Jackass star Steve-O has never been short of imaginative things to do with (or to) his body, but his latest trick may have gone a tiny bit too far. Yesterday, he appeared to have duct-taped himself to a billboard high over Los Angeles in order to promote his new comedy special Gnarly. The stunt took place above Cahuenga Boulevard and Yucca Street and from street level, the star appeared to be daringly suspended by tape alone.
However, this wasn’t quite the DIY feat it first appeared to be. Steve-O posted updates on Instagram while suspended, explaining that:
“I’m attached to a billboard right now … and want to emphasize that a team of real professionals rigged everything safely. There is zero chance of me falling, and it’s important to me that we not waste any valuable city resources on this. I’m happy to just hang out, and really want the world to know about this project I worked so hard on.”
Despite his assurances of safety, the LA fire department quickly sent a number of fire trucks to get him down. After blocking traffic, they put up a crane, climbed up and cut him off the billboard (to reveal he was wearing an adult diaper). Fortunately for Steve-O, the LAFD and LAPD have confirmed that he was not arrested and will not face criminal charges – apparently because he’d paid for the billboard.
He later explained:
“I didn’t want to waste any resources at all. We had our own cranes ready to get me down, we had a whole team that was ready to do it.”
Still, if the objective was to raise awareness of Gnarly, it’s safe to say he succeeded. From the sounds of it, this is a full-on Jackass reunion, featuring appearances from Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Jason “Wee Man” Acuña. If you’re interested, you can download it right now from Steve-O’s website for the princely sum of $9.99.
