The joke’s on them—and that’s one reason why the Impractical Jokers are such a hit.
The truTV comedy stars, who will perform at the Stranahan Theater on Sunday, September 21, are buddies from high school who, 25 years later, are still pulling childish pranks.
The four friends come up with outrageous ideas, something like a cross between Candid Camera and Jackass, then put the pressure on one of their buddies to make it happen.
Know each other well
“The twist for us, the thing that makes the show special, is that, one, we are best friends and know everything about each other, and, two, unlike typical prank shows, the joke is on us,” James “Murr” Murray said in an interview.
A few examples from their show:
Sal Vulcano poses as a tour guide on a sightseeing boat on New York’s Hudson River, giving the crowd some offbeat tips (following cues from his off-camera pals such as pointing out a doctor’s office where he got hair transplants), then he abruptly bids adieu, climbs into a kayak, and paddles away.
Brian “Q” Quinn thinks he’s going to play Peter Pan in a musical but he’s actually being led blindfolded into a professional wrestling ring.
Joe Gatto has 15 seconds to shine a stranger’s shoes in New York’s Washington Square Park without the shoe-wearer noticing.
“We set out to embarrass each other, not the public,” Murray said. “And the show is a lot lighter and more fun than a typical prank show mainly because we’re the butt of our own jokes. And we try to stay on the right side of likeability.”
Murray said he and his buddies went to an all-male high school in Staten Island where “there wasn’t much to do other than prank each other.”
Afterward, they all worked day jobs and formed a comedy troupe called The Tenderloins. Murray worked as a reality TV show producer when they came up with the pilot for Impractical Jokers. The show, with Murray as the executive producer, has been renewed for a fourth season, with 26 new episodes scheduled.
New spinoff show
They also created a new spinoff program, Jokers (Wild), in which they do in-studio bits and sketches. “It’s a different kind of comedy show [than Impractical Jokers],” Murray said. “It’s highly improvised, and with a studio audience.”
Murray said the foursome’s comedic inspirations include Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor and the Airplane! movies, and he believes the group’s New York background gives them a bit of an edge. “I really do think it gives us a certain ballsiness,” he said. “New Yorkers have seen everything. They usually don’t care. Chances are when you are riding a subway, half the car is doing crazier things than we are.”
His favorite pranks are ones where they push the issue of authority.
“We worked in a real dentist’s office, with real patients,” Murray said, citing his favorite prank. People are trusting the dentist to know what he is talking about and to do the right thing. In the episode, Sal, directed by his pals off camera, keeps moving a patient up and down and all around on the high-tech dentist’s chair. The unsuspecting patient at one point is almost vertical, head pointed down, gripping the chair for dear life, when Sal walks out of the office (trying to stifle his own laughter).
Not all their pranks work, Murray said. One notable failure was when they went to a public playground and tried to get the parents to talk baby talk to them. “It sounds like a good idea but when four middle age men with no kids of their own go to a park and start talking baby talk … they had the SWAT team called on us in 10 minutes!”
The truTV Impractical Jokers Tour featuring The Tenderloins will be at the Stranahan Theater at 7:30pm Sunday, September 21.
Tickets are $49.50 to $125. Information: www.stranahantheater.org or 419-381-8851.