Wee Man: Pro Skater, Actor, and Comedian

Here's something remarkable and not in a good way. Disengaged employees cost US companies almost $1.9 trillion a year. That's a lot of zeros. Why? Because when teams lack the right skills, productivity declines, turnover increases, and strategies stagnate. But it doesn't have to be that way. At Project Management Institute, home of the PMP and globally recognized certifications, your people can learn to collaborate, deliver on time, and actually get things the cost of not upskilling way higher than the investment Project Management Institute. Find the answers@pmi.org.

Hello, this is Guy Kawasaki. Welcome to Remarkable People. I confess that I wasn't sure who Wee Man, AKA Jason Akuna, was, mostly because I'm too old. But when I asked my kids if I should interview him, they were ecstatic. Wee man is a skateboarder, actor, TV personality and stuntman. As you'll soon learn, he's far deeper than just a funny guy in the movies. Wee man was the star of the Jackass MTV series that ran for three seasons. It was popular and controversial because it featured dangerous and politically incorrect stunts and pranks. Everything is hard about podcasting, but the hardest part is getting guests. Come to find out Wee man is on the board of directors of Merge 4, my favorite sock company. So booking WEEE man was easy because the CEO of Merge4, Cindy Boozenhart, made an intro and it was game on. It just so happened that Wee man was appearing for Merge 4 at a mall in San Jose shortly after my request. We met there, ate at a Cheesecake Factory, and then did the interview at my house. Lets just say that a lot more people recognize him than me at the mall. By the way, Wee man lets a few F bombs fly in this interview, so be prepared. I'm Guy Kawasaki. This is remarkable people. And now here's Wee Man.

I'm an army brat, so my dad is a LA native and he was a knucklehead growing up as a kid. And when he turned 18, my grandpa went to the army recruiting place and threw him into the office and said it's your turn. So my dad signed up for the army. He was then transferred to Germany. He was stationed in Germany. That's where he met my mom. That's where I was conceived. And then my dad was then stationed in Italy and while I was stationed there, my mom moved there and they lived together in a town called Trevena or it's near Livorno. I think it's Trevania and it's like an old school. It's like Way more old school than Santa Cruz. And full beach town, same thing. And I was born there. I was three months old. It's real close. Pisa. Pisa is the main city near it. So Pisa would be like the San Jose, and it was the little beach down there. Then when about when I was three months old, my dad got transferred back to the States and brought me and my mom back and just started living here in. Yep, in la. We first lived in Van Nuys for like a year or two, and then my mom got a place in Hermosa beach, and that's where I grew up, with Hermosa, Torrance, Redondo, South Bay.

And what was your youth like?

It was pretty fun. Started off roller skating on the beach and just, you know, the kind of tennis shoe, roller skates that were pretty cool. They looked almost like Adidas, but roller skates, and did that for a little bit. And then I was seeing kids skateboarding stuff, and my mom started dating another guy, and he got a skateboard one year, and I told my mom, that's what I want. And after that, I had a skateboard my whole life and just skate down the beach, skated school, skated all around.

So how much schooling have you had?

I went to. I fully finished high school. I was kind of a knucklehead, so I had to do some night classes to make sure I had enough credits to graduate. And I got 11 extra credits at the end of the year. And then I went to junior college for a little bit. But I realized, even in high school, I realized it wasn't for me, it wasn't the education I need. I'm glad I got the education. I've learned a lot from it, but it wasn't the education I need kind of to form the route of lifestyle I wanted to live. And once I was in junior college, I took a couple courses, different things, and I was just like, no, this is taking up too much of my time. I already know which path I've paved for myself. I know what I'm gonna do. I know how I'm gonna be happy, and that's what I did.

And what, what did you know? What was gonna make you happy?

I already, then, by junior college, was sponsored by skateboard companies and was going on tour and was already getting paid. And I was also working at skate shops too. So I had income coming in from, you know, a couple different places and. And I was just living the life I lived. I didn't care if I lived in a. In a house with like four bedrooms with Four different dudes. As long as I got to do what I wanted to do during the day and nobody told me I could do, you know, nobody really had a hand on me or a hold on me, like, to live the way I wanted to live, that I was pretty much, you know, I was happy.

And if high school kids are listening to this.

It'S you. You have to be a certain person. I think I had ADD before it was diagnosed as add. I. I definitely couldn't pay attention in history class because to me, that was like, that already happened. Things that we know about, we already know, but I did better in math and art classes and stuff like that. I did better in more challenging classes than I did in, like, 1866. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm about to, like, chop my arm off. I can't deal with this. So I. Every. Everybody's different, you know what I mean? Nobody learns the same way as anybody else. So just because I did school that way doesn't mean somebody else does it that way.

Do you think there is a minimum amount of education every kid should have?

Yeah, I totally think there's a minimum.

What's the minimum?

I think at least sophomore year of high school, and then I think you should be able to decide which. I think from then on, it's. To me, it's even late in the game. But I think you should pick a trade that you feel comfortable with. I think too many people settle with jobs nowadays that they're like, I hate my job. Why don't you. Why don't you get a different job then? I can't. Yeah, you can. You can do whatever you want. If you put your mind to it, you can do whatever you want. So I think about sophomore year of high school. I think there should be every. Every student should be, like, pulled aside and said, hey, where do you want to go in life? You're able to drive a car when you're a sophomore. So you can drive to a job, you can drive to work. You can. Do you know what I mean? You're held responsible. Now, in a vehicle, if you crash into somebody and kill somebody, you're responsible. I think at that age, I think you should also be responsible to figure out what career path you want to take.

What if somebody said, well, someone who's 16, 17, 18, can't possibly know what career path they should be?

Then I think they should stay kind of in a general ed program where they still get a little bit of everything, and I think at least finish to a High school diploma. With a high school diploma, I mean, you can get a job pretty much any basic place. Granted, if somebody comes in with a college degree and you guys are having the same job, the guy with the college degree, of course, is gonna, you know, he's gonna be the one that's gonna get the job.

Would you, Would you have gotten more schooling if you could go back.

Schooling wise? No, I. And I don't mean to say I wish I would have. I wish I would have taken the route of having a choice of what I wanted to do and focus maybe on one subject. I would have. I would have rather have focused on one side. I kind of did the general ed thing just to have it, and I did it through even junior college. I wish I would have rather have been, hey, maybe focus on something and go all the way and maybe get a degree at that sooner than trying to still wishy washy and having to learn all this stuff at once. I think it's the education system. I granted, when you're a kid, you can absorb a lot. Like I learned German before I even went to elementary school. Your brain's so fresh and mushy, you can learn a lot. But I think by a certain time, you kids get put on too much stuff at one time that I think they need to figure out which route they want to take and which thing I would have. If I was asked at 16 and pulled in by a counselor, what do you want to do? I would have said I want to be an architect. I love drawing. I love the math behind it and figuring out equations. And I would have at least got a degree or a master's in architect just to have that under my belt, but still taking the same life path that I wanted, which, you know, most people who get degrees anyway don't follow what they went and got a degree for anyway, but to have it and say it's. It's kind of a respectful thing.

Cindy, are you the CEO of Merge4?

Why, yes, I am.

You're the boss.

I'm the founder.

I interviewed Wee man for a podcast and in the podcast I found out that he's one of your directors and he's also one of your artists and just all around marketing resource. So first I want to confirm that relationship. So what is the relationship there?

Jason. The relationship between Jason and Merge four is he's pretty much the international man of mystery. No, he. He.

Okay.

He is our share. He's a shareholder. He. He started off as a collaborator and a lot of people follow Jason. He's got a ton of followers. So we were really happy when he decided he wanted to be a collaborator. And then he became a board member, a shareholder and board member at the same time.

It seems to me that there's this chasm or at least two different Jason Weemans. So on the one hand we have Jackass and that's all about doing stupid, painful things to people. And on the other hand, which may be why his brand is so well known, but on the other hand, he sounds like a legit influencer, business person, smart guy. And is he both? I mean, what I think he's both.

I mean, for the Jason that I know is he's like a super positive, happy person. He's super proactive, he's a hard worker, he's a comedian. So when he's around, I'll say he's a great presence. When he's around, he walks into like a merch for retailer is an example. And people go crazy. And it must be awesome to be able to walk into somewhere and really make people happy and kind of bring joy to people. And I think he does that amazingly well. On the other side that you're talking about is his business side. And so he's still that super happy, positive person on the business side, but he's definitely strategic and in almost everything he presents to merge for.

So how do you think he got to that position? Because I mean, he doesn't have an mba, he hasn't, you know, whatever, didn't.

Work at Apple, God knows, actually push his grit. Right. And so I think he's a hard worker and I think he is persistent. And as I often say, I think persistence trumps brilliance at times. And so I think what he does is he, he listens, he works hard, he learns from his mistakes, and he just keeps going. I don't think that there's anything other than that. I mean, he's a super hard working, strategic, proactive guy. I think he does his research as well. So he, he definitely is skeptical, not negatively, but will look at things thoroughly and then form his own opinion based off the information he has. And then he'll, he'll dig in. And having him on your side, if, if he wants to dig in with the business that you have is, is a benefit for sure.

How did you get into film?

We did it all on our own. Even in 12th grade, I had a alternative English and history class where we got to. The teachers were kind of hippie and stuff and we got our 12th grade English and history through them, but they Asked for at the end of the year, a final project and a buddy of mine just went out and filmed in the streets and did funky stuff like Jackass style stuff and aced the class because of that. So we were the filming stuff I've always done on my own. Even when before Jackass and all that, we were doing Big Brother magazine where we'd film skate stuff and Jackass bits in between. And it was the same thing. We went out on our own, filmed it, put it together, and people just ate it up. It was, it was even outside the skateboard community that, you know, the general population was like, oh my God, you have to see these videos. These, these dudes are insane. Look at the crap they're doing.

And what year is this?

This, it started 93 and we did that till about 98, 99. We put out four full length videos. And then we realized there's a momentum of big stuff going on. We should maybe take it to the next level. And in 99 we started filming Jackass. We said, hey, let's just try this.

Where was YouTube at this point?

YouTube wasn't even around yet.

So how did you distribute these films and videos?

Skateboard distributions. So skate shops and skate companies all had them around and it was, it was like an underground thing that even, you know, the norm of people picked him up. And most skate shops are surf shops, so surfers would see him, skaters, snowboarders. And it was kind of a, you know, it was like that. They were on VHS tapes. They were Internet.

VHS tapes?

Yeah, vhs. And even when we filmed Jackass, our pilot episode is on a VHS tape.

Jackass is on a VHS tape.

2000. 2000. In 2000, there was still VHS tape.

So this idea for Jackass. Were you guys stoned or something? Did you sit there and we just.

Did it anyways, we were just knucklehead kids. You get bored. Like I said, I think I was diagnosed with ADD before I. Before ADD was you just. Your mind's always going, I'm. I'm like skateboarders, we like, when we drive down the street, we see things that normal people don't. You see it just a set of stairs. We see what we can do around and above and all that. So you gotta think our minds are already going fast forward more than the normal person walking down the street at.

This point where you're deciding to do Jackass. Did you sit there and say, okay, so we're gonna like, you know, blow up toilets, we're gonna hit people with high fives, You Know the hand that hits you across the face. Trying to imagine how you came up with this idea.

You watch cartoons and everything that happened in cartoons, we made reality.

How many of that. How many people were involved?

At this point, there's 10 of us still. Well, Ryan passed away, so there's nine now.

And what was the business model? Sell it through shops or you just.

Did it for the hell of it? We when at for Jackass, we did it to put on tv. We went to every station known around.

And what happened?

The first network we went to was hbo, and it was two female executives. And they looked at Knoxville and Tremaine like, you just wasted 30 minutes of our time. What? This is bullshit you brought to us. Are you kidding us right now?

That's.

That's the reaction they got. It was the first meeting they had. Then a few started going crazy. When we finally got the reactions we wanted, it was a fight between Comedy Central and mtv. And we chose mtv.

And the rest is history.

And the rest is history. MTV wrote the rest. They put it out there. They put it on on. They put it out every Sunday. And it was even from the first season. People like Shaquille o' Neal and Brad Pitt were having Jackass parties at their house. Like, come on over, ordering tons of food, all their friends, just to watch our show. And then we were getting phone calls because they wanted to be on it, and then they were on it.

Today, Wee man is making a personal appearance at the Merge4 store in the Valley Fair Mall.

Yeah, it's Wee Man. I seriously do know, like, a lot of your stuff, because I've watched a.

Lot of, like, old school, like, CKY.

Videos and all those. Yeah, and all those. So, like, I've been, like, watching your stuff for years.

This is crazy. This is amazing. It's so cool to see Wee man in person. I mean, been watching him for early Jackass days.

So very fun. What happened right before you came here again? I had, like, edible cookies right before.

I came here, so I'm a little fucked up.

So I am so sorry.

I had a little too many of the cookies.

I know. Dang. I'm kind of jealous, dude.

I can't help anymore. I gotta make it to my appointment later. What's your favorite episode of Jackass? I like the movie.

The movie was good.

Yeah. How about you?

Oh, man.

There's so many memorable moments.

I would say, like, in the movie, when Bam's, like, locked in. I think, like a cage with a snake. Oh, in the snake pit.

Yeah.

That was a Good one. Yeah. Pretty much made him cry. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good. Yep.

How do you guys come up with, like, this is what we should do next.

It's all of us just thinking of different ideas, sitting around and just sitting around coming, or just think of something and tell each other about it.

Anybody get seriously hurt?

All the time. I stopped counting broken bones after 10. I have a titanium rod in my right femur.

Did you ever get.

Been knocked out? Yeah.

Did you ever get letters or phone.

Calls from parents saying, we never did personally? Granted, the network did. But, I mean, you put out a disclaimer. It's, you know, we're the ones doing this. We're not saying you do it, you.

Know, so that's the disclaimer.

Pretty much like, we're professionals at it. We've been doing it our whole lives. You gotta think skateboarding. We've been falling off. It's skateboarding and surfing too. You fail the majority of the time, but you get back up to pull it off. Most people, a normal person that you say, hey, I want to try skateboarding, that's not coming from their heart. And they fall and maybe scratch themselves or whatever, they're not going to do it again. They failed once and they don't want to fail again.

So is that not a valuable life lesson from you?

It is, right? You're going to fail a bunch of times. 99% of the time you're going to fail.

And how do you push fast?

Because that 1% that you do, the glory you feel from it, is amazing.

Okay, so now movies. What happened there?

We just. We did three seasons of TV and we weren't getting paid much. We didn't make much money doing it, but we were making, you know, and we just stopped and we said, no, we're not going to do more tv. You want to work with us, we want movies. And then they said, all right. They knew they wanted to work with us.

Who's they in this?

MTV in Paramount. And so they said, let's do it. Let's do a movie then.

What is the rock star lifestyle that you then acquired?

It's crazy. Even when the TV show came out, I was still going on skate tours. So the TV show had been out for like three months. So it's been out three months. We're still filming. I went on a skate tour to Japan with some buddies for a company, and we were in Japan and people were running out of stores yelling my name. And my friends were like, whoa, this is. They're like, you Fucking made it. Like, this is crazy.

In Japan.

In Japan, they're like, you're done. You're worldwide now. And so that's the first probably moment I realized, yep, this is big. We did it.

What do you want your legacy to be?

That's. I don't know. I don't think, I never think about that kind of stuff. I'm not one, I don't. I'm not one that says, hey, I'm this, I did this, or whatever. We just do what we do. I think when you, the less you care, the easier it is to do. The more you care about it, the. You're not going to get as much out of it because you're, you're stressing over it. But if you're carefree about it and don't care, I don't care. I don't, I don't. I've already. It's out there, whatever happens with it, whatever. Why, why doesn't. Once I'm dead, what does it matter? It's not paying my. I don't have any more bills to pay. I don't know. Like, what does a legacy do? What's, you know, I, I take it like this and I've learned a lot of things later in life. Seinfeld was offered like a lifetime achievement award from some just award thing. And he goes, no, I don't want it. Like, what do you mean you don't want? It's a lifetime achievement award. He goes, what's that? What's. The work's already done and I've done it. I'm moving on. Why do I need an award about it? And that's living, and that's living. That I think, I think people who need that are narcissists. They need, they need, you know, but if you're doing something you're already happy with, why do you need something to tell you more?

I have kids, you know, 14. I have lots of kids. The 14, 17 year old, they know exactly who you are. My 14 year old finds, you know, what you do so funny and interesting and all that. So I think because of that platform, you may feel a moral obligation. So do you feel a moral obligation that, you know, you want the Nates of the world to see what you've accomplished, how you've accomplished? Is there a lesson you want Nate to or learn from you or you just don't give a shit if Nate's not.

No, no, no, no. About that. No, no, no, no, no. I would say, like, don't think it just comes to anybody, I will say 100%. We got lucky, very lucky for the opportunity. We had it. We didn't just say, hey, we're doing this, and made it happen. We were. It was tough for us and to get it and be paid. You know, we were being paid minimum WAGSA the whole three seasons, but we were putting something out that was making money already. So don't think that just because you do something, it's gonna happen. It's a tough world. And you. There is. It's. And you're gonna fail. That. That's. You know, that's what I'm saying. You're gonna fail. But there may be small windows of opportunity. I think kids it. And I get. I get so bummed about this nowadays and the school system has done this too, that kids nowadays, they show up to school and get a gold star, and it's like, don't treat kids like that because they're gonna take the most minimal thing and think they've done good than trying to accomplish something and then feeling good. So I think, you can't just go, oh, well, I grabbed a skateboard. I'm gonna be a pro skater. No, there's work that you don't see. Just because you see the final project doesn't mean all the hard work was shown of eight hours a day to get to one thing and then another eight hours a day to get to the next. Just because you see it, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Or you only see the ending contest. They don't show what it took for the person to train to get to that.

And what's the lesson there?

Just do it and don't think about the outcome. Do what you're doing right now, but you can't think of, hey, I'm doing this to be this. Do it first for heart, and it will follow through easily.

But what. What happens if you do something for heart that has no market value?

There's tons of people that do that all the time. But that. Then you have to be a strong person and figure it out. I know billionaires, and this is what they've told me. You have to have seven companies, and the reason is not every company you have is gonna make it. But you're not putting all your cookies in the same cookie jar. You're gonna learn from the ones that fail, and those will profit the ones you're already doing good at. So even if you're like, hey, I want to be a pro. What? Anything. Tennis player, golfer, biker, architect, anything, you know, engineer, you may not have what it Takes. And there may be somebody right there that's just working a little harder than you. And you can't. You can't just throw everything away and say it was failure. You have to take that failure and put it into the next thing.

What kind of. What's the most difficult challenge you faced?

Self. I'm very out. No, Self. Like, I'm very hard on myself. I don't think what I do. I'm. I'm a perfectionist at what I do is always, like, the best. Even if it is and people say, got it. Nailed it. I'm still like, nope, should do it again.

Which means what? That has made you better?

Yes, I have. So I have a. I have a brother, and every family has, you know, a couple of kids, and he's younger than me, and we grew up the same. But he struggles that the path I took isn't the same path that he took. And he has this he. He feels entitled feeling, and it's not. And I'm just like, no, just because I did it. You weren't there all the days I was doing it. You were doing something different. But he's still.

Why does he feel entitled?

Because we grew up the same. We grew up under the same house we grew up in, you know, same parents.

So he feels entitled because you've been successful. He should also be successful.

Yeah. What he does. He thinks he does things, but he doesn't. I can tell he doesn't put the same effort in that I did when I was doing things from the outside.

Looking in, though, you know, the nates of the world, they could look also. I'll just do crazy stuff. I'll just do dangerous, crazy stuff. I'll get hit by footballs in the balls. I'll get, you know, tennis, play golf in the racquetball court and get hit by the golf ball, and that'll be a living.

It's like this. The neighbors are doing a band, garage band. And you're doing a garage band. Not every band's the same. There's a chemistry behind it. So somehow the group I got together with, we were a band that put. We were all put in the right instruments and we put the right albums out. Now maybe there's cover bands. Just because they see us and they're doing the same thing or trying. It's not gonna be the same.

So here's what I wanna ask you. So obviously, you know, you are. What's the right word? I don't even know what the political correct word is.

For what?

For Your shortness.

Oh, my stature.

Your stature.

Stature.

It's your physical stature.

Yeah, Physical stature is dwarfism. Okay, so it's more. It's a chondroplasia dwarfism. It's more of the. It's. I'm on the bigger side on the scientific term, you know, but. Yeah.

And is your brother.

No. Nobody else in my family is.

So this is just a luck of the draw.

Mm. It's. You have 27 chromosomes. Any one of them can do a tiny hiccup and change anything about you. It's just a hiccup in a chromosome. It doesn't matter what your dad's genes are or what your mom's genes are.

And you never in this whole interview mentioned, you know, growing up, I had to overcome other kids teasing me and all that. Did none of that happen?

No, not at all. It did a little bit, but I'm more alpha that I used to. I was more the one doing it. And I've always walked around like I had the don't give a fuck attitude, like, this is me. What, so you're gonna. You're gonna attack me for this when I can attack you for not just this, but inside you?

And have you had to do that?

I've done it multiple times. And I've. I've put people. I've put people shorter than me that are taller than me.

Say that again.

I've made people shorter than me than. Are taller than me to feel that short, you know?

And what. What did they try to do to you? What was their.

What are you gonna say? Oh, you're a midget, you're small, you can't do nothing.

They say that to you?

Yeah.

And your reaction is what?

I go out and beat myself up and break bones doing stuff. Do you think the words coming out of your mouth hurt me right now? No. It's a piece of air that's just flying by. But you know what? I love that I'm living in your head rent free. And when I walk away, I'm not going to care about you anymore. So you're going to have to live with that thought for the rest of the time.

And you don't give a shit.

Duh. I've knocked myself out, I've broken bones, I've dusted myself off. I've accomplished more before any age of anything than 90% of the people. I've become a pro skater. I've made three number one movies. Google any actor and see how many number one movies they've made. I'm a restaurateer. I have 62 restaurants worldwide. I'm 10% of the brand. I have a sock company. Why? Because it's just me, and the people in the sock company want me. I own real estate. Why? Because I have friends in multiple places, and I listen in. I listen to business and stuff. And one of the biggest things to own for money is real estate. That's five. I've talked to billionaires, and they say you have to have seven brands.

Well, what's the last two?

They're not there yet.

And you're gonna. You're gonna. You're reaching four, seven. I mean, you're not gonna stop till you get seven.

I don't stop.

You're gonna stop at seven. You're gonna be on seven. So what will make you stop? Are you just.

I don't stop. Even when I'm sick, I can't stay at home. I focus three hours a day on each project I'm working on, and that's all you need to do, because then you. You're focusing too much, and you need to make sure everything else is okay.

See? So from the outside looking in again.

You know, people get the impression, you.

Know, this guy does silly, funny stuff, and he makes a lot of funny videos.

I learned that when I was young. First. First car I bought, I was 16. The year was. I was 16, 1989. I got a 1983 used Toyota Corolla. Yep.

My first car was a Toyota Corolla.

Yeah. Buy it from a guy who sold junk cars but would rebuild him and stuff. I was at his shop, doing a little tinkering with it, and I was talking to him like this. My backside. Kind of see the junkyard and the gates over there. And I look over his shoulder, I'm like, hey, there's a guy coming in. Looks like a homeless guy coming in to tinker with your stuff. And he just turns his head real quick and comes back and starts laughing. And I go, what? And he goes, that guy's a brain surgeon. Works in the middle of the night, he walks around looking like a homeless person because nobody's gonna care what he does and come for his money. And I go, I get it. Another job I had was at a skate shop. The guy owned the whole neighborhood, but had a skate shop, had all kinds of money. You saw him walking down the street, look like a homeless guy. You don't need to flaunt what you have. You just do what you do, and you show the people what you need to show them.

So there you have it. Wild Man Jason Akuna, AKA Wee Man. Let's hope there's another jackass movie soon to further offend and entertain people. Surely there's something to learn about taking a passion for skating and craziness and turning them into a brand and a business. Hi, I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is Remarkable people. Thanks to the Queen of Socks, Cindy Boozenhardt, the sound God Jeffsea, and the social media goddess Peg Fitzpatrick. Next week my guest is Martha Stewart. Put your perfectionist hat on for her. For sure you'll learn how to dominate garlic cloves. This is remarkable people.