Magic Mike actors go for yuks

Less brooding and all kinds of fooling in XXL

Personally, Joe Manganiello couldn’t be happier with his engagement to Modern Family’s sexy Sofia Vergara.

Professionally, he’s on the verge of making the transition from the TV zone into the cinema world thanks to the Magic Mike movies.

“I have been at this for 22 years and it seems like I am just getting to the starting point in terms of film,” says the 38-year-old, promoting Magic Mike XXL with the rest of the cast.

Manganiello reprises his role of Big Dick Richie, who joins Magic Mike (Channing Tatum), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tarzan (Kevin Nash), Tito (Adam Rodriguez) and sidekick Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias) on a road trip.

The second movie continues to be loosely based on Tatum’s experiences as an 18-year-old Tampa stripper, but it’s not quite as earnest this time: The Kings of Tampa head to a Myrtle Beach male strippers’ convention for one last dance fling.

The new production contains more dance routines, less brooding and all kinds of fooling around as the co-stars take centre stage.

“It’s such a unique franchise because the first film and the second film are so different from each other but they exist in the same universe,” Manganiello says. “This is a straightforward comedy and we didn’t have to apologize for making a male stripper movie anymore.”

If his drama teacher could see him now: The Pittsburgh native attended the Carnegie Mellon school of drama, where he met his Magic Mike co-star Bomer.

After graduating, Manganiello moved to Los Angeles and promptly won the role of Spider-Man nemesis Flash Thompson in 2002’s SpiderMan. But things have been hit and miss over the years.

He did manage to improve his profile with recurring roles on ER, One Tree Hill and most famously as the brunch-loving Brad on How I Met Your Mother, not to mention the vampire Alcide Herveaux on True Blood.

OK, so Manganiello and Bomer weren’t exactly classically trained thespians, but they did get a chuckle sometimes on the Magic Mike XXL set.

Take, for instance, Manganiello’s Mini Mart sequence.

“Seeing the culmination of all those years (of theatre training) come to fruition in that moment was so mind-blowing and epic,” Bomer says. “I just stood behind the camera wanting popcorn and carbohydrates and just thanking God.”

Up to the self-deprecation challenge, Manganiello recalls another scene at the beginning of the film when they trick Magic Mike into joining their road trip party.

“I’ve known (Bomer) since he was 18 and we did come up through drama school,” he says. “We’ve done Shaw and Chekhov and Shakespeare, and all of that.

So “to come up to this moment in my career where scene one, take one: Joe gets naked and cannonballs Channing into a pool — crowning achievement.”

Despite the good-natured joking, Bomer, Manganiello and the others took the challenges of the sequel seriously, which meant rigorous training to be dancer fit before and during the 30-day shoot.

But acting when he was hurt didn’t exactly go over well one day during the shoot when Manganiello had seriously injured his arm but carried on anyway.

“Sofia (Vergara) was there that day and she looked at me and said,” as Manganiello quotes her, mimicking her trademark Colombianaccented English — “‘If I see you at the (expletive) gym tomorrow, we’re done.’ ?

“So he hasn’t been to the gym since,” Tatum says.

“I don’t even think about gyms,” Manganiello says.