The way television pranks primarily work is for unsuspecting audience members to be used as the victim. This is not the case with Impractica Jokers. The American reality show makes the victims of four longtime friends and comedians who compete to embarrass each other in public with outrageous and humorous challenges.
It features four members of a comedy troupe known as “the Nets”; Joe (Joseph Gatto), Murr (James Murray), Q (Brian Quinn) and Sal (Salvatore Vulcano). Since the comedy series debuted in 2011, these friends have done everything crazy in the book of fools: play in a talentless band, ask people to support charities that don’t exist.
The comedy series airs in different parts of the world including USA, UK, Ireland, India and more.
Who are the impractical jokers?
Impractical Jokers began when four high school friends who all attended Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York City, got together and formed a comedy troupe in 1999, under the name “The Tenderloins.”
The Nets started in 1999 with four friends, James Murray, Sal Vulcano, Gideon Horowitz and Mike Boccio. In 2000 Joe Gatto joined the troupe and in 2001 Horowitz became the first member to leave the troupe. In 2005 Boccio left and was replaced in 2006 by Bruan Quinn. Since then, it has remained with no one joining or leaving. They are the last 4 cast members who later joined to be part of The Impractical Jokers.
As a group of comedians, they competed in various comedy show contests in the United States, winning the grand prize in NBC’s “It’s Your Show” contest worth $100,000. With that, they turned to television production. In 2008, they did a pilot episode for a scripted sitcom for SpikeTV, but the show couldn’t make it to series.
Not giving in, they continued to pursue their career until April 2011, when TruTv announced the creation of the series “Impractical Jokers”, originally titled “Mission: Uncomfortable”. Quinn and Sal were key in securing the deal, as they recorded the pilot episode of the show on their iPhone and pitched the idea to TruTv, who saw it as an opportunity and immediately approved.
Since the comedy series began airing in 2011, they have produced and aired seven seasons, each with an episode count ranging from 16 to 31. Each member of Impractical Jokers is:
1. Brian Quinn
Brian Michael Quinn was born on March 14, 1976 in Staten Island, New York. He was a student at Monsignor Farrell High School, where he participated in various theater and athletic activities.
He also attended Brooklyn College and later became a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department. All this before he made the decision to pursue a career in comedy. In the comedy world, he is nicknamed “Q”. He also features in the SModcast.com podcast “Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave! ”As the third host.
Besides being a comedian, he is also an actor. His first role was in 1996 when he played a soldier in the movie Warshots. He was also in other productions like Dogma, Big Helium Dog, and Vulgar, while in 1999. Q wrote a dark fantasy graphic novel, Metro starring Walt Flanagan and Cullen Bunn. For the book, he made over $128,000 on Kickstarter.
2. James “Murr” Murray
He was born James Stephen Murray on May 1, 1976, in Staten Island, New York. He also attended Monsignor Farrell High School, where he was fully involved in community theater activities. He went further in his studies and earned a BA in English from Georgetown University. And from there, he ventured into film and television productions.
He started working at Northsouth Productions, where he became Senior Vice President of Development. As a television savvy producer, he published a sci-fi horror book “Awakened” with Darren Wearmouth as co-author in 2018. However, a sequel “The Brook” will appear this year 2019.
The impromptu comedian married Sal’s sister, Jenna Vulcano legally as a simple prank and revenge against Sal in 2014. The wedding was called off on the wedding night, even though their family members were present.
3. Sal Vulcano
Salvatore Vulcano was born Salvatore EdwardAnthony Vulcano on November 6, 1976 in Staten Island, New York. He also attended Monsignor Farrell High School. Sal has participated in various sports activities such as football, hockey and basketball. He earned a degree in finance from St. John’s University in New York and graduated in 1998.
You’d think Sal with a finance degree would end up in an office as a financial analyst or consultant, but he opted for comedy instead. Besides being a comedian, he is also an author. He wrote the book “Impractical Jokers” which is about the comedy show itself. It was co-written by the other three actors. Even before comedy, he worked as a pizza delivery boy and then as a bartender.
Of Italian, Cuban, and Puerto Rican descent, he has also starred in several films, including 1998’s Damned! , Just Another Wrestling Romantic Comedy (2006), Bones (2015), and 12 Monkeys (2017).
4. Joe Gatto
He was born Joseph Anthony Tattoo Jr. on June 5, 1976 in Staten Island, New York. Like his comic friends and colleagues, he attended Monsignor Farrell High School and later earned a degree in accounting from Long Island Post University in Brookville, New York.
After founding the comedy troupe with his friends in 1999, Gatto worked at Giggle, a baby retail store. He is the only married member of the troupe. He met Bessy in 2012 and married her in 2013. They have two children: Milana Francine Gatto and Remington Joseph Gatto.
Their salary
After seven seasons and 177 episodes as well as 29 specials, Impractical Jokers has not only been supported for a long time, but it has also been a great success. When it first aired in 2011, the show drew over 1.5 million viewers and it has continued to be a hit.
With the success of the show, the question that remains is what do the cast members earn?
The exact earnings of each member of the troop are not yet known. But, they revealed that each of them gets paid according to their tasks and roles. Also, the value of their contract with TruTV, which renewed the contract for all eight seasons of the show, is not known.
However, a rough estimate of their net worth shows that they each meet the millions they got from their hugely popular show. On an individual basis, James Murray has a net worth of $5 million which he mainly got from his performance in the show and Sal Vulcano also has the same net worth of $5 million.
Like others, Brian Quinn has a net worth of $5million, most of which he made from impractical Jokers. The comedian, actor and producer also made a fortune from his weekly podcast, Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave! For his part, Joseph Gatto has an estimated net worth of $5 million. Just like everyone else, he made his fortune in comedy show as well as other engagements including his appearances in movies.
Is it fake or staged?
Impractical Jokers like many other prank shows depends on the hidden camera to make people believe it’s all happening in real life. Different hidden cameras follow the four friends as they challenge each other to do crazy things in public to unsuspecting members of the public.
However, like any other reality show, there has been speculation about the originality of the comedy show. Fans and critics have given differing opinions about the show whether it’s fake, staged, or real.
However, cast members disagree with those who claim the show is staged. Quinn responding to such accusations in a 2018 “Ask Me Anything” Reddit thread was adamant that he sometimes uses actors, even if the actors were unaware they were on the show for a specific purpose. The aim of comedy production is to perform acts that are very confusing and confusing in the eyes of the public with the sole aim of getting the funniest pictures.
According to Sal, the golden rule of the show is for everything to be real, because what they want to achieve is an authentic reaction from everyone, including the cast members.
Although they maintain that it’s all real, the Impractical Jokers reveal that they sometimes write their jokes ahead of time with lots of other things to improvise. Also, they reveal that all of their surprises are real, as they always try to keep everything away from others.
That said, there are aspects of the show that some still make people believe that certain plays are staged with conspiracy theorists claiming to have evidence that the show is fake. But then, given how many seasons it’s been on, it’s gained some credibility that it’s easy to believe it’s real and not fake.