TV’s hit show “Impractical Jokers” is four aging ex-high schoolers from Staten Island tricking unsuspecting people and taking dares to an in-your-face level. Their “Impractical Jokers: The Movie” opens tomorrow.
James “Murr” Murray: “Occasionally an idea won’t work. Like one grocery store trick went south. Backfired. And cops came. I’ve done comedy 20 years. So broke I had $800 in the bank, and my rent was $1,200. I never owned anything. Now our show’s into its ninth season, and I just bought a house and a puppy. And I’m 43.”
Brian “Q” Quinn brought his mom, who’s in the movie. He wore sneakers with a busy silk, patterned black jacket. Gentleman’s Quarterly it’s not. Me: “It’s not what DiCaprio would wear.” Him: “Yeah, but he don’t look as good as me.”
A guy who stepped on my foot said, “I’m Buddy Enright.” Getting off my leg, he added, “I’m the producer.” A debutante ball group this wasn’t.
“Q,” from inside a neon silver tux jacket: “We started together, buddies in an all-boy’s Catholic school. We’re Italians. Nothing wrong with being Jewish, but we weren’t that lucky. We were a comedy group. I lived with older sisters, and I’d bang pots and pans when they slept.”
I was beginning to prefer the guy who stepped on my foot.
Brooke Shields’ husband, Chris Henchy — in tailored suit and alligator belt — created the movie. So, why? “I saw them in Nashville with 4,000 fans loving them, laughing, screaming. So I thought we should do something with this.”
Sal Vulcano: “We create real situations. Anything’s fair game. Eyes and ears open to everything. Putting any situation through our comedy lens always goes on in our heads. Sometimes prepping an idea I laugh so hard that I fall on my ass.”
Joe Gatto, in a gold jacket: “We’re not office-work types. We sit in a room, laugh, and all come up with comedy situations, which we work out. Sometimes we cross the line, like getting a guy to pull out of his own wedding while the ceremony’s taking place. We fight, but we’re friends forever.”
The atmosphere with wives, kids, friends, families, fans was organized confusion — so — if I mixed them up, if I quoted the wrong dude saying something, so what? They don’t care. I don’t care. And you shouldn’t.
T for two, not the stage!
Ice-T’s 62nd birthday. To celebrate, he sang for his supper. In Rahway, NJ. A club. Packed audience. In the midst of his act, a rabid fan ran onstage and grabbed him.
In true gentlemanly intellectual fashion, Ice-T yelled: “What the f–k!” Security then subdued the interloper. Or fan. Or co-entertainer. Or whatever the guy was — and removed him. Ice-T wiped his brow, didn’t miss a beat, picked up the rap where he left off, and the applause could’ve been heard in Newark.
Bits & pieces
German physicist cum comic’s one-man show “Vince Ebert: Sexy Science” runs at Soho Playhouse the 25th to March 8 … Val Kilmer: “Come visit my HelMel studio in LA Feb. 28, 7 to 10 p.m. Share my excitement of meeting fellow artists like Nick Corney.” He adds, “It’s street parking.”
Dems the breaks
Democrat: “Balmy Sanders in his 70s. His face red as his politics. He’s sucked the public teat 40 years and done nothing 40 years. Squaw Warren also — except she’s Geronimo’s aunt. Less people for Biden than in a city housing project. Buttigieg? No background, knowledge, or history. Uninspired mayor of a town smaller than my john. Money he raises is for training wheels. We’re screwed.”
With news that Andrew Yang now wants to run for mayor of NYC, the city’s public, in shock, rose as one and screamed at the top of their lungs, “OY!”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.