The Untold Truth Of Preston Lacy
The "Jackass" franchise is a self-destructive and comedic exercise involving professional skateboarders, stunt people, comedians, and sometimes a mix of all three. "Jackass" is a stunt and sketch show that often prostrates itself before an unknowing public. These actions tend to invoke unfiltered reactions from the onlookers as absolute insanity or devastation takes place. Sketches have included nearly naked people chasing each other, or members of "Jackass" in make-up and costumes causing untold property damage. Sometimes, the cast of "Jackass" just performs stunts among themselves — mainly because it is too dangerous to involve bystanders.
"Jackass" features Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Dave England, Wee Man, and Preston Lacy, to just name a few, and the show implores viewers not to attempt anything that appears on-screen. Preston Lacy has appeared in almost all of the "Jackass" properties, including the movies, TV show, and video game, and his robust visage is almost immediately recognizable. Here is the untold truth of Lacy.
Preston Lacy got his start on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
According to the Dallas Observer, Preston Lacy was born in Missouri, and his first major job was that of a truck driver. He eventually landed his first role in a comedy position on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in 1992 (per IMDb). He would continue to work hard in order to realize his dream of making it big in the entertainment industry, and eventually crossed paths with Johnny Knoxville while auditioning for commercials.
Preston told the Observer of meeting Knoxville, "I met Knoxville from a couple of commercial auditions together where they say, 'You two and you two and you two together' and you start visiting with whoever you're going into the audition room with and try to get to know them so you can get a little bit of chemistry together. That's where I met him, and he asked me to write him some ideas [for 'Jackass']. I told him the show sounded really dumb and that we should do more of a situation comedy."
Considering that indeed, some of "Jackass" could be construed as juvenile, it could be assumed that Lacy's input helped to ground out the more rambunctious members of the show. Lacy, in the same interview, went on to describe how he originally started writing for Knoxville, but then found himself appearing in the very same show he was writing jokes for.
Preston Lacy wrote and appeared in National Lampoon movies
Besides writing and appearing in "Jackass" in the early 2000s, Preston Lacy also starred in and wrote for "National Lampoon's TV: The Movie," which also starred fellow "Jackass" alumni Steve-O, Chris Pontius, and Jason "Wee Man" Acuña (per IMDb). The movie was set up as a parody version of television, with a channel surfing format, much like Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken."
In 2006, Lacy also appeared alongside Paris Hilton in "National Lampoon's Pledge This!" which was a direct-to-video gross-out comedy that was unfortunately savaged by critics (per Rotten Tomatoes). The movie is about a group of outcast girls that are forced to leave their house because of an exploding toilet, and go through the degrading process of applying and pledging to an exclusive sorority that has ulterior motives.
In 2007, Lacy took on the role of a bumbling villain in the holiday movie, "Christmas in Wonderland," where he was partnered with the "Saturday Night Live" veteran Chris Kattan. The movie involved a family moving from Los Angeles to Edmonton, Canada, that eventually crosses paths with Santa Claus (Matthew Walker), who makes their Christmas perfect by working behind the scenes.
Preston Lacy made several cameo appearances in music videos
Although Lacy is primarily known for "Jackass," the actor slash comedian slash writer has also appeared in both music videos and television shows as himself. He has been on "MAD TV," "Tom Green Live!," "Ridiculousness," "Made in Hollywood," "Up Close with Carrie Keagan," and "Celebrities Uncensored."
In 2002, Lacy appeared in two different music videos. The first, from CKY, is "Flesh Into Gear," while the second is Andrew W.K.'s "We Want Fun." CKY's drummer is Jess Margera, the brother of "Jackass" member Bam Margera, which helped bring exposure to CKY in the early 2000s. Andrew W.K.'s song was actually used as one of the primary theme songs for the first "Jackass" movie, and the video features extensive clips from the movie and events.
In 2006, Lacy appeared as himself in Chris Pontius' "Karazy" music video. Pontius is, of course, another member of "Jackass," and the video featured several other members alongside Lacy. Later, in 2010, the crew of "Jackass" assembled once again for another music video, and this time it was Weezer's "Memories" video, which shows off stunts, skateboarding, and general partying.
Preston Lacy helps write Jackass sketches
As mentioned earlier, Preston Lacy is one of major components of "Jackass," and he has appeared in almost the entire franchise, including "Don't Try This at Home: The Steve-O Video" Volumes 1 and 2, "Jackass: Number Two," "Jackass: The Lost Tapes," "Jackass 3D," "Steve-O: Gnarly," and the upcoming "Jackass Forever," among others.
Not only does Lacy appear in those films and videos, he also has written several of the sketches and scenes. He came up with the opening sequence of the original "Jackass" movie, played to the tune of Carl Off's "O Fortuna" and starring a giant shopping cart. Lacy told the Dallas Observer, "I was at a Universal lot where they have all sorts of crazy costumes and cars and I saw the Delorean from 'Back to the Future' and I ran up to look at it and right next to it was a giant shopping cart from the Lily Tomlin movie ["The Incredible Shrinking Woman"]. I thought damn, that's it right there." And the rest is history.
Preston Lacy enjoys doing stand-up comedy
Outside of "Jackass," other movies, and the occasional cameo, Preston Lacy primarily makes his living from touring and stand-up comedy. In a 2018 interview with Creative Loafing Tampa, Lacy was asked why other "Jackass" alums such as himself are drawn to stand-up comedy, to which he replied that they don't necessarily get beat up on stage, so there isn't as much physical pain, but they still get a chance to express themselves. He then joked about the process he uses to get ready to perform, and said, "I need to get my adrenaline up so I usually do some shoplifting right before or make some threatening phone calls. I used to drive off without paying for my gas but you can't really do that anymore. It's prepay everywhere."
Ultimately, Lacy has had an impressive career up to this point. And even though "Jackass Forever" is the latest (and quite possibly the last) installment of the franchise, Lacy will undoubtedly continue to work in comedy, as he always has.