Killing Yourself to Live

Balls to the Wall With Bam Margera & His Crew

A A A Comments By Ken Switzer Tuesday, Sep 17 2002

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It's this attitude that keeps CKY inspired, loyal to one another, and thriving, and it's what's likely to keep them all in West Chester. Rake Yohn, a frizzy-haired Goliath who could easily be the poster boy for death metal, and who appears both in the CKY videos and in Haggard, explains, "You work with any of the big media companies out in L.A., and it's just a job to them. There's union stuff, they're on the clock, Screen Actors Guild rules, and this and that. With Bam, sometimes we film from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m., and there's no complaints. And talk about guerrilla filmmaking. For parts of the new CKY video, we had to pull up fences to slide a $100,000 camera under—if that's the spot, that's the spot, we're going to film there. There's no getting permits or anything."

Of course, there is a certain amount of risk involved—almost every member has broken a bone or two over the years. But they say it's worth it, and they share a similar attitude. "I'd rather break my arm than have to go deal with some asshole boss from Neiman-Marcus, which is where I used to work," says Brandon Dicamillo, actor and co-writer with Bam for the CKY videos and Haggard. Probably the most naturally gifted actor of the bunch, he too shuns the idea of Hollywood—even the CKY work for MTV was sometimes too corporate for Dicamillo.

photo: Greg Miller

Pranksters prepare for fall in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

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"I'd only work for Bam," he says. "When you're out with five of your friends taping, and Bam's brother is the cameraman, it's fun as shit. But when it's dudes you don't know, and some lady's screaming in the background, you're like, 'Who the fuck are these people? I'm out of here, fuck this crap!' And the idea of getting headshots and all that? To me that's just like, get in the back of the line—it's ridiculous."

If anyone's going to be getting in line any time soon, it's going to be the kids rushing out to see the new Jackass movie. But you probably won't catch Bam lounging in a theater, stuffing his face with popcorn, and staring at a screen—that's just not him. "If I can wake up every morning and ollie 15 stairs, I'll take that over everything," he says. "But if I can make another CKY video, get two video parts a year, and make another feature film, that would definitely make me happy, too."

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