James Murray (Murr) of Impractical Jokers called into The Bobby Bones Show to talk about how the show started, if people ever recognize them in public and more!
It’s been 13 years since Impractical Jokers first aired, and the cast has become household names, making it difficult for them to sometimes get away with their pranks. Murr said they don’t look like your typical famous person and more like pharmacists, so to the average person you wouldn’t look at them and think they were famous. But they do get recognized a lot in public, which causes them to move things around and wait for someone who does not recognize them. The cast of Impractical Jokers has been friends since high school, and they always knew they wanted to be comedians. They started doing comedy in high school and college and were really bad at it for a while, he admitted. When they came up with the show idea, they didn’t want it to be like your typical prank show where you feel bad for the people who involuntarily get pranked in public. So, they spun it around, so the joke is on them. They thought approaching it that way would make it much more enjoyable to watch.
The show has negatively impacted their life as well. They were banned from Costco and a Six Flags theme park in New Jersey for many years but have since been welcomed back to both. There was also the time Murr got assaulted by someone he tried to pull a prank on. He was in a department store and went up to a very large man and held up a bra saying his girlfriend was the same size as him so he was seeing if it would fit. The man punched him in the face with his cellphone, giving him a black eye, and then chased him around the store. It took three security guards to stop him. It was the only time in the show's history one of them had been assaulted, but Murr admitted he deserved it because they took it a little too far. It’s also had some negative impacts on their friendship. Working together with your friends can be difficult but they’ve found ways to manage it over the years. Murr said they are too old to make new friends, so what is he going to do? Their relationship was forged in fire in high school, and they’ve been friends for so long that when they do fight, they just say screw it and then go get some food together.
Impractical Jokers are currently on tour and Murr describes their live shows like hanging out with your best friends. There is a lot of crowd interaction, and he shares a story from his wedding that happened two years ago that he said may be the reason why the lead singer of Smash Mouth left the band. The Impractical Jokers cruise is also happening in January of 2024. It’s a week-long party with the guys from the show and their biggest fans. Everyone is hanging out, singing, and putting on shows. Murr said he’s never made a dime from the cruise because he’s spent it all on liquor.