A HARD KICK IN THE NUTS

The Jackass star and author of Professional Idiot returns with a healthy dose of self-help advice.

“The very idea that I would be writing a book to impart my wisdom to others, that people would be coming to me—a recovering alcoholic drug addict who once willingly tried to cross a pit full of alligators on a tightrope while wearing a jockstrap—for advice about anything is clearly absurd,” writes Glover at the beginning. “Surely, if you’re looking to Steve-O for help with your life, you are well and truly fucked, right.” The guy who became famous for setting himself on fire and stapling parts of his body to other parts is remarkably blunt about his addictive personality, fear of growing older, professional jealousy, and being an “attention whore.” Glover also discusses how he has tried to balance these issues, engaging in meditation, veganism, celibacy, philanthropy, and surfing, with varying results. He also has an unorthodox love of calendars and scheduling that, like pretty much everything else in the book, he reveals in meticulous detail and with self-deprecating humor—and plenty of profanity. “My calendar is one way I manage that existential anxiety,” he writes, as he explains his color-coding system and how he wishes he could create a physical manifestation of the calendar app on his iPhone. The author’s worldview is singular and weird, but it has certainly resonated with millions of Jackass fans as well as those who made his previous book a bestseller. For them, his ideas on political polarization and economic inequality—or advice like, “Controlling how you’re feeling on a day-to-day basis is impossible, but what is actually doable is to control the way you act”—may actually connect in a way that wouldn’t work from a more conventional source.

A disarmingly direct memoir of mistakes and course corrections studded with some useful advice.