A Hard Kick in the Nuts

July 4, 2022
Renowned Jackass stuntman and comedian Glover outlines the secrets to a fulfilling life in this surprisingly introspective follow-up to his debut memoir Professional Idiot. Drawing on his personal experiences—including, but not limited to, death-defying stunts like hitting a ramp on a horse-pulled wakeboard, and making snow angels in flaming rocket fuel—Glover explores the creation of meaning in life and how to nourish it. Alongside the perilous feats of his past, Glover dives into more intimate anecdotes from his life, detailing his past relationships, poor financial investments, awkward romantic escapades, and, most notably, his winding—at times vicious—path into stand-up comedy, plus many more challenges. From reckoning with aging and learning the benefits of discipline to taking up Vedic meditation and finding joy in color-coded calendars, Glover uses the wisdom he’s gained from his freewheeling life to urge readers to embrace a “willingness to zig and zag” and to accept that occasional failures are part and parcel with finding happiness. While one might not expect to find wisdom in a hilarious tale about belly-flopping into a urine-filled kiddie pool, Glover is a veritable expert at learning “some valuable shit from lifetime of terrible decisions.” Dick jokes aside, this is full of heart and hard-won insight.

August 15, 2022
The Jackass star and author of Professional Idiot returns with a healthy dose of self-help advice. "The very idea that I would be writing a book to impart my wisdom to others, that people would be coming to me--a recovering alcoholic drug addict who once willingly tried to cross a pit full of alligators on a tightrope while wearing a jockstrap--for advice about anything is clearly absurd," writes Glover at the beginning. "Surely, if you're looking to Steve-O for help with your life, you are well and truly fucked, right." The guy who became famous for setting himself on fire and stapling parts of his body to other parts is remarkably blunt about his addictive personality, fear of growing older, professional jealousy, and being an "attention whore." Glover also discusses how he has tried to balance these issues, engaging in meditation, veganism, celibacy, philanthropy, and surfing, with varying results. He also has an unorthodox love of calendars and scheduling that, like pretty much everything else in the book, he reveals in meticulous detail and with self-deprecating humor--and plenty of profanity. "My calendar is one way I manage that existential anxiety," he writes, as he explains his color-coding system and how he wishes he could create a physical manifestation of the calendar app on his iPhone. The author's worldview is singular and weird, but it has certainly resonated with millions of Jackass fans as well as those who made his previous book a bestseller. For them, his ideas on political polarization and economic inequality--or advice like, "Controlling how you're feeling on a day-to-day basis is impossible, but what is actually doable is to control the way you act"--may actually connect in a way that wouldn't work from a more conventional source. A disarmingly direct memoir of mistakes and course corrections studded with some useful advice.

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September 1, 2022

Like his infamous stunts on the Jackass TV show and films, Steve-O is back to share more outrageous stories. His second book focuses on his journey from a path of willful self-destruction to sobriety and leaves no sordid experience unexamined. In between all of the "unnecessary, inappropriately personal and graphic things" Steve-O shares throughout the book, he does manage to include some surprisingly common-sense advice. It's nothing groundbreaking or particularly insightful, but most readers will probably feel better about their own lives knowing that they didn't have to get pelted with baseballs while duct taped to the side of a truck--or worse--to learn the same lessons. It's a surprisingly relatable read and proves that Steve-O's success has been as much a result of his balls-to-the-wall work ethic as it has been sheer luck. VERDICT It's doubtful that anyone had "Steve-O self-help book" on their pop culture bingo card. But (although he's certainly no Bren� Brown) Steve-O's ability to be both vulnerable and funny works surprisingly well in this format.--Claire Sewell

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