My Dream Life
Deep down inside I knew that by virtue of the life I had been leading, jail was inevitable and a debt long overdue. But the most disheartening part of this ordeal occurred as the police led me into Central Booking. I had a clear view of the nearby skate park called the Brooklyn Banks, a famous skate spot that I had been shredding since I was eight years old. I could almost see a young version of myself, laughing with my friends, learning new tricks, skating under the warm evening sun.
"As a skateboarder, I was fixated on testing my boundaries, but this was my way of fooling myself into feeling in control. Soon it grew to consume me."
At only twenty-two, Brandon Novak had accomplished more than most people dream of in a lifetime. By the age of fourteen, he had been discovered by legendary skateboarders Tony Hawk and Bucky Lasek, and signed on to skate professionally. By eighteen, he had traveled the world, signed autographs for thousands of fans, won big-time sponsorships, and had his photo plastered all over the skate magazines.
"I was a dreamseller. I sold those who loved me their dream that I was a recovering addict. I gained their trust, and betrayed them in order to get my precious next fix."
Yet as swiftly as his career peaked, it crashed, brought down by heroine, a force far more powerful than his greatest ambitions. One day he had it all, the next he was living in an abandoned garage, begging for spare change on the street and bathing in gas station restrooms. Brandon now lived for one thing only his next fix.
"Where once I had the world in my hand, I now had nothing but a distorted, twisted version of what I had once been."
Brandon probably would have died a junkie's death if not for his closest friend, MTV and Jackass star, and music video director Bam Margera, who refused to give up on the dreamseller. Bam invited Brandon into his home and gave him cameos in the CKY videos, his independent films Haggard and Minghags, his hit MTV shows Viva La Bam and Bam's Unholy Union, and the hit films Jackass Number Two and Jackass 2.5. Eventually, Bam convinced Brandon to write the powerful and shocking story of how his addiction destroyed his skateboarding career a story soon to be a major motion picture starring Bam Margera as Brandon Novak, the Dreamseller.
Vivid, harrowing and heartfelt, Brandon s story is a riveting and unforgettable journey from a dream life to a nightmare existence, and ultimately to waking up before it's too late.
