Steve-O to reveal giant tattoo of himself

Steve-O of "Jackass" fame will do his stand-up/variety act at Zanies in Rosemont Sept. 21 and 22.

Updated: October 21, 2012 1:29PM

Expect outrageous stunts and filthy stories when “Jackass” veteran Steve-0 makes his first visit to the Zanies comedy nightclub in Rosemont this weekend.

“It is clearly a comedy-variety show. I would be betraying my brand if I just stood there and talked the whole time,” he said about his act.

Steve-O said the latter portion of each show will be devoted to stunts and tricks which could include setting his hair on fire.

“I wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility,” said Steve-0, a London native born to an American father and a Canadian mother in 1974.

Ever the consummate showman, Steve-O will also reveal the larger than life-size tattoo of himself on his own back.

“I generally have included a back tattoo reveal into the top of each show,” he said.

That Steve-O portrait was conceived as a stunt for the first “Jackass” movie. It took 16 and ½ hours to complete over the course of four sessions with an ink artist.

Steve-O, a former student at Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Clown College, first considered doing stand-up in 2006 when he was invited to perform a crazy stunt at an L.A. comedy club.

“I figured the craziest stunt I could do would be to try stand-up. I had some crazy beginner’s luck and I got some legit laughs. So I made a conscious decision to pursue it more.”

In 2008, following an intervention by Johnny Knoxville and his fellow “Jackass” performers, Steve-0 entered rehab and kicked some of his demons.

“I have been really, really fortunate every step of the way. I owe a major debt of gratitude to those guys for stepping in the way they did,” he said. “Even though I have been free of drugs and alcohol for four and a half years, there are some incredibly intense issues that don’t go away.”

Doing stand-up, he said, is one way to cope.

“You’ve got to have a sense of humor about things. The direction of my new material is very much about looking back to childhood. In many ways, I am still this damaged little child.”

As a teenager, Steve-O started to document his perilous skateboard stunts with a video camera but he said the urge to show off goes back even further.

“I can remember being 8 years old and consuming shakers of salt for the entertainment of my peers. Ironically, I stuck with that behavior and it turned into a career for me.”

Steve-O is the co-author of the 2011 bestselling autobiography Professional Idiot: A Memoir. He said he wanted to write a book even before he got sober.

“I started really working on it in 1996 when I was serving a 10-day jail sentence for my second drunk-driving arrest. It started out as my jailhouse memoirs.”

Next up for Steve-O is hosting “Killer Karaoke,” which debuts Oct. 19 on the truTV cable channel.

“People sing karaoke while horrible things happen to them. Such as they get electrocuted consistently throughout their performance and they have to keep singing no matter what.”

Steve-O wants said he will available for questions and photo opportunities after his shows at Zanies.

“Selfishly, I want everyone to have a photo that they can put on their Facebook page, so they can let everyone know they came to my show.”

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