Wednesday, April 25

Here Comes The Hitman

By Billy Miller
EXPN.com

Watching Bam Margera drop in can be hazardous to someone's health. Any move he makes could be with the kind of reckless abandon where sense is anything but common.

The same goes for his appearances on the MTV hit Jackass as for Landspeed/CKY and CKY2K, the videos he's shot, produced and edited. Whether jumping from a speeding truck, throwing and taking punches, or coercing his posse into all the useless, pointless, totally hilarious juvenile s**t delinquents do when they're bored, there seems a single method at work: No brains, no consequences.

Look deeper, however, and see he does it all with a shameless confidence that suggests there's nothing reckless about it - that he knows exactly what he's doing the whole time. And that he'll be getting away with it long after the rest have gone home.

Either way, enjoy your youth 'cause it doesn't last long.

What kind of name is Bam?
My grandpa started it, he called me Bam when I was younger 'cause I was just crazy. I'd run all over the place and be a nut job. Ever since, it just kind of stuck with me. Everyone thought it would be a good name to remember, so everybody calls me Bam.

What's your legal name?
Brandon.

Sounds like someone who makes decent money.
Yeah, I actually don't know how much I make 'cause there's all these little moneys here and there. Ever since the Landspeed/CKY video I give people footage, they give me money for it.

Tell us about the videos you make.
Me and about six of our friends were all in the same graphics arts class in high school and we'd skip it to go video crazy skits. I had so much footage I'm like, "Screw it, I'm making a video. Somebody's going to like it."

It's really professional for something with "I'm going to f**k your whole day up," and "here's me sh*tting," on it. Do you make it all up on the fly?
Brandon does. I write all the stuff first. I'll show him the script and he won't even read it. He'll just make up whatever he wants, which is good, because he's funny as hell.

What format do you use?
Sony digital video and 16 mm. Sometimes we have to use wireless microphones but that's as high tech as it gets for us. The prank calls we do with a four-track at my house. We hook a microphone up to a speaker phone.

How about 7-Teen Sips?
That was with Steve Berra in Nebraska, we were filming in Omaha, where Steve's from, and the coffee shop was in Lincoln. I'm in it for about twenty-five or thirty minutes. Of course, I memorize the whole script and when I get there he changed it. He's like, "Dude, you're going on in an hour." So I'm reading the new script on the way to the set. It took so long to figure out again.

What kind of car do you steal in it?
It was a Ford Taurus. It was supposed to be a Mercedes, but we had to destroy it. They didn't want to buy a Mercedes to wreck.

Do you like acting?
Yeah, I love it. Skateboarding is first priority but sometimes I just want to take a break, so then I'll do movies and stuff. I felt really weird at first, just all embarrassed to rehearse lines out loud, but everybody there was doing it so you just learn to not care.

Where do you see your skating going?
I kind of just wing it. Sometimes I get tired of it and I just chill out for a little while. Then I get really psyched to skate again. Every once in a while I go back to California. I go to Europe twice a year.

How do you develop your style?
On tour I skate street with all my friends but when I go home I just skate the Philly park. Pump all over the place and find the best lines. It's changing all the time actually, it's weird, I used to wear 36 [waist] pants and now I'm wearing 32s and 30s. [laughs] Changing my whole style up. [points to his studded belt] Gnar belt, I just got it.

Do you like skating in contests?
No. Just 'cause it takes so long. The Germany contest is like: First day is practice. Second day you have to make the first cut which is to fifty. Then you have to make the second cut which is twenty and then you have to make the finals. You have to do your run a thousand times and by the end you're so beat and everybody has already seen your line so you just don't even want to bother. Once you make it to the finals I guess you're psyched because you know you're in the money.

Does that make you try harder?
No. Music makes me try harder.

Do the results ever get to you?
I never expect to win or do really good so when I do, I'm psyched.

Is it a good thing the contests are huge again?
Yeah, I like it. The more big time, the better.

What else do you want to do?
I just want to keep doing what I'm doing I guess. Filming video parts, taking photos, being in contests.

Keep recording prank calls and people sh*tting?
You've got to hear that CD. There's forty tracks of that.

Bam's video CKY2K, can be found by calling:
Giant Skateboard Distribution (714) 437-7540