NE1 catch up with Impractical Joker James Murray (or Murr) ahead of their live show at the Metro Radio Arena on Saturday 14th October.
(LEFT TO RIGHT: Joe, Q, Sal, Murr)
NE1: Welcome to Newcastle guys. Have you visited before?
MURR: No it’s our first time, but we are so excited honestly!
NE1: What do you know about the city?
MURR: I guess we’re going to find out. What’s cool is that we have the entire day before the show to explore. So I’m going to learn everything I possibly can and check out the culture. We'll go to the restaurants, catch up with fans and go to the bars afterwards – it’s great fun! I’ll look out for the NE1 magazine!
NE1: How did the Impractical Jokers first form?
MURR: The guys and I have literally been best friends for 28 years – no joke. We met when we were 13-years-old in high school, we became best friends, did comedy together and after university we came back together in New York and we thought, do you know what, we’re best friends, we love getting together, let’s keep going. We created our own comedy troupe called The Tenderloins and then we started doing live improve and sketch comedy. We had the idea for Jokers back in 2010 – we wanted to create a TV show that puts our friendship on display – that kind of shows that it’s not mean spirited, it reflects who we are as friends, the comradery we have and also how all best friends kind of screw with each other! So we came up with the idea of the Impractical Jokers – an upside down prank show where the joke is on us. I think it resonates with people, not just because we’re so handsome, but because of our relationships.
(LEFT TO RIGHT: Q, Murr, Joe, Sal)
NE1: Tell us a little bit about your personalities?
MURR: The show certainly tests our friendship, that’s for sure! At this point, I’m too old to make new friends so I’m kind of stuck with the guys I’ve got! Joe is shameless, he has no boundaries, he’ll just go do anything to make us laugh. Sal is the exact opposite. Sal is full of shame – his entire life is driven by shame, and he’s completely neurotic and OCD. Q is the bad boy of the group. He looks for a short cut on everything. He has the edge to the group. And then me, again I have to go back to handsome. I’m the handsome one. I talk my way through situations, I talk circles around people. I also fail quite a lot – Sal and I fail the most!
NE1: Has a prank ever gone horribly wrong?
MURR: We’ve never been punched, we’ve never been slapped, we’ve never been arrested. The goal of our show is not to anger people, the goal is to embarrass each other – the public is just there to witness our embarrassment. Did anything ever go wrong? Yes. We were working in a supermarket and Sal was behind the counter ringing customers up with their groceries and a woman handed Sal her credit card to pay. So I said to Sal, nonchalantly take out your cell phone and snap a photo of the woman’s credit card before you swipe it. And, well she went nuts. She started screaming, she called the cops on us. The cops came to the supermarket, they calmed her down, walked her out – then they came back in like, guys, we’re fans of the show, can we take photos together? It could have gone very badly. Who figures? People don’t like their identity stolen…
NE1: Is it difficult to prank people now you are well known?
MURR: It’s definitely harder but gosh there are 10 million people in New York City so we manage. The show has evolved a lot over the past seven seasons in America, and we’ve come up with all sorts of cool tricks and things to do to make sure that the show stays real. It has to be real. If it’s not real we’re not embarrassed, if we’re not embarrassed it’s not funny - it doesn’t work. It’s actually not that hard in New York because there are just so many people.
NE1: How is the live show different to the TV show? What can people expect?
MURR: The live show, I think, is actually even funnier than the TV show. You see our friendship on display right in front of you – you can reach out and touch it – it’s right there! It’s a stand up comedy show, all four of us are on stage and there’s a giant screen behind us, I mean massive – the size of a building. We shot hidden camera challenge just as we do in the live shows – but you can’t see these anywhere else. I will tell you… I’ll give you a little spoiler. There is a slight audience participation moment in the show where I borrow somebody’s cell phone - and what we do with that person’s cell phone will have tears streaming down your face.
(LEFT TO RIGHT: Joe, Q, Sal, Murr)
NE1: Your comedy heroes?
MURR: Oh gosh. In the UK I grew up watching Benny Hill. I loved The Mighty Boosh if you remember that? In America, Mel Brooks, the Zucker brothers, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carey and Adam Sandler.
NE1: Tell us a joke?
MURR: Yes, my life! More people have seen me naked on TV than lovers have seen me naked. That’s the joke! Do you know how hard it is to get laid when everybody has already seen your naked body?
NE1: And the tattoo?
MURR: Yes. The tattoo. Do you know what it’s like to try to court a woman when you’ve got a ferret skydiving tattooed on your thigh? That’s the joke!
The Impractical Jokers are at the Metro Radio Arena on Saturday 14th October 2017. Don’t miss out on the silly pranks and their marvellous mischief!
