Sean McInerney, who you likely know as Poopies, rose to fame when he found himself as a fixture on Jamie O’Brien’s vlog. He did not lead a quiet life by any means, and in a recent interview with fellow Jackass star Steve-O, Poopies came clean about his journey to sobriety.
Poopies, who is originally from Carlsbad, moved to the North Shore 15-ish years ago and ended up renting a room from O’Brien. They became fast friends and Poopies’ willingness to do anything and everything for the sake of entertainment, became a fixture on Who Is J.O.B.
For many, he eclipsed Jamie on the vlog, despite the fact that he wasn’t the best surfer on a decidedly surf-centric show. Instead, he held the viewer’s interest by doing ridiculous things while wearing a speedo that, in most cases, ended painfully. As is generally the case with most things these days, his antics weren’t always met with the reaction he hoped for. “Poopies is essentially a prostitute whoring himself out for the cheap thrills of others,” wrote one anonymous internet commenter. But his antics did catch the eyes of a few like-minded people: the Jackass crew.
Now, he’s outgrown the surfing audience. He starred in the latest Jackass film — which is not exactly high-brow entertainment — but Poopies was able to carve out a career for himself simply by doing things that he was already doing before he was on the big screen. Poopies’ self-destructive tendencies, however, didn’t end with leaping off tall things or leaping over sharks, though. Those tendencies also led him down a darker path. A path paved with drug abuse.
His addiction was in control even as he was filming for Jackass — which, had it been one of the older films, wouldn’t be all that surprising — but it got so bad that during the last week of filming, Poopies was rushed to the hospital after overdosing on cocaine laced with fentanyl. From there, things got worse and he began using crystal meth.
“I was living in a U-Haul truck,” he told Steve-O. “I was smoking crystal meth. It was gnarly. I kind of just didn’t care about anything except my addiction. I wasn’t surfing. I wasn’t hanging out with my friends. Wasn’t filming for YouTube. I just went down that really dark path of addiction.”
Thankfully, with the help of friends, Poopies was able to veer off the bad road he was on. Now, he’s almost a year clean, and his outlook has never been brighter.
“I never thought that getting sober was fun, you know?” he said. “I’m so much happier now. It’s hard to explain. You have to do it to understand.”
