super tenacious
with everything.
If he had an idea, like,
"I want a skit
in the Time Machine video,"
there was no way I'm saying no.
Thomas: They were just
having fun making skits.
They just loved creating it
and loved making it,
and then it started working
its way into his video parts.
And then after that, he got
so much positive feedback
and it was so fun, he just kind
of went full bore into that.
**
Bam: Psst.
I'm trying to find the cat.
[ Hissing ]
April: Saw the grandkids.
He was really afraid
to hold the baby.
Even though she's 1.
Even --
I don't do well with it.
Huh?
I don't do well with it.
Well, you better get used to it
real quick
'cause do you want to tell them
your news?
You tell them the news.
Huh?
You tell 'em the news.
No, don't leave.
You tell them the news. No.
You didn't tell 'em in Spain?
You never said --
No, you're saying it.
I didn't know until they left.
Oh. You found out --
He found out.
So do you want to say what's new? Okay.
You say it.
No.
I want to hear you say it.
Nikki's pregnant.
So you better get used to
holding babies.
So, guess who's being a dad?
[ Chuckles ]
Shh.
[ Laughter ]
What the...?!
Bam, you are always over the line.
That's what I have to do.
Bam: Oh, God!
What's this I see?
A young lad being beaten?
[ Grunts ]
Bam: I had these neighborhood
friends that wanted to be on film,
and, you know, obviously,
they couldn't skate very well,
so they would just want to be in
whatever we were working on.
Jumping off of a roof
into a bush
or getting into a shopping cart
and getting pushed into a curb
was, like,
"I'll do whatever it takes.
I just want to be
in this video."
I'm like, "It's hilarious.
I's not a skate trick,
but, fuck, it's hilarious."
April: He decided to, like,
film these funny things.
And what he would film I thought
was, like, sheer genius.
Like, I'm thinking to myself,
"Oh, my God, that's so funny."
[ Farts ]
[ Goat bleats ]
To me, that was, like,
the beginnings
of what the CKY videos were.
"Man, we're gonna film stuff,
and I want to, like,
impress, you know, Ryan,
or I want to impress Brandon
or Bam"
or, like, whatever one did,
you tried to one-up it.
[ Yelling ]
**
Bam: That became CKY Land Speed,
which was just a mixture
of skateboarding
and dumb stunts and skits.
**
[ Laughter ]
Thomas: It was, like, stuff
that you wanted to do
but you never really
went to that extreme.
Bam was kind of doing it
for you.
Slap fits on his dad.
Stop, Bam, I'm on the phone.
They rented a car
and annihilated it.
Oh, no, it's just
an AM/FM radio.
[ Tires squeal ]
Tremaine:
Thank God for Bam's drive
and his ability to just,
"Let's -- Let's go make this."
You know, you look at
all those CKY videos,
and he's like,
"This is my world."
[ Laughs ]
[ Train horn blows ]
And he cut it like the way
that we thought,
you know, like, this, like,
ADD kind of mind.
It was like the beginning
of that stage
where everyone's just like,
"Give me the information right now."
[ Tires squeal ]
I went to Spike
and Johnny Knoxville,
and I said, "Hey, let's
partner up and make a TV Show."
Bam:
I got a call from Jeff Tremaine.
I drove over to his house,
and that's where I met
Johnny Knoxville.
And we watched "CKY2K" together.
Tremaine said, "Do you mind
if I use some of these clips
for a pilot that I want to do
called 'Jackass' on MTV?"
And I said, "Hell, yeah,
go for it."
[ Farts ]
Ow!
What the fuck was that?
I make the scissor wheel,
and we go out and sell it,
but I still don't even know
what it is that we just sold.
I think one of the first things
we filmed
was, like, the BMX joust,
where he just had
this loose idea,
and we went straight
to the hardware store
and just started
rigging BMX bikes.
Man: Sir Bravealot
has committed treason.
He has entered my den
like he has entered my ass,
and this is not permitted.
I was just hanging out
back there eating a meat pie,
and the next thing you know,
some guy's freaking out about nothing.
Every day, we would just
brainstorm on what can we film.
And it would be like, "Well,
what's something somebody's never seen?"
Ryan Dunn about to do some skiing up
here in the Pennsylvania mountains
and try not to die.
Aah! ****
Ryan Dunn would always be the
one to step up to the plate.
I'm Ryan Dunn,
and this is poo diving.
Bam: Oh, dude.
You know, all right,
here we are at this location.
Who's gonna do this crazy thing?
"I'll do it!"
In comedy,
there's no room for vanity.
You gotta show a little skin
if you want to make it.
[ Laughs ]
Bam: We would just drive around
in the car like,
"What can we jump off of?
Who could we fuck with?"
Raab: We were just turning out
tons of craziness.
We actually filmed "CKY3"
while we were filming "Jackass."
Some of the stuff was a little
too gnarly to put on television.
Like, no spreadable butt cheeks
on MTV,
and so I took 18 Ex-Lax
and did the George Carlin thing
where I shit running full speed.
* Ooh, yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah *
We were in a void, you know? We
weren't out in the real world.
We would just film this stuff,
and I thought what we were
getting is funny,
but I didn't think everyone
would think it was funny,
you know?
Right away, it just took off.
Bam: In high school, it was,
like, the flick of a light switch.
Like, "Oh, there's that
loser skater kid Bam,"
to, all of a sudden, "Oh,
my God, I just saw 'Jackass.'
You want to come to this party
tonight?"
[ All cheering ]
Tremaine: MTV was going crazy.
We were getting calls like,
"Oh, my God, ratings are blah,
blah, blah." You know, like...
Bam: That's when they did the
spin-off to do "Viva La Bam,"
which was me and the CKY guys
back in Pennsylvania.
The plot of "Viva La Bam"
was wake up
and see what kind of pranks
I could pull on my mom and dad.
It was just nonstop work.
Are you kidding me?!
Look, you've destroyed the whole house!
We're just joking!
I became so busy
with filming with MTV.
There was, like, tours that
I was skipping with Element.
There was, like, autograph
signings I was missing.
Driving an hour to Philly
to go skate
just slowly had --
it slowly faded.
[ Explosion ]
We were moving nonstop.
Like, we were
going, going, going.
Just the pressure, like, having
to pull it off, pull it off.
You know --
It was 45 episodes, nonstop.
It was.
Without, like, one day off,
so finally after, like, filming
for, like, what,
two to three years straight,
nonstop, I'm like, "I can't take
it, I just need a break."
Right.
So I get a break --
[ Telephone ringing ]
Hang that up.
Two weeks of break, and I'm
already ready to go back.
When I -- Who is it?
Phil, hang it up.
Phil: I'm trying to figure this phone out.
Hang it up.
Where's the End button?
He's so annoying.
I'm so sorry.
Is that it?
I'm gonna punch you.
Oh, Lord.
What the hell am I doing?
Come on, Phil.
Are you joking?
[ Dial tone ]
April:
At a point when he was 21,
he had more money and more power
and more clout in Hollywood.
He was like a hot commodity.
There was a couple of ways
he could have gone.
Yo, Bam here gonna show you how
new Right Guard Extreme
Power Stripe works.
Hawk: Bam grew up in the sense
that you can be a star
if you're a pro skater.
Medic!
If I get good at it,
I can make money,
and I can have celebrity.
And then when it came,
it came in droves.
It came so far that it was,
like, overwhelming,
and he couldn't go anywhere.
[ Crowd cheering ]
[ Siren wails ]
[ Crowd cheering ]
In May 2000, I went to Helsinki,
Finland, for a skate contest.
There was this rock band
called Him,
and they were, like,
blowing up big time.
I wound up buying the album,
and I liked it so much.
When you open the album,
it had this emblem,
which was like a heart
and a star together.
It was called the heartogram.
He starts tattooing
the heartogram,
drawing it on everything.
It became Bam's symbol,
but it was
this Finnish rock band's,
and it became this blurry line
where he was the biggest fan,
but he was bigger than the band.
Bam: I made this movie
called "Haggard."
Every song was Him's new album
called Deep Shadows
and Brilliant Highlights.
Saari: I think he fully did
the stalking thing --
letters, e-mails,
have people call.
He just basically just
forced his way to the backstage
and became friends with them,
you know, which is pretty rad.
* The truth that gets themselves
fooled *
His fascination with that band
is beyond me.
I mean, we have all
have different tastes.
It's fine,
but not my cup of tea.
Evans: There was that initial
take-off of MTV, CKY,
people that don't know
skateboarding
but they know who Bam is,
and that just started spiraling
into this beast.
[ All cheering ]
Bam: A lot of, like,
high-school chicks would show up
with their purple Bam
heartogram shirts.
It was just like
Tony Hawk syndrome.
People would be like, "Oh,
you skate? Do you know Bam?"
Tremaine: Bam was selling
more boards than anybody,
and yet, it wasn't because
of his skateboarding.
It was because of
his face on TV.
Thomas: I think
once the heartogram went crazy,
the skate population
kind of were like,
"Okay, this is way too big
for us."
We're gonna focus
on somebody else."
**
You know, when you're on camera
a lot, people have a lot to say.
He always wanted to have
this very slim, slim look,
and a lot of it kind of happened
when he became good friends
with Ville Valo.
I remember when me and
Ville Valo were out in London,
and, uh, he woke up at noon,
opened up the minibar,
and cracked open a beer.
That was the first time I was
introduced to day drinking.
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
At 10:00 in the morning?
River of brewskis?
Ville drank a lot.
Like, he drank a lot.
I mean, he's the loveliest man
ever, but he never ate.
He just drank.
And so I think Bam started,
like, sipping on a beer
or sipping on a something
because he liked
the way he looked.
I didn't start, like, officially
drinking until maybe 24 or 25.
And then the rock star life
and drinking
just spun out of control.
We would go out to dinner,
and then he would immediately
excuse himself
and go to the bathroom.
And I said,
"Are you throwing up?"
And he says, "Yeah, yeah, like,
um, sometimes I throw up,
and, um, that way, like,
I'm not gonna get, like, fat."
He saw me get fat, Vito got fat.
My brother Kevin's not fat,
my other brother's not fat,
but it was a 50/50 thing.
If you're a Margera, you
get fat, or you stay normal.
April: You know, it really hurts
me when people make comments like,
"You know, you looked like
you gained some weight there."
"Hey, wow, Bam, you look like
you're looking like your dad."
I don't respond,
but I feel like saying,
"He was drinking alcohol,
and he was bulimic,
and that's why he was thin."
[ Beeping ]
Well, it looks like
the show left town.
[ Laughs ]
Right now, we're at Castle Bam.
Who's that?
April: Who is that?
Oh, my God.
Who is that?
I don't know.
We're -- we're filming.
You need to go.
I have told him 24 times
to get his shit out of here
and don't ever
come on this property.
Bam traveled so much,
a friend would call him,
he'd say, "Yeah, you can go in,"
give that person the gate code,
and then, uh,
they would tell five friends.
Bam:
You didn't have to be invited.
People would come over
with, like, six packs and kegs,
and every time I was
doing something productive,
it would always just turn into
a drinking party.
During the height of it,
I bought a house,
and then from there on,
whatever any other dollars
I was gonna make,
I was just gonna put towards
a new sports car.
At one point,
so much money was flowing in
that I didn't know what the fuck
to do with any of it.
[ Tires squeal ]
There's some saying, like,
the age you become famous
is, like, the age you stay at
forever.
And no one's gonna call you out,
you know?
Like, there's no one
telling you no.
April:
Most kids that age, you know,
it's usually
you giving them the checks,
but he had money coming in.
Yeah, my brother and I, Vince,
was his accountant mainly.
And my brother had the nerve
to scream at him,
and I never had the nerve
to scream at Bam.
April: We listened to him
because it's his money,
number one, and number two,
he seems to know
what people want to see,
so I'm just gonna shut up.
Novak: Bam's house at that time
during those really dark years
was very depressing
'cause you see this really big,
beautiful spread
on the countryside,
and then you get into the house,
and you can just see,
like, a lot of pain.
Where the fuck is it?!
Like, people trying to navigate
their way
through a really dark time.
And there's power in numbers,
so the more people
that were like that,
the more that we all added
drugs and alcohol to the recipe.
And the only time there was,
like,
a point of, like, "Oh, shit"
is when we ran out of cocaine.
You know what I mean?
So we'd just call more,
and then they would
bring their buddies.
And their buddies
would bring their buddies.
And then before you know it,
it's just like,
"Dude, who are these people?"
**
Bam: There's not really
anything to show.
It's an amusement park
that closed down,
and now I'm stuck here
looking at it.
You know,
I remember I just said, like,
"I can't fucking do this
anymore.
Like, if I had a wish,
it would just be
for, like, everyone
to just go fuck off."
And then when that happened,
I find myself like three weeks
into this,
and I have an empty house.
I'm like, "All right,
I want everybody back,
and I want to continue
this shit."
My real friends left,
and now my new friends are just
drinking buddies from town.
Raab: It's sad in a sense
because I always used to think
we were unique,
and then we just became
this total cliché story
of small-town kids
got recognition from television,
started doing this whole
little Hollywood thing.
And then, all of a sudden,
we're just all on drugs
and drinking and partying
and doing all that stuff.
It's just a sad little story.
And then, I'll be honest, man.
When -- When --
When Ryan died, uh,
that was just
incredibly difficult.
Um, it still is.
Police are investigating
the cause of a fiery car crash
that killed two people,
including Ryan Dunn,
one of the stars of the
once-popular MTV show "Jackass."
Reporter: Police say Ryan was
behind the wheel of his Porsche
and, according to
published reports,
may have been driving
over 100 miles per hour.
His car lost control,
smashed the guard rail,
and burst into flames.
[ Laughter ]
April: Ryan was just a -- a
grandstander. He was a showoff.
He wanted to always, like,
just do 100 miles per hour.
Do you have any Grey Poupon?
Man: Sorry, bro!
You don't have any?
Fuck!
[ Engine revs, tires squeal ]
April: I always said to Ryan,
"Dude, you're gonna die in a car
crash if you don't slow down.
You drive
like a freakin' maniac."
He said, "You forgot one thing,
Ap -- fiery.
Fiery car crash."
Bam: Well, I was in Phoenix,
Arizona, when I got the news.
It was literally
the longest flight ever,
like, just knowing that I had to
get home as soon as possible.
I-I never pictured what I would
do if that happened.
It just wasn't an option.
Nikki: You know, any time that Bam
might be going through anything,
he always had Ryan Dunn
right there,
and he was his best friend,
a brother figure.
It definitely triggered
the alcohol more,
once Ryan passed away.
Bam: Whenever we'd film anything,
it would always be me and Dunn
brainstorming
about how to be funny.
And now
I don't have that anymore?
What am I gonna do?
Crack open a drink.
I think, going forward, Bam
didn't want to do any projects,
because every time he thought
he'd get back to work,
he's like, "Yeah, dude.
I'm gonna --
You know what I'll do?
I'll go ahead
and shoot this funny show,
and then I'll call Dunn and --
Oh.
I guess I won't call Dunn."
Phil: It hit him as hard as a
brother dying, in my opinion.
That really shook him up.
It -- It -- It set him back
a couple years, I think.
Tremaine: Look, when Ryan passed,
it was shocking to all of us, you know?
Like, Bam was already
in a bad spot,
and for that to happen
when it did, it just sunk him.
Bam:
Should we show 'em the dungeon?
April: Yeah, keep in mind,
the dungeon, uh,
holds a whole lot of stuff
from the old house in piles.
Oh, and here's the thousands
of skate decks.
Oh, my God,
and there's more in the garage.
Yeah. This is where I would edit
for weeks and weeks.
We were getting worried about
you 'cause you never came out.
[ Laughs ]
[ Light switch clicks ]
Um, the movie about Andy McCoy
from Hanoi Rocks
and, uh, also my movie.
But I've been working on it
for like four years
that I -- I've had enough.
My best friend, Ryan Dunn, died
in a car accident two years ago.
He's dead and gone.
[ Thunder rumbles ]
And it was, like, driving
me bonkers, it really was.
Just 'cause
there was so much footage.
It was 11 terabytes of footage
that I had to go through.
If you hit play on 11 terabytes
and just let it play
that I had to watch,
it's like four months
worth of footage. I know.
It's, like, more than
fuckin' "Avatar."
[ Both laugh ]
He's been through
quite a cathartic time
that's not just the skateboard
or the "Jackass" guy.
It's his own personal loss
of a dear friend.
I think he was so obsessed
with that movie and editing it
that he would, like,
be in the basement
for literally weeks at a time
in a dark hole,
sipping on alcohol, trying to,
like, edit this thing.
And I'm like,
"It's time to just walk away."
Who the fuck can --
can put four months of footage
into two hours? It's impossible.
There's too much stuff
that you don't even need
to put in there.
Like, there's stuff
you need to take out
that you think is important
that isn't important.
Well, none of it's important right now.
And there's stuff that's important
that you need to leave in.
Jonze: He was, like, couldn't figure
out how to end the documentary.
He's like, "I don't know
how to end the documentary."
And I was trying to tell him
to stop editing the documentary
and to put it away
because, "I think the reason
you're having trouble
is you don't know what to do
with your life right now.
And that's -- that's natural.
You were going since you were
14 years old making this shit.
And, like, you know, figure out
what to do with your life,
and that'll tell you what to do
with this documentary."
Yeah.
He's -- he's actually
living his ending.
That's what you're doing,
you're living your ending.
Yeah, maybe.
I think Bam has accepted the
fact that alcohol is an issue.
He's trying to fix
an internal dilemma
with an external solution.
And thank God
that he's doing that
and he's buying new homes
and he's buying new cars
and he's going to Spain.
Because what happens is,
once you do all those things,
you realize, like,
they don't work.
I don't like looking at myself.
I don't like what I've become.
I can't skate anymore, and I
need to do something about it.
What's up, Dooli?
What's up sweetheart?
Bro, why weren't you
at the rager last night?
What rager? Maybe 'cause you
didn't call me up and invite me.
Watch your mouth, sweetheart.
Bam: Novak and I grew up
skating together,
and he was sponsored
by Powell Peralta,
and he would always
skate with Bucky
and show up skating Cheapskates,
then he got into heroin
at the age of 15.
Novak:
Me being a recovering alcoholic,
like, I have a really
delusional way of thinking.
In -- In my mind,
what my disease told me
is that the skateboarding world
needs me,
it cannot go on without me,
I am an asset.
And in reality,
it did not need me.
It went on quite fine without
me, and I was a liability.
Do it.
Oh, Jesus!
Oh, Jesus!
[ Laughing ]
Are you --
You're all -- You're all cut up.
Yeah.
Yo, see what happens
when you're broke?
You'll do anything
for 100 bucks.
God damn, my life sucks.
When I was around and I was
going on tour with him
and I was everywhere
that he went,
it was very easy for Bam
to deflect his issues
because they would all
point a finger and say,
"I'm not as bad as Novak."
Okay, so you said
it's the 19th through the --
Man: The 9th through the 15th.
Fuck.
Bam:
Now he's 2 1/2 years sober,
and he's doing speeches
about heroin addiction.
He -- He cleaned up his act,
which I never thought
was possible.
Right on, well, thank you
for getting back to me, man.
I appreciate that.
April: He is doing so well
that I think that Bam is
extremely happy for his friend,
extremely proud of his friend,
and extremely jealous
of his friend.
O'Dell: Did he talk to you
about your drinking
in order to help
try to get you sober?
Um, I mean, it was always a --
He -- He --
No, I don't know.
[ Laughs ]
**
**
The only reason why
I was drinking so much
is because I didn't
have anything to do.
Right now, learning how to
skate again is something to do,
and I can't do that
while drinking.
**
Tell the camera the plan.
The plan is this.
His name is Wall Man.
The leader of the squad
is Wall Man.
Wall Man is the leader
of the squad.
I don't give a fuck
about shopping carts,
but Bam the skateboarder
was the dude that most of us
fell in love with.
He skated street,
but the dude ripped transition.
**
Getz: His FDR days,
they definitely intimidated me.
He'd go up that Indian wall
like 10 foot of vert.
Burnett: Skateboarding
is about goofing around
and having fun
with your friends,
and Bam carried that message
to the broadest audience.
Raab: I'd love to see him
back on a skateboard
and trying to kind of find
that answer as to what's next.
Tremaine: If he's got something
to accomplish,
then that's going to
consume him,
and he's all-in on that.
He's got this complete different
glow about him.
He just wants to get back
to his roots again.
Not saying the rest of 'em ain't good.
Can't nobody touch this.
All of 'em is good, but him,
I think he's the best
out the bunch.
Hawk: The most difficult thing
in success
is to have it taken away.
I think that
he's come through the fire,
and I think he's still
getting better.
There's ups and downs.
You know, you ride the ride.
Enjoy the ride.
It's a 15-minute ride.
I want my son
to come out the other end
the person that he went in.
Novak: I think he realizes
the severity of the situation
that he's in right now.
And he has a really good shot.
He does.
And he might be one of those
people that can do it
without doing the things
that I do to stay sober.
He might be.
Anything is subject to change
because I've seen it in my life.
**
Yeah!
[ Laughs ]
Check this out.
[ Cheering ]
**
Aah!
Whoo-hoo!
Ow! Whee!
Oh! [ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Groans ]
[ Clattering ]
Bam:
Should we give it a go?
Winkle:
Ready whenever you are.
[ Metal clangs ]
[ Glass clatters ]
Fuckin' pretty full of glass, B.
Welcome back to the
skateboarding business.
**
First and foremost,
he was a really solid skater.
He would kill it
at every situation.
Novak: He was the kind of fellow
on a skateboard
that, if he believed it,
he could see it.
Saari:
He would skate transition.
He'd skate ledges.
He'd skate switch.
You know, it's like, one thing,
it'd be, like, something
more technical,
and then he'd just go full blast
on some crazy sculpture
or whatever.
He's just balls to the wall.
He would drop in on everything.
It just went bigger and bigger.
[ Whistle blows, women scream ]
Evans: There's all these crazy
skateboarding tricks
that Bam would film, but then
also, all this just chaos.
[ Tires screech ]
[ Laughter ]
Templeton: It's kind of amazing
to see some of the early stuff
that ended up becoming
a hit TV show.
Tremaine: You get to vicariously
beat up your dad through Bam
and this loving mom
in this funny, chaotic world,
but Bam was starting to get
a little off the deep end.
Phil: After the show left,
he just thought
it still should be a show,
and nothing was happening.
He got bored.
He got crazy.
Drinking and drugs was
definitely a bit of a problem.
Thomas: He got to a point where
he floated away, I think,
and just became the dick
he was pretending to be.
That level of fame is not --
it's not healthy.
Hawk: You know, at some point,
it just got to be
that the chaos was louder
than the product.
[ Crowd chanting "CKY" ]
Man: Oh, my God.
Bad.
Bad.
And we try to hide it all.
"Hey, how's Bam?"
Great.
Phil: That was perfect.
**
**
**
[ Siren wailing in distance ]
What's up? Welcome back
to "Epicly Later'd."
We're here in Barcelona
to film with Bam Margera.
A lot of people,
when they think of Bam,
they think of "Jackass"
and "Viva La Bam"
and all his, like,
MTV celebrity.
[ Crowd cheering ]
But I always think of him
as an amazing pro skater.
Whoo!
I think of
the Eastern Exposure video.
I think of Toy Machines,
"Jump Off a Building,"
all his years on
Element skateboards.
But you know, after that,
he got into MTV.
Kind of really got
sucked into, like,
a rock star kind of lifestyle.
Practically quit skating
and just became
a full-blown celebrity.
But once "Viva La Bam" ended
and one of his best friends,
Ryan Dunn, passed away
from a drunk driving accident,
it really sent Bam
into a dark space.
And now, suddenly, we hope,
it seems like he's coming out
of his mourning period.
Trying to get my skate on today.
[ Laughs ]
[ Doorbell dings ]
Hola.
I'm looking for Bam.
Good.
How are you?
Whoever that was said
they knew me,
so...
I don't know who it was.
Winkle: Hello.
Hey. What's up?
Hi, Patrick.
Winkle?
Yeah.
I'm Patrick.
Top of the morning.
Morning. Good to see you.
What up? How's it going?
What up?
This is your house?
Yeah.
So, we're, uh -- we're staying
right here at the moment.
It's really hard fucking,
but it reminds me
of, like, a tour bus bunk
which I sleep really good in,
so there's some goods and bads
to this.
What was your plan to come here?
Like, why'd you come here?
Because, um, I figured...
See, I haven't skated
in, like, a long time.
And I figured if I was gonna
relearn, it would be here.
[ Clears throat ]
And it took a long fucking time
to get the muscle memory back.
Like, I couldn't even, like,
axle stall on a --
on a half-pipe for, like --
It took like five days
to even get that dialed.
Honestly, like, if you want to
say street skating,
nearly a decade
I haven't skated.
I went and saw a doctor,
and he was like,
"Your legs and body
are so dehydrated from alcohol
that they're, like,
dry-rotted rubber bands.
And if you think that
you're gonna skate again,
I'd be careful because it --
it could snap just like that."
That really
fucked my head up bad
because I'm like, "How am I
gonna skate again?"
Well, about a year ago, um,
Bam asked me
if I would drive him to
the airport, he and Nikki.
But on the way to the airport,
he says, "You know what?
I just --
I'm just sick of this shit."
I can't even explain
how many people
I had nothing in common with
except drinking.
And I didn't realize,
if we take away these drinks,
we're gonna all look at
each other and say,
"What the fuck are we doing?"
[ Laughs ]
These are not people
who we should be around
because these people want to,
like,
"Hey, Bam,
let's go out to the bar."
Knowing that Bam will pay.
So he just decided that he was
just gonna bail
on the situation, period.
Winkle:
I didn't get no phone calls.
I haven't heard from him.
He hasn't wrote me or anything.
He just showed up at my door,
like, "Let's go skating.
Knock, I'm here."
Yeah, it's been really good.
You've been out here for how long?
Oh, God. Uh...
Well, in Barcelona how long?
Yeah.
Four months?
Four months. Wow.
Four months, yeah.
But, no, we've been in Europe
for like eight months now.
Wow.
He just came out here to get healthy.
That one's rad.
He just said it the other day
before you guys got here.
He's like, "So, like,
the booze don't help me out,
the people back at home
don't help me out.
The only thing
that keeps me good
is on the fucking skateboard."
And I'm just like, "Stay there."
This is basically a normal,
everyday routine right here.
By the way, a year ago, I could
almost not even see my own dick.
It was that big --
and my dick's not so big, so...
But it was still like that.
I was like,
"Something has to be done."
In the Toy Machine days and when
I had to go do an Element demo,
like, I was stoked to show up.
And I was stoked
to slap kids' fives
because I knew I was gonna
fucking rip the park.
Now it's like,
I don't want anybody to see me.
I need somebody to skate with,
but I don't want people
to watch me suck.
Fail hill.
You gotta taste it before
you roll away from it, right?
Yeah.
[ Grunts ]
[ Panting ]
Yeah!
[ Laughter ]
Fuck!
[ Laughs ]
I don't know what you
want to call that one.
Winkle: Perfection's hard
to achieve, my friend.
[ Laughs ]
When you are a skater
and you know what you can do,
you carry that around
in your heart.
And if you can't do it,
it hurts you.
He knows how good of a skater
he is.
He knows what he can do.
Fuck!
Oh!
[ Panting ]
O'Dell: What's it been like
trying to get tricks for a video?
Um, that's the place
that I wanted to, um --
I don't know. I'm not --
I'm just kind of just filming,
you know?
And if -- I'm just -- just
learning all my tricks again.
Man: Oh!
[ Laughs ]
Board smash.
Yeah, my fat ass,
I broke two boards.
[ Chuckles ]
April visited Bam in Spain
this year in March.
He was on a sober kick
trying to get sober,
but she said
he started to have a --
just wine with dinner,
maybe two.
I said, "Ap, it's not a good
sign that he's doing that."
And she says, "No, he's fine
in Spain, he's fine in Spain."
And then, uh, like,
a couple weeks later,
he started drinking
until he was crazy.
So, he still hasn't conquered
drinking, but he's trying.
All right.
This is what's scaring me
about Bam right now.
When he had his comeback,
they put that line out
in that interview.
Yeah! Fuck yeah!
But I know Bam,
and I know the issues
that he's battling right now.
And I know that he's doing
much better than he was,
but he's not cured by any means.
I know he's on that fine line.
All right. Okay, thanks, buddy.
Yeah, yeah.
Novak: Bam's kind of like
how I was in the beginning.
He does want to get sober
and stay sober,
but he's not willing to do
the certain things that it takes
to get to where
he's trying to get to.
[ Guitar playing ]
* I'm all that
and a bag of chips *
* I can't rap
[ Laughs ]
[ Doorbell ringing ]
What up?
After a year in Europe,
I'm back.
We're at Ap and Phil's house
in Thornton, Pennsylvania.
[ Laughs ]
Hi!
How are you?
O'Dell: Good.
How's it going?
I know, the kid's back.
[ Laughs ]
He's been gone for a year.
Where's Phil's Elvis mug?
Well, I put it
in the dishwasher.
You want the Christmas Elvis?
April:
You want a cappuccino?
Yeah, that sounds right today.
That'll work.
He was like that kid that would
jump from couch to couch
really, like,
flying through the air.
You know what I mean?
My father-in-law,
he started calling Bam Bam-Bam.
I mean,
he kind of looked like him
'cause he was very
square-shouldered,
you know, with the curly hair.
And, you know,
I think for a while,
he was dragging a bat around.
**
Bam's whole life,
skating or otherwise,
has been, like, filmed.
Phil was shooting video
the whole time.
But you're gorgeous, though.
Stop.
Oh, yeah, the, uh, VHS, a big
one, got heavy after a while.
I'm filming.
Yeah, I would, uh,
24 hours a day,
just take 'em wherever
they wanted to go.
Bam: It didn't matter
what I was doing.
The minute we got there,
he was already filming with
this VHS camera, you know?
He filmed everything,
bails and all,
and then we'd get home
and just watch it all.
Phil: Love Park, took him there
all the time.
There's a place called the
Dustbowl in King of Prussia,
took him to that a lot.
And then as skate parks
opened up,
we went to all the skate parks.
April: He would take him
to a drainage ditch
and make a picnic day out of it.
So, I mean, he was just, like,
the greatest dad.
Oh, I enjoyed it. I, uh...
I was a huge baseball, football,
you know,
the regular sports fan.
From the time they skated until
they could drive themselves,
I didn't even know who was
playing in the Super Bowl.
I didn't know what the Pirates
were doing, I didn't know.
It was 24 hours a day
skateboarding.
It looks big enough, believe me.
No, sit down.
I want to make it look bigger.
Boy: Do it!
Man, I'm scared.
Just do it!
O'Connor:
You'd go to their house,
and they were the most
hospitable people in the world.
They let their kids
do everything,
but then their kids were so loving towards
their parents and everything like that.
Like, for me who is not like
this with my family at all,
they were always hugging and
kissing one another and stuff.
I'm like, "Whoa, what the...
Weird.
Like, you, like,
kiss your dad and stuff?"
Uh, yeah, me and my dad
would never do that.
Just like a firm handshake.
Like, "All right,
see you later."
Aah!
April: He always seemed like
a really busy kid to me.
Like, you know, I was just
one of those moms.
It's like, "Look,
you're not a kid forever.
Go out, be busy."
I'm not gonna kind of,
like, bore my kids
with a ton of chores.
Like, my parents didn't do that
to me, either.
They're like, "Go be kids."
But maybe I should have
because maybe he would do
a little more for himself.
**
Phil: Jess, you try one.
All right, well, do something.
I'll film you.
April: You know, Jesse
was a great skater, too,
but it was just, like,
it seemed like
nobody could kind of keep up
with Bam.
And Bam, even though he was
the youngest of the group,
he was definitely the boss.
Aah! Say it!
Say it!
[ Yells ]
Bossing everybody,
"Do it again!"
Who says that, you know,
when you're 10?
[ Groans ]
[ Laughs ]
I won, I won.
Raab:
He had this thing called Team X,
which was like this little group
of guys that skated.
Bam: Team X search for
fast wheels, part two.
Yeah.
We were just, like,
messing with each other
and, you know,
filming the skating stuff
but also filming, like, us kind
of doing stupid little skits.
Yeah, Bam!
Phil: Bam at 10 years old
started being pretty noticeable.
He's tied, if you don't know.
Me and Bucky would go up to the
skate park called Cheapskates.
All of a sudden, we saw this kid
popping humongous ollies
and just had all this energy.
I'm like, "Oh, fuck,
I've just met my match,
and, like, this isn't good."
Me and Bam became, like,
inseparable at that point on
because we made each other
want to excel,
and we were really,
uh, consistent, too.
We were good contest skaters.
One year,
Bam did better than Novak,
then the next year,
Novak did better than Bam,
and then Bam did better.
So a little bit of
love/hate there.
**
He had like 25, 30 friends
in the area,
and he'd invite 'em all
to watch the skate videos,
and only a dozen of 'em
would be interested
because it was
pure skateboarding.
The other 13 would roam off
and walk off.
April: He started taking
the daily skate footage,
and then he would kind of
edit it down.
He would do
like four skate tricks
and then put the funny stuff in,
and everybody, like, loved that.
Phil: So now, all 25 kids
would stay and watch
because there'd be 5 minutes
of skating,
3 minutes of funny stuff,
and then 2 minutes of skating,
5 minutes of funny stuff.
[ Grunts ]
What up?
How's it going?
Good to see you.
Yeah, you, too.
How you been? Good.
Good.
I was gonna put a board
together, but I just found one.
I thought it was stolen,
and nobody stole it. [ Laughs ]
First sponsor was Fairman's.
I was about 13.
This would be our meeting point
whenever we'd go skating.
It's just all the, um, people
who used to ride for --
Oh, yeah, there's me
doing the one foot
at the, uh, Turks Head Festival.
**
Well, when we rode for 'em,
I think we were allowed,
like, two skate decks a month.
And then maybe some wheels.
I was always skating
with Mike Moldonado,
and Mike Moldonado got sponsored
by Toy Machine,
so he was flying out
to Huntington Beach
to stay with Ed Templeton.
Kerry Getz and I
came along with.
Getz: You know, he was just always,
like, see something in a video
or see a spot
or hear about a spot,
and he's like, "We gotta go to that spot.
We gotta go to that spot."
So his motivation level
was beyond most people's.
That's what really kind of
made Sessions happen.
Steamer: We were all the ants --
me, Mike, Bam, and Kerry.
Me and Moldonado
smoked a lot of pot,
and Bam was, like,
young and didn't.
And he was just, like,
discovering women and stuff like that.
Bam was focused and ambitious.
I knew early on that
he was gonna succeed
because he was super tenacious
with everything.
If he had an idea, like,
"I want a skit
in the Time Machine video,"
there was no way I'm saying no.
Thomas: They were just
having fun making skits.
They just loved creating it
and loved making it,
and then it started working
its way into his video parts.
And then after that, he got
so much positive feedback
and it was so fun, he just kind
of went full bore into that.
**
Bam: Psst.
I'm trying to find the cat.
[ Hissing ]
April: Saw the grandkids.
He was really afraid
to hold the baby.
Even though she's 1.
Even --
I don't do well with it.
Huh?
I don't do well with it.
Well, you better get used to it
real quick
'cause do you want to tell them
your news?
You tell them the news.
Huh?
You tell 'em the news.
No, don't leave.
You tell them the news. No.
You didn't tell 'em in Spain?
You never said --
No, you're saying it.
I didn't know until they left.
Oh. You found out --
He found out.
So do you want to say what's new? Okay.
You say it.
No.
I want to hear you say it.
Nikki's pregnant.
So you better get used to
holding babies.
So, guess who's being a dad?
[ Chuckles ]
Shh.
[ Laughter ]
What the...?!
Bam, you are always over the line.
That's what I have to do.
Bam: Oh, God!
What's this I see?
A young lad being beaten?
[ Grunts ]
Bam: I had these neighborhood
friends that wanted to be on film,
and, you know, obviously,
they couldn't skate very well,
so they would just want to be in
whatever we were working on.
Jumping off of a roof
into a bush
or getting into a shopping cart
and getting pushed into a curb
was, like,
"I'll do whatever it takes.
I just want to be
in this video."
I'm like, "It's hilarious.
I's not a skate trick,
but, fuck, it's hilarious."
April: He decided to, like,
film these funny things.
And what he would film I thought
was, like, sheer genius.
Like, I'm thinking to myself,
"Oh, my God, that's so funny."
[ Farts ]
[ Goat bleats ]
To me, that was, like,
the beginnings
of what the CKY videos were.
"Man, we're gonna film stuff,
and I want to, like,
impress, you know, Ryan,
or I want to impress Brandon
or Bam"
or, like, whatever one did,
you tried to one-up it.
[ Yelling ]
**
Bam: That became CKY Land Speed,
which was just a mixture
of skateboarding
and dumb stunts and skits.
**
[ Laughter ]
Thomas: It was, like, stuff
that you wanted to do
but you never really
went to that extreme.
Bam was kind of doing it
for you.
Slap fits on his dad.
Stop, Bam, I'm on the phone.
They rented a car
and annihilated it.
Oh, no, it's just
an AM/FM radio.
[ Tires squeal ]
Tremaine:
Thank God for Bam's drive
and his ability to just,
"Let's -- Let's go make this."
You know, you look at
all those CKY videos,
and he's like,
"This is my world."
[ Laughs ]
[ Train horn blows ]
And he cut it like the way
that we thought,
you know, like, this, like,
ADD kind of mind.
It was like the beginning
of that stage
where everyone's just like,
"Give me the information right now."
[ Tires squeal ]
I went to Spike
and Johnny Knoxville,
and I said, "Hey, let's
partner up and make a TV Show."
Bam:
I got a call from Jeff Tremaine.
I drove over to his house,
and that's where I met
Johnny Knoxville.
And we watched "CKY2K" together.
Tremaine said, "Do you mind
if I use some of these clips
for a pilot that I want to do
called 'Jackass' on MTV?"
And I said, "Hell, yeah,
go for it."
[ Farts ]
Ow!
What the fuck was that?
I make the scissor wheel,
and we go out and sell it,
but I still don't even know
what it is that we just sold.
I think one of the first things
we filmed
was, like, the BMX joust,
where he just had
this loose idea,
and we went straight
to the hardware store
and just started
rigging BMX bikes.
Man: Sir Bravealot
has committed treason.
He has entered my den
like he has entered my ass,
and this is not permitted.
I was just hanging out
back there eating a meat pie,
and the next thing you know,
some guy's freaking out about nothing.
Every day, we would just
brainstorm on what can we film.
And it would be like, "Well,
what's something somebody's never seen?"
Ryan Dunn about to do some skiing up
here in the Pennsylvania mountains
and try not to die.
Aah! ****
Ryan Dunn would always be the
one to step up to the plate.
I'm Ryan Dunn,
and this is poo diving.
Bam: Oh, dude.
You know, all right,
here we are at this location.
Who's gonna do this crazy thing?
"I'll do it!"
In comedy,
there's no room for vanity.
You gotta show a little skin
if you want to make it.
[ Laughs ]
Bam: We would just drive around
in the car like,
"What can we jump off of?
Who could we fuck with?"
Raab: We were just turning out
tons of craziness.
We actually filmed "CKY3"
while we were filming "Jackass."
Some of the stuff was a little
too gnarly to put on television.
Like, no spreadable butt cheeks
on MTV,
and so I took 18 Ex-Lax
and did the George Carlin thing
where I shit running full speed.
* Ooh, yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah *
We were in a void, you know? We
weren't out in the real world.
We would just film this stuff,
and I thought what we were
getting is funny,
but I didn't think everyone
would think it was funny,
you know?
Right away, it just took off.
Bam: In high school, it was,
like, the flick of a light switch.
Like, "Oh, there's that
loser skater kid Bam,"
to, all of a sudden, "Oh,
my God, I just saw 'Jackass.'
You want to come to this party
tonight?"
[ All cheering ]
Tremaine: MTV was going crazy.
We were getting calls like,
"Oh, my God, ratings are blah,
blah, blah." You know, like...
Bam: That's when they did the
spin-off to do "Viva La Bam,"
which was me and the CKY guys
back in Pennsylvania.
The plot of "Viva La Bam"
was wake up
and see what kind of pranks
I could pull on my mom and dad.
It was just nonstop work.
Are you kidding me?!
Look, you've destroyed the whole house!
We're just joking!
I became so busy
with filming with MTV.
There was, like, tours that
I was skipping with Element.
There was, like, autograph
signings I was missing.
Driving an hour to Philly
to go skate
just slowly had --
it slowly faded.
[ Explosion ]
We were moving nonstop.
Like, we were
going, going, going.
Just the pressure, like, having
to pull it off, pull it off.
You know --
It was 45 episodes, nonstop.
It was.
Without, like, one day off,
so finally after, like, filming
for, like, what,
two to three years straight,
nonstop, I'm like, "I can't take
it, I just need a break."
Right.
So I get a break --
[ Telephone ringing ]
Hang that up.
Two weeks of break, and I'm
already ready to go back.
When I -- Who is it?
Phil, hang it up.
Phil: I'm trying to figure this phone out.
Hang it up.
Where's the End button?
He's so annoying.
I'm so sorry.
Is that it?
I'm gonna punch you.
Oh, Lord.
What the hell am I doing?
Come on, Phil.
Are you joking?
[ Dial tone ]
April:
At a point when he was 21,
he had more money and more power
and more clout in Hollywood.
He was like a hot commodity.
There was a couple of ways
he could have gone.
Yo, Bam here gonna show you how
new Right Guard Extreme
Power Stripe works.
Hawk: Bam grew up in the sense
that you can be a star
if you're a pro skater.
Medic!
If I get good at it,
I can make money,
and I can have celebrity.
And then when it came,
it came in droves.
It came so far that it was,
like, overwhelming,
and he couldn't go anywhere.
[ Crowd cheering ]
[ Siren wails ]
[ Crowd cheering ]
In May 2000, I went to Helsinki,
Finland, for a skate contest.
There was this rock band
called Him,
and they were, like,
blowing up big time.
I wound up buying the album,
and I liked it so much.
When you open the album,
it had this emblem,
which was like a heart
and a star together.
It was called the heartogram.
He starts tattooing
the heartogram,
drawing it on everything.
It became Bam's symbol,
but it was
this Finnish rock band's,
and it became this blurry line
where he was the biggest fan,
but he was bigger than the band.
Bam: I made this movie
called "Haggard."
Every song was Him's new album
called Deep Shadows
and Brilliant Highlights.
Saari: I think he fully did
the stalking thing --
letters, e-mails,
have people call.
He just basically just
forced his way to the backstage
and became friends with them,
you know, which is pretty rad.
* The truth that gets themselves
fooled *
His fascination with that band
is beyond me.
I mean, we have all
have different tastes.
It's fine,
but not my cup of tea.
Evans: There was that initial
take-off of MTV, CKY,
people that don't know
skateboarding
but they know who Bam is,
and that just started spiraling
into this beast.
[ All cheering ]
Bam: A lot of, like,
high-school chicks would show up
with their purple Bam
heartogram shirts.
It was just like
Tony Hawk syndrome.
People would be like, "Oh,
you skate? Do you know Bam?"
Tremaine: Bam was selling
more boards than anybody,
and yet, it wasn't because
of his skateboarding.
It was because of
his face on TV.
Thomas: I think
once the heartogram went crazy,
the skate population
kind of were like,
"Okay, this is way too big
for us."
We're gonna focus
on somebody else."
**
You know, when you're on camera
a lot, people have a lot to say.
He always wanted to have
this very slim, slim look,
and a lot of it kind of happened
when he became good friends
with Ville Valo.
I remember when me and
Ville Valo were out in London,
and, uh, he woke up at noon,
opened up the minibar,
and cracked open a beer.
That was the first time I was
introduced to day drinking.
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
At 10:00 in the morning?
River of brewskis?
Ville drank a lot.
Like, he drank a lot.
I mean, he's the loveliest man
ever, but he never ate.
He just drank.
And so I think Bam started,
like, sipping on a beer
or sipping on a something
because he liked
the way he looked.
I didn't start, like, officially
drinking until maybe 24 or 25.
And then the rock star life
and drinking
just spun out of control.
We would go out to dinner,
and then he would immediately
excuse himself
and go to the bathroom.
And I said,
"Are you throwing up?"
And he says, "Yeah, yeah, like,
um, sometimes I throw up,
and, um, that way, like,
I'm not gonna get, like, fat."
He saw me get fat, Vito got fat.
My brother Kevin's not fat,
my other brother's not fat,
but it was a 50/50 thing.
If you're a Margera, you
get fat, or you stay normal.
April: You know, it really hurts
me when people make comments like,
"You know, you looked like
you gained some weight there."
"Hey, wow, Bam, you look like
you're looking like your dad."
I don't respond,
but I feel like saying,
"He was drinking alcohol,
and he was bulimic,
and that's why he was thin."
[ Beeping ]
Well, it looks like
the show left town.
[ Laughs ]
Right now, we're at Castle Bam.
Who's that?
April: Who is that?
Oh, my God.
Who is that?
I don't know.
We're -- we're filming.
You need to go.
I have told him 24 times
to get his shit out of here
and don't ever
come on this property.
Bam traveled so much,
a friend would call him,
he'd say, "Yeah, you can go in,"
give that person the gate code,
and then, uh,
they would tell five friends.
Bam:
You didn't have to be invited.
People would come over
with, like, six packs and kegs,
and every time I was
doing something productive,
it would always just turn into
a drinking party.
During the height of it,
I bought a house,
and then from there on,
whatever any other dollars
I was gonna make,
I was just gonna put towards
a new sports car.
At one point,
so much money was flowing in
that I didn't know what the fuck
to do with any of it.
[ Tires squeal ]
There's some saying, like,
the age you become famous
is, like, the age you stay at
forever.
And no one's gonna call you out,
you know?
Like, there's no one
telling you no.
April:
Most kids that age, you know,
it's usually
you giving them the checks,
but he had money coming in.
Yeah, my brother and I, Vince,
was his accountant mainly.
And my brother had the nerve
to scream at him,
and I never had the nerve
to scream at Bam.
April: We listened to him
because it's his money,
number one, and number two,
he seems to know
what people want to see,
so I'm just gonna shut up.
Novak: Bam's house at that time
during those really dark years
was very depressing
'cause you see this really big,
beautiful spread
on the countryside,
and then you get into the house,
and you can just see,
like, a lot of pain.
Where the fuck is it?!
Like, people trying to navigate
their way
through a really dark time.
And there's power in numbers,
so the more people
that were like that,
the more that we all added
drugs and alcohol to the recipe.
And the only time there was,
like,
a point of, like, "Oh, shit"
is when we ran out of cocaine.
You know what I mean?
So we'd just call more,
and then they would
bring their buddies.
And their buddies
would bring their buddies.
And then before you know it,
it's just like,
"Dude, who are these people?"
**
Bam: There's not really
anything to show.
It's an amusement park
that closed down,
and now I'm stuck here
looking at it.
You know,
I remember I just said, like,
"I can't fucking do this
anymore.
Like, if I had a wish,
it would just be
for, like, everyone
to just go fuck off."
And then when that happened,
I find myself like three weeks
into this,
and I have an empty house.
I'm like, "All right,
I want everybody back,
and I want to continue
this shit."
My real friends left,
and now my new friends are just
drinking buddies from town.
Raab: It's sad in a sense
because I always used to think
we were unique,
and then we just became
this total cliché story
of small-town kids
got recognition from television,
started doing this whole
little Hollywood thing.
And then, all of a sudden,
we're just all on drugs
and drinking and partying
and doing all that stuff.
It's just a sad little story.
And then, I'll be honest, man.
When -- When --
When Ryan died, uh,
that was just
incredibly difficult.
Um, it still is.
Police are investigating
the cause of a fiery car crash
that killed two people,
including Ryan Dunn,
one of the stars of the
once-popular MTV show "Jackass."
Reporter: Police say Ryan was
behind the wheel of his Porsche
and, according to
published reports,
may have been driving
over 100 miles per hour.
His car lost control,
smashed the guard rail,
and burst into flames.
[ Laughter ]
April: Ryan was just a -- a
grandstander. He was a showoff.
He wanted to always, like,
just do 100 miles per hour.
Do you have any Grey Poupon?
Man: Sorry, bro!
You don't have any?
Fuck!
[ Engine revs, tires squeal ]
April: I always said to Ryan,
"Dude, you're gonna die in a car
crash if you don't slow down.
You drive
like a freakin' maniac."
He said, "You forgot one thing,
Ap -- fiery.
Fiery car crash."
Bam: Well, I was in Phoenix,
Arizona, when I got the news.
It was literally
the longest flight ever,
like, just knowing that I had to
get home as soon as possible.
I-I never pictured what I would
do if that happened.
It just wasn't an option.
Nikki: You know, any time that Bam
might be going through anything,
he always had Ryan Dunn
right there,
and he was his best friend,
a brother figure.
It definitely triggered
the alcohol more,
once Ryan passed away.
Bam: Whenever we'd film anything,
it would always be me and Dunn
brainstorming
about how to be funny.
And now
I don't have that anymore?
What am I gonna do?
Crack open a drink.
I think, going forward, Bam
didn't want to do any projects,
because every time he thought
he'd get back to work,
he's like, "Yeah, dude.
I'm gonna --
You know what I'll do?
I'll go ahead
and shoot this funny show,
and then I'll call Dunn and --
Oh.
I guess I won't call Dunn."
Phil: It hit him as hard as a
brother dying, in my opinion.
That really shook him up.
It -- It -- It set him back
a couple years, I think.
Tremaine: Look, when Ryan passed,
it was shocking to all of us, you know?
Like, Bam was already
in a bad spot,
and for that to happen
when it did, it just sunk him.
Bam:
Should we show 'em the dungeon?
April: Yeah, keep in mind,
the dungeon, uh,
holds a whole lot of stuff
from the old house in piles.
Oh, and here's the thousands
of skate decks.
Oh, my God,
and there's more in the garage.
Yeah. This is where I would edit
for weeks and weeks.
We were getting worried about
you 'cause you never came out.
[ Laughs ]
[ Light switch clicks ]
Um, the movie about Andy McCoy
from Hanoi Rocks
and, uh, also my movie.
But I've been working on it
for like four years
that I -- I've had enough.
My best friend, Ryan Dunn, died
in a car accident two years ago.
He's dead and gone.
[ Thunder rumbles ]
And it was, like, driving
me bonkers, it really was.
Just 'cause
there was so much footage.
It was 11 terabytes of footage
that I had to go through.
If you hit play on 11 terabytes
and just let it play
that I had to watch,
it's like four months
worth of footage. I know.
It's, like, more than
fuckin' "Avatar."
[ Both laugh ]
He's been through
quite a cathartic time
that's not just the skateboard
or the "Jackass" guy.
It's his own personal loss
of a dear friend.
I think he was so obsessed
with that movie and editing it
that he would, like,
be in the basement
for literally weeks at a time
in a dark hole,
sipping on alcohol, trying to,
like, edit this thing.
And I'm like,
"It's time to just walk away."
Who the fuck can --
can put four months of footage
into two hours? It's impossible.
There's too much stuff
that you don't even need
to put in there.
Like, there's stuff
you need to take out
that you think is important
that isn't important.
Well, none of it's important right now.
And there's stuff that's important
that you need to leave in.
Jonze: He was, like, couldn't figure
out how to end the documentary.
He's like, "I don't know
how to end the documentary."
And I was trying to tell him
to stop editing the documentary
and to put it away
because, "I think the reason
you're having trouble
is you don't know what to do
with your life right now.
And that's -- that's natural.
You were going since you were
14 years old making this shit.
And, like, you know, figure out
what to do with your life,
and that'll tell you what to do
with this documentary."
Yeah.
He's -- he's actually
living his ending.
That's what you're doing,
you're living your ending.
Yeah, maybe.
I think Bam has accepted the
fact that alcohol is an issue.
He's trying to fix
an internal dilemma
with an external solution.
And thank God
that he's doing that
and he's buying new homes
and he's buying new cars
and he's going to Spain.
Because what happens is,
once you do all those things,
you realize, like,
they don't work.
I don't like looking at myself.
I don't like what I've become.
I can't skate anymore, and I
need to do something about it.
What's up, Dooli?
What's up sweetheart?
Bro, why weren't you
at the rager last night?
What rager? Maybe 'cause you
didn't call me up and invite me.
Watch your mouth, sweetheart.
Bam: Novak and I grew up
skating together,
and he was sponsored
by Powell Peralta,
and he would always
skate with Bucky
and show up skating Cheapskates,
then he got into heroin
at the age of 15.
Novak:
Me being a recovering alcoholic,
like, I have a really
delusional way of thinking.
In -- In my mind,
what my disease told me
is that the skateboarding world
needs me,
it cannot go on without me,
I am an asset.
And in reality,
it did not need me.
It went on quite fine without
me, and I was a liability.
Do it.
Oh, Jesus!
Oh, Jesus!
[ Laughing ]
Are you --
You're all -- You're all cut up.
Yeah.
Yo, see what happens
when you're broke?
You'll do anything
for 100 bucks.
God damn, my life sucks.
When I was around and I was
going on tour with him
and I was everywhere
that he went,
it was very easy for Bam
to deflect his issues
because they would all
point a finger and say,
"I'm not as bad as Novak."
Okay, so you said
it's the 19th through the --
Man: The 9th through the 15th.
Fuck.
Bam:
Now he's 2 1/2 years sober,
and he's doing speeches
about heroin addiction.
He -- He cleaned up his act,
which I never thought
was possible.
Right on, well, thank you
for getting back to me, man.
I appreciate that.
April: He is doing so well
that I think that Bam is
extremely happy for his friend,
extremely proud of his friend,
and extremely jealous
of his friend.
O'Dell: Did he talk to you
about your drinking
in order to help
try to get you sober?
Um, I mean, it was always a --
He -- He --
No, I don't know.
[ Laughs ]
**
**
The only reason why
I was drinking so much
is because I didn't
have anything to do.
Right now, learning how to
skate again is something to do,
and I can't do that
while drinking.
**
Tell the camera the plan.
The plan is this.
His name is Wall Man.
The leader of the squad
is Wall Man.
Wall Man is the leader
of the squad.
I don't give a fuck
about shopping carts,
but Bam the skateboarder
was the dude that most of us
fell in love with.
He skated street,
but the dude ripped transition.
**
Getz: His FDR days,
they definitely intimidated me.
He'd go up that Indian wall
like 10 foot of vert.
Burnett: Skateboarding
is about goofing around
and having fun
with your friends,
and Bam carried that message
to the broadest audience.
Raab: I'd love to see him
back on a skateboard
and trying to kind of find
that answer as to what's next.
Tremaine: If he's got something
to accomplish,
then that's going to
consume him,
and he's all-in on that.
He's got this complete different
glow about him.
He just wants to get back
to his roots again.
Not saying the rest of 'em ain't good.
Can't nobody touch this.
All of 'em is good, but him,
I think he's the best
out the bunch.
Hawk: The most difficult thing
in success
is to have it taken away.
I think that
he's come through the fire,
and I think he's still
getting better.
There's ups and downs.
You know, you ride the ride.
Enjoy the ride.
It's a 15-minute ride.
I want my son
to come out the other end
the person that he went in.
Novak: I think he realizes
the severity of the situation
that he's in right now.
And he has a really good shot.
He does.
And he might be one of those
people that can do it
without doing the things
that I do to stay sober.
He might be.
Anything is subject to change
because I've seen it in my life.
**
Yeah!
[ Laughs ]
Check this out.
[ Cheering ]
**
Aah!
Whoo-hoo!
Ow! Whee!
Oh! [ Laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Groans ]