It certainly may feel like a gnarly case of déjà vu as Steve-O makes a triumphant return to Boston with his latest show. But rest assured, through painstaking attention to detail (emphasis on “pain”), it’s actually, in a lot of ways, a whole new show, so the legendary daredevil is considering it to be more of a “victory lap” than a revisit to his original bucket list.
Fully equipped with a new and improved theatre of debauchery and whatthefuckery at The Wilbur on Sunday (September 3), the Jackass OG and multimedia-forward stand-up comedian can’t wait to show a Boston crowd how he’s been reshaping his highly successful Bucket List show into what will ultimately be its final form, and to show how it’s grown since it was basically in its infancy when he was last at The Wilbur in December 2021.
With a bit of tightening up, kicking some stuff out, and adding some fresh stuff in, and even a little bit of help of Boston’s own Bill Burr and his helicopter pilot chops during a “wildly ambitious and overly-expensive new opening sequence,” the man who rarely, if ever, goes by Steve Glover is proud of how far its come and being able to show how high he’s raised the bar of insanity due to the show’s sustaining ability to make people a bit squeamish still.
“I don’t know if I would call it a thrill, but it’s certainly been a fascinating phenomenon,” Glover tells Vanyaland. “You never want people to be harmed or left at risk, but at the same time, my intention with this whole show was to raise the bar for crazy, and to push things further than they’ve ever been pushed, and to do things that were never going to be allowed on Jackass. It’s a little bit of a point of pride that people pass out during the show. I’ve never heard of anyone passing out during a Jackass movie.”
Since the Bucket List show first set sail more than two years ago, Steve-O has taken his appointed role of “professional distraction therapist” seriously, as he’s worked to put the pieces of the puzzle in front of him together to create not just a great product, but the best he’s ever managed to curate. Looking back on when he first brought it town, he’s here to promise you that he’s found a bulked up structure for the show, and that what you’ll see between your fingers as you hold your hands over your eyes this time around is wildly improved from the show that even had the mad scientist behind the Jackass franchise calling timeout early on.
“Something that’s interesting about the last time we were at The Wilbur is that we recorded it, and I brought it home to Los Angeles to screen it for Jeff Tremaine,” says Glover. “I did that because I knew I was onto something with this show’s concept, and I wanted to see what Jeff thought about attaching himself to it and going to Netflix to pitch it as an original special. He watched the whole thing, and told me that I had outdone myself, but what I had was never going to be on Netflix. From start to finish, it’s so fucking gnarly that I don’t even think there are parts of it that could be allowed on Netflix.”
Almost like the proud patriarch of a family, Steve-O stands by what this show has become, and the many versions and editions that have naturally come before it. The way he sees it, this particular multimedia extravaganza is the best shit he’s ever made, which only circles directly back to the idea behind the “victory lap” moniker, and at the end of the day what it comes down to is just how badass the show is, and how badly he wants everyone to see it — even if it makes them pass out from time to time.
“The Wilbur is just special to me because they’re the first theater that ever took a chance on me,” says Glover. “When I first got there years ago, I was as green as you could possibly be in stand-up, but they got behind me and they supported me in trying to do comedy. Being able to come back to The Wilbur just makes me really grateful every chance I get.”
STEVE-O: THE BUCKET LIST TOUR :: Sunday, September 3 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6 p.m., $49 to $69 :: Advance Tickets