JAMES "MURR" MURRAY on the Truth About Impractical Jokers, Breaking Into Horror & Betting On Himself
September 15, 2026 • 40 mins
This week, Tommy is joined by James “Murr” Murray, one of the funniest and most beloved comedians in the world. Audiences fell in love with Murr on the hit series Impractical Jokers, where he and his lifelong friends challenge one another to pull outrageous pranks and embarrass themselves in front of unsuspecting strangers. Now, Murr is flexing his horror muscles as the co-writer and producer of Don’t Move, the new movie based on his bestselling book of the same name. In this episode, Murr opens up about one of the most surprising parts of being a comedian, whether he ever gets tired of being the funny guy, and if any part of Impractical Jokers is staged. He also takes Tommy behind the scenes of what it really takes to bring the show to life, reveals which outrageous moments remain his favorites, explains why the group keeps politics out of its comedy, and shares why wearable technology gives him so much anxiety. Murr also discusses his journey into writing nine horror novels, adapting Don’t Move for the screen, and refusing to wait for someone else to give him permission to make the movie. He shares how he created the opportunity himself, names the one horror film he could watch for the rest of his life, and teases what audiences can expect from future seasons of Impractical Jokers. Murr also reflects on scaling the Empire State Building and opens up about one of the most difficult decisions of his life while his father was dying from Alzheimer’s disease.
And don’t miss Murr’s rapid-fire “Hot Takes & Hangouts” interview, part two of this conversation, dropping Thursday, September 17!
Subscribe, rate, and leave a written review if you enjoy this conversation! Tune in every week for new episodes of I’ve Never Said This Before.
Executive Producers: iHeart Media and Elvis Duran Podcast Network
Producers: Andrew Pugliese, Stephanie Lane, Josh Kolodny
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to I've Never Said This Before with me,
Tommy D'Addario. James Murray, aka Murr. Man, he is arguably
one of the funniest comedians in the world. Now, we
all fell in love with him right from his hit
show Impractical Jokers. It's a show in which his oldest
friends pull pranks on each other and they embarrass themselves
(00:21):
in front of unsuspecting everyday people. And just when you
feel like you've seen it all in the show, well,
a new episode drops. Now, Murr is also flexing his
horror muscle as the co-writer and producer of Don't Move,
which is out right now. It's a movie based off
his best-selling book of the same name. Whether Murr is
making us laugh or making us jump out of our
(00:42):
skin out of fear, one thing is for sure, he
continues to bring us so much joy. And this conversation,
it's going to show a side to him like you've
never seen or heard before. So, let's see if today
we can get Murr to say something that he has
never said before. James, how are you, my man?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm good. How are you, buddy? I got to start
by saying you have arguably the best hair I've ever
seen in my life. And I've seen good hair. I've
also seen very bad hair.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I wouldn't say you have bad hair. You have a
very nice shaped head.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You have a good head.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You have a good head on your shoulders. So not
everyone could rock that kind of a style.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I don't think I'm rocking anything. I don't feel much
like a rock star.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Thank you for the compliment. That's a high praise as
an Italian boy who has used every hair product in
his life.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Where in Italy is the family from? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, there's a small town called Dragone by Naples. So
we've actually been.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh, Napoli Don?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I'm Sicilian.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And Irish. Unfortunately, it's the upper half of the Sicilian.
The lower half is Irish.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Here we go. It's the worst of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm trying to throw you a bone here, man.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Well, thank you for hanging out. What do you want
me to call you? James? Murr?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You're my friend? My friend's going to be Murr?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Murr. So you don't get tired of Murr. You like Murr.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I've been called Murr my entire life.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So is it weird to hear James?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It is weird. But I introduced myself because I'm not
a jerk. I'm like, hi, I'm James. You know how
to say hi, I'm Murr. I'm not Madonna. What are
we doing?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Some might argue you are Madonna. I don't know. I
don't know. Well, thank you for hanging out. You have
such an incredible career and there's so much going on
that we're so excited about.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Like, don't move.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And we're going to dive into all of that. But
to kick off this conversation, let's celebrate you for a
minute and everything you've built and everything you've done.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You look scared. I haven't built anything.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You look afraid.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, I did plant tomatoes. That's the only I've built. Like,
I have a nice garden.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, more than I planted.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But I helped. create stuff. Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
No, you, you bring so much joy to so many
people through your work. You really do. And obviously your
comedy is top tier and people love it so much.
What would you say is one of the most surprising
things about being a comedian that we wouldn't know?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Uh, one of the most, uh, let's see. Well, we
have a really unique situation with impractical jokers in that
a lot of comedians, when they hit, they're on the road,
they're touring, selling out your big places, what have you,
but they're on the road alone. Right. I have a
really unique situation that these are my best friends for
37 years now. You know, I met them first day
(03:10):
of high school, you know? So like, it's a really
interesting scenario in that, like my job for 16 years
now is just hanging out with my friends, which I
would do anyway. So it's a really kind of unique experience,
you know, it's been a wild ride that I just
get to like, even when we're on tour, we're not
touring alone. I'm with my best friends. When I'm filming
the TV show, just hanging out with my best friends,
(03:31):
you know? And after we've done filming, go see a
movie together with my friends. You know, it's a uniquely,
a lot of people say that comedians can have a
very lonely lifestyle. It's the opposite of that. Really? That's
pretty cool. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So how did you know those dudes were like the
right fit for you? Cause not everybody could work with
their best friends and travel and be around each other
all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Uh, it's, I mean, you have so much history together. Uh,
they're my high school friends. And I think those are
the lifelong friends you keep, you know what I mean? And, uh,
we grew up, I think in a very unique time,
Staten Island, the eighties and nineties, no cell phones, no
social media. All you did, you came back from high school.
You came back from school. Your mom said, be back
before dark. And your parents had no clue where you're going.
(04:11):
And you're out with your friends playing manhunt in the
woods and stealing tennis court nets and dumb stuff. The best.
The best stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
I feel bad for kids that don't grow up like that.
Like I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.
It was the best.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You grew up in Jersey?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, I grew up in Jersey. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm 40.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So I grew up without, I was kind of that
technology era.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
It was just coming around. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Right. So like I got to experience those long days
of summer and not being on a screen and it
was the best. Yeah. It was the best. Yeah. So
much so I'm like, do I want a flip phone?
So I'm not on my phone all the time. And
then everyone's like, who? No, you don't. You definitely don't.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We, uh, we just did it. It hasn't aired yet.
We just did a bit on jokers where, uh, we
have a flip phone and we're sitting in a waiting
room with next to a mark and, and we get
a call from our wife and we say, Oh, Oh, okay. I'll,
I'll listen. I'll take a listen. Turn to the market.
Excuse me. you might've asked your opinion. My kid just
released a song on streaming platforms and my wife says,
you have to listen to it. It's really embarrassing. You
(05:05):
have to get our kid to take it down, but
I got a dumb smart flip phone. Can you play
it on your phone? So the market was like, yeah, sure, man.
They go into Spotify, what have you. And they look
up the song, and the songs were insane. The graphics
are insane, made by our kid, you know? And you
have to listen to it for the first time in
front of the mark and not break laughing. And it's
(05:26):
absolutely cringeworthy and hysterical.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Oh, I can't wait for that. That's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The songs are outrageous.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
That's the magic of what you guys do. It's so cool.
And even the marks and all of that, it's not ever...
planned or staged, right?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, it's all improv.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's all improv.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We, we plan in that, like, like we wrote the
songs for each other to surprise each other, but we
haven't heard the songs before. Right. So when I get
out there in the waiting room, I'm hearing it for
the first time as the mark, you know, and it's,
it's constructed to mess with me, you know, uh, or,
you know, get my Achilles heels or something like that.
So it's, uh, but at the end of the day,
we have no idea how the Mark's going to react,
(06:02):
what we're going to say. It's all improv, you know,
that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Do you ever get tired of being the funny guy?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
No, no, it's not like that. My only job is
to make my best friends laugh. You know, I'm not
thinking of... anything else. And I know that if they're
laughing and they're the funniest guys, I know that people
will like it too. You know, I have to trust that.
We always said, like we created the show 16 years ago.
We always said, if we're ever not truly laughing, we're
not having fun. We will stop doing the show. And dude,
(06:30):
I was, uh, on the way here today, I was
doing editing notes for an upcoming episode and I had
freaking tears. Like, uh, it was a, it'd be upcoming punishment.
It'll air in a few months. They turned me into
like one of those looks maxing guys that like get
the jaw surgery and the whole thing. And they had
me in prosthetics for like five hours and I look crazy, man.
I look nuts. And they had a room full of
(06:51):
people debating with me on the merits of looks maxing.
And I have to defend these crazy stances and positions.
And I had tears, man. It was so funny. So
the day that stops happening, we'll stop doing the show.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Well, I mean, even sitting across from you, you're lighting
up talking about it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, it's fun, man. I texted the guys. I texted them.
I literally, I'll share the text. Because it was so funny.
I'm doing editing notes. I texted Sal and Q in
the car. I said, this is outrageous. I sent the
clip from the episode. And Q says, it's so funny.
I don't think there's ever been, you know, it goes
into the specifics of the punishment, but It's just cryingly
(07:30):
funny stuff, man.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's sick. And that's why it's still so popular because
you guys clearly enjoy it. Like it's not like you're
doing something like, all right, we're milking this and we
don't really want to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And we're just showing up. That's something that I think
most people don't know about impractical jokes. Most shows you
get cast in a show, you show up, do your lines,
leave six months later, you see it on TV and
whether you have no idea if it's good or not,
that has never been, nor will it ever be impractical jokers.
To this day, and it's been 16 years making the show,
to this day, we spend months writing the material. We
(08:02):
write 25 pages of jokes per challenge, and then we
throw it out the window. Because when you're improvising, you
have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know
who's going to walk into White Castle, what they're going
to say, how they're going to react. So ostensibly, it's
an improv show, right? But we still do the work,
come up with all the challenges, all the punishment ideas.
revising them writing tons thousands of jokes over 16 years
(08:24):
that we try plan secretly from each other to tell
each other what to do and then we throw out
of the window and roll with it and then we
film the show and then after we film on set
we go through everything we just did and highlight what
we think we did best and then post starts editing
the show and then i'm Editing the show every day,
like with post, like we're getting cuts. We're doing an
(08:46):
internal rough cut before the network sees it, taking stuff
from the cutting floor, put it back in the episode,
taking stuff out of the episode that was in the cut.
And then we do a rough cut, a picture lock,
a fine cut, picture lock, and go so far as
sometimes the day of the episode. So a new episode
airs on Thursday this week, right? So sometimes it's happened
(09:08):
many times over the years that something still wasn't right.
And we'll pull an episode out of picture lock the
day of air, recut a scene to make it right.
And then race the hard drive from Knoxville, Tennessee to
Atlanta where the network broadcast headquarters is and to hit
the 10 o'clock airtime, you know? So like, and then
it airs on TV and then it's out in the world,
(09:30):
you know? So, and that's been 16 years. And I don't,
can't think of any talent on any show that is
that involved to the frame of everything that gets on TV.
And the reason for that is that our hearts are
still in it, man. They've always been at it because it's,
it's not, you're not playing a character. I'm playing myself, Murr,
you know, Sal, Sal, Q's Q. Like we, we, it's
(09:52):
us on screen, you know, so it has to be great.
And I think the audience can tell when uh, the writers,
the performers are not, their hearts aren't in it anymore.
And that has never been, nor will it ever be
in practical jokers.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Does your mind ever stop?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
No sleep at night.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
When you hit your head, it's a pillow. Are you
able to shut it off?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I don't, I might, might. So a few years ago,
the network has a gift. Give us aura rings. You know,
when we finished the season, it was the best worst
gift ever. So I wear it and every day I
look at my or ring stats and my wife and
I compare. And my wife's or ring sets are amazing.
She's like 98%, like sleep efficient. She's getting like nine
hours of sleep a day. Mine are always horrifying. My,
(10:33):
this is not a bad night. I got six hours,
not bad, but like yesterday, four hours, 56, the night
before five hours, 15. And it's just, it's like it
and the, uh, the, the, the ordering trends are crazy.
It's like, um, it's like, uh, it's going to be
all right. It says, which is horrifying. Don't tell me that, man.
(10:54):
It's the best, worst gift. It's going to.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Be all right. I wore an aura ring for three
nights and threw it out.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The anxiety it gave me.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Cause I would go to bed and I'm not like
a problematic sleeper. And my head would be like, what
is the data saying? What is it saying? I moved.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Am I fucked? Like it was the worst thing ever.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I know. It's like, it's like existentially. Like what happened?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I don't know if a type a person should wear one.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I know I did it for a long time, but
then I got hurt of the new one that just
came out. So I was like, all right, put mine
back on. And it's just depressing, man.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Don't wear it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, do wear it. It's a great product. If
Aura wants to sponsor me, I'm all ears. Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
My producer's like, don't bash it, Brian. I'm not bashing you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It is an amazing product, I will say. But for
somebody that's a high energy, naturally high energy guy, it
is soul crushing.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, I feel you. I feel that way also about smartwatches.
It's too much for me, my ADD. I can't handle it.
I can't handle it. Wow. I mean, what a body
of work you've done with the show. And to kind
of put a pin on this portion of the conversation,
when you think of all the seasons, all the work,
In this moment of your life, is there one where
you're like, if I can show anyone this episode.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I'll tell you what, like, I think about that all
the time. Like, like many years from now, we have kids.
I die of Alzheimer's in my eighties. And, and, and
my grandkids won't know. They're like, Sure, Grandpa, you were
on TV for many years. Like, I'm telling you, it was.
Because when my father died, he had Alzheimer's. He died
of Alzheimer's, right, a few years ago. And when he died,
(12:19):
the disease had kicked in in such a way that
his brain started combining things that shouldn't be combined, right?
And so I know for a fact that he met
John F. Kennedy. He was a serviceman. He was lined
up on Fulton Street downtown. And Kennedy goes by, and
he shook his hand, right? I know this is the
real story. But as the disease took hold... my father's
brain combined stories. And so he was telling us it
(12:41):
was wildly entertaining. We were crying, laughing. He said that
he was running alongside the motorcade with Kennedy. I said, dad,
you were not in Dallas in 1960. That didn't happen.
Like I know what his brain did. Right. And so
I know what's going to happen in my brain is
the same thing. And my grandkids would be like, sure, grandpa, you,
I don't know if you know this, but last week,
(13:02):
you're not gonna believe what I'm going to say. I,
they dressed me as a human mop. And I stepped
foot off the 103rd floor of the Empire State Building,
dangling by a rope, and I rappelled down to the
90th floor and used my own body to clean the glass.
They called it the Miracle on 34th Street. It'll be
the mid-season premiere in January. And I know that I'm
(13:23):
going to be in an old age home. at 85
years old telling my grandkids, I once cleaned the outside
of the Empire State Building. And they'd be like, fuck you. No,
you didn't, Grandpa. There's the Alzheimer's. I'm like, no, I
actually did this shit. They're not going to believe me.
Nor should they. So there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You've had a lot of outrageous moments.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
How do you explain that? Like, you know, like 40
years from now, my grandkids will be like, no, you
didn't do that. Grandpa, you were not in Dallas running
alongside Kennedy. Okay. It's going to be the same situation.
So maybe my father wasn't Dallas. Who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You never know. The problem with you is you have
so many of those stories to choose from that. You're
going to keep spitting them out and they're going to
be like, you're fucking crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I know. It's just grandpa. There's nuts. Grandpa again.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Oh my God. Well, that's all.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And then there's another funny, I'll tell you in the future.
So do you watch, I think you should leave. The
Tim Robbins, Tim Robinson show on Netflix. It's so funny, right?
It's such a sketch comedy show. So funny, but there's
a very famous sketch in it that went viral. And
it's very, it's such a quotable show, which I think
jokers is too, where he's like, I almost killed myself, Julie.
(14:26):
And I have a shirt that says, I almost killed myself, Julie. Right.
And so my wife and I say back and forth
all the time to each other. Her name is Melissa.
I'd be like, Julie, Julie, which is what Tim Robinson
says on the show. So I can just imagine 30,
40 years from now, I'm in an old age home,
I've lost my mind, and I keep calling for a
woman named Julie. And people are like, oh my God,
Grandpa must have had an affair. He's calling for another woman.
(14:48):
It's not Grandma's name, but it's just a quote from
I Think You Should Leave. We joke about it all
the time.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So what you're saying is you're going to look so
crazy no matter what one day. Yep. All right. Inevitable.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I'm calling for Julie who doesn't exist. Sure, Grandpa, you
climb the Empire State Building. Sure.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
This is why I think, hey, your grandkids are going
to think you're the coolest person in the world. They're
going to come to realize this isn't fake. This is
all real. And you have so much to show them.
You have so much for your work. 13 seasons, which
is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It is cool to do something real that exists, you know,
that outlasts your lifetime. Isn't that the dream of anything?
To somehow leave the world in a better shape in
some way?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Especially this day and age when everything is so crazy
that you know what you're putting out is actually impacting
people's joy.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, I like that. The biggest compliment I think we
get is that, like in the old days, you'd turn
on TV during dinner. It's a show that the whole
family can agree on. And there's no agenda. There's no politics.
There's nothing. It's just a half hour of just good fun, man,
to turn your brain off and just laugh.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Have you ever been tried to be pushed into the
political world? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I always, I think the guys that are in lockstep,
we consider ourselves and the show to be like an
Island of positivity in what could be a very tough world, man.
You know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, we need it. We really need it. And you're also,
I mean, because you're not busy enough, And I don't
know if everybody knows this, but you're a pretty prolific writer. Yeah.
You're up to nine novels?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Nine horror novels out now. I got my 10th one.
It'll be a co-written book with R.L. Stine. It comes
out next year. The 11th one comes out in 2028.
It was a sequel to my latest book, You Better
Watch Out, that did really well. But yeah, I've written
nine horror novels to date.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
So what got you into that?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I love horror as much as comedy. And I went
to school for fiction writing. And I always wanted to
be a writer. But I wrote my first book 25
years ago. I wasn't on TV. Couldn't get anybody to
read it. I spent a year writing this thriller. I
naively thought I could just get it published. I sent
it out to every publishing house in New York City.
It got returned to me unopened. I didn't have an agent, manager,
(16:58):
nothing like that. I wasn't famous. And so it's a
year of my life. This pulse-pounding thriller set in the
subways of New York City, sat on my computer for
15 years. Then many years later, Impractical Joker, so and
so forth. We're on set one day and Q's like,
you know, Murr, why don't you do something with a
book you wrote? It was really good. He read it,
loved it. And so I sent the same book into HarperCollins.
(17:19):
They bought the trilogy. It hit number one in the
UK Sun and Times. and bestseller list across America. And
it launched this whole like literary career. And now we've
got nine books out. My fifth book, Don't Move, came
out five, six years ago. Did really well.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Best selling fifth book.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, it did really well for the publisher. And so
we adapted it into a screenplay and it comes out
in theaters. It's in theaters now.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
It came out a few days ago in theaters.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Do you know people's deepest fears are spiders?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And you are fucking with people so hard with this story.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's it, man. That's it. It's about a church group
from Chicago. that goes on their annual summer camping trip
to the Ozark wilderness, this kind of pristine forest in
the middle of nowhere, no one in any direction for
50 miles, no civilization. And they wander into the wrong woods, man,
because these woods are inhabited by this kind of prehistoric,
massive creature that has evolved outside of evolution, you know?
(18:13):
Humanity did not touch it, you know? And it can
hunt them by the vibration they make in the forest.
And so it's spun these invisible webs. And anytime they
brush through a web, the creature can locate where they
are and hone in and spin tighter circles around them.
And the only choice is if you can't move, what
(18:34):
do you do as the circle gets tighter and tighter
around you? Your only option is to not move. It's
pretty terrifying. It's got a killer cast, too. It's got
an interesting cast. So the lead actor in the movie
is the rapper Russ, who has never been in a lead,
never had a lead role in the movie before. And
he's so immensely likable and charming. And opposite him is
(18:58):
Lindsay Fonseca, who is in every Hallmark movie you've ever seen.
And she's just endlessly charming and likable. And they're putting
these impossible odds. And then with them in the cast
is Tom Cavanagh. T-Pain is in the movie in a
serious role, which is wild to see. Rob Riggle is
hysterical in the movie. Q from Impractical Joker is in
the movie. I have a brief cameo. So the movie
(19:20):
is like, it's got a really dynamic, interesting, likable ensemble cast.
And it's got a, my favorite horror movies are ones
where the characters are smart. They make smart decisions. There's
no moment where you're like, fuck, don't do that. Like
my wife and I watch a different horror movie every night.
You're like, no one would do that. And this movie
(19:42):
is not that. These are smart people making logical, rational choices.
And sometimes it works out and oftentimes it doesn't. That's...
my favorite kind of horror it's like i would do
the same i would think the same way i would
do those things and it still doesn't work out that's fucking.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Hard yeah yeah for sure yeah so how does a
project like this differ for you creatively than you know
doing a practical joker's like what about this is something
that Stretches you in a different way.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I mean, one could argue that jokers is hard, man.
The aforementioned Empire State. Yeah, I've gotten four process exams.
My eyebrows shaved, my nipples pierced, dove with sharks, flew
outside of an airplane. You know, the stuff that Tom
Cruise did in Mission Impossible. I did that before he did,
you know, skydives. Uh, everything, everything. So, uh, I, I
(20:30):
think that comedy, but seriously, I do think that comedy
and horror are very similar, you know, the same kind
of rhythm and beats, uh, and, uh, a lot of
what writing horror is, is putting yourself in the mindset
of an impossible situation. and these characters that live very
different lives, but we do that on jokers, right? I've
been a dentist, doctors, lawyers, uh, cashiers, waiters, any profession
(20:53):
you can think of hosts, uh, podcasters, any profession you
can think of, I have done for a day, you know?
So you put, you, you, for 16 years now. So
you find yourself like putting yourself in the mindset every
single day on set of inhabiting other people in their
lives and what they think about, um, and then drawing
(21:14):
strangers into your world. Right. So it's, uh, it's, and
jokers is cut with cliffhanger endings to come back from
commercial break. Just like don't move as written, same kind
of cliffhanger endings, keep you going, pay, turn the page
again and again and again. And the movies were in
the same way and perform the same way. You just, it,
the pace is, relentless. It starts with this crazy intense
(21:35):
scene at the beginning, then you settle into it, meet
our characters, and you like our characters, fall in love
with your characters, and then when the horror starts again,
it just goes. And it's got a great cliffhanger ending,
my favorite kind of horrors. So I think the skill
set from comedy to horror is very comparable.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, I would agree too. And you're right, there's a
lot of comedy in certain genres of horror, sub-genres of horror,
we'll say. Like, I grew up on the Scream franchise.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You know what I mean? There's so much kind of
Cheeky comedy in that, but in some really horrifying moments.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Can I ask you a question?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You're on the last Spirit Airlines flight to take off
from Dallas-Fort Worth. It makes the wrong turn. For some reason,
it goes over the South Pacific. It crash lands on
an island. You're the only survivor. On the island, you're
going to be there for the next 50 years of
your life. No rescue. There's food, water. On the island,
for some reason, is an old tube TV that's solar
(22:29):
powered and a VCR that's solar powered as well. You
get to choose one horror movie. Now, you have to
think this through because if you choose, you don't want
to choose something that's going to scare the shit out
of you for the next 50 years. You want to
choose a great horror movie that you can enjoy for
the rest of your life. What is it?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I know what it is. And I'm going to choose
it because it's nostalgic and will make me feel like
I'm home because it's the first horror movie I ever saw.
And I watched it with all my cousins down at
the Jersey Shore on a hot summer and stormy night.
So it will make me feel like I'm home. And
one of my best friends is in it. So I
would choose I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Oh my gosh. Who's your friend?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah. And I would feel like at least I'm with
you know, family and friends watching it. And it's a
great movie. I mean, it's great.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's great. It's great. I, uh, we're friends with Freddie
Prince jr. And I was just texting about the LA
premiere of don't move and, uh, see if you can come.
And did you see that? What'd you think of, uh,
the new one that just came out?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I was, I covered it. I was another cover. I
wanted more Julie James. I wanted more Julie James. I
want like a her and Carla spin off.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Great kills though.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Great kills. Great kills. Yeah, no, it was great.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So good choice, man. I go, I go aliens, James
Cameron sequel to alien or I go, uh, Oh no,
I can't, I can't. My favorite horror movie is the descent,
which about a group of women that go into a
cave system and there's these humanoid creatures, but that was
scared the shit out.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Of me on the island. What's the matter with you?
Hell no. Cause you know, there's all funky animals. All right. Aliens, solid.
Chances are an alien's not going to come down and
zap you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I don't think so. Well, you never know.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I guess you never know. Murr, what I also love
about you is, you know, you've had this incredibly successful career.
You have this movie out, but making a movie, isn't
easy for anybody.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
No, it's hard as hell.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
You feel like you had to prove yourself and show like, yeah,
even though I do have the success, like I can
do this because did you not feel like the industry
was welcoming you with open arms and moviemaking and championing you?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I don't know what your experience has been in the industry.
I think our experience is probably typical in that you don't,
got to do it yourself yeah i mean that's what
impractical jokers was people.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Might think oh this guy is so famous from this
show he's gonna get any movie made oh no way
big studio executive here's money go make it it's not
how it works that.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Is not how it works i don't i i assume
it does work that way for lots of some people
you know tom cruise and things like no for us
our experience has always been just i mean there's a
song in the movie russ's song excuse my language, but
the song is called fuck it. I'll do it myself.
I mean, his entire career is that, you know, bucking
the studio recording system and just as an independent artist
(25:12):
and he's world famous now, you know, um, that's been
our history too. Like, you know, it's, uh, we were 34.
We got on TV and we don't look like you,
you know what I'm saying? I look like a pharmacist, man.
I look like you should come in cause your prescriptions
is ready. You know, I look like your tax guy,
you know, like, and so our history and entertainment has
always been just like, do it ourselves, man. Like, and
(25:34):
find we, I don't care about the a hundred nose.
I care about the one. Yes. Yeah. You know, that's
what it's always been. So no making movies hard as hell,
just like jokers has been hard as hell too. We like,
it was never given to us, never promised. Um, we
worked our asses off for it in a movie. Same thing.
It's been four years making the movie. It took us
a year to raise money, a year to make the movie,
(25:55):
a year to edit the movie, and now launching the
movie has been a monumental task. Every one of those steps,
all four, have been a mountain to climb of not
a promise, nothing given. It's hustle, hustle, hustle. Which is
why there's an expression. My job before Jokers was I
(26:17):
ran development for a TV company. I rose up my
career selling TV shows, uh, and working my ass off
for 10 years. And there's an expression in TV development that, um,
you know, instantly based on the, the, the deal, if the,
a show TV show will go the distance, whether it
has good DNA or not, like how hard the negotiation
is for when you sell a TV show, we'll tell
(26:38):
you everything you need to know about the team in it,
the creative team, the producers, the actors in it, the performers,
the talent in it, I should say, um, not necessarily
the actors, the network you're dealing with, you know, everything
by that DNA, whether the show's got good DNA or not. Um,
jokers has great DNA. The reason you can tell is
that our crew has been our crew for 15 years.
(27:00):
Like they don't leave this. It's mind blowing to me
that like, like, they've made their entire career on this show, uh,
be the ride along with us. And our hearts are
in it. Their hearts are in it. The movie is
the same thing, man. Like our hearts are in it,
like cues in it. I'm in it. Like the team
around it, like it's a, a passion project. And the
(27:21):
reason for that is that like, in my mind, if
you're out there, if you want to see a great
horror movie and you spend six bucks a gallon on
gas and and you get a babysitter for the night,
and you and your husband or wife go to see
the movie, you better be damn sure we busted our
asses to make a great movie. A movie that I
would watch, and I think is entertaining, and I love horror,
(27:43):
and if it's good for me, we would watch it,
and it scares the shit out of me, and makes
me cry, and makes me move, and be like, whoa,
that was, that it's gonna, I promise you it's gonna
do the same for you, you know? Like that's the
kind of energy and passion we put into impractical jokers
is what we put into the movie is what we
put into our live tour is what we put into
don't move, you know, because, uh, and that's why like, uh,
(28:07):
this is a cool thing. I don't know if anybody
else does this, but like for the jokers movie that
came out six years ago, the guys and I split
up across America and, And we're popping into movie theaters
to thank people. And I'm doing the same thing for
Don't Move. I'm on tour right now for Don't Move.
So I'm hitting hundreds of theaters all of September. I
took the whole month off from touring to pop in
and surprise fans. So it doesn't matter what part of
(28:28):
the movie you're in. The movie will freeze. The lights
will come up. I'll come in and take photos of
everybody and thank them for coming to see it. That's
my promise to you, man. If you're busting your ass
to get to see a movie time in your local theater,
I want to be there to thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
And it's such a labor of love. I mean, you
put so much into it and I imagine a part
of you, and maybe not, but I would imagine a
small part of you at least wants this to be
so successful, so successful because you believe in it and
love it. But also for all those people that said
no along the way, or didn't believe in your vision
for this or thought, Oh, you're the comedy guy. What
do you, what can you can make a horror movie?
It would be pretty sweet to be like, I told you.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Well, that's human nature in general. That's anybody. Yeah. I
think I'm pretty, uh, like I've written so many horror
books that have done well. Like I think it's, uh, it's,
not strange that I'm doing, you know, it wasn't like,
like that, but, um, yeah, but it's a monumental task
to launch a movie, man.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So do you want to star in movies going forward?
Do you have the itch to be like a leading man?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
No, no, it's not like that. You have leading man looks.
I got like, I got support character written all over me, man.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
You could be a great leading man.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Uh, like, uh, I think that I just don't fit
any of the roles and don't move. So, you know,
but also like, you know, your skillset, like I love
creating something and I love selling something and producing something,
you know? Uh, and I love performing in, in, in
practical jokers, you know, I think it's definitely our sweet spot.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah. You know? More movies coming your way.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
One day, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I feel like you're going to, well, at least you'll
adapt more.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, we're going to do You Better Watch Out, my
newest one. We're going to make that into a movie next.
I got to go back to work for Jokers next year.
And then when we finish the next season, I'll shoot
You Better Watch Out.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
That's so cool. That's so cool. Like I said, when
do you sleep? You have so much going on right now.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I already told you. The aura ring says I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You don't. You actually don't.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Jeez, man.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Man, at this point in your career, you've conquered the
comedy side, obviously. You're conquering the movie world. Is there
anything left for you to conquer? You're conquering it. How
many people can say they have a movie out, man?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's a cool thing. Don't diminish it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Like it's a big thing. So you are conquering it.
You are. So what, what left is there for you?
I mean, what, what do you like? Okay. When you're
in that hospital with Alzheimer's, as you said, what do
you want to be like? I did that too.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
This is the human condition. This is the problem, right?
Is that we got 70, 80 years. Gosh, darn it, man.
I know. Like, was that a crazy? Yeah. It's crazy. So,
but there's a lot. I mean, we travel all the
time because I think it's really important to see the world,
you know, because you get one shot. One shot and
then it's gone. So you got to travel, meet everyone
(30:59):
you possibly can. I still have a million ideas I
want to do. Books, movies, graphic novels, TV show ideas.
There's just not enough time. I know. I farm. I
want to garden. You know, we grow everything. I'm raising
three precocious puppies. Kids one day. There's so much.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So much. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, that's good. And I like that you said a
lot non-work related. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's life.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
It's important, right? You can't just have one identity that's
only work.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
It's dangerous when you do that, I think.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Although the guys got me good, man. When we were
filming the Empire State Building, I'm out there for an hour, right?
Repelling down 30 stories, then repelling back up. And I
finally get back up. The guys are on 102 looking
out the glass. I have to get back up to
104 to get onto the top of the Empire State,
the tippy top, right? And so when I come back up,
I've been out there an hour. I get up to 102.
(31:47):
I can see them through the glass and the cameras
shooting through me, you know, and they have my wife
there and my wife holds up a sign. It's the
end of the punishment. She holds up two signs. The
first sign said, please stop doing this, which is a
call back to something she said last season. And then
she rotates the sign and says, I'm late. It's not true.
It was just to fuck with me. But I was like,
it would be so wild if that's how I found out.
(32:09):
I'd be the only person in Earth's history to find
out their wife's pregnant by dangling from a skyscraper, looking
through the glass at her. And in the moment, I
was like, are you? And she goes, no, it was
just that they got me, man. They freaking got me.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
What a great joke.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You know, my husband works on Good Morning America, and
he rappelled down the Empire State Building, too.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
No, he did not.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
It's when Jared Leto was doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Oh, yeah, yeah. So he did that after.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And for him, it was live during the show.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So he had to like hang and dangle during commercial
break for like four minutes until the cameras came back.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
That's the, that's what they don't tell you, man.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Like dangle.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
So I'm out there like 50 minutes. We have enough footage.
We got to get everything we need. And I'm like,
then I need the floor or 89th, whatever. And so
they great era high fives. We got enough. Let's reel
them back up.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And what they don't tell you is that the winch,
the ropes go like this fast.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And no one's looking at me anymore. The drone flew away.
Camera guys high-fiving. The guys walked back into the Empire
State from the observatory. And it's just me and the
rigger on top in 104. And I'm going up like this.
I'm like, you motherfuckers. Anything can still go wrong. And
it takes 15 minutes to get back up to the top.
I'm like, that was... existential dread.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah. And were you, were you afraid at all or no?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, I was, I was terrified. I had three distinct reactions.
Stepping foot was terrifying. I had tears. And then I,
then there's an expression I live by. If you can't
get out of it, get into it. So when I
was out there, now you have to trust the ropes,
trust the gear. And then I realized that Sal is
freaking out more than I am on the outside. And
then I started to have fun. So then I started dabbing,
(33:53):
doing the Macarena. I'm not holding the ropes anymore. I'm
swinging like a pendulum when I'm down 20 stories, you know,
just to freak Sal out, you know? And then, uh,
then when I come back in an hour later, then
I had another tears again, when I was back in
the building, when I saw my wife, I saw the guys,
our crew, our family, you know, tears again. And then
(34:14):
the next reaction I did not plan on the next day,
Wednesday morning, I wake up is last Tuesday, Wednesday morning,
wake up. And I woke up and I was like,
what the fuck did I do last night? And because
if you believe in, you know, if you're a quantum
physics fan, you believe that every choice you make splits
the universe off into different directions. If you believe in
(34:36):
multiverse or what have you. So did the universe just
split off? And thank God I'm in the one where
I lived. But did I just die in another universe?
You know, who knows? Thank God we're here.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, yeah. And you'll, I mean, to be able to
say you're one of the few people who actually rappelled
down the Empire State Building, pretty epic. Yeah. That's pretty epic.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That's pretty cool, man.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Man, you're living your wildest dreams. I mean, look at
everything you've accomplished, everything you've done. A lot of people
look up to you because you are someone who's not
only putting out amazing, incredible work that they love, but
you're doing things in a way that makes us feel
like we can achieve what we want to achieve too.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Thank you. It's too much, too much of that bullshit.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
No, but it's true, man. So for people listening, I mean,
a lot of people have dreams and they think it
will never happen. What would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Uh, I mean, you, like I said, you get one shot,
you know, at life. Might as well live it.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah. That's kind of your motto.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Life's meant to be lived. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah. That's a good reminder.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Good reminder, man. Um, as we wrap up the conversation,
the name of the show is called, I've never said
this before. Okay. And I cover a lot of red carpets,
a lot of premieres and they're so quick and you
have two minutes with someone, four minutes if you're lucky. And,
You know, it's very, it's just to me a very
transactional kind of interview. And I wanted to create a
space for amazing people and artists to come and breathe
(35:54):
and relax and say things that mean things to them.
So I end every interview with the same question, which is,
what is something you've never said before?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It's a really good question. I watched a bunch from,
you know, from other guests you've had. I'll tell you
something I've never said before. I'll tell you the hardest
decision of our lives. I lost my dad a few
years ago to Alzheimer's. He struggled with it for a
long time. My wife and I run an Alzheimer's charity
as a result. It's a 95 charity. We raise money
(36:22):
for Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research. But my mother died
right before my father, like two, three months before, because
she died from the stress of dealing with, caring for
her husband of 50 years, struggling with Alzheimer's. So she
died way too young. She died 15 years before. And
the hardest decision, something I've never said, The hardest decision
(36:43):
of our lives, my sisters and I, or for me personally,
was choosing not to tell my father that his wife
had passed away. My mom had passed away. She died
maybe three months before him from the stress of dealing
with him. And so he went in the hospital at
the same time. And that was very hard. As a family,
as my sisters and I, making the choice to lie
(37:06):
to your own father in the last three months of
his life, because he was too far gone at that
point to really understand it anyway. That was hard. That
was a tough one. I've never said that before.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That was a, but I will say you talk about
the power of comedy. Um, my father to the day
he died, um, he didn't remember us anymore. Didn't certainly
didn't remember in private, you know, the TV show, but
to the day he died, he could still quote every
Frank Sinatra lyric. Uh, if you put a model train
magazine in his hand, he's still light up. I own
(37:35):
a model train club called Pacific Southern railway. It's a
nonprofit train club. Uh, if you put on impractical jokers, uh,
he was in many episodes of the show over the
past 15 years, right? Uh, he didn't recognize himself on TV,
but he'd be sitting there, uh, in, uh, we had
him in the end toward, uh, in a, uh, great
kind of, uh, you know, home. And, we'd be there
(37:59):
in the lobby watching impractical jokers on TV, which they
play all the time there anyway, because it's funny. They,
you know, they love it. And, um, and he would
not recognize himself on TV, but he'd still be, tears
of laughter streamed down his face watching the show.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So you're talking about like impact. That's pretty cool, man.
To me as a son that didn't remember the show anymore,
didn't recognize himself in the show, but we'll still be laughing.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And that's pretty cool to see what you were doing
was bringing him so much joy.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah. That's pretty cool. Time is pretty, you know, made
a tough time a little bit more bearable.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah. I think that's really cool. And thank you for
sharing that. I think a lot of people listening who
are going through something similar, you know, it's, it's, it's
not an easy decision to make. It's, it's, that's one
of the hardest decisions you've ever had to make in
your life. I'm sure. Um, but I'm sure you made
it knowing that at the end of the day, you
were also protecting your dad.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
And, and it would have been, I guess my, my
last question about that is, did he keep asking about
his wife? No, no. So it's not like you had
to keep reliving.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
No, it was gone. Those members are gone. So, you know,
we made the choice as a family not to why
upset him, you know, further. So yeah, no. Yeah. You know,
but that's why we raise money for Fisher Center. It's
a great organization. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
How can we find out more about that?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know, we do a charity event every year. My
wife and I, we do. I just got to, you know,
we always post it on my social. It's so easy
to find. We do it fall of every year. And
there's another one. We just had one. There's another one
coming up next year. But you'll see me post about
it on social media. Come join us for the party.
It's a great night. Huge party we throw. raising money
(39:30):
we've raised uh like over $ 300, 000 already for official centers.
It's a great organization.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Look at you putting out good work in the world
and also doing good, my man.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Thanks, buddy.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
It's such an honor to hang out with you. Everybody
has to go watch Don't Move.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, it's in theaters right now all across America. It's
in like 500 theaters. Go to don'tmovemovie.com to see the
map of America and where you can go see it.
And for an indie movie like this, we busted our
asses to make it. I promise you'll have a great
date night watching it.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
And we're so sorry for him reigniting your fear of
spiders because it's going to happen. It's going to happen.
Thank you, brother.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You got it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you. I've Never Said This Before is hosted by me,
Tommy D'Addario. This podcast is executive produced by Andrew Puglisi
at iHeartRadio and by me, Tommy, with editing by Joshua Kolodny.
I've Never Said This Before is part of the Elvis
Duran Podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts. For more, rate, review,
(40:28):
and subscribe to our show. And if you like this episode,
tell your friends. Until next time, I'm Tommy D'Addario.
Hey guys, welcome to I've Never Said This Before with me,
Tommy D'Addario. James Murray, aka Murr. Man, he is arguably
one of the funniest comedians in the world. Now, we
all fell in love with him right from his hit
show Impractical Jokers. It's a show in which his oldest
friends pull pranks on each other and they embarrass themselves
(00:21):
in front of unsuspecting everyday people. And just when you
feel like you've seen it all in the show, well,
a new episode drops. Now, Murr is also flexing his
horror muscle as the co-writer and producer of Don't Move,
which is out right now. It's a movie based off
his best-selling book of the same name. Whether Murr is
making us laugh or making us jump out of our
(00:42):
skin out of fear, one thing is for sure, he
continues to bring us so much joy. And this conversation,
it's going to show a side to him like you've
never seen or heard before. So, let's see if today
we can get Murr to say something that he has
never said before. James, how are you, my man?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm good. How are you, buddy? I got to start
by saying you have arguably the best hair I've ever
seen in my life. And I've seen good hair. I've
also seen very bad hair.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I wouldn't say you have bad hair. You have a
very nice shaped head.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You have a good head.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
You have a good head on your shoulders. So not
everyone could rock that kind of a style.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I don't think I'm rocking anything. I don't feel much
like a rock star.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Thank you for the compliment. That's a high praise as
an Italian boy who has used every hair product in
his life.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Where in Italy is the family from? Do you know?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, there's a small town called Dragone by Naples. So
we've actually been.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Oh, Napoli Don?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I'm Sicilian.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And Irish. Unfortunately, it's the upper half of the Sicilian.
The lower half is Irish.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Best of both worlds.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Here we go. It's the worst of both worlds.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm trying to throw you a bone here, man.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Well, thank you for hanging out. What do you want
me to call you? James? Murr?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You're my friend? My friend's going to be Murr?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Murr. So you don't get tired of Murr. You like Murr.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I've been called Murr my entire life.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So is it weird to hear James?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It is weird. But I introduced myself because I'm not
a jerk. I'm like, hi, I'm James. You know how
to say hi, I'm Murr. I'm not Madonna. What are
we doing?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Some might argue you are Madonna. I don't know. I
don't know. Well, thank you for hanging out. You have
such an incredible career and there's so much going on
that we're so excited about.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Like, don't move.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And we're going to dive into all of that. But
to kick off this conversation, let's celebrate you for a
minute and everything you've built and everything you've done.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You look scared. I haven't built anything.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
You look afraid.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, I did plant tomatoes. That's the only I've built. Like,
I have a nice garden.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, more than I planted.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
But I helped. create stuff. Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
No, you, you bring so much joy to so many
people through your work. You really do. And obviously your
comedy is top tier and people love it so much.
What would you say is one of the most surprising
things about being a comedian that we wouldn't know?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Uh, one of the most, uh, let's see. Well, we
have a really unique situation with impractical jokers in that
a lot of comedians, when they hit, they're on the road,
they're touring, selling out your big places, what have you,
but they're on the road alone. Right. I have a
really unique situation that these are my best friends for
37 years now. You know, I met them first day
(03:10):
of high school, you know? So like, it's a really
interesting scenario in that, like my job for 16 years
now is just hanging out with my friends, which I
would do anyway. So it's a really kind of unique experience,
you know, it's been a wild ride that I just
get to like, even when we're on tour, we're not
touring alone. I'm with my best friends. When I'm filming
the TV show, just hanging out with my best friends,
(03:31):
you know? And after we've done filming, go see a
movie together with my friends. You know, it's a uniquely,
a lot of people say that comedians can have a
very lonely lifestyle. It's the opposite of that. Really? That's
pretty cool. Interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So how did you know those dudes were like the
right fit for you? Cause not everybody could work with
their best friends and travel and be around each other
all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Uh, it's, I mean, you have so much history together. Uh,
they're my high school friends. And I think those are
the lifelong friends you keep, you know what I mean? And, uh,
we grew up, I think in a very unique time,
Staten Island, the eighties and nineties, no cell phones, no
social media. All you did, you came back from high school.
You came back from school. Your mom said, be back
before dark. And your parents had no clue where you're going.
(04:11):
And you're out with your friends playing manhunt in the
woods and stealing tennis court nets and dumb stuff. The best.
The best stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
I feel bad for kids that don't grow up like that.
Like I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world.
It was the best.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
You grew up in Jersey?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, I grew up in Jersey. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I'm 40.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So I grew up without, I was kind of that
technology era.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
It was just coming around. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Right. So like I got to experience those long days
of summer and not being on a screen and it
was the best. Yeah. It was the best. Yeah. So
much so I'm like, do I want a flip phone?
So I'm not on my phone all the time. And
then everyone's like, who? No, you don't. You definitely don't.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We, uh, we just did it. It hasn't aired yet.
We just did a bit on jokers where, uh, we
have a flip phone and we're sitting in a waiting
room with next to a mark and, and we get
a call from our wife and we say, Oh, Oh, okay. I'll,
I'll listen. I'll take a listen. Turn to the market.
Excuse me. you might've asked your opinion. My kid just
released a song on streaming platforms and my wife says,
you have to listen to it. It's really embarrassing. You
(05:05):
have to get our kid to take it down, but
I got a dumb smart flip phone. Can you play
it on your phone? So the market was like, yeah, sure, man.
They go into Spotify, what have you. And they look
up the song, and the songs were insane. The graphics
are insane, made by our kid, you know? And you
have to listen to it for the first time in
front of the mark and not break laughing. And it's
(05:26):
absolutely cringeworthy and hysterical.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Oh, I can't wait for that. That's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The songs are outrageous.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
That's the magic of what you guys do. It's so cool.
And even the marks and all of that, it's not ever...
planned or staged, right?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, it's all improv.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's all improv.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
We, we plan in that, like, like we wrote the
songs for each other to surprise each other, but we
haven't heard the songs before. Right. So when I get
out there in the waiting room, I'm hearing it for
the first time as the mark, you know, and it's,
it's constructed to mess with me, you know, uh, or,
you know, get my Achilles heels or something like that.
So it's, uh, but at the end of the day,
we have no idea how the Mark's going to react,
(06:02):
what we're going to say. It's all improv, you know,
that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Do you ever get tired of being the funny guy?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
No, no, it's not like that. My only job is
to make my best friends laugh. You know, I'm not
thinking of... anything else. And I know that if they're
laughing and they're the funniest guys, I know that people
will like it too. You know, I have to trust that.
We always said, like we created the show 16 years ago.
We always said, if we're ever not truly laughing, we're
not having fun. We will stop doing the show. And dude,
(06:30):
I was, uh, on the way here today, I was
doing editing notes for an upcoming episode and I had
freaking tears. Like, uh, it was a, it'd be upcoming punishment.
It'll air in a few months. They turned me into
like one of those looks maxing guys that like get
the jaw surgery and the whole thing. And they had
me in prosthetics for like five hours and I look crazy, man.
I look nuts. And they had a room full of
(06:51):
people debating with me on the merits of looks maxing.
And I have to defend these crazy stances and positions.
And I had tears, man. It was so funny. So
the day that stops happening, we'll stop doing the show.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Well, I mean, even sitting across from you, you're lighting
up talking about it.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Yeah, it's fun, man. I texted the guys. I texted them.
I literally, I'll share the text. Because it was so funny.
I'm doing editing notes. I texted Sal and Q in
the car. I said, this is outrageous. I sent the
clip from the episode. And Q says, it's so funny.
I don't think there's ever been, you know, it goes
into the specifics of the punishment, but It's just cryingly
(07:30):
funny stuff, man.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That's sick. And that's why it's still so popular because
you guys clearly enjoy it. Like it's not like you're
doing something like, all right, we're milking this and we
don't really want to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And we're just showing up. That's something that I think
most people don't know about impractical jokes. Most shows you
get cast in a show, you show up, do your lines,
leave six months later, you see it on TV and
whether you have no idea if it's good or not,
that has never been, nor will it ever be impractical jokers.
To this day, and it's been 16 years making the show,
to this day, we spend months writing the material. We
(08:02):
write 25 pages of jokes per challenge, and then we
throw it out the window. Because when you're improvising, you
have no idea what's going to happen. You don't know
who's going to walk into White Castle, what they're going
to say, how they're going to react. So ostensibly, it's
an improv show, right? But we still do the work,
come up with all the challenges, all the punishment ideas.
revising them writing tons thousands of jokes over 16 years
(08:24):
that we try plan secretly from each other to tell
each other what to do and then we throw out
of the window and roll with it and then we
film the show and then after we film on set
we go through everything we just did and highlight what
we think we did best and then post starts editing
the show and then i'm Editing the show every day,
like with post, like we're getting cuts. We're doing an
(08:46):
internal rough cut before the network sees it, taking stuff
from the cutting floor, put it back in the episode,
taking stuff out of the episode that was in the cut.
And then we do a rough cut, a picture lock,
a fine cut, picture lock, and go so far as
sometimes the day of the episode. So a new episode
airs on Thursday this week, right? So sometimes it's happened
(09:08):
many times over the years that something still wasn't right.
And we'll pull an episode out of picture lock the
day of air, recut a scene to make it right.
And then race the hard drive from Knoxville, Tennessee to
Atlanta where the network broadcast headquarters is and to hit
the 10 o'clock airtime, you know? So like, and then
it airs on TV and then it's out in the world,
(09:30):
you know? So, and that's been 16 years. And I don't,
can't think of any talent on any show that is
that involved to the frame of everything that gets on TV.
And the reason for that is that our hearts are
still in it, man. They've always been at it because it's,
it's not, you're not playing a character. I'm playing myself, Murr,
you know, Sal, Sal, Q's Q. Like we, we, it's
(09:52):
us on screen, you know, so it has to be great.
And I think the audience can tell when uh, the writers,
the performers are not, their hearts aren't in it anymore.
And that has never been, nor will it ever be
in practical jokers.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Does your mind ever stop?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
No sleep at night.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
When you hit your head, it's a pillow. Are you
able to shut it off?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I don't, I might, might. So a few years ago,
the network has a gift. Give us aura rings. You know,
when we finished the season, it was the best worst
gift ever. So I wear it and every day I
look at my or ring stats and my wife and
I compare. And my wife's or ring sets are amazing.
She's like 98%, like sleep efficient. She's getting like nine
hours of sleep a day. Mine are always horrifying. My,
(10:33):
this is not a bad night. I got six hours,
not bad, but like yesterday, four hours, 56, the night
before five hours, 15. And it's just, it's like it
and the, uh, the, the, the ordering trends are crazy.
It's like, um, it's like, uh, it's going to be
all right. It says, which is horrifying. Don't tell me that, man.
(10:54):
It's the best, worst gift. It's going to.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Be all right. I wore an aura ring for three
nights and threw it out.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The anxiety it gave me.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Cause I would go to bed and I'm not like
a problematic sleeper. And my head would be like, what
is the data saying? What is it saying? I moved.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Am I fucked? Like it was the worst thing ever.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I know. It's like, it's like existentially. Like what happened?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I don't know if a type a person should wear one.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I know I did it for a long time, but
then I got hurt of the new one that just
came out. So I was like, all right, put mine
back on. And it's just depressing, man.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Don't wear it.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, do wear it. It's a great product. If
Aura wants to sponsor me, I'm all ears. Let's talk.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
My producer's like, don't bash it, Brian. I'm not bashing you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It is an amazing product, I will say. But for
somebody that's a high energy, naturally high energy guy, it
is soul crushing.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, I feel you. I feel that way also about smartwatches.
It's too much for me, my ADD. I can't handle it.
I can't handle it. Wow. I mean, what a body
of work you've done with the show. And to kind
of put a pin on this portion of the conversation,
when you think of all the seasons, all the work,
In this moment of your life, is there one where
you're like, if I can show anyone this episode.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I'll tell you what, like, I think about that all
the time. Like, like many years from now, we have kids.
I die of Alzheimer's in my eighties. And, and, and
my grandkids won't know. They're like, Sure, Grandpa, you were
on TV for many years. Like, I'm telling you, it was.
Because when my father died, he had Alzheimer's. He died
of Alzheimer's, right, a few years ago. And when he died,
(12:19):
the disease had kicked in in such a way that
his brain started combining things that shouldn't be combined, right?
And so I know for a fact that he met
John F. Kennedy. He was a serviceman. He was lined
up on Fulton Street downtown. And Kennedy goes by, and
he shook his hand, right? I know this is the
real story. But as the disease took hold... my father's
brain combined stories. And so he was telling us it
(12:41):
was wildly entertaining. We were crying, laughing. He said that
he was running alongside the motorcade with Kennedy. I said, dad,
you were not in Dallas in 1960. That didn't happen.
Like I know what his brain did. Right. And so
I know what's going to happen in my brain is
the same thing. And my grandkids would be like, sure, grandpa, you,
I don't know if you know this, but last week,
(13:02):
you're not gonna believe what I'm going to say. I,
they dressed me as a human mop. And I stepped
foot off the 103rd floor of the Empire State Building,
dangling by a rope, and I rappelled down to the
90th floor and used my own body to clean the glass.
They called it the Miracle on 34th Street. It'll be
the mid-season premiere in January. And I know that I'm
(13:23):
going to be in an old age home. at 85
years old telling my grandkids, I once cleaned the outside
of the Empire State Building. And they'd be like, fuck you. No,
you didn't, Grandpa. There's the Alzheimer's. I'm like, no, I
actually did this shit. They're not going to believe me.
Nor should they. So there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
You've had a lot of outrageous moments.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
How do you explain that? Like, you know, like 40
years from now, my grandkids will be like, no, you
didn't do that. Grandpa, you were not in Dallas running
alongside Kennedy. Okay. It's going to be the same situation.
So maybe my father wasn't Dallas. Who knows?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You never know. The problem with you is you have
so many of those stories to choose from that. You're
going to keep spitting them out and they're going to
be like, you're fucking crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I know. It's just grandpa. There's nuts. Grandpa again.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Oh my God. Well, that's all.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And then there's another funny, I'll tell you in the future.
So do you watch, I think you should leave. The
Tim Robbins, Tim Robinson show on Netflix. It's so funny, right?
It's such a sketch comedy show. So funny, but there's
a very famous sketch in it that went viral. And
it's very, it's such a quotable show, which I think
jokers is too, where he's like, I almost killed myself, Julie.
(14:26):
And I have a shirt that says, I almost killed myself, Julie. Right.
And so my wife and I say back and forth
all the time to each other. Her name is Melissa.
I'd be like, Julie, Julie, which is what Tim Robinson
says on the show. So I can just imagine 30,
40 years from now, I'm in an old age home,
I've lost my mind, and I keep calling for a
woman named Julie. And people are like, oh my God,
Grandpa must have had an affair. He's calling for another woman.
(14:48):
It's not Grandma's name, but it's just a quote from
I Think You Should Leave. We joke about it all
the time.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
So what you're saying is you're going to look so
crazy no matter what one day. Yep. All right. Inevitable.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I'm calling for Julie who doesn't exist. Sure, Grandpa, you
climb the Empire State Building. Sure.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
This is why I think, hey, your grandkids are going
to think you're the coolest person in the world. They're
going to come to realize this isn't fake. This is
all real. And you have so much to show them.
You have so much for your work. 13 seasons, which
is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
It is cool to do something real that exists, you know,
that outlasts your lifetime. Isn't that the dream of anything?
To somehow leave the world in a better shape in
some way?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Especially this day and age when everything is so crazy
that you know what you're putting out is actually impacting
people's joy.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, I like that. The biggest compliment I think we
get is that, like in the old days, you'd turn
on TV during dinner. It's a show that the whole
family can agree on. And there's no agenda. There's no politics.
There's nothing. It's just a half hour of just good fun, man,
to turn your brain off and just laugh.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Have you ever been tried to be pushed into the
political world? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I always, I think the guys that are in lockstep,
we consider ourselves and the show to be like an
Island of positivity in what could be a very tough world, man.
You know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, we need it. We really need it. And you're also,
I mean, because you're not busy enough, And I don't
know if everybody knows this, but you're a pretty prolific writer. Yeah.
You're up to nine novels?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Nine horror novels out now. I got my 10th one.
It'll be a co-written book with R.L. Stine. It comes
out next year. The 11th one comes out in 2028.
It was a sequel to my latest book, You Better
Watch Out, that did really well. But yeah, I've written
nine horror novels to date.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
So what got you into that?
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I love horror as much as comedy. And I went
to school for fiction writing. And I always wanted to
be a writer. But I wrote my first book 25
years ago. I wasn't on TV. Couldn't get anybody to
read it. I spent a year writing this thriller. I
naively thought I could just get it published. I sent
it out to every publishing house in New York City.
It got returned to me unopened. I didn't have an agent, manager,
(16:58):
nothing like that. I wasn't famous. And so it's a
year of my life. This pulse-pounding thriller set in the
subways of New York City, sat on my computer for
15 years. Then many years later, Impractical Joker, so and
so forth. We're on set one day and Q's like,
you know, Murr, why don't you do something with a
book you wrote? It was really good. He read it,
loved it. And so I sent the same book into HarperCollins.
(17:19):
They bought the trilogy. It hit number one in the
UK Sun and Times. and bestseller list across America. And
it launched this whole like literary career. And now we've
got nine books out. My fifth book, Don't Move, came
out five, six years ago. Did really well.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Best selling fifth book.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, it did really well for the publisher. And so
we adapted it into a screenplay and it comes out
in theaters. It's in theaters now.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
It came out a few days ago in theaters.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Do you know people's deepest fears are spiders?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And you are fucking with people so hard with this story.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's it, man. That's it. It's about a church group
from Chicago. that goes on their annual summer camping trip
to the Ozark wilderness, this kind of pristine forest in
the middle of nowhere, no one in any direction for
50 miles, no civilization. And they wander into the wrong woods, man,
because these woods are inhabited by this kind of prehistoric,
massive creature that has evolved outside of evolution, you know?
(18:13):
Humanity did not touch it, you know? And it can
hunt them by the vibration they make in the forest.
And so it's spun these invisible webs. And anytime they
brush through a web, the creature can locate where they
are and hone in and spin tighter circles around them.
And the only choice is if you can't move, what
(18:34):
do you do as the circle gets tighter and tighter
around you? Your only option is to not move. It's
pretty terrifying. It's got a killer cast, too. It's got
an interesting cast. So the lead actor in the movie
is the rapper Russ, who has never been in a lead,
never had a lead role in the movie before. And
he's so immensely likable and charming. And opposite him is
(18:58):
Lindsay Fonseca, who is in every Hallmark movie you've ever seen.
And she's just endlessly charming and likable. And they're putting
these impossible odds. And then with them in the cast
is Tom Cavanagh. T-Pain is in the movie in a
serious role, which is wild to see. Rob Riggle is
hysterical in the movie. Q from Impractical Joker is in
the movie. I have a brief cameo. So the movie
(19:20):
is like, it's got a really dynamic, interesting, likable ensemble cast.
And it's got a, my favorite horror movies are ones
where the characters are smart. They make smart decisions. There's
no moment where you're like, fuck, don't do that. Like
my wife and I watch a different horror movie every night.
You're like, no one would do that. And this movie
(19:42):
is not that. These are smart people making logical, rational choices.
And sometimes it works out and oftentimes it doesn't. That's...
my favorite kind of horror it's like i would do
the same i would think the same way i would
do those things and it still doesn't work out that's fucking.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Hard yeah yeah for sure yeah so how does a
project like this differ for you creatively than you know
doing a practical joker's like what about this is something
that Stretches you in a different way.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I mean, one could argue that jokers is hard, man.
The aforementioned Empire State. Yeah, I've gotten four process exams.
My eyebrows shaved, my nipples pierced, dove with sharks, flew
outside of an airplane. You know, the stuff that Tom
Cruise did in Mission Impossible. I did that before he did,
you know, skydives. Uh, everything, everything. So, uh, I, I
(20:30):
think that comedy, but seriously, I do think that comedy
and horror are very similar, you know, the same kind
of rhythm and beats, uh, and, uh, a lot of
what writing horror is, is putting yourself in the mindset
of an impossible situation. and these characters that live very
different lives, but we do that on jokers, right? I've
been a dentist, doctors, lawyers, uh, cashiers, waiters, any profession
(20:53):
you can think of hosts, uh, podcasters, any profession you
can think of, I have done for a day, you know?
So you put, you, you, for 16 years now. So
you find yourself like putting yourself in the mindset every
single day on set of inhabiting other people in their
lives and what they think about, um, and then drawing
(21:14):
strangers into your world. Right. So it's, uh, it's, and
jokers is cut with cliffhanger endings to come back from
commercial break. Just like don't move as written, same kind
of cliffhanger endings, keep you going, pay, turn the page
again and again and again. And the movies were in
the same way and perform the same way. You just, it,
the pace is, relentless. It starts with this crazy intense
(21:35):
scene at the beginning, then you settle into it, meet
our characters, and you like our characters, fall in love
with your characters, and then when the horror starts again,
it just goes. And it's got a great cliffhanger ending,
my favorite kind of horrors. So I think the skill
set from comedy to horror is very comparable.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, I would agree too. And you're right, there's a
lot of comedy in certain genres of horror, sub-genres of horror,
we'll say. Like, I grew up on the Scream franchise.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Oh, sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You know what I mean? There's so much kind of
Cheeky comedy in that, but in some really horrifying moments.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Can I ask you a question?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You're on the last Spirit Airlines flight to take off
from Dallas-Fort Worth. It makes the wrong turn. For some reason,
it goes over the South Pacific. It crash lands on
an island. You're the only survivor. On the island, you're
going to be there for the next 50 years of
your life. No rescue. There's food, water. On the island,
for some reason, is an old tube TV that's solar
(22:29):
powered and a VCR that's solar powered as well. You
get to choose one horror movie. Now, you have to
think this through because if you choose, you don't want
to choose something that's going to scare the shit out
of you for the next 50 years. You want to
choose a great horror movie that you can enjoy for
the rest of your life. What is it?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I know what it is. And I'm going to choose
it because it's nostalgic and will make me feel like
I'm home because it's the first horror movie I ever saw.
And I watched it with all my cousins down at
the Jersey Shore on a hot summer and stormy night.
So it will make me feel like I'm home. And
one of my best friends is in it. So I
would choose I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Oh my gosh. Who's your friend?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah. And I would feel like at least I'm with
you know, family and friends watching it. And it's a
great movie. I mean, it's great.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's great. It's great. I, uh, we're friends with Freddie
Prince jr. And I was just texting about the LA
premiere of don't move and, uh, see if you can come.
And did you see that? What'd you think of, uh,
the new one that just came out?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I was, I covered it. I was another cover. I
wanted more Julie James. I wanted more Julie James. I
want like a her and Carla spin off.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Great kills though.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Great kills. Great kills. Yeah, no, it was great.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
So good choice, man. I go, I go aliens, James
Cameron sequel to alien or I go, uh, Oh no,
I can't, I can't. My favorite horror movie is the descent,
which about a group of women that go into a
cave system and there's these humanoid creatures, but that was
scared the shit out.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Of me on the island. What's the matter with you?
Hell no. Cause you know, there's all funky animals. All right. Aliens, solid.
Chances are an alien's not going to come down and
zap you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I don't think so. Well, you never know.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I guess you never know. Murr, what I also love
about you is, you know, you've had this incredibly successful career.
You have this movie out, but making a movie, isn't
easy for anybody.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
No, it's hard as hell.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
You feel like you had to prove yourself and show like, yeah,
even though I do have the success, like I can
do this because did you not feel like the industry
was welcoming you with open arms and moviemaking and championing you?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
I don't know what your experience has been in the industry.
I think our experience is probably typical in that you don't,
got to do it yourself yeah i mean that's what
impractical jokers was people.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Might think oh this guy is so famous from this
show he's gonna get any movie made oh no way
big studio executive here's money go make it it's not
how it works that.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Is not how it works i don't i i assume
it does work that way for lots of some people
you know tom cruise and things like no for us
our experience has always been just i mean there's a
song in the movie russ's song excuse my language, but
the song is called fuck it. I'll do it myself.
I mean, his entire career is that, you know, bucking
the studio recording system and just as an independent artist
(25:12):
and he's world famous now, you know, um, that's been
our history too. Like, you know, it's, uh, we were 34.
We got on TV and we don't look like you,
you know what I'm saying? I look like a pharmacist, man.
I look like you should come in cause your prescriptions
is ready. You know, I look like your tax guy,
you know, like, and so our history and entertainment has
always been just like, do it ourselves, man. Like, and
(25:34):
find we, I don't care about the a hundred nose.
I care about the one. Yes. Yeah. You know, that's
what it's always been. So no making movies hard as hell,
just like jokers has been hard as hell too. We like,
it was never given to us, never promised. Um, we
worked our asses off for it in a movie. Same thing.
It's been four years making the movie. It took us
a year to raise money, a year to make the movie,
(25:55):
a year to edit the movie, and now launching the
movie has been a monumental task. Every one of those steps,
all four, have been a mountain to climb of not
a promise, nothing given. It's hustle, hustle, hustle. Which is
why there's an expression. My job before Jokers was I
(26:17):
ran development for a TV company. I rose up my
career selling TV shows, uh, and working my ass off
for 10 years. And there's an expression in TV development that, um,
you know, instantly based on the, the, the deal, if the,
a show TV show will go the distance, whether it
has good DNA or not, like how hard the negotiation
is for when you sell a TV show, we'll tell
(26:38):
you everything you need to know about the team in it,
the creative team, the producers, the actors in it, the performers,
the talent in it, I should say, um, not necessarily
the actors, the network you're dealing with, you know, everything
by that DNA, whether the show's got good DNA or not. Um,
jokers has great DNA. The reason you can tell is
that our crew has been our crew for 15 years.
(27:00):
Like they don't leave this. It's mind blowing to me
that like, like, they've made their entire career on this show, uh,
be the ride along with us. And our hearts are
in it. Their hearts are in it. The movie is
the same thing, man. Like our hearts are in it,
like cues in it. I'm in it. Like the team
around it, like it's a, a passion project. And the
(27:21):
reason for that is that like, in my mind, if
you're out there, if you want to see a great
horror movie and you spend six bucks a gallon on
gas and and you get a babysitter for the night,
and you and your husband or wife go to see
the movie, you better be damn sure we busted our
asses to make a great movie. A movie that I
would watch, and I think is entertaining, and I love horror,
(27:43):
and if it's good for me, we would watch it,
and it scares the shit out of me, and makes
me cry, and makes me move, and be like, whoa,
that was, that it's gonna, I promise you it's gonna
do the same for you, you know? Like that's the
kind of energy and passion we put into impractical jokers
is what we put into the movie is what we
put into our live tour is what we put into
don't move, you know, because, uh, and that's why like, uh,
(28:07):
this is a cool thing. I don't know if anybody
else does this, but like for the jokers movie that
came out six years ago, the guys and I split
up across America and, And we're popping into movie theaters
to thank people. And I'm doing the same thing for
Don't Move. I'm on tour right now for Don't Move.
So I'm hitting hundreds of theaters all of September. I
took the whole month off from touring to pop in
and surprise fans. So it doesn't matter what part of
(28:28):
the movie you're in. The movie will freeze. The lights
will come up. I'll come in and take photos of
everybody and thank them for coming to see it. That's
my promise to you, man. If you're busting your ass
to get to see a movie time in your local theater,
I want to be there to thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
And it's such a labor of love. I mean, you
put so much into it and I imagine a part
of you, and maybe not, but I would imagine a
small part of you at least wants this to be
so successful, so successful because you believe in it and
love it. But also for all those people that said
no along the way, or didn't believe in your vision
for this or thought, Oh, you're the comedy guy. What
do you, what can you can make a horror movie?
It would be pretty sweet to be like, I told you.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Well, that's human nature in general. That's anybody. Yeah. I
think I'm pretty, uh, like I've written so many horror
books that have done well. Like I think it's, uh, it's,
not strange that I'm doing, you know, it wasn't like,
like that, but, um, yeah, but it's a monumental task
to launch a movie, man.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So do you want to star in movies going forward?
Do you have the itch to be like a leading man?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
No, no, it's not like that. You have leading man looks.
I got like, I got support character written all over me, man.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
You could be a great leading man.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Uh, like, uh, I think that I just don't fit
any of the roles and don't move. So, you know,
but also like, you know, your skillset, like I love
creating something and I love selling something and producing something,
you know? Uh, and I love performing in, in, in
practical jokers, you know, I think it's definitely our sweet spot.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah. You know? More movies coming your way.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
One day, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I feel like you're going to, well, at least you'll
adapt more.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Yeah, we're going to do You Better Watch Out, my
newest one. We're going to make that into a movie next.
I got to go back to work for Jokers next year.
And then when we finish the next season, I'll shoot
You Better Watch Out.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
That's so cool. That's so cool. Like I said, when
do you sleep? You have so much going on right now.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I already told you. The aura ring says I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
You don't. You actually don't.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Jeez, man.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Man, at this point in your career, you've conquered the
comedy side, obviously. You're conquering the movie world. Is there
anything left for you to conquer? You're conquering it. How
many people can say they have a movie out, man?
Speaker 2 (30:23):
That's a cool thing. Don't diminish it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Like it's a big thing. So you are conquering it.
You are. So what, what left is there for you?
I mean, what, what do you like? Okay. When you're
in that hospital with Alzheimer's, as you said, what do
you want to be like? I did that too.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
This is the human condition. This is the problem, right?
Is that we got 70, 80 years. Gosh, darn it, man.
I know. Like, was that a crazy? Yeah. It's crazy. So,
but there's a lot. I mean, we travel all the
time because I think it's really important to see the world,
you know, because you get one shot. One shot and
then it's gone. So you got to travel, meet everyone
(30:59):
you possibly can. I still have a million ideas I
want to do. Books, movies, graphic novels, TV show ideas.
There's just not enough time. I know. I farm. I
want to garden. You know, we grow everything. I'm raising
three precocious puppies. Kids one day. There's so much.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So much. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, that's good. And I like that you said a
lot non-work related. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That's life.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
It's important, right? You can't just have one identity that's
only work.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
It's dangerous when you do that, I think.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Although the guys got me good, man. When we were
filming the Empire State Building, I'm out there for an hour, right?
Repelling down 30 stories, then repelling back up. And I
finally get back up. The guys are on 102 looking
out the glass. I have to get back up to
104 to get onto the top of the Empire State,
the tippy top, right? And so when I come back up,
I've been out there an hour. I get up to 102.
(31:47):
I can see them through the glass and the cameras
shooting through me, you know, and they have my wife
there and my wife holds up a sign. It's the
end of the punishment. She holds up two signs. The
first sign said, please stop doing this, which is a
call back to something she said last season. And then
she rotates the sign and says, I'm late. It's not true.
It was just to fuck with me. But I was like,
it would be so wild if that's how I found out.
(32:09):
I'd be the only person in Earth's history to find
out their wife's pregnant by dangling from a skyscraper, looking
through the glass at her. And in the moment, I
was like, are you? And she goes, no, it was
just that they got me, man. They freaking got me.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
What a great joke.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
You know, my husband works on Good Morning America, and
he rappelled down the Empire State Building, too.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
No, he did not.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
It's when Jared Leto was doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Oh, yeah, yeah. So he did that after.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And for him, it was live during the show.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So he had to like hang and dangle during commercial
break for like four minutes until the cameras came back.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
That's the, that's what they don't tell you, man.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Like dangle.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
So I'm out there like 50 minutes. We have enough footage.
We got to get everything we need. And I'm like,
then I need the floor or 89th, whatever. And so
they great era high fives. We got enough. Let's reel
them back up.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
And what they don't tell you is that the winch,
the ropes go like this fast.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
And no one's looking at me anymore. The drone flew away.
Camera guys high-fiving. The guys walked back into the Empire
State from the observatory. And it's just me and the
rigger on top in 104. And I'm going up like this.
I'm like, you motherfuckers. Anything can still go wrong. And
it takes 15 minutes to get back up to the top.
I'm like, that was... existential dread.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah. And were you, were you afraid at all or no?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah, I was, I was terrified. I had three distinct reactions.
Stepping foot was terrifying. I had tears. And then I,
then there's an expression I live by. If you can't
get out of it, get into it. So when I
was out there, now you have to trust the ropes,
trust the gear. And then I realized that Sal is
freaking out more than I am on the outside. And
then I started to have fun. So then I started dabbing,
(33:53):
doing the Macarena. I'm not holding the ropes anymore. I'm
swinging like a pendulum when I'm down 20 stories, you know,
just to freak Sal out, you know? And then, uh,
then when I come back in an hour later, then
I had another tears again, when I was back in
the building, when I saw my wife, I saw the guys,
our crew, our family, you know, tears again. And then
(34:14):
the next reaction I did not plan on the next day,
Wednesday morning, I wake up is last Tuesday, Wednesday morning,
wake up. And I woke up and I was like,
what the fuck did I do last night? And because
if you believe in, you know, if you're a quantum
physics fan, you believe that every choice you make splits
the universe off into different directions. If you believe in
(34:36):
multiverse or what have you. So did the universe just
split off? And thank God I'm in the one where
I lived. But did I just die in another universe?
You know, who knows? Thank God we're here.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yeah, yeah. And you'll, I mean, to be able to
say you're one of the few people who actually rappelled
down the Empire State Building, pretty epic. Yeah. That's pretty epic.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That's pretty cool, man.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Man, you're living your wildest dreams. I mean, look at
everything you've accomplished, everything you've done. A lot of people
look up to you because you are someone who's not
only putting out amazing, incredible work that they love, but
you're doing things in a way that makes us feel
like we can achieve what we want to achieve too.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Thank you. It's too much, too much of that bullshit.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
No, but it's true, man. So for people listening, I mean,
a lot of people have dreams and they think it
will never happen. What would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Uh, I mean, you, like I said, you get one shot,
you know, at life. Might as well live it.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah. That's kind of your motto.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Life's meant to be lived. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah. That's a good reminder.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
Good reminder, man. Um, as we wrap up the conversation,
the name of the show is called, I've never said
this before. Okay. And I cover a lot of red carpets,
a lot of premieres and they're so quick and you
have two minutes with someone, four minutes if you're lucky. And,
You know, it's very, it's just to me a very
transactional kind of interview. And I wanted to create a
space for amazing people and artists to come and breathe
(35:54):
and relax and say things that mean things to them.
So I end every interview with the same question, which is,
what is something you've never said before?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
It's a really good question. I watched a bunch from,
you know, from other guests you've had. I'll tell you
something I've never said before. I'll tell you the hardest
decision of our lives. I lost my dad a few
years ago to Alzheimer's. He struggled with it for a
long time. My wife and I run an Alzheimer's charity
as a result. It's a 95 charity. We raise money
(36:22):
for Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research. But my mother died
right before my father, like two, three months before, because
she died from the stress of dealing with, caring for
her husband of 50 years, struggling with Alzheimer's. So she
died way too young. She died 15 years before. And
the hardest decision, something I've never said, The hardest decision
(36:43):
of our lives, my sisters and I, or for me personally,
was choosing not to tell my father that his wife
had passed away. My mom had passed away. She died
maybe three months before him from the stress of dealing
with him. And so he went in the hospital at
the same time. And that was very hard. As a family,
as my sisters and I, making the choice to lie
(37:06):
to your own father in the last three months of
his life, because he was too far gone at that
point to really understand it anyway. That was hard. That
was a tough one. I've never said that before.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That was a, but I will say you talk about
the power of comedy. Um, my father to the day
he died, um, he didn't remember us anymore. Didn't certainly
didn't remember in private, you know, the TV show, but
to the day he died, he could still quote every
Frank Sinatra lyric. Uh, if you put a model train
magazine in his hand, he's still light up. I own
(37:35):
a model train club called Pacific Southern railway. It's a
nonprofit train club. Uh, if you put on impractical jokers, uh,
he was in many episodes of the show over the
past 15 years, right? Uh, he didn't recognize himself on TV,
but he'd be sitting there, uh, in, uh, we had
him in the end toward, uh, in a, uh, great
kind of, uh, you know, home. And, we'd be there
(37:59):
in the lobby watching impractical jokers on TV, which they
play all the time there anyway, because it's funny. They,
you know, they love it. And, um, and he would
not recognize himself on TV, but he'd still be, tears
of laughter streamed down his face watching the show.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So you're talking about like impact. That's pretty cool, man.
To me as a son that didn't remember the show anymore,
didn't recognize himself in the show, but we'll still be laughing.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And that's pretty cool to see what you were doing
was bringing him so much joy.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah. That's pretty cool. Time is pretty, you know, made
a tough time a little bit more bearable.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah. I think that's really cool. And thank you for
sharing that. I think a lot of people listening who
are going through something similar, you know, it's, it's, it's
not an easy decision to make. It's, it's, that's one
of the hardest decisions you've ever had to make in
your life. I'm sure. Um, but I'm sure you made
it knowing that at the end of the day, you
were also protecting your dad.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
And, and it would have been, I guess my, my
last question about that is, did he keep asking about
his wife? No, no. So it's not like you had
to keep reliving.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
No, it was gone. Those members are gone. So, you know,
we made the choice as a family not to why
upset him, you know, further. So yeah, no. Yeah. You know,
but that's why we raise money for Fisher Center. It's
a great organization. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
How can we find out more about that?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know, we do a charity event every year. My
wife and I, we do. I just got to, you know,
we always post it on my social. It's so easy
to find. We do it fall of every year. And
there's another one. We just had one. There's another one
coming up next year. But you'll see me post about
it on social media. Come join us for the party.
It's a great night. Huge party we throw. raising money
(39:30):
we've raised uh like over $ 300, 000 already for official centers.
It's a great organization.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Look at you putting out good work in the world
and also doing good, my man.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Thanks, buddy.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
It's such an honor to hang out with you. Everybody
has to go watch Don't Move.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, it's in theaters right now all across America. It's
in like 500 theaters. Go to don'tmovemovie.com to see the
map of America and where you can go see it.
And for an indie movie like this, we busted our
asses to make it. I promise you'll have a great
date night watching it.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
And we're so sorry for him reigniting your fear of
spiders because it's going to happen. It's going to happen.
Thank you, brother.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
You got it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you. I've Never Said This Before is hosted by me,
Tommy D'Addario. This podcast is executive produced by Andrew Puglisi
at iHeartRadio and by me, Tommy, with editing by Joshua Kolodny.
I've Never Said This Before is part of the Elvis
Duran Podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts. For more, rate, review,
(40:28):
and subscribe to our show. And if you like this episode,
tell your friends. Until next time, I'm Tommy D'Addario.
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