‘Impractical Jokers’ step off TV screen
Joe Gatto and his buddies, who make up the four-person comedy troupe called The Tenderloins, have always tried to embarrass each other. That’s just their humor.
So when they found out networks were looking for prank shows, Gatto, James Murray, Brian Quinn and Sal Valcano brainstormed. They come up with the idea of a hidden camera show in which they would get each other to make odd comments or do outlandish
Impractical Jokers
things in public.
Their idea became “Impractical Jokers” on TruTV. The guys take turns trying to see how far the other will take a joke, tasking each other with everything from making awkward comments to customers in a pizzeria while posing as an employee to scootering around a store at high-speed as shoppers peruse the shelves.
Rather than having someone else pay the price of embarrassment, Gatto says, the joke is on him and his friends.
“People are just bystanders to the collateral embarrassment that happens
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through us,” says Gatto, 42, calling from his drive to a Red Lobster in Brooklyn, where he was scheduled for a Facebook Live appearance with Murray.
In some ways, it's just like old times. Back in the day, he says he would often elicit laughter from his friends by walking into a store, faking an accent and pretending he's a diplomat. Other times, he would put his nose on unwitting strangers while riding the elevator.
“You know, Sal, for a long time would hate taking elevators with me,” Gatto says. “Because he knew when those doors closed I was going to do something stupid to embarrass him. So he'd opt to take the stairs a lot.”
As for “Impractical Jokers,” it seemed like a natural next step. “We were like, let's just turn on the cameras,” Gatto says.
On Thursday, The Tenderloins are stepping off the screen and coming to the stage at the PPL Center in Allentown. The show is called “The Cranjis McBasketball World Comedy Tour,” a reference to a game in the show, and will feature storytelling and exclusive hidden camera video moments.
“You feel like you're hanging out with us as we tell stories [and] bust each other's chops live in front of you there,” Gatto says.
Part of what may be the appeal of “Impractical Jokers,” after all, is that viewers feel as though they're watching four friends from college mess around and have a good time. And that's almost exactly what's really happening — except the members of The Tenderloins go back farther than college.
In 1990, the guys met at an all-boy Catholic high school while growing up in Staten Island.
“When there's no girls around, there's humor,” says Gatto, laughing. “Which is a replacement, I think.”
They started doing improv together. It would take some time before the they began performing professionally. Gatto, Murray, Quinn and Valcano went to different colleges, with Gatto majoring in accounting at Long Island University (“I have no idea how to account anything,” he says).
Upon returning home, the troupe was formed. The Tenderloins rehearsed for six months before taking the stage in front of an audience that consisted of mostly friends and family at a Manhattan black box theater, which seated 50.
Gatto describes their first attempt at professional comedy as “terrible.” But there seemed to be potential.
“The big thing that was infectious that we always heard was we were having fun making each other laugh,” Gatto says. “And that's still true.”
Later, The Tenderloins moved to sketch comedy and landed gigs at bigger venues. They started uploading sketches to MySpace and YouTube and built a following.
In 2011, “Impractical Jokers” — which just finished its seventh season — hit television. Gatto also says The Tenderloins also have a movie scheduled for release sometime next year.
The four work and tour together almost constantly, says Gatto, adding that they once spent 56 days straight in each other's company. Luckily, they get along. While they're on the road, Gatto, Murray, Quinn and Valcano typically explore the area, shopping and grabbing a bite to eat. Sometimes they take in movies like “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Avengers: Infinity War” after a show or right when they get into town.
The ease at which it seems the friends joke around may obscure the hard work behind “Impractical Jokers.” They have a team that helps come up with ideas for antics. The Tenderloins spend half a dozen weeks thinking up two or three pranks per episode for a 26-episode season.
For his part, Gatto says he gets a lot of his comedy instinct from his parents. His mother was an extrovert, and his father had an understated way of making a quiet joke so only the intended recipient could hear it.
Even though he attributes much of his sense of humor to those closest to him, Gatto says his friends outside of The Tenderloins don't dare prank him.
“You know, you don't mess with the masters,” he says.
Will Gordon is a freelance writer. Jodi.duckett@mcall.com 610-820-6704