patrick odell epicly laterd interview vice dumb

Patrick O’Dell is skateboardings great story teller. As the man behind the sometimes tear jerking Epicly Later’d series and the new Big Brother doc ‘Dumb’, Patrick knows how to tell the tales of skateboardings best misfits. This interview with Jenkem is no different.

It covers skateboardings conservatism in its late adoption of homosexuality, the cheapness in budget from the multi-billion dollar VICE Media (which we’ve heard many, many people complain about before), the lack of savings and investments of pro skaters except for Heath Kirchart and Spanky, Rocco’s almost mansion in Malibu, and much more.

Sample:

You’ve worked in skateboarding for a long time now, was there ever a point where you were kinda pretty burnt on it?
I got burnt at the end of Thrasher I was burnt because I was starting to go on trips that were really long that I didn’t necessarily feel excited about, like I wasn’t excited about skaters I was with or teams, and I just started to think like, “I don’t know if going on random road trips forever for Thrasherwas what my path was.” I wasn’t necessarily burnt out on skating, I was just like I don’t wanna be camped out under an 11 stair with a fisheye and flashes and hope this dude lands a pop shove-it, so I don’t know if that was burnout or that I just needed a different avenue to tell stories.

What was the process like from the beginning to now in terms of your involvement with Epicly Later’d?
The first couple of episodes we had a cameraman. The initial couple was Bill Strobeck. I was supposed to be the host. I felt like the show wouldn’t have gotten made unless I just went a did it. It wasn’t a priority for Vice to schedule shoot days or schedule a crew, so I just took the camera and I would just go film it, almost out of necessity. If I waited for shoot days and a budget for a cameraman, it would have never have gotten made. So I would just go out and film tons of stuff and basically turn it in. I’d be like, “Make this into something cool.” But I like it better when there’s a crew, I think it comes out better.