For all intents and purposes, Preston Lacy is Joplin, Missouri. Now that’s not meant to be a fucked-up size comment, just an indication of how much hometown pride one Southern boy can have—aside from P.J. Clapp, that is.

Formally schooled in the fine art of Wastewater Treatment Technology at Missouri Southern State University, Preston earned a degree that basically allowed him to operate a poop plant. In fact, his very first internship was at a wastewater facility in Dallas, TX, where Preston’s duties entailed scraping used condoms and tampons off the influent screen with a garden rake (talk about a foreshadowing instance of his eventual life to come on jackass…).

In the late ’90s, Preston eventually made his way onto the mean streets of Hollywood as a regular sketch/comedy performer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He also appeared in over 25 national TV commercials, a circuit on which he eventually crossed paths with Johnny Knoxville.

With the advent of jackass in 2000, Knoxville originally hit up Preston to write some silly ideas for the show, but let’s just say he also made a fine and funny fat bastard to accentuate the “50 Egg Challenge” opposite middleweight and light flyweight contenders, Chris Nieratko and Stephanie Hodge. Soon thereafter, he began appearing at the production office with unbridled enthusiasm, all gung-ho to shoot, so much so he voluntarily pissed himself and took to the streets in his underwear chasing after a midget he’d soon become fast friends with.

Capitalizing upon his naturally poor anger management skills, Preston has more than pulled his weight as an upstanding member of the cast, not to mention his many contributions in the writing department, most notably the opening “Shopping Cart” segment to jackass the movie and a seminal creative assist on the “Terror Taxi” in jackass number two, but Preston really came into his own on the second film and its bastard spawn jackass 2.5. While other cast members were running for the door, Preston stepped up to the plate by shakily facing his fear of heights—a phobia he successfully hid for six years before inadvertently exposing it—and dropping his drawers on at least two noble occasions (well, in one such instance he actually lost a very intense “longest straw” contest to bring home the gold in “Butt Bellows”).

No stranger to a broader entertainment life beyond jackass, Preston has appeared in various other acting roles, including Mad TV, The Andy Dick Show, E.R., NYPD Blue, That’s My Bush, The Grind, Pledge This, and Christmas in Wonderland, not to mention multi-credited stints on TV: The Movie and The Life of Lucky Cucumber. He’s also slated to fill some very, very big and legendary pants in the forthcoming biopic, Life of the Party: The Fatty Arbuckle Story.