GOES TO THE DOGS
‘Jokers’ star Gatto writes book about his eight canines
Quarantining at home can drive anyone barking mad, so “Impractical Jokers” star Joe Gatto found something to focus on — his dogs.
The eight cuddly canines, almost all of whom are named after Italian sweets, are the inspiration behind his new book, “The Dogfather: My Love of Dogs, Desserts and Growing Up Italian,” out Wednesday on Amazon.
Gatto, 44, has been mostly stuck at home on Long Island since coronavirus shut down production on his TruTV hidden camera show.
“I was at home with my family and have a house full of puppies, and my cousin mentioned that with all the stories I have about my dogs, it might be a cool opportunity to make a memoir of sorts,” the comedian told the Daily News of the self-published book. “So it was a really fun quarantine project to conquer during these crazy times.”
Seven of the dogs are named after desserts — Biscotti, Tartufo, Zeppole, Spumoni, Pignoli, Cannoli and Napoleon — while Mishkeen, who has since died, got his moniker from an Italian slang word Gatto’s grandma used to say.
“Mishkeen was my first elderly rescue and had an epic tongue,” he explained. “He had no teeth. He was 14 years old. He was an angry little elf, but was supercute and his tongue was always hanging out of his mouth, so there’s a huge spread in the book with just pictures of his silly tongue.
“Mishkeen is based on an old thing that my grandmother used to say, ‘Aww Mishkeen,’ which roughly translates to, ‘Aww, poor soul,’ ” Gatto added. “Whenever she saw something that looked beat up or run down, she’d say, ‘Aww, Mishkeen.’ When I saw Mishkeen, I was like I’m gonna deviate from the naming of desserts. This is a Mishkeen, if I’ve ever seen it.”
In addition to Mishkeen, Zeppole has also moved on to hound heaven. “I always have a rotating elderly slot where we let them live out their days comfortably,” Gatto said. “Now our oldest one is Pignoli. She’s 14 years old and just a beautiful little mess herself.”
Gatto currently lives with a six-pack of pooches, along with his wife, Bessy, and their two kids.
“The dogs have contributed to both the sanity and insanity of quarantine,” he said. “It’s nutty when you’re in the house with them all day. They’re superspoiled now. When I leave, Bessy told me that they won’t stay away from the door for a half-hour, hoping I’ll walk back in. And they all sleep in our bed, so I’m basically covered in puppies at night.”
Most of Gatto’s dogs are “mixed mutts,” he says, and under 20 pounds, with Spumoni, a Yorkshire Terrier mix, only weighing about 6 pounds.
Six of the mutts have appeared on “Impractical Jokers” in a recurring sketch that involves Gatto and the show’s three other stars taking one of his dogs to a park. Each star individually asks a stranger to watch the dog while they step away for a few minutes, and then are fed a faux silly pup name through an earpiece by their co-stars and a made-up wacky story behind the name. The goal is to get the unsuspecting stranger to repeat the moniker and tale when another star comes by and asks the dog-sitter the pet’s name.
“They would have to say the weird name we gave them and then also tell the story for you to win,” Gatto said.
TruTV will resume production on Season 9 of the series next month, which seems almost impossible to shoot during the pandemic, since it normally involves closeup interactions with strangers.
Gatto said almost half the episodes were filmed before things shut down, and that remaining ones will be “produced in a different way.”