Impractical Joker Joe Gatto | This Past Weekend #234
Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/ThisPastWeekend_ Theo sits down with one fourth of the Impractical Jokers Joe Gatto to talk about Joe’s life before the show, when Theo and Joe met, and Joe’s love for dogs. Joe Gatto https://www.instagram.com/joe_gatto/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This episode brought to you by MyBookie Visit https://MyBookie.ag and use code THEO to double your first deposit Capterra Visit https://Capterra.com/Theo to try for free ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find Theo Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEKV_MOhwZ7OEcgFyLKilw ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Producer Nick https://instagram.com/realnickdavis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music “Shine” - Bishop Gunn http://bit.ly/Shine_BishopGunn ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gunt Squad www.patreon.com/theovon Name Aaron Rasche Adam White Alaskan Rock Vodka Alex Hitchins Alex Person Alex Petralia Alex Wang Alexa harvey Andrew Valish Angelo Raygun Annmarie Reilly Anthony Holcombe Ashley Konicki Audrey Hodge Ayako Akiyama Ben Deignan Ben in thar.. Benjamin Herron Benjamin Streit Bobby Hogan Brandon Woolsey Christian Coyne Christina Peters Christopher Becking Claire Tinkler Cody Cummings Cody Kenyon Cody Marsh Crystal Dan Draper Dan Perdue Danielle Fitzgerald Danny Crook David Christopher David Witkowski Dentist the menace Diana Morton Dionne Enoch Doug C Dusty Baker Eric Tobey Faye Dvorchak Felicity Black Gillian Neale Ginger Levesque Grant Stonex Greg Salazar Gunt Squad Gary J Garcia Jamaica Taylor James Briscoe James Hunter James Schneider Jameson Flood Jayme Sta Jeffrey Lusero Jeremy Siddens Jeremy Weiner Joakim Joaquin Rodriguez Joe Dunn Joel Henson Joey Piemonte John Kutch Johnathan Jensen Jon Blowers Jon Ross Jordan Josh Cowger Josh Nemeyer Joy Hammonds Justin Doerr Justin L justin marcoux Kennedy Kenton call Kevin Best Kirk Cahill kristen rogers Kyle Baker Lacey Ann Laszlo Csekey Lawrence Abinosa Lea Rashka Leighton Fields Luke Bennett Madeline Matthews Mandy Picke'l Marisa Bruno Matt Nichols Meaghan Lewis Mike Mikocic Mike Nucci Mike Poe Mona McCune Nick Roma Nikolas Koob Noah Bissell NYCWendy1 OK Qie Jenkins Ranger Rick Robyn Tatu Rohail Ruben Prado Ryan Hawkins Sagar Jha Sarah Anderson Sean Scott Secka Kauz Shane Pacheco Shona MacArthur Stephen Trottier Suzanne O'Reilly Theo Wren Thomas Adair Tim Greener Timothy Eyerman Todd Ekkebus Tom Cook Tom Kostya Tugzy Mills Tyler Harrington (TJ) Vanessa Amaya Victor I tuck back and sit down to pee Johnson II Vince Gonsalves Vlog Master William Reid Peters Yvonne Zeke HarrisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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You know him, he's one of the impractical jokers and this guy has probably made more people laugh than anybody.
Maybe any I'm trying to think of somebody that tickles people that's real famous.
I don't even know, but he's probably one of the top 40 or 50 funniest people that you've probably ever even heard of or not heard of.
And he's here today.
He has a new show on TBS called Misery Index.
He has countless seasons of his hit show, The Impractical Jokers.
He's one of the Tenderloins, and that's their original group of improvists.
Ladies and gentlemen, my guest, my friend, Mr. Joe Gatto, or Gatto.
I'm not sure I'm going to ask him right now.
Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you about stories Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you about stories What island is that?
How does that rank amongst other islands, you think?
Oh, they call it the Caribbean of the New York Harbor.
That's cool, man.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I got to go to Staten Island, man.
You've never been to Staten Island?
I don't think I've been there.
I mean, I always hear you guys talk about it, you know, and you hear a lot of people talk about it, you know.
Most people go through it because it's the connector between Brooklyn and Jersey or Long Island and Jersey, you know.
So a lot of people go through it.
But a lot of people, it's the free way to see the Statue of Liberty.
Oh, really?
Yeah, you can take the Staten Island Ferry, which is free.
Yeah.
As opposed to the Liberty Ferry, which takes you to Liberty Island.
And you have to get off and look at the feet of it.
And when you're there, there's nothing to do.
So you can get a good look at it.
Right.
So you get the best look from the ferry.
So you see everybody on one side of the boat on the way there and then one side of the boat on the way back.
Dude, you used to work on the ferry, didn't you?
No.
Did you?
Work on a ferry?
Yeah, did you ever?
Time was tough.
Yeah, I have panhandled for a while.
Didn't you a long time ago or no?
No, no.
I didn't work on the ferry.
Yeah, I thought somebody told me that.
What was a job that you had that you actually missed?
That was a long time ago.
I love sales.
I was in sales all the time.
Yeah, when I came out here to Chase the Dream, I was going to be a screenwriter director.
That's where I hope I'm hoping to end up.
And I came out here to do that in 2003 to 05, and I ended up working at Nordstrom's at the Grove.
Oh, wow.
And I crushed the retail game for a while.
Did you really?
Yeah, I crushed it.
What was one of your go-to moves that somebody wandered in?
I worked in the rail, which is the men's section that sells high-end jeans and t-shirts and all that stuff, right?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
That's a quality section.
It's a quality section.
Yeah.
We actually put it on the map.
I don't want to brag.
I was a platinum pace setter salesman.
Number five across the country anyway.
Yeah, $1 million in a year, but that's neither here or there.
I mean, who's bragging?
No one.
And you guys are selling some real wild stuff in there.
Yeah, it was like when Von Dutch hats, I put one on everybody.
I didn't give up.
Even newborns, huh?
Even stillborns.
That's it, man.
You know, a dollar is a dollar.
And I worked on commission.
That was a $60 hat.
It was.
I used to do the thing because we worked in the men's section when I had a great scheme.
It's all commission.
No hourly.
No hourly.
You don't get paid if you don't sell, right?
So that was it.
It seems illegal.
I think it is.
I think it is.
Wow.
So I did.
That's like drugs.
That's almost like drug trafficking.
Which is vest.
Yes, it is.
But it's vest.
Past the Von Dutch.
So I did the, I had like girlfriends who would come in with their boyfriends.
And when the boyfriends would come to shop, and I'd be like, oh, and you, I'm sure you need some jeans too.
Let me take you upstairs and introduce you to Chelsea.
And I would go up there and I would have a deal with Chelsea upstairs.
Like, whatever you sell them, I get 50% of.
Damn.
And it was such a great scheme because you could sell anything in the store.
And then eventually I became known there as like, cause I was fun and funny, you know, and I didn't really, I'm pretty good with people and I could sell anything.
So somebody would be like, oh, I need a watch.
I'm like, yeah, I know, I know watches.
I walk over, I get a key from some guy.
I'd be like, I got it.
I got you over here.
You know, you got the guy on a Nordic track somewhere on the fifth floor.
They sell like Teslas at the Grove now.
There's a Tesla inside the Nordstrom.
There's a Tesla.
I was like, do you guys, can we sell Teslas?
Because I'll go back.
Forget TV, man.
I'm coming back to sell Teslas.
You start wandering.
You make deals all across the Grove.
So you're wandering out of Nordstrom, just a personal shopper.
Then I got recruited.
I got poached from Nordstrom to this high-end.
It's called HT Buttercup.
It's a furniture.
I opened that store.
Did you really?
I did.
I was their first personal shopper.
Dude, it's pricey over there.
It's crazy.
And I worked out a deal with them that, like, because they have little, their setup was called Manu Tailors, right?
So they have little stores within a big store.
So it's a huge, kind of like that Fred Segal.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
So they had that whole setup.
And I was like, oh, okay.
So I want to sell the whole store.
And they're like, oh, no, you would just work for this one company.
I'm like, oh, that's not what I was told in the interview.
And they're like, what?
I was like, well, I'm just going to sell everything.
So I would just walk around and sell everything to anybody who walked in the door.
And I actually helped Jessica Alba with like rugs.
Like that was my big thing for a while.
I like helped her.
She was there with her brother.
And I helped her with like some rugs and stuff.
And I was like my claim to fame for a while.
And I went around and I was like, yeah, I sold rugs to Jessica.
Like, you know, I just jumped it up.
Magic carpets, we call them.
But they had an antique section, and there was one guy that worked for it.
This is at HD Buttercup.
That HD Buttercup inside one of the man who tells was an antique guy.
Okay.
And it's all commissioned there, too.
I worked at a deal where it was hourly plus commission.
So I got like 3% or 5%.
I think I got 5% there.
And I said, okay, I was like, you know, whatever I sell, I'll get 5% of it.
And this guy, and I was like eating tuna fish.
Like, you know what it's like when you move out of here.
Like, I had a peanut butter.
I couldn't afford the jelly.
It was like peanut butter sandwiches.
Yeah.
And then squeeze the packet of jelly into your mouth.
I would get a bite of the peanut butter sandwich and then squeeze a little bit of the jelly.
Yeah, just fill your pockets at any kind of stuff.
Popeyes had great jelly, too.
Some places have shady jelly, I thought.
But that's a different chat.
I don't know if he wants to get into that now.
Let's come back.
We'll circle back.
Yeah, let's say.
So we're at HD Buttercup.
You got the antique section.
So what happened?
What was that?
So I don't know.
I don't know shit about antiques.
The guy goes on break.
He's like, hey, I got to go pick up my daughter.
I think I had to pick up his daughter from school or something.
He's like, do you mind just watching us till we close?
Nobody ever went in.
Oh, listen to all the white privilege in that guy's life, huh?
His daughter's at school.
Yeah, he's like, I gotta go pick her up, but whatever he had to do, or he had a doctor appointment or a funeral.
I can't remember.
If he's antique, it is probably a funeral.
Probably he'll do a little bit of fun.
He's like, let me go get a bureau, right?
So he goes on break and a woman Walks in.
I was like, Oh, could you help me with?
She's like, I'm looking for an antique chest.
And I'm like, sure.
So I walk in and I hadn't hardly ever walked into this because I didn't know anything about it.
Yeah.
And there's only so much you could fake.
Right.
So I get in and she's like, Yeah, this is from a battle shoot.
Yeah, right.
Like it's all this smells like Lincoln.
I'm like, yeah, this has got mahogany and Lincoln.
That's what this is right here.
I'm just throwing out terms.
So she's like, she walked in and she fell in love with this like amoir, this like big.
Oh, yeah, those are real nice.
And I was like, oh, this is nice.
She's like, oh, I think my husband will like this.
It was like, I think it was like an anniversary gift or something.
I was like, okay.
I was like, I could get you the information.
She's like, oh, no, I'll take it.
And this guy's on lunch and I work on commission, 5%.
And I'm like, all right.
And I look at the price.
I go was $40,000.
And I was like, where would you like that delivered?
And that was like, and you put it on your back.
I was like, I got an Uber for it.
It was back in the day, so there wasn't even that.
Like, I'll carry this.
I will walk all of Culver City for a week.
You had to know a couple Tongans or Hawaiians to fucking make it.
You know what I'm saying?
That was furniture.
It's a big talk.
But before they came here, there was this furniture that stayed where it was.
Like you, you moved to the furniture.
This isn't a dresser.
I live here now.
Yeah, but that was my big thing.
And then I moved back to New York.
And so whenever you moved, when you made that move back to New York, had you kind of given up on some of that dream a little bit?
Was it a little bit of that move?
Because I mean, we've all done a little bit of that move at some point, I think.
There was a point I was out here for like six years, and then I moved back to Louisiana for a while, and I was doing margaritas or something, or making margaritas at a real halfway house of a fucking tacotyria.
It was like a tacos, like this real shady cafe with tacos, and then they had a bar like hooked to it.
Really?
Yeah, and they had the margarita machine, and I broke it.
I said, did the settings wrong and then had to pretend like it wasn't broke, dude?
It was like Johnny Buffett's margarita bill.
Yeah, it was real shady.
What awful.
Yeah.
It was like, yeah, it was like Che Wuevara's margarita bill or something.
People are like, this is interesting.
So when you moved back, was it because of My grandmother and my mother became widows together, like within like five days of each other.
So they always had each other.
So my mom was like alone now.
So I felt like, you know, and you know what?
I was like, it's at my grandmother's funeral, actually.
My hand was kind of forced.
At my grandmother's funeral, I had come in from L.A. And I said, I said to my mom, I was like, you know what, maybe I'll move back to New York, just out loud, like just stream a car.
I was like, oh, maybe I'll move back to New York in a little bit.
And she started crying and hugging me and said, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I was like, okay, I guess I'm moving back to New York.
Like, I can't be like, back off, lady, you know?
So I was like, all right, I'll move back.
So I decided I didn't.
And you guys are pretty close, you and your mom?
Yeah, we were.
Yeah.
So at that point, you don't really have a choice then if you guys are close and she wants you back.
Yeah, so I came back and I moved back into her basement as good 30-year-old sons do.
Yeah.
Fire up the record player.
Yeah, we, we, it's the same basement actually where before I moved, this is where the tenderloins used to rehearse.
Mike Connie Boys.
We used to rehearse down there.
Me, Salmar, and our friend Mike used to, before we did our shows, we used the same basement.
So I ended up living where I was doing improv rehearsal.
So, you know, I was in a good mental space.
And I ended up getting a job because of out here in retail at that.
One of the manu tailors there brought me into a show at the Jacob Javit Center.
It was just this big furniture show at the Javits Center, like where people come to meet new, you know, vendors and stuff.
Okay, where's Javit Center?
It's in Manhattan.
It's the big conference center there in Manhattan.
So it's like the design center here or whatever, you know, like one of those, where they have those big conferences, huge.
You know, it's where Comic-Con is in New York.
Right.
So they I decided to work, help her out with this thing.
And I'm just, you know, selling bullshitting and just selling all this stuff to people who are coming in who open in stores.
And this one woman came up to me.
Her name was Allie, and she was the CEO of a new store called Giggle, a baby store.
And so I started selling her some stuff.
And she really liked it.
Well, you could easily sell something to a baby.
Yeah, man.
You know, the money they have, though.
You just have to make it look cute, shake it, make sure it makes noise?
Yeah.
Don't shake the baby, the toy.
Wow.
Dude, kids nowadays.
They're resilient.
Yeah.
Well, they had this lady the other day, and she goes, man, these children, her kid was being bad.
She goes, these children act like they've been here before.
That's what she said.
That's a great saying.
Well, they got nothing to lose.
They don't know any better.
I was like, that is kind of true.
And some of these little assholes, they just act like they've been here.
Yeah, it's funny because between my son and daughter, I'm always like, oh, she acts super different.
My daughter is four.
My son's two.
And my two-year-old son acts completely different than my two-year-old daughter did.
Like, my daughter was all prim and proper.
Like, you go, like, you know, go color.
And she'd sit in the corner for four hours.
We'd just like coloring with a crayon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The little women, I feel like, yeah, they have, they want to change the world.
You know, they have some inkling of like, you know, hope and stuff.
And the boys, a lot of them are violent.
Violent and dumb, just running around, knocking stuff over.
Yeah.
That's my boy.
That's my remote.
It's almost crazy to watch him.
You're like, what is going on?
These kids are nothing.
They're bananas.
You kind of want to pull them over and be like, listen, you don't know things yet, but this is what you're doing now.
What's going on?
You do it.
Dude, my little nephew used to hide on top of shit, like on bookshelves and shit and be real quiet and fucking surprise you, bro.
Yeah, and he was like 19 months old.
I'm like, that's insane.
There's no way he got up there by natural causes.
No, no.
You know what I'm saying?
This dude ain't no fucking.
He's so seek that out.
He's like, this is, we're going to make something happen right now.
Oh, you could tell he definitely been like envisioning being up on that shelf and he just woke up there one morning.
You know, this ain't no free solo baby right here.
It's all about the angle.
He's like, you're the most damage.
Come down strong.
Oh, yeah, dude.
He was really.
Yeah, some of these children, they're just wild.
They got the Edgar Allan Poe in them, you know?
Something's going on.
They got dirty birds in the back of their brain.
But so now, Tenderloins, now, one story that I love about you guys' group of impractical jokers is that Tenderloins is y'all's original group.
And was there members that we don't know about?
Were there other members?
Because you mentioned the guy, Mike.
Yeah, there was two that we brought on.
Mike was the original.
Mike Boccio.
Went to high school with him as well.
And Quinn.
Just Quinn, you know, cute.
He didn't go that way.
And Botch actually got a job and grew up and got married and everything, like before all of us, like he became a grown-up.
And the rest of us were trying to do improv and it just didn't match with his schedule anymore.
Like we would want to shoot on a Wednesday at like five, you know, four o'clock.
He's like, guys, I'm at work.
Like, what are you talking about?
I can't be there.
You know, so he just kind of went the way and was very successful in family and love and money on his own way.
You know, he runs like he's in a PR, in a PR, and stuff.
So, we see him all the time.
Oh, nice.
So, friends with him and stuff.
Wow.
Is it not hectic, but is it like, is it interesting to think, like, oh, if he would have been there, does he ever like, do you guys ever lament on it a little bit?
I mean, we always go down there.
Like in a positive way?
Yeah, yeah.
We always go down like the what if, like, what if it was there?
Or what if there was five?
Like, what if Q came on and him?
Like, it's not more even like a Q or him.
It's more like, oh, what if?
Because a lot of this, Q was a huge part of the puzzle for us because we had moved into video and scripting and writing stuff.
And Q is a very strong writer and public story and stuff.
So he helped us with that part of the deal, like the really different kind of humor than us a little bit at that time.
We were really corny.
And he was like, you know, fun corny.
Like people liked it.
But like he was like, oh, what if we like, gave it a little edge, you know, yeah.
A little dark, which sometimes was just fun too.
Like, yeah.
And the combination of all of our sensitivities, I think, really was the right perfect, you know, we were making a margarita.
Right.
You know, that was the right.
If you're making a janky ass margarita.
Yeah.
You can't have the baby powder like somebody.
And was, so anybody else?
Was there a there was a guy that jumped in for a little bit, Gideon, who was an actor friend of ours that moved to New York from Florida.
Oh, friend of ours, and he filled in for a little bit too.
And he was like a fifth while Botch was still with us.
Have you ever done an episode where you guys had them pop in or anything?
No, we actually used Botch's daughter, Sienna, in one of the times where sometimes we take her to the park and we have our daughter as an actress or whatever.
And we used Botch's daughter, Sienna.
That's cool.
And we did it twice.
We did something.
We just did something recently with her.
I don't think aired yet with her as well.
We brought her back to Surprise Sal and stuff.
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah.
So they're in the mix.
You know, we see talk and stuff.
But it's fun to, you know, the tenderloins is really what I came back to.
So like when I didn't.
And you got back home, you got it.
That was a tenderloin.
Yeah, we came back in and I was like, okay, so I'm back now.
Because when I was away for two years, like we, they didn't do any live shows.
They only did a show when I came home.
So I came home, I think I did two or three shows where I came home.
I'm like, hey, I'm home.
Let's put a show up.
And we put an improv show up and we'd go and do it.
But besides that, it was kind of defunct.
It didn't really.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You had everybody there.
Yeah.
So now I was like, Joe's back.
He's like, all right, what are we doing?
And then we got into like, that's when MySpace took off and all the like, you know, sketch comedy on the internet.
Yeah.
So we started doing sketches.
And what about videos?
Nick, do you know, what is a tenderloin?
What is it?
I know a tenderloin is a meat.
Yeah, it's a meat.
It's a cut of meat.
Okay.
What is it?
Can you look that up?
Do you mind?
I want to see what cut this thing is so I know so you can put it to us.
I just want to visualize, yeah, what's going on here.
The tender is part of a loin, pork, loin of beef, pork, et cetera.
Yeah.
So that's probably sal taken from under the short ribs in the hindquarters.
Yeah, the hindquarters.
That's Mark.
So we pull everybody in, right?
Okay.
And then this is the good one.
Let's go to the second one.
A district of a city where vice and corruption are prominent.
We're just missing me.
I guess I'm the short ribs.
We'll do it, man.
That's perfect.
Well, yeah, because in San Francisco, there's a famous site called the Tenderloin.
That's where shit went down, man.
The story.
Dude, I actually have a video on my phone of some people blowing each other from our hotel window one year.
Yeah, we had walked by, we did the San Francisco Sketch Fest back in the day, and we were staying in a, we thought it'd be funny if the Tenderloin stay in the Tenderloin district, not knowing, right?
So we're walking back from a 7-Eleven that had an iron fence and like the, like you had to come in to a 7-Eleven, which I was like, this is not good.
Bulletproof glass to enter.
Like you went into like a little thing to walk around that was bulletproof.
It's like a little car, like a little pul cart taking you around.
Watching McCallis, bro.
People want to watch him a call.
We came back and there was just, we walked down one street.
I'm not even kidding.
There was just like three separate things of fucking going on.
And like, and there was a, there was like two cops that were like looking at like a body just like this.
And we were like, and we didn't know if the guy was dead or just passed out.
And then when we walked back to our hotel, I'm like, that might have been a murder scene.
They just found it.
It was like, oh, well, Jim, here we go.
We got to find out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're going to start it up.
Yeah, that tennel one's crazy, man.
I remember we went to this thing called Beta Breakers a while back there.
And it was like this, it was a race, I guess, where people start, I guess, at the bay and then they run like the bridge or something.
Well, we did a bunch of mushrooms and we didn't, I don't know, we weren't really in the race or anything, but at one point we took over a table.
Somebody had a table where they had all the cups of water and we took it over right in the middle.
And I'm just flying on mushrooms at this point, dude.
I'm look, you know, the Lord's looking for me, you know, and I'm looking for him.
You know, we're going to meet up that afternoon.
And people were running by in this race, you know, tens of thousands of people in this race.
And when they get close, someone would try to get the water.
And we'd be like, no, it's for Asian people only.
So you had so many people and they're running.
They have to keep going.
There's a huge flow of people.
They can't argue or discuss it.
And you'd be like, oh, it's Asians only.
And they're like, and just keep on.
Passing out from dehydration a quarter mile down the road.
All these Irish people stacking up at the curb at the next turn just from boom.
And all the Asian people would be so happy.
Super hydrated.
Yeah, just flying, bro.
It was just so bizarre.
That was such a great choice.
Dude, we laughed for so long.
We just sat there and somebody had deserted their stand, bro.
You know what I'm saying?
This was like, you know, this, you get probably, you know, hindquarter back in the military for this.
Somebody deserted their, you know, their water stand and we just took it over, dude.
We're on mushrooms.
We're just serving it out.
A deserted stand is a way I made a lot of my jokes early in career.
Not even like microphone, just me being me with my friends.
Yeah, because you have so much.
I was a host at any restaurant where the thing was, and I would go as far as I could.
Like there was a Perkins by me in Staten Island.
So I would be in, I would go to Perkins at night, and I would literally end up working the whole Perkins.
Like I'd walk in, it would be like, you know, 11 o'clock at night.
People walk in.
I'm like, how many?
And they're like, if you say how many to anyone, anywhere with authority, you'll get an answer.
And I promise you that.
You could be anywhere.
How many in your party?
Two.
That's it.
I'll give you a table or two.
I start answering the phone.
I would answer.
I would take to go all just hang up, not know what to do.
These people are waiting.
I didn't care.
Sal used to hate.
There was two things Sal used to hate.
I would embarrass him.
Oh my God.
The worst.
But he loved it and hated it.
But there was two things he used to hate the worst.
One was taking an elevator with me.
Uh-huh.
Because I would just, I didn't give a shit.
And then two, he's like, how many floors is there?
It's only nine or ten stairs.
He used to take stairs all the time.
Two was, what do you call it?
Two was waiting for a table in a restaurant with me.
Because when I'm in a waiting situation, I get bored and I'm like, what can I do here that's going to be fun for me?
I don't even care if other people are watching or laughing.
I just like do stuff for myself half the time.
Right.
And then they would enjoy watching that, you know?
Did you do that kind of stuff when you were a kid?
Is it instigation you think that you kind of like or is it, I'm trying to think of what the element is that I didn't do.
I didn't.
Is it surprise?
Is it instigation?
Like, what is the thing that tur that attracts you, you know, to do that sort of stuff?
I'm just trying to think of the thing in your head that's like, well.
I wasn't like that at all growing up.
I was super geeky.
I was, it wasn't until junior year of high school when I started the first time I did improv at high school.
We did high school improv together.
That's how I was like, oh, Jesus, that is.
And Sal made me go to it.
Like, he was like, you should come.
You're funny.
I used to have lunch with him all the time.
He's like, you're funny.
You should come and try.
And I was like, nah.
And then I was like, I couldn't do it.
And then in high school, I like got bullied a little bit and stuff.
And I used it.
I turned the tables in high school because I would reverse bully the football players.
Like, I remember the moment where one guy walked by and like, they said something, whatever, and I knocked the books out of the linebacker's hand, like on the floor.
And I went, pick them up like that.
And he left.
He said, I'm sorry, sir.
And he picked them up and laughed.
And I said, better.
And I walked away and everybody lost it laughing.
And I was like, oh, you know what?
I'm going to do this.
And I just started bullying.
Like, I was 104 pounds on the math team, bowling team.
Like, I was like, not anything, right?
So on the bullying team, too.
I started rolling.
Yeah, some schools have a bullying team.
You know, that's part of the problem, I think, in America.
We have a bullying team.
So you just kind of said, oh, I'm going to flip the script.
So I did that.
And I was like, oh, that was kind of the way I dealt with it.
Slash, it made me feel good.
And then also the thing I really liked about it was it really took a turn to the whole high school.
We went, you know, our class, we went to all boy Catholic high school.
So what are you doing besides messing with each other when you read the part, right?
Farting through it.
Right.
300 people in the class.
And I really felt a moment there where it was like, oh, everybody's having fun with this.
And it was like, kind of like bullying kind of like went away with my class.
It kind of was just like, oh, we're all just fucking around together.
Like it didn't matter.
So I felt like that was pretty cool.
Oh, that's cool.
And that has kind of like carried me throughout my whole career all the way to here.
Now, that's a big thing for me.
So perception almost.
Yeah, it was perception.
And then I was like, that gave me like a weird confidence.
And I think confidence is definitely my key.
Like, I'll try to pull off anything.
I don't, you know, like, yeah, you're strange too.
Also, being strange, because I remember seeing you at the Wild West Comedy Fest, and I knew about you guys as a group, but I'd never spent any time with any of you.
Yeah.
That's where we met you.
Yeah, that's where I met you.
Yeah.
And so we're at some bar after party and your crew's all raging and stuff and having fun and the life of the party.
I mean, the group.
And there's one guy who's just, I think that song We're Not Gonna Take It was on or something, right?
And there's one guy who's standing on a table, like right up against the wall, facing the wall, just beating the wall, dude.
And nobody else is really kind of involved in what he's doing, right?
But he's like the centerpiece.
It's like, he's this odd ornament, this Christmas ornament in the middle of summer, bro, you know?
And that was human speaking.
Damn, I said, damn, that guy's fucked up.
That's the thing.
I don't drink, don't smoke, never took a drug in my life.
I never even tried a cigarette.
And everybody thinks I am so like high on Coke.
Oh, I thought I was like, that guy's fucked.
I have energy my body shouldn't have.
Like, I just go, but because what I love about that moment is that gives anyone license in the room to be weird because I'm going to be weirder.
Like, don't even worry about it because it'd always be like, well, at least you're not that guy.
Like, that's the guy I am in a party.
It's like, oh, it could be weird.
Look at this guy.
He's crazy.
Sal spent most of his life explaining that I wasn't drunk to people.
Like, that's really what we have to do.
When we'd go out, he'd be like, these guys would be like, he's fun.
Look at it.
He's shirts off.
He's doing the worm in the middle of the club through hot models.
Like, I don't care.
I was doing anything.
That's beautiful.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was inspiring.
Kind of was like, oh, man, I want to have that much fun.
I think that's probably what people get when they watch your show some or when they watch of Jokers and watch it over the years.
It's like, oh, I want to have that much fun, I guess.
Well, the show quickly became not anything about like pranks or anything.
It really became just friendship on display.
And that's what people really took to.
And that's why, you know, everybody always feels like they know that friend.
Like, if you watch a show and you didn't know us, I imagine you'd be able to like, oh, I got a guy like Sal, or I know a guy like, well, nobody's really got a Murr, but I got a guy like him, you know, in your in your clique or growing up.
So I think there's part of that that people really, that talks to people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you, when you, when you think about like kind of like the next steps and stuff, because at a certain point, like you guys have all grown so much, you know, does it start to seem, I know you have the new show now that you're doing the Misery Index, but do you, you mentioned directing and stuff earlier.
Do you start to like think about things like that, you know?
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
I've always had, I never wanted, I never thought this would be it.
I never want to be in front of the camera ever.
You just are trying to fucking work at Nordstrom.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Just trying to fold him out in.
He's trying to sell high-end t-shirts.
Let a guy work his Pima cotton.
But I'm trying to get Pima cotton to the people.
But I did like, I was always behind the camera guy, always directing, producing.
That's always what I wanted to do.
Even the Tenderloin stuff, like I always did, like those one of our most famous sketches.
I'm barely in because I was like directing and like I love editing and all that stuff.
And even with this show, that's what I do.
I help show run this whole thing.
Oh, okay, you do.
I jumped.
Oh, wow.
I was the first one that had to quit my job full time.
So I kind of got like, I was like, guys, are we doing this?
Because I got to give up on Giggle.
Like, I had to quit Giggle.
Everybody else was able to work both jobs.
Q was still a fireman.
Sal still owned his, it was still a bartender in the older.
Well, let's say, look, still a fireman is a unique term as well.
I'm not saying I love firemen, right?
Especially if there's a fire going on.
The number one person you want to see.
But when there's not a fire, dude.
They're basically people that are training for the hot dog eating company.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, you know, good people at heart.
They're the professional softball.
That's what they're doing.
Yeah.
Discussing sports.
Like, that's what they do, you know?
But they, You know, so he was, everybody had their job to fall back on.
And I was like, I have to be all in.
When we shot the pilot, she gave me two weeks off.
And then when it was like, hey, you got to shoot the first season, you need, we're going to do it over the next six months.
I was like, hey, CEO, I'm going to need six months off.
And she's like, I can't do that.
She's like, door's open.
If it doesn't work out, you could come back.
But you guys, and the Tennel Williams, though, you guys did a lot of people don't know, you guys had years of trying.
16 years.
And I've also did a couple of pilots that didn't take.
Yeah, yeah.
We had two, one for Spike.
and then one for Is that still a network?
I don't think it is.
I don't think it is.
In the end, I think it was just cars crashing into each other.
Yeah, no, I think it was cars crashing and then like a music video segment, you know, or no, it wasn't like a top 10 worst list.
Like, didn't it become one of those stations where it was just like they did the countdown shows and stuff?
They just rebranded it to Paramount Network now.
So it's just like a regular channel again.
Oh, okay.
It's not for men anymore.
No, yeah.
It was very.
Yeah, it was supposed to be for men, remember?
It was the men.
Well, True, when we joined True, the slate was insane that our show was even on.
It was every tow truck show, three different titles, Lizard Lick Toeing, South Beach Toe, and another one that I forgot.
And then knockoff shows for like pawn stars.
It was called.
Oh, yeah, they had that.
I think it was called Pawn.
No, what was the major?
It was like the Pawn Brothers or something like that.
So whatever.
They had a show, and then it was our comedy, like in it.
And now True is like a top comedy network, which is so, so like weird that that happened.
It's so cool that they took that chance and it all like kind of happened.
But like if you looked at our show in the beginning, it was like, what the hell is this?
Like, how does it even there?
How are these guys going to fit in here at all?
And did you guys worry about that?
Or did you?
You did.
Yeah, because we were on the table for MTV or True.
Wow.
And, but MTV wanted to make it a strip show five days a week and recast us.
And they were like, we love the concept of the show's great fun.
They're all grouping it together.
And now they're basically the Rob Deardeck Network.
Basically, there's nothing on there but Rob Deerdeck.
Oh, hardcore pawn.
Hardcore pawn.
Yeah, that was it.
That was the knockoff of the other one.
So they had their own versions of things.
And they were all pretty successful for their market.
Like, if you liked tow truck shows, that's where you were going.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you like shit, get yeah.
Repossession.
Repossession basically across the board.
And their other big one was Bait Car.
Remember that shit show?
Where they were just having a car basically like running like a BMW in the middle of projects with the door open.
It was playing Jay-Z.
There's like a hot pizza in it, you know?
Yeah, definitely run.
A cooler full of beer.
It's like, oh, what do you mean?
I'll get in it and drive away.
There was like a parole officer in the back seat.
It wasn't Afghan.
Yeah, it was crazy.
Yeah, that show was crazy.
I can't believe it.
How is that legal?
And that was every, it's like, they should have called it entrapment.
Every episode was just a running car in the projects.
Let's see what happens.
Let's see what happens now.
Somebody's going to steal a car.
I don't want to spoiler alert you.
You know, I don't have to tune in.
It's not must-see TV.
It's not like a Ross and Reach are going to get back together.
This guy's going to steal this car.
What do you want to see?
What's your crime of choice if you think if you have one, man?
Oh, mine?
Yeah.
Definitely embezzlement.
Is it really?
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
I love the whole heist movie stuff.
I would think anything that would get weird, could you have done it in the past?
Nowadays, it's tougher.
There's not even as much cash sitting around.
Yeah, you need cash.
Like if I could go back in time and be any like sort of like pull off any big scheme, definitely be like a nice bank robbery in like the early 30s.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Would you be already working at the bank?
Because I could see you having that vest.
I'd be that little pocket.
I'm big on a change.
Yeah, like you know what time it is, right?
And the little changing 30 cents back, like that shit.
I'm all about that.
I'm all about that life.
1930s teller right here, man.
Yeah.
I'd be a bank manager to get the inside scoop, you know, that kind of deal.
Then I'd make them fire me in a fantastic way.
And then I think I would know the lay of the land and I would get my, you know, my next door neighbor involved.
Yeah.
I'd probably blackmail somebody.
Blackmail could be fun too.
Yeah.
Those are the good old days.
When we could do a crime.
Yeah.
Before we had DNA marriage.
Oh, man.
DNA ruined crime for everybody.
Stupid science getting in the way.
Yeah, back in the day when you had to actually do some detective work, you know, because now every murder you watch, the cops have no idea until seven years later when they can afford the DNA test.
That's right.
It's like, I'm never going to know anything about like that stupid swab your mouth thing.
Did you do that?
Like the 23andMe?
Yeah, I did it.
We mailed it in.
Yeah, I fucked up.
You did it.
I fucked up.
Wait, what's up?
If I did, I want to go to jail court anyway.
I'm not going to be one of these people who's going to do a crime and like hide all the time.
I'm going to go to jail.
That's what I like about you.
Yeah, thank you.
You're right up front all the time.
Oh, yeah.
I'd rather go and get my time done and get out.
Yeah.
When you said I did it wrong, I thought you made, I was like, what'd you swab that you did it wrong?
Oh, yeah.
I fucked up.
Like, what'd you do?
I don't remember exactly.
I think I did the mount.
Yeah.
But whoever shit.
Back in the day, like, whoa, send Vaughn back.
That ain't right.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I think, yeah, because a lot of people, I guess, they're attaching people to murders and crimes, you know, because of that.
Yeah.
I never did it because I didn't really have an interest because I feel like the only way that you could find out if a parrot is male or female is that you have to have it tested.
And I've had a parrot for a while.
And I was like, what difference does it make to me?
I don't care if it lays an egg, okay, mystery solved.
If not, no difference.
Yeah.
You know?
So for me, I'm like, yeah, I treat animals differently if they're male or female.
No.
Do you have animals?
I never have.
Well, when I was young, I did, but I never have as an adult.
But I meant I never have treated animals differently, whether we're male or female.
But I get, I remember asking, like, I'll ask like a waiter, like, yeah, is this fish male or female sometimes if I order like a salmon or something?
You know?
That's a good one.
Just to kind of see, you know, and a lot of times they'll go check.
And sometimes they'll come back with an answer.
That's amazing.
It's like, oh.
I guess there's no, you know what I would love in that scenario is when they came back with an answer, you just go wrong and get up and walk out because you know they're trying to pull something off.
Wrong, yeah.
And open something up with a knife to show a part of the fish.
What is that?
You tell me that.
That's a fish deck.
Yeah.
Tell me that.
Hide something in there.
Jesus.
Now you know what a fish deck looks like.
All right.
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And now back to the episode with Mr. Joe Gotto.
Do you guys, you guys must run out of ideas.
I mean, when did you run out of ideas, honestly, for your shows?
We got, well, it wasn't that we had to, it was that we could afford to.
Right.
So in season, we're going into season.
We just wrapped season eight and season nine, we start up in January.
And we actually hit our 200th episode this season.
And like literally, we had the conversation at the end of season one.
It was like, okay, now what do we do?
Like, cause we were like so many ideas you have to go through because never mind the ones that make the TV, right?
Because our episodes, if you think about it, we do 26 episodes a season and there's three to four bits per episode.
Right.
So quick math.
Yeah, that's 14 million, quick math.
So like that's bits that you have to come up with, right?
And inside those bits are jokes, right?
So you have to do all that.
And if you break it down, it really could be very, very, it could be very overwhelming.
So then we started to say, okay, what, what's just fun and what's just funny and what's weird to do?
So like we went from that and we, and there's so much if you think about like, it's like, let's just try to hold somebody's hand, see how it goes.
And we would try it with four different people and we get four different outcomes and there's a bit, you know?
And then we would start thinking about, okay, instead of the goal of just being this or that, let's think about what could be something different.
And one thing that we had was try not to laugh.
Like that, when we broke that and made that a goal, that opened up a whole new stream of things.
So it wasn't just like, oh, only do uncomfortable stuff.
It's like, oh, do shit that's really funny that's going to make your friend laugh.
And if you, you can't laugh.
Yeah.
So that opened up like a whole thing in a couple of our big bits, like the crangistic basketball, where we say weird names in the waiting room, or like where we did the two-way mirror, where like stuff's going on behind you and you have to watch it.
And you have to continue to do this focus group with somebody and not laugh.
So a lot of that happened.
One of my favorites you guys did, it's like a um, but I see what you're saying.
So people, so once you open up like a new kind of a new edge to it, you're like, oh, here's a whole, a whole new world of stuff we can do now that we have goals, now that we, you have to try not to laugh.
That's a whole thing.
Yeah.
It's a lot of fun.
And then you do everything you already did before and then just make sure the other guys aren't laughing.
And then we had to establish our show long enough for the first four or five seasons.
Like we wouldn't use an actor before that because we wanted people to know and believe us that it's real.
The show's got to be real.
It doesn't work for us, right?
So if somebody knows our show, they're not on it.
So then we brought in like actors as weapons where we like, one of the first bits we did was watch my grandpa.
Like we'd be in the, we were in the mall and we had to pretend we had to take a piss and be like, do me a favor, could you watch my grandpa for me?
And we had to talk them into watching our grandfather.
And if they watch him, you win and we'd walk away.
And when we did that, unscripted, the grandpas added such a great element.
Like they just went and started talking.
And it was like, this is really funny.
So let's see what we do.
Let's do that with kids.
And okay, now let's watch my kid.
And then we started doing things.
I've never seen that.
You know, find my actor, you know, like we would plant an actor inside like Murray was a waiter for one of his punishments in Delmonico's a high-end steakhouse.
And we hid an actor with a wig on and we're like, you got to find a wig.
So he's walking around pulling people's hair as we're eating, trying to find the wig.
And, you know, people are like, what the hell?
You know, kind of deal.
So all those little pieces, you know, for the first six weeks, you know, the first four weeks of our pre-production, it's a six-week thing.
The writers are together.
Do you get paid extra as a writer or producer?
You do.
Yeah.
So they're in the room and then we come in for the last two weeks of the six week and we start hearing all they pitched and then when we like something, we'll all talk it out, figure it out, and then we'll start stacking it up and being like, okay, here's our production schedule.
So if you like to be the most involved, who is just kind of the most like show up and they just, they do it every time and they, it's just better for them to be that way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Q is very much trusting of.
He'll also, he'll have his moments where he's like, oh, I got this idea.
I want to do this.
But Q, for the most part, when he shows up, he's like, what are we doing today?
All right, let's get in there and do it.
Yeah.
Sal is very analytical.
Oh, he's a student of comedy.
You know, he's really just like, that's the way his brain works.
He really just, but I always say that Sal and I normally get to the same place.
I just get there way faster because I'm a gut kind of guy.
I'm like, this is, I'm very decisive.
I'm like, this is what we're doing.
This is what we're not.
And he'll, you know, just work out every permutation, tell you why it won't work, break holes in it.
And, you know, sometimes we prove him wrong and sometimes he proves us wrong.
You know, it's like, it's a good balance.
And then Murr, Murr is like in the middle of all that.
Like I would say Sal's on one end, I'm on the other.
And Murr is like pretty much dead center between those two things.
He'll think about something for a little bit and then get there.
Or, you know, he'll have ideas where he's like, that's funny.
That's historical.
Because sometimes they'll just say something.
It's like, what if we make Joe a massage chair?
Right.
It's funny.
You know what I mean?
You don't have to think about anything.
Like, it's like, it's going to be funny to see it.
Have strangers sent me in costume and I'm a fake massage chair.
They make me this fake massage chair.
Yeah, you guys have, there was one, it was one of my favorites that it's, it's at a buffet, and I think it's like taking, they putting things on people like they're taking.
We've done a bunch of different ones.
One of them was because I love buffets, bro.
Yeah, when I was growing up, they had finally got a buffet in our town, dude, and people were fucking losing their mind, bro.
Oh, dude, somebody shot out the windows, bro, from the inside, dude.
That's how excited people were.
You know, it wasn't like a drive-out.
I'll get more chicken.
This dude fucking went in there.
He was so fired up, he couldn't stand there being anything between him and the fucking Lord, you know, so he shot those windows out.
But yeah, it's, I mean, I remember, yeah, buffet were everything, man.
Back when you, you know, if you were in a place, just imagine they could have all that stuff in one place.
Yeah.
I remember when I went to Vegas with my family growing up, the first time we went to a buffet in Vegas.
And this is like a Vegas buffet.
Standalone.
World class.
I remember, dude, I remember, yeah, our buffet was decently long.
I wouldn't say it was real long, but I remember when we were kids, we would try to hold our breath and walk from one end of it to the other, you know, just to try and, you know, just, because we were just enamored by the length of just, you know, food and different dishes.
Like a pool, like trying to swim onto one the whole way, trying to make it one to the other.
Yeah, made it to the salad.
Do you remember when, I don't know, Wendy's out in New York, they did the salad bar, which was basically a buffet, but it was open salad bar.
So you could just make your own.
So you buy the salad bowl and it was all you could eat salad.
Wow.
And Wendy's in Stan Island.
And they had a huge toppings.
So they had everything.
Besides your croutons and your norm, they had like buckets.
It was like, you know, just all these different things.
Sunflower seeds.
Sometimes they put some seeds, right?
Pumpkin seed.
But then it was like beets.
That's how I was introduced to beets.
I was like, what are these rats?
I remember that being a topping once.
I was like, I don't know if that's a topping.
Corn dog.
It's like, yeah, yeah.
So like all these weird, they'll pickle anything.
So it was like, I remember that.
And I remember being like, I'm going to get a salad.
And I was like, that's an ingenious way to make kids eat like healthy because there was like a fun way to eat salad, you know?
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Buffet, man.
I remember the, yeah, I just can't even believe it.
I used to get myself so sick on shrimp cocktail.
Like, I would just get so nauseous from it.
I do that.
I would just crunch fucking pop them things.
Dude, I ate the tails for the first two years of my shrimp cocktails, dude.
Nobody explained that to you?
I'd eat the whole tail.
No, I did it by choice, dude.
My good friend does, you know him, Justin.
He was the DJ on the cruise, Justin Derais.
DJ Gerace?
He eats the tails to this day.
Dude, one of my favorite things from the cruise, and we'll talk about the cruise in a second.
Michael Ian Black.
So I went on you guys' first cruise.
Michael Ian Black was on the cruise, right?
So he had to do bingo.
Like everybody on the cruise, kind of you, like you performed and you also like did a game or did something.
You were just involved, you know?
Yeah.
And he did bingo.
And he was like trying to be all funny and stuff.
And the people that came to play bingo didn't give a fuck, bro.
They came to play bingo, man.
Read it.
Read it.
Lady beating her cane against the wall.
There's real steaks.
Oh, dude.
Yeah.
He's like, oh, shit, all right.
It makes his job easier.
She just fired through all of this.
It was so funny, but he almost couldn't handle the fact that they didn't want any comedy.
It's a comedy cruise.
It's not a bingo cruise.
Dude, that was so much fun.
Gilbert Godfrey was on there, and he looked just like a baby that was on the cruise ship, too.
Some lady had a baby, like an 11-month-old.
It looked just like him.
So I did this side by side.
It took a picture right there.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
That was where we hung out for the first time in real.
Because when we did the comedy festival, we hung out a little bit, but there was a lot of people around.
There was a lot of people.
You and I spent a lot of time together on that first cruise.
Yeah, that cruise was great, man.
Yeah, that was great.
God, that thing was so much fun, dude.
We caused some trouble one thing.
You and I had fun on that.
Yeah, you were always.
Yeah, the gambling.
You guys shut the gambling down one night.
No, it didn't fucking get up.
There's no chips or no something.
They ran out of chips.
We won.
Yeah, you fucking won.
Like, we have to get more chips.
I'm like, go get chips, man.
I got to get paid.
There's like 19 people working there, and they just shut down suddenly.
And that skill crane, some of the alcohol.
I met two alcoholic guys playing that skill crane on the ship.
And they ended up making my t-shirts for about four years.
Really?
A couple beautiful guys.
This guy, Kevin, and his brother, who actually ended up turning a little bit green last time.
I saw him.
He's turning green, the brother.
But yeah, amazing people, man.
But let's see what they got here, man.
Hey, Theo.
Hey, Joe.
My question for Joe is, how do you think your kids are going to react when they get older and you tell them what exactly it is that you do for a living?
Are you looking forward to that or are you kind of dreading it?
That's a really good question.
Shit, I impressed myself.
Dang.
Well, that's it.
These millennials and they figure it out.
He knows the world.
I don't think he even wants an answer.
He's like, I just crushed it.
I will say that is a pretty good question.
It is a good question, man.
I wouldn't think about that.
Yeah, is it embarrassing?
And in my comedy, you feel a different responsibility with comedy.
I think when you have kids and you know that this is what you're going, your legacy, you know.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Legacy was always a thing with me, always even growing up, even before I had anything.
I was worried about what was I going to be remembered for.
Really?
Yeah, always very heavily.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jesus, man.
Sometimes I'm nameless, my man.
One hell of a second grader.
Yeah.
That was like, I was like all, I was very aware of it.
Yeah.
You're going to be known for not doing your homework if you don't quit daydreaming.
That's right.
So I was, when I had kids, I was like, all right.
And I feel like there were sometimes, there's only been a couple of times when i was in the edit of the show and i was like i don't want that to be out there for my daughter to see one day or my son because our comedy is always about us too it doesn't matter and our our show is edu it's like i'm trying to make you fail so i'm gonna tell you the most screwed up stuff to say or do or whatever but there's only been a couple times where i was like i don't think i want to make that joke anymore or or that because being a father feels different you know yeah you know and it is is that kind of stuff the the being a father feels different is that stuff that you can you couldn't know that before
no definitely not i don't i i didn't so i don't know how other people did but i think it really it's kind of weird too because the other guys don't have that right so it's like kind of like where you know i'm i'm the father figure of the group which is so weird and scary but like you know like it's it's your best friends that you always confide in and have the same exact journey i'm on the same ride my four friends i'm the first every first big thing in my career is with these guys and it's their first two you know first time we're playing madison square garden all together first cruise we did together all that like all that all the way through you know yeah
um and this is like the only one where you can't like connect with them on something about that you know so it feels a little bit in a vacuum and you're trying to do your best with it you know so i think that's uh that's where it kind of weighs a little bit more and just try to do your best has it been hard over uh well sorry let me make sure we fully answer this question did we get it nick you think yeah yeah um well i am my daughter does watch the show sometimes because i watch the edits at home and if i'm working at home in my office she'll come in and she's like are you watching you and
your friends on the tv that's what she says yeah and then i'll say uh i'll say yeah no no and then she'll uh she'll she'll just watch and you know at the end we give a green thumbs up or thumbs down and she just doesn't she just sits there and watches and waits for the thumbs and if it's a thumbs up she'll go yes and if it's a thumbs down she'll go oh dad you got a thousand you got a thumbs down and she'll get like mad so it's really fun now i feel the pressure and all i was like i can't have my daughter you know that's so that that's kind of cute but she doesn't really get what's going on yet at all but um i think she'll enjoy she likes my humor i make her laugh oh that's good i could
see that great she's she's a little mini me she looks like my looks like my wife my spirit really 100 me 100 weird quirky laughs like at anything like she's really very much my do you see yourself having one of those shows like the australian guy that died um i'm talking about steve irwin steve irwin's daughter like taking over yeah they have a new show that's out now and it's like uh yeah they're taking over yeah i don't i don't i think it's too big of a gap yeah yeah between that i
think you know and and there's so many reruns of our show who knows though that's true you know by the time it's over you're gonna have a back of like 250 episodes you can keep this thing going probably still be well yeah that's true huh i remember when i was growing up i'm trying to think they had some of my favorite game shows on do you remember the one where it was in a house it was each it was like a fake house there was three contestants they were i think a team maybe three teams of two and there was like a fake house and
then if they if they got a certain prize or something they would compete on the floor and then if they got a prize and they then one they had to run through the house and get different gifts these boxes vaguely vaguely remembering what you're talking about it kind of felt like supermarket sweep a little bit yes it felt a little bit like supermarket sweep yeah yeah yeah but it was like yeah they had these big houses and then they would put them on this conveyor belt or something at the bottom and they would open them and see if they had won uh what what box they grabbed what was in it yeah like and in the end they had a whole bunch of boxes the final group did and
then they would open them all and i think they some of them could have money in them it's basically like watching those stupid christmas videos you know those stupid videos that are on now that all it's just videos of kids opening toys i don't watch that you haven't seen that no it's like the weird thing all people don't watch you're gonna now you watch one you're gonna don't do it because you'll fall down a rabbit hole it's just kids like opening stuff and being like oh blah blah and all kids flip out and watch it it's like it's good though because you don't have to buy your kids toys you think rabbits oh that's a good point huh they just go ahead it saves you money man you pay for
a youtube subscription you think rabbits are in holes and like how did we get the fucking we don't do that i know yeah we're down here we're not watching youtube youtube you what get over here poppy this has nothing to do with us why do you keep using the term rabbit hole they're probably pissed bro that's my thing i'm down here trying to live yeah we're just staying warm throw a carrot down you asshole trying to hide from a fox you
think we're down here watching you when do you think they say people hole what it's your rabbits talking to go yo don't go down that peep it hole jesus i went down a people hole over there careful over there that's in the tenderloin district don't go down that people hole dude tenderloin everywhere somebody's got cds they got dope everybody's got a sound everything from mixed tapes to bringing messed yeah mixed crotch yeah all of it who wants that mixed crotch
um oh man it was oh we got a question right here from somebody using witness protection actually let's get to this ever been punched in the face for playing a joke on somebody okay there you go i mean i don't know this well first of all how do you okay i have questions how do you source this material huh how do you source this material open source how did you how did you get this guy's
video do you know this guy is that no that's a fan of impractical practical jokers we got a lot of questions for you but a lot of them are like kind of the same what's your favorite prank what's your favorite prank they're always the same yeah yeah so have you ever been punched in the face but it's not so much the question as it's how the creepy guy in the dark couch started punching his phone very dark and also that guy could be anywhere from the age of 13 to probably 51 or 52 52 i was gonna say very unique child's body um the angle too and it looks like a light
shade of lipstick on him see that he's got a wet lip look at right there like see It's a glistening lip.
He's got a wet lip.
Jesus.
To answer your question, no.
But also, I have so many questions for you.
Yeah.
Yeah, this guy, I wonder if he's all right.
Yeah, we should maybe send someone.
We'll send a video back.
Yeah, that's the people hole we were talking about.
That's what the rabbits are talking about.
I remember one time I was working with Howie Mandel on a show.
It was called Deal With It, right?
And so I was working just as a host for him for a while.
And so you would get people off the street and you would give one of them a, they would be coming to a restaurant and then you'd give one of them an earpiece.
You'd sneak them off.
The waiter when they went to the bathroom or something would be like, all right, here we're going to put an earpiece.
We're going to start telling you things to do.
The more you can do without the person at the table realizing you're on a game show.
That's the only thing they can't realize, the more money you're going to make.
So one time we get a couple to sit down and it's a pimp and a prostitute we didn't know, right?
So they get the lady to start messing with the pimp, right?
So they start telling her like little things to do.
And the third one, it's like, okay, reach over and take a piece of your man's food off of his plate or something.
And she's like, nope, I can't do this shit, right?
And I think she was worried that she was going to get abused.
So we had to call the episode.
That's a vanity.
Call the prank the bit.
Yeah.
But that was one of the craziest ones that I ever saw.
We always had trouble with couples.
We were in Ikea, and I did a thing.
I started a Friday night pillow fight.
Like I just gave everybody pillows and we had like 40 people doing a pillow fight all over.
It was fun.
But they did a thing where they wanted me.
This is my second omoir story.
They wanted me to say, they're like, Joe, to help this guy tell me he's got to see this amoir.
And you know how they have that path in Ikea where you just run, right?
So he's like, go and make this guy follow.
So this guy started running.
I was like, it's over here.
No, it's over here.
It's over here.
And I just started basically jogging around all this furniture.
And this guy was keeping up with me, whatever.
And this is when I was bigger and fatter.
And I was like, out of breath, huh?
It was funny.
And then they're like, get in the omoir, get in the omoir.
So me and him get in the omoir and it shuts all you hear in the almoir is me panting, right?
And it's like, whatever.
And it was really funny.
Like, it's great.
So now we go to sign the guy.
You know, they have to agree to be on TV.
It's a two-party state where they, you could film somebody, but then they have to agree to be on TV.
In New York.
In New York.
There's only like five or six states that are that way.
So it's a one-party state here.
I think Democrat.
Yeah, most of them.
California.
But yeah, you have to let them know in advance, really.
You have to let their parents know.
Yeah.
So we actually filmed out in LA for our 200th episode.
It takes place here in LA.
Wow.
Yeah.
So it was a different procedure you had to do.
Like people had to know that they were being filmed.
They had to be, couldn't do anything closed space.
Couldn't do any stores.
You had to be out in public or the cameras had to be exposed.
So like if somebody walked in like this, they know they're being filmed.
It's fine.
But then it doesn't really work.
So you had to like, we had a couple of things that were weird.
But anyway, so we're in the armor.
We get out of the armor.
I'm like, dude, you were so funny.
We'd love for you to be on the episode.
And the guy was like, oh, it was really fun.
He's like, I can't do that.
He's like, you know, I'm married and this isn't my wife.
Wow.
So he was shopping for discount furniture.
And I can't.
And he bought a side of these.
He got bought a side of these days.
So yeah, he was like, he's like, I can't.
He's like, and, you know, so that was like such a weird thing that we had happen.
And then that has happened multiple times over filming where guys are like, oh, I can't.
Mistress.
Yeah, I'm with somebody that I'm not supposed to be with.
Wow.
Yeah.
You know what?
Oh, here's someone else, actually.
And this is, hopefully this person's all right.
Hey, Joe.
Hey, Theo.
This is Tim from Memphis, Tennessee.
I'm a big fan of both of y'all.
I want to be a comedian eventually, whether that's doing stand-up or getting like a show like in Practical Jokers.
And I just wanted to hear you guys' advice on, you know, being a comedian.
What do you do coming up?
What kind of open mics or whatever.
You know, I'm 17, still in high school.
I plan on going to college, but my dream job is to do something like you guys do.
And you can really tell with you guys you're very genuine and you really enjoy doing what you do.
And I want to do something like that.
That's nice of Tim.
Yeah.
Sounds like a nice young man.
He's got great community taste, obviously.
That's true.
Fan of you and I. I mean, the guy's kid's a genius.
Well, you said earlier, like, you know, it doesn't happen.
It doesn't happen quick.
Yeah, it doesn't happen quick.
That's the thing.
There's times where I wanted things to happen faster in my career, and I'm glad that they did it in hindsight, even though there's no way I could have known that when.
No way.
And I would be like, I would talk to my managers and agents.
I'd be like, why does this person get this opportunity?
And then you see other people get opportunities where they're not ready for them.
That's right.
That's a big, big pitfall is to compare yourself to other people.
Everybody's got their own path.
Everybody's got their own journey.
Everybody's got their own time.
It might just not be your time yet.
And also, you have to be prepared that it might not work out.
You know, I was always fine with, okay, if it didn't happen, it didn't happen.
You know, I still was doing it because I enjoyed it.
And I think that's a big thing because no one could take that enjoyment from you.
Nobody has to validate that enjoyment.
You might not be getting paid for it, but if you're enjoying making people laugh, then that's it, you know?
Yeah, you know, it's funny.
I've always felt that way.
And then in the past, like, I think six months, for some reason, I think it started getting more stressful, I think, just busier.
And so it's like I've had like an adjustment period of like just figuring out, okay, what's going on?
What do I want to be doing?
What's really important to me?
Choices are the worst.
It's hard, huh?
When you have a decision to like, if you want to do this, like that, because you know that you're leaving something behind.
You know, we went through that a little bit with our, we figured it out finally, but with our movie, when we were going to film, when we filmed our movie last year, we had to do it in between the season.
So we filmed the first half of season seven, took a break to film the movie, came back and filmed the second half of season seven.
So we're basically filming for like 16 months straight of Bradville Jokers and like being away from home and everything.
The only way to do it was that or not do it.
And we're like, are we going to kill ourselves and do it, which we did, or are we just going to be like, all right, let's try to.
Hopefully the movie will still be around if we do it after season seven, blah, blah, blah.
So when we had that choice and like thinking about that, it was always like, all right, what if we don't?
And that I always feel the heaviest.
You're always the heaviest there.
What that if you don't do it, the option you'll be gone.
Right.
Now, what were the stresses, though?
I'm sure that was pretty stressful, especially if you had like young children.
Yeah.
I mean, you're, you know, that's a lot of time of straight worst.
Yeah.
I was, you know, I almost got divorced.
It was tough.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For this, I was five weeks away from home.
My wife had a newborn son, you know, my daughter, just basically like single parent in New York.
Couldn't talk to her.
I was on set for six hours.
It was totally different than the show.
I'm on a movie set for 16 hours a day.
Like in our show, like I go, we film for three hours.
You know, I would do some meetings and stuff.
And then I could talk to her the whole time.
You know, here I couldn't.
I'm in Atlanta.
I'm away from home.
that's such a it feels so, yeah.
I mean, that's intense.
Like, I don't know.
Yeah, for me, sometimes, sometimes the stress of too much work, I've just realized it's like it's too much sometimes, especially since I want to be a comedian.
I want to be able to have my thoughts, and you know, I need my brain to come up with fresh, fun ideas.
And if I work too much or if I'm overwhelmed and stuff, then I can't do that.
Do you feel like it changes you?
Do you feel like it changes your mindset?
100%.
And you can't not be in a good mindset or in a good mood to be funny.
Like, it's impossible.
Like you're, it's totally counterproductive to what you're trying to do.
And then that frustrates you and you're like, oh, if I wasn't thinking this way, it would be funny.
And it's like you go down a person hole.
Yeah, dude.
I went down a person hole.
I went down a people hole.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what happened.
Yeah, then I went down a people hole.
Yeah, that happened to me a lot this year, man.
It was just like, just figuring out, like, because we started podcasting so much and it was, it's all been fun, but it's like, okay, well, now, so now I'm just, I'm a podcast host.
Or am I a pod?
Like, what am I?
Am I a comedian?
Am I, you know, what's going on?
You know, to the point because you're just, you know, I would just go from one thing to the next, like go on tour, come back, do, and then go, and it would just be like, I don't even know.
Yeah.
Started to be like, I don't even know what's going on.
Yeah.
As long as you're being creative, I think if you're, you're a creator.
But I wasn't, yeah, but I was, I was creating, but I didn't feel like I was being creative.
Got it.
I think I'm kind of a slow, I'm better if it's a, if it's a little bit of a slow role.
Yeah.
Then we have, when it gets going too fast, I just, I think I just can't handle, I just, I don't know.
I don't function that well in that space.
Yeah.
So some of us, for me, it's just been learning where, who went, how do I function as a, yeah, as an artist or as a communicator.
But I think for this young guy, I think there's a lot of ways you can do entertainment now.
So much more.
Yeah.
I mean, you could put out your own videos.
You can find, you can, you can, you even see guys doing like voices of like, they'll have animals that are fighting or arguing in the wild.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They'll do anything.
Yeah.
But I mean, if you think about like how crazy, like I wish like so much is lost on these kids today as far as like people wanting to do, to do stuff.
And everybody's always worried about, you know, the followers and this and that.
But if you just realize that this kid has two heroes in comedy.
Yeah.
And he, just because he has a cell phone, has a camera, was able just to ask them a direct question and they were talking about him to him.
Yeah.
That, how does that not blow everybody's mind?
How does that just not like, are you kidding me?
Like, that's where we're at in the world where you have such access to people, to celebrities via Twitter, Instagram, any podcast.
Oh, yeah.
Last night, I'm a Saints fan.
Last night, AJ Klein, I'm a big Saints fan.
He caused a fumble last night and I sent him a mail.
I was just so fucking ecstatic.
And he wrote me back, and I haven't even read it.
I'm like, saving it.
Oh, that's great.
It's going to be like the highlight of my day later.
But yeah, it's just crazy how you can communicate.
Yeah, but and also just how you can create, you know, and how you can put stuff out there.
You can be an impersonator.
You can try different things.
Yeah, you could try and fail with no risk.
Like you could try, like if you think about like back in the day, like if you wanted to do like a short film, like you'd have to find the money, you'd have to shoot it.
You'd have to digitize it, like capture the tapes and bring it over to the line.
Then you have to edit it and do all the stuff.
Then you have to put it out where?
Where are you putting it out?
You have to like show people or send it out.
You got to sell it.
Yeah, you got to do it.
Now, no, like, and then it's bad because everybody's as bad.
So that's bad.
And then you just go ahead and do it.
Every short film is bad.
Every short film is miserable across the board.
First one.
Second one's a normally bad.
Well, like anybody's first short film, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody's first short film.
Like that was.
Oh, they're like the CBD oil of entertainment, dude.
You know what I realized the other day?
I don't think CBD oil does anything.
That's what I realized, bro.
I was talking to some dude.
He's like, yeah, I've been using a lot of drugs, but I've also been using CBD oil.
But he only seemed like he'd been using drugs.
And then I thought about like all the CBD oil I've rubbed into my body.
And it's like, shit, hadn't been that super.
I don't think it does shit, man.
I think CBD stands for snake.
Snake oil.
Snake oil.
Well, it used to be Central Business District, you know, and that was just a body cream, you know?
It just, I don't know.
Things have gotten strange.
But yeah, I think if you're 17 and you like humor, you know, there's so many ways you can end up in it.
But I do, though, miss, I mean, my favorite things to do were to make my friends laugh.
Man, 100%.
Do being at school, being at the lunch table.
That's what weird for me because that is my job.
And I still get that.
That's not taken from me.
We always say, like, always like, oh, I wish I knew the glory days when I lived.
We know this is the best job we'll ever have.
This is the best scenario for anybody in the world, comedian or not.
You get paid to hang out with your friends and make them laugh.
Like it's insane.
Yeah.
So like there's, and we can't really point a finger at many other groups that had even a similar kind of thing.
Everybody else is cast together.
Or even any big successful show was a sitcom that somebody's writing for them.
You know, it's not like, oh, this is going to make Sal laugh.
Like you never said that.
Like any other, it's not like, oh, this is going to, like, that's, there's a sense of like accomplishment when you make your friend laugh, you know?
Yeah.
And that's what helps it.
Yeah.
I was, oh, yeah, with you guys' show for sure.
I mean, yeah, there's so many.
It's like, yeah, it's like you can always kind of relate yourself to one of the characters.
You always, yeah, every guy wishes they got to do that with their friends.
It was pretty funny that one of our agents was talking and when they were going back in for a negotiation, like one of the points that he was making, you know, agents always ramp themselves up by talking to you.
You know, so they're going in for, I think it was like season five or whatever.
And he was like, he's like, tell me another reality show where somebody's like, oh, you know, everybody always used to say, oh, I'm a Ross.
I'm a Rachel, right?
From Friends.
Or like, oh, I'm George, you know, like that.
They're like, people say I'm a Sal.
He's like, who cares that much about a reality show?
He's like, nobody cares about that.
And this is like a little bit around the one, the Kardashians.
He's like, and that was the only other one where people were like, I'm like that with the Kardashians, you know?
And it was like, nobody does that with reality shows.
Nobody, you know, is like that.
Everybody forgets the name of everybody when it's over in a season.
He's like, you guys are on your fifth season.
You're characters, but you're not.
You're yourself.
Right.
So he's like, that doesn't exist.
And that was always the way you see, the way the fans interact with us, they always feel like they know us.
Oh, it's crazy.
Dude, my greatest fans of my comedy to this day, I think, that I still meet up with when I'm on the road, whether it's for a meal or something like that, or fans that I met from you guys is Cruz.
I don't know.
Yeah.
I mean, that guy, Kevin, there's a girl and her mom down in Florida.
I meet up with them.
Another group took me to Disneyland one time.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Nobody took me to Disneyland.
How are you getting taken to Disneyland?
You are Disneyland.
I just took my daughter to Disneyland and paid full price for your tickets.
Yeah.
Did you get the guide?
Did you get the guy that takes you?
Yeah.
I got the guy.
It's expensive.
But worth every penny.
But worth every penny.
You know what?
We crushed that park.
We got in and out of everything.
It was great.
It was great.
Yeah.
Somebody told me about that guy.
I had my family come in town and I was like, oh.
And they're like, you got to get this guide.
I talked to Joey D and he's like, you get the fucking guide.
You go over there, fucking look.
Somebody dies.
It's not on you, Papa.
You know?
They walk you in.
It's so great.
But the same day I was there, Stephen Tyler was there.
Really?
And there's this paparazzi that's called, I forget what it's called on Instagram.
I think it's called Day at Disney.
I think it's called Grandpaparazzi there, aren't they?
It's like the Day at Disney Instagram account.
It's like it's celebs who are at Disney.
And there's a picture of me and my family, me, my wife, and my daughter, but they blur our kids' faces out of respect, which is cool.
And it's me and them.
And then the next picture is like Stephen Tyler buying like a t-shirt at the merch station.
Dude, I was just in Maui, and that's where he lives.
So I heard all kinds of stories about him while I was there.
And I went and saw them actually.
I saw Aerosmith about, me and Nick went.
They're playing Vegas now, right?
Three months ago, we went and saw it.
Dude, it was awesome.
It was incredible.
He just canceled a show last week.
They're still doing like a Vegas residency because he had a sore throat.
So he couldn't, yeah.
Age finally catching up to him, I guess.
Yeah.
That happens, you know.
We all get old, all right?
Don't judge so hard.
This is Nick's first time in the booth.
The booth is just open.
Wow.
Where are you normally?
Sitting out there.
I had the table set up.
It was cumbersome.
Okay.
So you like this better?
It's all right.
It's all right.
Kind of feel like I'm visiting you in jail right now.
Yeah.
Nick probably should be in jail.
We don't talk about that.
Has there been any points where any of the group has thought, you guys have had to talk anybody to stay and people wanted to change?
Just before we did this, just before the show took, literally like our last meeting, I was going to be done with it.
And we were at my apartment.
We had gone down a path of doing a lot of sketch comedy.
And I don't really feel like I'm very funny in sketch.
I don't feel funny when I'm acting.
You know, people are like, oh, you already told me about it.
I'm like, I just don't feel it.
You know what it's like?
So I don't feel like it's my best way to make people laugh.
So I wasn't really feeling what we were, the path we were going down, scripted shows we were thinking of and blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, I was like, I don't want to do that.
And then the opportunity came up.
They're like, hey, you know, prank shows are big right now.
Mario's like, what if we did our version of a show like that?
And I was like, well, this embarrassment comedy is always how I made my friends laugh.
Sure, let's try it.
And that's how we came up with Jokers.
But if we were going to go down to another scripted one, I would have been out.
There's a guy I met one night at a bar here called The Mint.
It does, I was there for some, I don't know, something I didn't want to be at or something probably.
Like, I think now it's actually a pet restaurant.
Can you believe they have this shit on here?
Really?
You bring your pet and eat with it?
Yeah, or you can meet up and have fucking dinner with other fucking pets, dude.
That's weird.
I've heard of a cat place where you could have tea with a cat.
They're like, there's a fucking, it's basically just feral cats inside and they're just roaming around.
And you just sit down and cats like sit on your lap while you drink tea.
Yeah.
You don't think Satan's watching that?
If Satan's watching anybody, it's people that are meeting up with cats for tea.
He's taking it by themselves.
Easily.
Dibbing a biscotti into an Earl Gray.
Like that's somebody you fucking watch.
I don't trust that.
Even more than anybody I meet in the Tenderloin District, I do not trust the guy that walks in with his AirPods and sits down with a stray cat.
Yeah.
And has a snack.
Oh, yeah, dude.
Somebody fucking splitting up a little butterscotch biscotti with a fucking Persian.
If he pops up, yeah, if he pops that, dude, pictures a cat there.
It's a word that's original in.
I'm out.
I'm out.
Jesus Christ, man.
It's just a different world out there now.
But yeah, this place, they had a guy I met in there one night and he starts talking.
He starts talking.
he had on this white glove and they had karaoke in there as well.
That's a big point.
Yeah, look, dude.
It's one of those places that wasn't going to make it.
They're trying everything.
They're throwing shit at the wall.
They're like, what if we brought in karaoke?
And one of those indoor-like skydiving things.
Let's do it.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's a wedding.
But it's a wedding.
You guys don't get it?
Yeah.
So this guy, he wore a white glove and he kept singing karaoke.
And he had been like the fifth member of a band that had made it huge.
Like it could have been Motley Crew, I feel like.
And he got out like literally the week before.
And I went and read the stories and stuff about it.
And he was still singing the songs and wearing like this white glove.
Like you could tell he was still like living.
And I guess he'd kind of become like a kind of a fixture within that karaoke place, you know?
And so I think, you know, he had like, you know, at least he had his thing, you know.
But he had gotten out of this.
Yeah, he'd gotten out of this group right before.
That's, I mean, that's.
That was a little tragic.
Yeah.
If you don't recover from it, you know what I mean?
Right.
To get out of it because you want to get out of it and not be in that world anymore is one thing because then you're okay with it.
It doesn't matter.
Who cares what happens?
But if you get out of it because you don't necessarily like the people, you don't have faith in what's going on with that group.
Yeah.
And you're going to like, I'll try it on my own and make it.
That sucks.
Like that is the worst to be like, oh, you know, I'll just go on my own way.
And they're holding me back.
And next thing you know, they break and you're sitting there with your white glove, you know, trying to serve, you know, jello pudding pops to people.
Yeah, dude.
That's crazy, man.
Do you remember when you were a kid, like some of the, like, just like the kind of stuff that made you laugh?
Do you remember who made you laugh a lot when you were a kid?
Yeah.
Yeah, I definitely.
Not even entertainers or just people.
Oh, yeah.
I come from a funny family.
You know, my uncles were always funny and jokes and stuff.
Yeah.
So I got the old Italian uncles, which are fun.
And, you know, my sister is probably the funniest person I know.
My sister, Carla.
She's like, she's a version of me.
Like, it's hysterical.
Like, she's great.
She's loud.
She's fun.
My parents were both very funny, but in very different ways.
And they always said, my oldest sister got my dad's humor.
My middle sister got my mother's.
And I was the perfect match of both of them.
So my father was like that dry kind of delivery who could make the room crack with three words.
Like, that's it.
You know, my mother was this loud, boisterous, center of attention.
Everybody looked at her to make a, you know, a good time, like that kind of thing.
So they were very interesting.
You know, my sorry about my father was, he used to go, I play craps, you know that.
There's water right there if you need it, you know.
We, uh...
We...
He played craps all the time, and we'd go down to Atlantic City.
And he'd be in the land, he was in the Atlantic City playing in like the 80s or whatever.
And there's these two gangster guys with cigars at the end, these two big Italian mobster guys.
And he's playing craps.
And he rolls up next to him.
And there's this woman, a heftier woman at the end rolling.
And she's rolling and she's rolling for a while.
And the two guys are having a good time.
So every time before she rolls, they're like, all right, come on, you fat bitch.
And then she did it.
Like, yeah, you know, they would say that loud enough or whatever.
And so, you know, she's rolling and winning everybody money or whatever.
And so my father, she's just about to roll.
They're like, come on, we need a hard six, you fat, you know, come on, you pig, like that, and shit like that.
And my father just turns to these two mobs and goes, sorry, guys, could you stop talking about my wife that way?
And just turns back and looks.
And then he looks and he goes, ah, just fucking winning.
And they fucking looked at these two like big fat mobs and like, ah, this guy's ain't crazy.
You know, shit like that.
So he had that, like, that funny, like dry, like, their jaw drop.
Like, they're like, what the fuck?
You know, kind of idea.
So like, he had that sense of humor like that, where he would just like say weird shit, just like, just enough to get people really uncomfortable and then break them.
Yeah.
That reminds me of Norm McDonald.
I was somewhere with him.
Oh, I was in, I was doing a show in Oklahoma City or Oklahoma somewhere.
And he, oh, it was a poker tournament too.
Jerry Mathers was there, the Beave.
Beave.
Wow, man.
Who I love.
I had pictures all over of my room growing up because his name was Theodore, right?
Yeah.
So I was like a huge fan.
And I even talked to him while I was there.
I was like, hey, man, I said, I'm a big fan.
He goes, oh, where do you live?
And I was like, oh, I live in Santa Monica.
And he goes, I swear to God, he goes, I used to go get some pussy in Santa Monica.
And it just, I didn't know what happened then.
I just fucking went down a hole.
A pussy hole.
I went down something.
It was just crazy.
All these years that I built up in my head of us running into each other.
That's the same thing.
And that's what he said.
And he's like, he was 80 years old or 77. That's crazy.
It was him and that guy, Ralph Mouth.
But anyway, Norm McDonald was there.
And there's like, we're standing there.
There was mostly men there and a couple of women, not attractive women to me.
Norm said, oh man, a lot of real hotties here, huh?
And I'm thinking, oh, you know, Norm's older than me.
And, you know, he probably don't even meet any women.
So these women are probably very attractive to him, you know.
And I was just placating.
I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of real lookers, you know.
Fuck, I'll take my eyeballs out and just set them on one of these ladies' shoulders, you know, a lot of real beauties.
And he goes, yeah, right.
And he was joking.
He was totally joking.
Like, he was like, oh, these are the fucking most busted women I've ever seen in my life.
You're like, shit.
Yeah, he was like, yeah, right.
I was like, damn, bro.
Well, okay.
So much for being nice to your L. That's it.
That's a fucking shit.
Yeah, I went to Mel Brooks is huge.
Number one.
I actually got to meet him.
It was two weeks after we had played Radio City, and he was doing, he does that live tour every now and again.
He still doing it, 91 years old.
He shows Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, screens it, and then does a Q ⁇ A after like an hour.
Wow.
So we went.
I took my two sisters who we grew up watching.
I was like, for a Christmas gift, I'm like, I got this for you.
So we went, the three of us, we all grew up watching the movies.
It was great.
We watch them.
After we're about to leave, and I see the little security guard that I had met weeks before when we played.
I was real nice to whatever.
And he goes, Joe, I said, hey, he goes, do you want to go down to, you want to go come in and say hey?
And I was like, yeah, of course I want to say hey to Mel Brooks.
So he takes us downstairs and underneath Radio City, there's just like an old bar that they just keep open for family and friends.
And it's a big room.
So we go down and we sit in there.
And then here comes Mel.
He's walking in and he comes by and I'm like, oh, this is like, this is my hero of all time or whatever.
So I walk up and I'm like, you know, he's like, the guy introduced me.
He's like, this is our friend Joe.
And he's like, hey, Joe.
I was like, Mr. Brooks, this is a huge fan of yours.
I just want to say thank you.
You know, I got a comedy because of you.
You know, you made me laugh whenever.
I was like, me and my sisters are both huge fans and are all fans are.
You know, we grew up watching you.
And my sister's like behind me.
He goes, your sisters?
I said, yeah.
He goes, I go, yeah, my sisters, they're here with me.
I brought them.
And he goes, again, my sisters, bring the sisters.
And he pushes me away, mushes me.
And he gets here and he starts taking pictures.
He's like, kiss my cheeks, kiss my cheeks.
And he starts taking pictures of my sisters or whatever.
And it was so cool.
I was like, can I get one, you think?
And he's like, all right, just one.
And we all got in.
And I was like, that was like the coolest thing ever.
Like this 91 old dude is still going to get the lady.
He's like, come here.
It was so great.
Really cool.
That's beautiful, man.
That was a really, really cool moment for me.
Herving out a little at that age.
I love it.
I saw Bob Newhart about six years ago.
Oh, really?
Or seven years ago in Chicago.
And it was, oh, he was, I thought the jokes, I was like, I think he's just reading these jokes off the internet.
Like, I think he literally printed some jokes out off the internet and was reading.
Well, he's all delivery anyway, right?
But then I thought to myself, well, maybe he made those jokes off because they were just like internet jokes, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
So, but it was pretty wild to see him.
Don Rickles, me and Sal got the same.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I knew he loved Rickles, and my mom was a big gambler, and he was playing in Atlantic City.
So I asked my mom to get his tickets, and I took him.
Damn.
Man, was that awesome?
Probably one of the most unbelievable performers.
Like, you can't even, like, you see it, and you're just like in awe that it's happening, and then it's over before you know it.
Like, you can't even.
Was he on stage the whole time?
Stage all time.
It was just ripping apart.
It was great.
Yeah.
He was really, he was unbelievable.
Yeah.
That was probably one of the best live performances I ever did.
But growing up, I love Richard Jenny was big.
My dad liked Richard Jenny, the comic.
And he got murdered, dude.
Yeah, he got murdered.
Yeah.
It was before 23andMe, so we still don't know who did it.
So he was big.
And then Tim Allen, we used to watch his show All the time Home Improvement together.
So that was another big one for me Yeah, you remember Supermarket Suite?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That show was great.
I love I just got to play $100,000 Pyramid.
Me and they invited us to play in the reboot that Stray Hand.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So we just played it the summer we played.
Was it fun?
Dude, it was so fun.
So fun.
It was such a good time.
Yeah.
And now this is the thing about doing Misery Index, like you're playing a game show.
And it's like that gloss.
It's like legit.
It's like a legit.
Like we walked in.
I was like, oh my God, this is, they're like spent some money on the set.
Like it's a legit, like, they got the big, like, you know, the big display that's like super LED and like the buzzers and all that stuff.
I was like, this is really, really cool to be in part of like a real game show.
Yeah.
Because I grew up with, I think all our generations, like, that was huge.
That was TV.
Oh, yeah.
No whammies, all of that, dude.
Yeah.
That was the supermarket sweep was so good.
Yeah.
Supermarket Super Sweep.
Seeing somebody just bite the, just running to get a ham.
And yelling at them because they get rice.
It's like, why are you getting rice?
What do you mean?
There's one where somebody had a stroke during it, I remember, too.
Really?
I don't know that one.
They don't really know it on the show, but it seemed like they think the guy was just kind of having a blast, but you could tell he had a stroke.
I know a stroke.
You know a stroke when you see one?
I mean, yeah, I think I do.
You've ever seen a stroke coming away.
I had one about 20 minutes ago.
You're really like, oh, damn, bro.
Oh, yeah, I do.
I do.
I like to pace them out.
Pretty sure the guy who asked us a question with the wet lip was in the middle of one talk.
Any more questions that came in?
We just had one Patreon question.
Marissa Bruno asked, how did you become so passionate about animals, especially senior dogs?
My wife, she introduced me to that.
We bought a dog.
I have five dogs.
I have cannoli, biscotti, tartufo, spomoni, and pignoli right now.
Oh, damn.
Five dogs.
Yeah.
Pignoli's in a rotating state.
Not a dessert all.
Yeah, that's it.
That's right.
They're all left.
I'm fat Italian, so I name them all.
We also had Zeppeli and Mishkin, who are not with us anymore.
God bless.
But we have like, we bought our first dog, cannoli, together when she was living here because she needed something.
And I was like, let's get a dog together.
So we bought the dog and then it instantly was like all sick.
And we spent like, in the first year, we spent like two grand on like tests and surgeries and stuff like that.
And she just like started doing research and realized how bad puppy meals are.
And then like how much adopting, how good, how many good dogs are unneeded.
She found a lot of good adoption agencies.
So we just started adopting.
So it was really because of her.
And then I fell in love with it on my own.
And then I honestly believe that no dog loves you like a rescue dog.
It's insane.
It really feels like, yeah, because Canola would be walking around the house kind of entitled.
Like you'll call them.
She'll come last.
You know, she'll be like, I'm here now.
You know, like that.
You know, but like the other ones, like, they're so, always, so happy to see you.
When I go home, it's insane because I'm on the road, you know?
Yeah.
So when I come home from like 10 days or whatever on the day, it's, I can't get them off me.
It's insane.
Like they just attack you and want to be on you.
You sit down, they're all jumping on you.
You know, you lay in the bed, they're all on you.
Damn.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's nuts.
But it's, it's good.
And do you trust all of them?
No.
There's one I know that's shitting in the back.
Really?
No, it's actually, it gets easy when you have a pack.
Like Biscotti, who's my favorite, they listen.
If they're listening, they know.
So my Biscotti is my favorite.
She's the second one, and she's like the pack leader.
It's easier with a pack.
Like, I'll bring in a dog.
Once Biscotti shows them what to do, it's insane.
They just, all right, we all go.
We all go in this room now.
We all have time to go outside.
They all go, they just follow her.
Really?
She's crazy.
Yeah, she's like the pack, little, little pack leader.
And for them to be able to pack like that, do they have to be the same breed of dog or anything?
Nope.
Wow.
Nope.
There's a couple of tricks that you could do for it.
If you're going to introduce a new dog in the house, it's better to have the dog in the house by itself for a day.
And then when the dogs come home, the dog's there.
So it's like a great trick that we had found out in the beginning.
So I'll send the dogs away to daycare or whatever, and they'll sleep out.
And then we'll have the dog make it move around the house or whatever.
They come home.
There's a dog in the house.
That's it.
It's insane.
You know, it's just, okay, they're part of the family.
That's it.
And do they have any like racial or kind of territorial issues between them, the animals?
Just when it's time to go to bed.
Wow.
Who sleeps where?
Yeah.
Because I lay, we have a, you know, we have a king bed and my wife's on one side and then little pignoli who's like, I got a picture of pinoli.
I should have.
Yeah, get that animal out here, bro.
Or you could draw it too.
I wish I had some ink on it.
I just want your reaction when you see Pignoli because Pignoli is something special.
But Pignoli's in our rotating spot.
We have a fifth dog spot, which is this senior spot, and that's Pignoli.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, huh?
Pignoli and working freelance, huh?
Piñoli's got one up.
Yeah, Pignoli.
Pioli used to work on the highway, huh?
Wow, boy.
Basically roadkill.
That's just rolling around my house.
Sweetest dog in the world, man.
Super cuddly.
But they found her in a tenement building just in the, all matted in the lobby, living under the stairs.
So they don't even, they think it just maybe just came out of somebody's apartment and whatever.
But she's got no teeth.
She's deaf, blind, one eye, a little bit of dementia.
Oh, wow.
Take her to one of these restaurants.
No, I've got it.
But she's super cute and cuddly.
So we just, we like to, for the senior dog, we just kind of give him a good way out.
Like we had a couple dogs before this that one lasted seven months, one lasted a year and a little bit.
And Pignoli, we have for about, what do I got, Pignoli, two months now?
Yeah, about two months now.
This is the last question I have.
So is there, have you noticed like that, like your success and stuff, was there any point in your career where you felt like it started to kind of change you and you had to kind of like see what was going on with yourself or was there like where you got like...
No, no, no.
Just in a way.
Yeah.
It's a huge thing, man.
There's a thing about when you become famous and strangers want your time and energy.
Right.
And you have a family.
I think that was a thing for me.
Like, it's like, how do I, and I still struggle with that.
Me and my wife are very open and honest about it.
I don't know.
Like when I have my daughter with me, if you see me when I'm out with my family, you don't give a same me when I'm out with my family.
Right.
Right.
You know, because I'm trying to be protective of my family unit.
Right.
And this is spend time and energy with them.
You know?
So I think that's the one thing that I've always been trying to figure out.
And my wife, we never, I wasn't trying to be famous when we met and got married.
Like I wasn't doing this.
You know, when we got together, you know, when I got married, we were in it.
But when we got together, I was a salesman.
So this kind of got thrusted upon her as well to be like, oh, your husband's going to be famous.
So now you have to share him with the world.
She's like, I fucking, yeah.
I was just trying to get 20% off.
That's it.
You know, you worked my notes.
I'm looking for a coupon.
You know, now she's got to deal with this.
So I think that's probably the biggest challenge.
But the good thing about getting famous together with your friends is everybody keeps each other in check.
Yeah.
You know how you are with your boys.
I could see that one.
You smack them and they're like, what are you doing?
Yeah, I could see that.
Well, that's one thing that's neat about improv and the thing.
One thing that's a little bit different about stand-up, you're just kind of by yourself a lot.
So with improv, yeah, or with your group, you know, with the Tenderloins and with the Jokers, it's like you guys have that group.
Yeah.
The group mentality helps because if somebody starts going their own way, it's like come back to you.
Viscotti's like, hey, Viscotti brings it back in.
I'm not going to Viscotti goes out and says, come on, get back in here for a second.
Joe, thank you so much.
Is it Gatto or Gatto?
Gatto.
Yeah, Gatto.
This is great, man.
I really appreciate it.
Dude, thank you so much, man.
You've always been just one of the, every time I see you, I just remember what a kind soul you are.
So I appreciate you coming, man.
Thank you, dude.
Yeah, it's an honor.
And yeah, you guys have so many friends, dude.
How do you keep, how do you, everybody I know is y'all's friends.
We're friendly guys.
Yeah, you know, we try to, you know, that's why I like coming out to LA when I'm out in L.A., like, especially if I'm able to get together some social stuff I try to make sure I see.
And there's some people I like to see when I'm out here because it's good to keep in contact with people.
Like I said earlier, you know, there's a commonality between us that it's kind of fun and I'm enjoying that.
Like I'm in the, being in the comedy world with people that make me laugh and stuff.
We have cool opportunities like to have people work with us and work with people.
You know, it's fun.
Yeah, it's cool, man.
Yeah, it's a good point, dude.
I love it, man.
Well, I'm grateful you came here today.
Can I ask you for one favor?
Yeah.
My cousin, Michael Polano, is a huge fan of yours.
He is?
Yes, he's a huge fan.
Michael Polano?
Michael Polano.
Wait, he works on your show.
Yeah, he's my cousin and he's a cameraman.
Isn't it true that you guys now have everybody from your neighborhood and family working on your show?
Such nepotism.
It's literally like so many people.
Well, so many people work for us for free for so many years.
I had to be like, I love that, though.
It's so great.
Michael Polano, huh?
Yeah, yeah.
That hitter, bro.
We'll have to send him something nice.
I actually almost flew him out here to come up.
He's a teacher.
And where?
He's in Jersey.
Where at?
Ocean Township High School.
Because I'm supposed to be in Sayersville coming up sometime soon.
I don't know how far away that is.
No, it's not that far.
It isn't?
Yeah, yeah.
And he said to Say Gang Gang.
He did?
What does he teach?
He teaches television production.
Does he?
Oh, that's awesome.
He's got a scheme going on there, man.
It's great.
Scheme.
It's great.
All the kids there.
Mr. Polanka, that's his name?
Polano.
Mr. Polano.
Yeah.
That's awesome, man.
I would take his class.
He'd be a good teacher.
Michael, I'd be in there.
Gang, gang, Mike.
Thank you.
Thank you for sending.
Thank you for sending Joe my way, Michael.
I appreciate it, man.
And whenever I get over there to Jersey, I have to pop in.
Yeah.
You know, pop into the class.
That might be cool.
Oh, they were losing mind.
You kidding me?
That'd be crazy.
You don't have to do all that.
Well, now I've kind of sentenced myself.
No, I mean, I did come all the way here from New York.
All right.
We'll figure it out, man.
We'll make something work.
I love you, dude.
You're all.
Love you too, man.
Thank you so much, bro.
You got it.
Now, I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
I must be cornerstone.
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.
I can feel it in my bones.
But it's gonna take a little time for me to set that parking break and let myself unwind shine that light on me.
I'll sit and tell you my story and find a song.
I was singing just for me.
And now I've been moving way too fast on the runaway train with a heavy load of my hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite, and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner.
The answer may shock you.
Sometimes I'll interview my friends.
Sometimes I won't.
And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head.
You have three new voice activities.
A lot of people are talking about Kite Club.
I've been talking about Kite Club for so long.
Longer than anybody else.
So great.
Hi, sweetheart.
Anyone who doesn't listen to Kite Club is a dodgy bloody wanker.
Jermaine.
Oh, hi.
I'll take a quarter pounder with cheese and a McFlurry.
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream machine is broken.
Oh, no.
No!
I think Tom Hanks just buttiled me.
Anyway, first rule of Kai Club is tell everyone about Kai Club.
Second rule of Kite Club is tell everyone about Kai Club.
Third rule, like and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or watch us on YouTube, yeah?
