Respectable Jackass

Businessman? Dramatic actor? Don't look now, but Bam Margera's about to go legit.

by A.D. Amorosi

Scott Weiner PROVING GROUND: Bam Margera will write, direct and star in next year's Dreamseller, the life story of his friend, former pro skater Brandon Novak.

You might not have Bam Margera — the goofball, the daredevil — to kick around much longer.

The 29-year-old man-child who ran roughshod over area golf courses, who turned his parents' house in West Chester into the Fourth of July during Jackass: The Movie, who filmed himself and his buds' drunked-up life and times for MTV's Viva La Bam and his marriage for Bam's Unholy Union? Wave bye to that Bam.

But before you burn your boards, drip tears on your H.I.M. records, or lie down in sorrow across your neighborhood ramp, know that the old Margera may be replaced by a new model.

A stay-at-home guy who just opened a West Chester nightclub, The Note, with chandeliers from Paris and Coatesville, and the backing of Live Nation to help him book the joint.

A dude who wasn't content to film only raucous comedies (like his just-released Where the #$&% Is Santa?), and so will produce stuff like Dreamseller, a dire druggy drama from the book of the same name. A dude who plays the lead role.

"I like doing a whole bunch of stuff and seeing what sticks," says a hoarse Margera on the phone from Toronto. Does he care about doing serious work? It doesn't phase him either way. "I like directing, editing, making movies, so I do that." 

He's in Canada promoting Santa — a film about going to Finland to kidnap the jolly old elf. The West Chester band the Moxie — pals of Bam's who recorded songs for the movie's finale — accompanied him on this trip.

Margera's made a habit of carting West Chester around with him. His parents, April and Phil, now write cookbooks and appear on VH1 shows like Celebrity Fit Club. Brother Jess (CKY, The Company Band) appears in Bam's films along with boyhood pals Ryan Dunn and Rake Yohn.

Margera made West Chester famous as the location for Viva La Bam. Still, he wanted to give back something — or get back something — beyond notoriety.

He doesn't think he's looking for respectability. He simply believes he's getting down to brass tacks and maybe, when it comes to the club, putting his money where his mouth has been.

"I've spent tons of money at bars in West Chester on me and my friends my whole life — I figured I might as well open my own," he laughs while reminiscing about East Market Street-area haunts like the High Street Caffé and the city's dive-iest dive bar, Jitters. "That might be the only place left in town where you can smoke," he croaks. 

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

Skateboarding down that wide street is a memory, too — a distant one now that Bam's looking to be taken seriously by the West Chester Borough Council. Margera and his childhood bud and business partner, Donnie Moore (the former owner of Rex's, who closed that bar and gave The Note his liquor license), had to prove they could be upstanding and respectable-ish.

"The council made me promise I wouldn't ride elephants through the club, set anything on fire or skate down the street. Since I've managed to make friends with like 90 percent of the police force, I'd like to keep it that way." Now Margera skates on ramps in his yard.

That's one concession he had to make to open a good live bar. The other one he was more than willing to do — bring in Live Nation. According to Margera, in regard to national and international bands — be it Scandinavian metal acts, Eagles of Death Metal, RATT or Blues Traveler — he names them and Live Nation does its best to track down when they'll be around and book the shows.

"I was tired of seeing only crappy cover bands," says Bam. "That's forever been the West Chester live experience. I wanted to have real bands — good bands signed to major labels — playing in my home." The Note even booked Jerry Blavat to do an oldies night. Margera isn't sure of Blavat's West Chester fan base. But his mother-in-law wanted five tickets.

"Live Nation has our back. Now we can have great shows and the kids don't have to drive all the way to Philly for the privilege." Before you think this is Margera's secession from our union, think again. West Chester is a college area. Kids drive to and from Philly drunk. Margera thinks that's dangerous and costly. "Now West Chester kids don't have to pay $20 to park and drive all the way to Philly then home drunk for just one hour of entertainment."

But Margera's ideas of entertainment options don't stop there. Yes, he's working on another teen comedy for Warner Bros. in 2009. But his next project treks into drama — the story of his pal, writer and boarder Brandon Novak. He's the West Chester cat who was 14 when he signed with Tony Hawk's skate team. Novak could've been a contender. Only he got hooked on heroin, stayed hooked for eight years and led an ugly harrowing life, which Margera found intriguing. 

"The stories he'd tell were wild," says Margera. So wild that he not only encouraged Novak to start a book, he offered the recently gone-clean Novak his home to write in. He did and a year and a half later Dreamseller appeared, got bought and published by Citadel Press in October 2008 and is now being readied to be filmed in Baltimore, with Margera playing the mad, drug-addled Novak.

What makes this Jackass think he's got the dramatic chops to portray a junkie's stoic sadness? Probably the same confident seriousness necessary to speed through pipes and leap over cars.

"Brother, I've read the script and heard those stories so many times they're second nature to me. I won't even need to look at a script. I'll just tell them to hit record. I'm serious."

It seems that way.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)