Star of wacky new MTV show puts everything on the line

Friday, September 29, 2000

By TERRY MORROW, Scripps Howard News Service

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — To understand what kind of show "Jackass" (9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1 on MTV) is, you should know this about its star, former Knoxville resident P.J. Clapp, aka Johnny Knoxville: At age 7, he decided to try Mother Nature's patience by taking a stick to a hornets' nest in a tree near his parents' house. When he was 13, the straight-A student had a phony report card printed up with failing grades and left it out for his parents to find. Then there was the time, in Atlanta, when he wanted to test gravity by jumping from his second-story hotel room and into the pool."I don't think I got into trouble any more than any other child," Clapp says during a telephone interview, "and, if I did, believe me — my mother would let me know."On his new series for MTV, Clapp plays the part he seemed born to do: foolhardy stuntman, practical jokester and rock 'n' roll court jester.It will include such stunts as the "poop cocktail," in which Clapp is tossed about in an unflushed Porta Potti. Other segments include being zapped with taser darts and shot in the face with pepper spray."It's kind of a nonformatted type of show," says the 29-year-old South Knoxville native. "If anything, it's a skateboard (video) format, where the action happens really quick and not much is explained. It's kind of a cross between 'Candid Camera' and Super Dave Osborne."It's of no surprise to Clapp family members that their baby boy is making a living by doing outrageous stunts on national television, such as walking naked through a car wash."He was always a daredevil," his mother, Lemoyne, said with a laugh and a roll of the eyes. "We'd always talk to him. He never sassed, never talked back. 'Yes, ma'am; no, ma'am.' He was always a nice kid."He'd always do things that we'd find out about later. We were always the last to know."Readers of Big Brother, a magazine for skateboarders, have known about P.J., under his writing name Johnny Knoxville, since 1997.He grabbed readers' attention by being a guinea pig for an article in which he tested self-defense equipment on himself.The magazine's editor persuaded Clapp to be filmed for the article, too. The footage was a huge hit after it was included in a skateboarding stunts video made for the magazine.Subsequent articles along the same lines by Clapp were filmed and passed around.He later added pranks to his video work — such as wearing prison coveralls and handcuffs into a hardware store while in search of a hacksaw.His infamy in the underground circuit soon surfaced into the mainstream."And that's when I started getting television offers and people started knowing my name," he said.Among his fans is film director Spike Jonze, whom he met through mutual friends and who helped put together a compilation of Clapp's work, literally a greatest hits.The tape was passed around Hollywood, much in the same way Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's early "South Park" tape was.The result: Both MTV and Comedy Central launched a bidding war last year to get him. "Saturday Night Live" also offered him a chance to join their show, but he declined.Clapp's career path was not what he foresaw when he moved to Los Angeles at 18 to attend a dramatic arts school.He dropped out within weeks but remained determined.He took odd jobs and started doing commercials, which helped pay the rent.When he met his neighbor, a Texas girl named Melanie, he fell in love, and they married. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Madison."My daughter reminds me real quick of who I am by telling me what toy I need to retrieve," he says. "Kids give you a real sense of yourself."P.J. says he inherited his bizarre sense of humor and his love for television from his father, Phil, who used to run Clapp's Tire Store in South Knoxville."It's one big joke whenever he's home," says Dad, who is a fan of his son's pranks. "I was up there taking a shower last time he was in, and he took this bucket of ice and poured it right in.""Everything P.J. has learned comes from Phil," says childhood buddy Alan Frye, who was graduated from South-Young High School with Clapp.Our senior year in high school, him and his dad (faked) letters from the health department to the guys on the (football) team, saying we needed to be checked out for (having relations) with such-and-such."Even with the outrageousness of his stunts, P.J. says, there is a fine line to be walked."We try to keep (the show) light because it is only funny if it doesn't get too ...," he drifts off in midsentence as he tries to find the proper explanation. "We try to be as responsible as we can about things."The show will carry a warning/disclaimer with it. The show clicks, he says, if the silly, idiotic side of the stunts is funny. Still, he says, being shot with the darts or spray at close range is something he has to prepare for."I try to put everything out of my mind while it's going on," he says."If I bog myself down with the consequences, then not much will be achieved."He keeps his wife and mother in the dark about his stunts, which have resulted in "a few sprains and broken bones.""My mother gets quite upset sometimes," he says. "She hears things, and it doesn't make me feel so good to make my mother cry, so we try not to tell her."What will her reaction be to his series? "She'll probably say, 'They law, that boy is something else!' or 'I swannee!' That's her expression when she's surprised."MTV is only the beginning for Clapp.He's shooting a movie in Miami with Tim Allen and has other film projects lined up.Clapp says his sudden career thrust, which all came about this year, will never make him forget his Knoxville roots.He wants to visit home soon, catch a Vols football game and see old friends.East Tennessee, he says, keeps him grounded."I'm just a guy from South Knoxville, over next to (Palace) Bowling Lane," he says, "so all this is still kind of new to me."

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