[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everyone and welcome to the New Yorkers, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp. I'm a published photographer, New York City tour business owner, real estate content creator, podcaster, and above all else, New Yorker.
Ladies and gentlemen, the next Brooklyn bound train in malevolent.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Stand clear of the closing doors please.
This is the time square.
Transfer is available to the shuttle.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: With me today, everyone. I have comedian James Murray right here. Also known as Murr on the hit TV show Impractical Jokers. He is also an executive TV and film producer. As the president of Impractical Productions.
He is a best selling author of nine published titles and tours the world telling jokes to sold out arenas. But unfortunately he lives in New Jersey.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I knew that was coming.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: What gives me? Why Prince?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Why did I come on a New Yorker podcast when I live in Jersey now, man.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: So where are you from? Where were you born? That's the whole story.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Like many people, I was born in a hospital that happened to be in Staten Island.
So I grew up in state.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: We love Staten Island.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Thank you. You'll come on by.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: I take the ferry there all the time.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Do you.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Do you ever do anything on the islands?
[00:01:42] Speaker A: You know what, I went and checked out Nona's. Nona's, yes. Have you been there?
[00:01:46] Speaker B: From the. The movie that was just made about it, right?
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: The movie's pretty good.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: That's a true story. What a crazy story that whole thing is, right?
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. Everybody has to watch it too.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I haven't been there yet, but one day soon it look the Netflix movie or whatever it was.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: Amazon prime, whatever it was. Anyway, so I grew up in Staten island, then to Bay Ridge.
I kind of reversed Saturday Night Fevered it there.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Lived there for many years and then moved to downtown Manhattan.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Where I was like for 10 years or so.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: What neighborhood in downtown Manhattan?
[00:02:14] Speaker B: I mean, right here, financial district.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Down, you know, 10 blocks.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Right across from city Hall.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: So you're familiar with where we are right now, really?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you what. On this corner right here, Canal street and Broadway, is the shoe store where in Jokers in season one was birthed one of our famous catchphrases of us shouting, larry, Larry.
Store on this corner.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Really? Y. Wow. Comes full circle here.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: So it's an iconic corner.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: It really is. On beautiful Canal Street.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, absolutely stunningly beautiful, clean, gorgeous Canal Street. If you're not from New York, come on by.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Come on by.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: You can get in the same store. You can get knockoff Gucci shoes.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: And fireworks.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Right. All the same.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: It's a great Fourth of July. Yeah. So then. So you were downtown. You lived downtown for how many.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: I mean, 12 years.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. Amazing. What years were you down here?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Maybe 13 years. 2008 to 2 to Covid to 2020.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Then broke my lease.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: And just stayed in Jersey.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Nice. And so you're in Princeton.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: We're in Princeton now. My wife is from Philly. I'm from New York. So when we get married, we kind of moved halfway in between. And I. I kept the apartment in Manhattan at the beginning because we filmed so much. I was like, well, you know, and I'm tour, what have you. I was like, it'd be easy to have the place here too. And then when Covid hit, I realized we're not filming in person anytime soon.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: So I broke the lease in just themed Jersey.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: So how much of a break did you take with COVID from the show?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Believe it or not, not much. Like most, a lot of TV shows were down for like a year or something that we were not. We. We started filming a new show called Dinner Party. We shot that from home.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Then we went back to work in Jokers. Let's say the world shut down, What, March, right? 20.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: We were back filming Jokers by, like, July.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: So only a few months we had to do. We had to retool the show.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: I was just going to ask you.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Because how do you shoot a hidden camera show where you're interacting with strangers when you can't interact with strange? Right.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: How did you do that then?
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah. We had really clever ways to do it for an entire season. Like we would. A lot of the things we do are like focus groups, things like that.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: So it was a controlled situation like that. Like a focus group. We can have people come in, test them, because that was the network requirement.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Did you have to wear masks?
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Well, then you're looking for the. If everybody's tested, yeah, he's negative, then you're hoping that you're gonna get a percentage of people that are like, okay, I know we're in. Here's tested negative.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: I'm willing to take my mask off.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: The mask doesn't work for a hidden camera show, you know?
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Right, right. We got away with it.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: And we did a whole season like that, producing segments where we could somehow test people before they got on camera without them realizing they're about to be On a TV show. It was tough man stuff. We pulled it off.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: That's. That's really interesting. You know, I mean, I didn't really think. You know, I didn't think about asking about this, but I'm glad you brought it up. I mean.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Oh, and then we couldn't. That whole season, we couldn't even film in Manhattan. We usually film here in the city.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: I go back to work in, like, two. A month. Two months filming, but with COVID restrictions.
The thing that kept us from filming in Manhattan was elevator restrictions and buildings. You couldn't have more than, like, two people in an elevator at a time. Well, how the hell you get 60 crew members and equipment up into a building two people at a time?
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Holy crap.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: So we filmed almost entirely of season nine in Jersey. That had results rough, where they didn't.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Give a. Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Put all the people in the elevator.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Oh, that's hilarious. Wow. That's something I haven't thought about. And then you came back to normal with the show probably the next year, I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: But I. I live in Jersey now, but I'm still a New Yorker at heart.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So how do you commute? Through the PATH train or.
[00:05:51] Speaker B: No, I just. I either drive or tv. When I'm filming the TV show, they have a drive that takes us, you know, and so that's it.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm thinking, you know, you're a regular person like me or Jay, who takes the subway every day, but you don't really have to.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Not anymore. But when I lived in the city, I was on the subway every day.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I was.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: You know, I was. The guys would, like, bitch at me every day because they still live in Staten Island.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: So they're fighting the BQE traffic every morning. It takes. Sometimes it'll take them, like. Let's say we're filming, you know, Times Square. It takes them freaking an hour and a half from Staten island to get to Times. Right. Meanwhile, I was living here. I jump on the 2, 3 train. I'm in Times Square in six minutes.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Express, quick.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: And they're like.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: They're like, f. You know, and then now. Now the roles are reversed. Now I'm bitching. We're filming in Queens, right. We filmed the Queens a few months ago, and it took me, like, three freaking hours, man. From central Jersey. I was pulling my. What little hair I have left.
And Meanwhile, you know, Q's Q and Cellar flying in, 25 minutes, no traffic.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: I'm like, you. Yeah, that's hilarious. So do you miss the subway?
[00:07:01] Speaker B: I do miss.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: What do you miss about it?
[00:07:03] Speaker B: I do miss how easy it was to get around, man. Like, we did a show.
We did Madison. We performed Madison Square Garden, right. 2017. We sold out the Garden. Right?
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: And it was a huge night. Right. Just because we did a live show. Manhattan. I mean, 16 years ago, right before the show, TV show got on the air and two people bought tickets to see us perform, right? They spent five bucks a ticket. We. We. So they. We made $10 profit on the night. The theater.
The theater cost US$65 to rent, so we lost $55. Right. It was this little shitty black box in.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: In the West Village. Right.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Two people bought tickets, and then, like, you know, eight years later, we sell at the Garden. It was huge. Like, and for a New Yorker, it was a hugely emotional night.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Family was there, parents are still alive. It was unbelievable. Right. But I took the subway to my own show at the Garden.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: That's pretty cool.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: So I'm in my suit, like, performing, commuting up to the Garden. I come out of the 2, 3 train on 7th Avenue South.
I come out, I see the Garden and the whole side of the Garden set in bracket of jokers, sold out. And literally tears are shimming down my face, man. But I'm in the subway commuting with fans of jokers. They're going to see my show at the Garden, which I think is such a.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: People recognize you on the train. Oh, yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: I think it's such a uniquely New York thing.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: Like a New Yorker. What's the best way to get to the Garden to be at your own show? Take the subway. You know.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: You know, I mean, that. That's the epit. You're the epit. You are a New Yorker. And so it.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I mean, you in the subway all the time.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: You know, like, there's no better way to get around. Assuming you don't get stabbed.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: You know, but try not to.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I try not to every day, actually, But.
Which is funny. But, you know, it's interesting, though, because, you know, I moved here, it's about 13 years ago from Florida.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: And where in Florida were you?
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Well, I lived in Orlando for a long time.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You did the flipping reverse of everyone.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Everybody says that. That's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. That I did it opposite.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: But, I mean, I knew I was a New Yorker, so to speak. When I could fall asleep on the train and wake up at my subway.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Stop, you got to Be careful, man.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: You know?
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I tell you why. One of the. One of the stupidest things ever done, right? So, you know, when you. When you live in Staten island, you grew up in Staten Island.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: You're.
And you don't have money. You're not taking a car back to Staten island. It cost you 100 bucks, right? You're taking the ferry. But the ferry from 12:30pm onward, 12:30am onward switches once every hour, correct? Right. It jumps from the half hour schedule. It goes from 15 minutes to 20 minutes to half hour to every hour. Right. So between 12:30am and 5:30am if you miss that 12:30 ferry, you're waiting until 1:30 to get on the ferry. Right. And sometimes you're out drinking in Manhattan, right. With friends. You get drunk, you get in the ferry, you miss it, whatever. You're waiting, waiting. Then you have one option on Staten Island. The Staten island rapid transit, which is the opposite of rapid, right?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know that one.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: It's. It's the. It goes one direction, right? It's just one train goes to the end of the islands and back. And I grew up on the far end of the island, South Shore, right. So I had no choice but to get on the train. So you wait in the ferry terminal for like, fricking hour. You finally get to Staten island, you're drunk. The alcohol is setting it right. Like, you are effing drunk, right? So when I can't tell you how many times I've fallen asleep on the Staten island train going 40 minutes to get to the other end of the island, and you go all the way.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: To the end of the island, got a pee.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Well, you know, you know all the end of the island, but you're asleep.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: The train turns around, goes back to the ferry. Do you know how many times gotten on the train on Staten island drunk and wound up back at the ferry an hour and a half later? I was like, can I curse?
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: I was like, come on, man. I did it again. The worst.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: Gosh, you know what? I've never taken the. The Staten island subway. I guess it's not.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: It's above ground.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: I want to see what it. What it's like, you know? And you live at the end. You said you used to live at.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: The end at the end of the island.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I want to check it out one day, just in general.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Oh, I'm a train guy. I'm a train buff, too.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I read that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: I brought a little gift for you.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: By the way. So I don't.
My wife and I bought a house in Jersey to save one of America's oldest model railroad clubs.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: So we live in Princeton, but 10 minutes away. It hit the Wall Street Journal like a year ago that this club called Pacific Southern Railway has been around for like 75 years. These.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: The.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: The clubs, the owner, the original owner house, started building the model railroad in 1950. The club, formed in 1964, is this club of people that are just passionate about model railroad trains. Right.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Pretty amazing building.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: And the. The club is in the basement of a real house in Jersey in Rocky Hill, New Jersey. And the club has grown and grown and grown and the railroad's grown. And it's bigger than the house itself. It's in the basement. It's so big. It's 12,000 square feet of track. The house I live in, my house is 4,600 square feet. The Model Railroad Club is 12,000 square feet. Right. They knocked out a foundation wall of the house and kept going under the lawn. You got to see it, man. It's all New Yorkers, New Jersey, people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, that have.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: And this is where, again, it's in Central Jersey, Rocky.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Right. It's unbelievable, man. And so it hit the Wall Street Journal a year ago that this club, the former owner of the house, sadly passed from cancer and the club is going to lose their home. And who in their right mind, if they buy the house is going to be like, okay, your club of like 50, 60 people can still come in six, eight times a week to my home and work on your model trains.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Right. And.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: And take up 12,000 square feet of the house and open the house up to the public every year. Be crazy. No one would do that. Right. So the night before they were forced to sell the house, my wife and I bought the house simply to save Pacific Southern Railway.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: That's pretty.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Because I'm a huge model train buff, right. And I'm obsessed with trains.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: And pretty amazing. And so. So we bought the house, saved the club. My wife moved her candle company in there, and if I have candles, we'd run an Alzheimer's charity out of there. And now I'm a member of one of America's coolest, longest running nonprofit model railroad clubs. It's Pacific Southern.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: So I brought you out.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: I brought you. We just released a brand new line of box cars, Southern Box Cars by Walther's Trains, which is like the biggest hobby manufactured in the country. In the world. And so I Brought you one of our brand new Pacific Southern branded model collectible box cars from the train.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Gives you the full history of the train club and where the newest owners of the train club. And that's for you if you'd like. It's a.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Love it, buddy.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Cool memorabilia, man.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: My friend.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: There's only, you know, a thousand are made, so now you got one of them.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: It's pretty cool.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: I don't know if you're into trains, but joined trains or you ever go on State Island Rapid Transit, you know, it's based on. There's a lot of parts of the layout that are New York based based and New Jersey based. It's really cool, man.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: That's amazing, my friend. Thank you.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: You got it.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: It's awful, buddy.
Do you ever go to the Grand Central train show, The Christmas train show? They have too. The little train show.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: It's unbelievable.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: I love it. One of my favorite things every year to go see. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: The Botanical gardens one. What's that? Botanical gardens one. Yes. I've been to that one as well. And they have one over. I think they. It's down now, but they have one at the Liberty Science center too that was really incredible, which is something to see. But I mean, come to Pacific Southern if you know.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: That is awesome. Yeah, we gotta take a trip out there and check that.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's wild, man. You know, it really is something.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about.
Let's jump back now real quick. Two, you're born in Staten Island.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Then what happens?
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Then you die.
Then what happens?
Yeah. I went away to college while you.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: Went to school there. Yeah. So from what I understand you went to like an all boys school that.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: All boys Catholic high school.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: And that's how.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Impractical jokes.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's how you met all your buddies. Right. That's amazing. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:14:57] Speaker B: I mean, we. We did improv together in high school.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Our high school was Minsign Farrell. It's a great school. And we did performing arts there and theater and improv and loved doing comedy together. And then we went to different colleges and after college we came back and formed our comedy group and started performing live for many, many years and failed for many, many years.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: And then along.
Along the way I got a job in TV development and my job was to like create and sell TV shows and pitch TV shows and the guys and I were still doing comedy together. And so we created Impractical Jokers. The Idea of it. And we shot a sales tape, and I pitched it through my job at North South Productions, which is a New York company, New York TV company based here in Manhattan, and. And then sold it to true TV. And that was 16 years ago.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: We're about to hit 16 years of filming this show.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: In just a few weeks. We started filming Jokers March 2010.
And so we're about to hit and we go back to work. March coming up. So 16 years we've been making the show.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: That's amazing. I read somewhere, too, that your. Your very first year, Impractical jokers did over 32 million views or something like that.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: That sounds about right.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, right out the. Right out the gate, you guys, we're cranking, you know.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we. We moved over to TBS now, You know, True's kind of changed the program, so we moved to the. The big sister of True tv, you know, the tbs, which is really cool to be on such a big cable channel.
And it's been a wild ride, man. I. I never thought it'd still be going this. This many years in, you know?
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you're.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: You're. It's certainly not because of our looks.
That's damn sure.
We look. We look like the kind of guys you settle for, you know, I'm saying. And I don't look famous. I look like an accountant, man. People look at me like I look like a pharmacist. People, like, they look at me like, you look familiar. Is my prescription ready?
[00:16:53] Speaker A: I would have never thought that stuff. But you're a celebrity, my friend, you know, so, you know, you're. Do you get recognized a lot? Yeah, I would assume you do, I should say.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: You know, I mean, it's a good thing here, right? When you walked in, It's a cool thing, man.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: It's like, you never know. Well, I tell you what, it keeps us humble. Like, you say, like, oh, we're fit. Famous. Yeah, he keeps us humble. Like, you know, we. I say we're like, you know, we're like Z Select Z list celebrities, right?
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Like.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Like, I'll tell you, there still, every day, something keeps me humble. Okay.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: So I came not too long ago. I was taking the subway here, Manhattan, and I come out on 34th street from the. The 1 train or whatever, right? And these. These two girls come up to me, and they're with their two boyfriends, right? And. And they have thick Long island accents, right?
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: The girl's like, oh, my God, Mer.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Mer.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: I was like, hi, can we take a photo? I was like, you should we take a photo? And the boyfriends don't know who the hell I am, Right? They're like, hey, who's this? Who's this? And one girl says to her boyfriend, she goes, babe, you don't know him. That's Murr. He's from the Impossible Pranksters. He's on Comedy Central on Wednesday nights. I was like, you got every detail wrong, man. I'm on Impractical Jokers Thursday nights on tbs. Every detail wrong.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: That's hilarious.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: So, you know, reality check, you know, Impossible Pranksters on Wednesdays on Comedy Central.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Geez, that's. That's funny, though. I mean, but, you know, you're. You're a household name, all of you guys, you know, so, you know, I. I've watched you guys for years, and, you know, we feel like, you know, people feel like they know you.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that's what's different about the show is that we. We. I. People, we're not playing characters, we're playing ourselves.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: You know, and. And you're real.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: You're. Yeah, real.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: And people, like, when. Like, I feel like I already know you, which I think is the. The biggest compliment. And the other thing people say, which I take.
I. I take really as a matter of pride, and I think it's.
It means so much to me is they say that we're the one show, like, the family agrees on, you know, every. Like the kids, the parents, the grandparents. And that's a. A huge compliment. Like, it means we're. I think it means we're doing our job right.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: I completely agree, but you're making everybody laugh, you know, and, you know, it's just nice to laugh today every day, you know, go to a show and just, you know, you're gonna laugh and enjoy yourself, you know, but there's some really. There's some skits that are really memorable to me, you know, and I. I love the one, too. And I give you credit because you're. You're strapped to a taxi cab, you're reading your book.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: And do you have, like, a stunt driver, I assume, cruise around this track? Yeah. And the end is hilarious, too. You trick your friends. But, I mean, there you. You guys, you were.
That was pretty scary in my opinion, too. For you.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: It was stressful to watch.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Well, you're. I think what you're referring to is the greatest punishment ever on Practical Jokers, in my mind.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: And it's. I don't know if we'll ever top it, right? Because there's iconic punishments, like me. Them Throw me of an airplane. Skydiving Joe playing the genie. Genie does you wish. Crash set or Captain fat belly on the Rolls island tram. These are iconic things, right? But I fix my own death on television.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: I don't know if any prank show in history has gone that far, right? It took me five years to pull this off. If you haven't seen this at home.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: You guys have to watch this. I'm gonna.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: I'm gonna paint the picture for you. Okay? So outside of jokers, I write thriller novels. I've got nine books out in stores. I love writing them. My latest one is a serial killer thriller called you better watch out instead of Christmas time. It's really scary. We're making it to a movie this year, actually.
Anyway, so the publisher often has me do the audiobook for a book.
So I didn't. So the guys set up a punishment where I would read a chapter from the audiobook. Yeah, for real. If you buy the audiobook for, you better watch out. From St. Martin's Press. I read the chapter, right? But they wanted to strap me to the hood of a race car with a professional driver racing around a track at like 100 miles an hour. Well, I'm in a fire suit and a helmet on, and I'm strapped down to the windshield reading a chapter of my book.
My ass off, presumably, right?
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: This is the punishment I did. What Sal didn't know was that the whole thing was my secret idea. I. I had the other. I had Q and the writers pitch him the idea secretly. But it was my idea, right? Because at a certain point, while I was riding on the windshields of the car, after like, 10, 20 minutes, riding on the windshield, screaming, my ass.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: That guy's doing donuts. And it's crazy.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: At a certain point, I was going to have the car go around the end of the track, disappear for a split second, while a duplicate gar dressed up the same way with a guy that looks just like me in the same hazmat suit saying, helmet, holding the same book strapped to the windshield. Goes. Takes off at speed. But that guy is a stunt guy, right? And as the car takes turns. You tight. That stunt guy was.
Would fly. Excuse me. Fly off the track, hit the ground, roll, presumably get maimed, injured, killed. Who knows? Sal would witness this and go running across the track. So we rehearsed this punishment for hours before Sal arrived on set.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: The 60 crew members of jokers, right? We trained again and again. And again, react now.
React, react, react. Practice. Okay, now you scream, now you scream. Now you go running. And you go running. All with the intention of tricking Sal to think something horrible happened. So he would also go running across the track. He worked like a gen. I rehearsed 10 times.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: I mean the details had to be the time.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: I rehearsed 10 times getting cut off the car because I'm strapped down. Cut off the car immediately, strip my clothes off to where I have the EMT outfit underneath, race shoeless across the field into the ambulance, then put my whole EMT alpha back on, put the boots on, the whole hat, fake hair. I had to get it in, in. I had like 20 seconds to achieve all this. So we kept rehearsing again, again and again, getting faster and faster and faster. Because once Sal starts running across the track, yeah, the clock is ticking before he will see me get ripped off the car, you know, So I had like 30 seconds to make all this happen. And we pulled it off and Sal fell for it, hook, line and sinker. He comes running across the track, sees what he believes to be my body and EMT workers working on it, trying to resuscitate me, calling for a helicopter. And he's full blown panics. At the key moment, I stand up for my own body, dress as an EMT worker, pull off my hat and fake hair and say, well, Sal, this was always your puncture. And he almost shit his pants.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: He did, he did.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: It was the greatest punishment of all time.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: I thought he going to have a heart attack.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: He. An hour later, we real, real EMT workers on that. Right? An hour later. And they took his blood pressure and he was, his heart rate was still like a 150.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: And it was, until it was on such an adrenaline high for me. Hours later I go home, my wife and I are getting ready for bed, brushing our teeth, and I finally calm down and I, I take the two brush out of my mouth and I turn to my wife Melissa and I say, did I go too far?
Because me faking my own death took three real years off my friend's life.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Well, you, you, it was performed, if that's the right word, perfectly, the timing, everything. And when I was watching it and what, you know, because you, the viewers too are watching it, thinking that you're hurt.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I was thinking, you know, you kind of can in your own mind think, oh well, this is what he did or what they're doing. But I had no idea what was happening. Like how, how, what is this happening right here.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: And.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah, and then the twist that I remember. No idea.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: You know, when we first shot it, I had the cut of it before it went on tv. You know, we. We oversee the editing of the show, and the editor sent me the cut of it, and I got a group of my friends together months before it aired on tv. And I said, I want you to see something. And I played the punishment, and when the reverse happened that I stand up and pull the wig off and reveal. It was all a double cross, literally. There's like 20 of my friends there.
They all screamed out loud. I was like, I nailed it, man. They had no idea that was a twist and it was coming. I was like, I pulled it off. Like, I can't imagine what happened throughout homes in America when people saw the twist.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: You know, because I don't think you saw it coming, man.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Well, it's really cool how you did show how your taxi came here and then the second one.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Just how fine tuned it was.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: It's so funny. Like, after that punishment aired, I was like, how do we top this? I was like, I legit got depressed. I was like, we can never come up with a better punishment than that. You know, like, we have to end the show. But now we're two seasons later, we're still going.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'm sure you can top it. I know you can.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: I get some ideas.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: You know what cracks me up too, is how you guys are so comfortable just almost being nude on the show, you know, and, you know, and there's this. There's this one episode that. I mean, only me.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: I'm the only one.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Well, that's kind of what I was getting to, but. But I was cracking up so hard this one episode. I mean, I had tears come out of my eyes because it's like a whodunit type, you know, like.
Yeah.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: Like a murder mystery punishment.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Yours. Is that the. I. I don't remember the specific name. Is it. Is that why you're. You were like laying on a couch with like a thong on or something and you're. I mean, just, you know, they had to blur some of it out because it, you know, you're completely. Almost showing everything. I was laughing so hard just how you're just. Just. You just do it.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: It was like one of these. It was like one of these murder mystery nights.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: You know, Rob Riggles playing the host of this murder mystery night.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: A real group comes in to solve a crime, right. And they go into this the library of this mansion. They're all dressed in period costumes, you know, from the 1920s. Whatever. They're all sleuths. They got, you know, they're funny. They've got, you know, you know, different testing kits. Got magnifying glasses to look for clues. They walk in the library, and there's the dead body. There's always a dead body, right? I'm the dead body. Completely naked with a G string on, slumped, ass up, head down over the side of a couch. And of course, Wriggles manhandling my butt cheeks. Then, of course, it ends with him ripping off the G string. And I'm there as a naked. They. They move my body onto, like a. They have like a. A saw horse, you know, and he's. But I gotta play a dead body the whole time, naked. And he's bouncing me up and down on this. The wooden hobby horse.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: It is hilarious.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: It was mortifying.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Well, I mean, to top it off, at the end, when I was just. I was crying, laughing, because he takes your G string, like, pulls it, you know, I mean, that had to be.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: It was painful.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: It's funny, man.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I've been naked like a dozen times on this show.
The best one was just last year it aired. Sal, we filmed here in Manhattan.
We tell, sal, we want you to be a motivational speaker at a real company in Midtown, right?
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: He goes in. It's a real deal company, man. Like, it's like they do real estate and what have you. And he goes into the conference room, and there's 20 real employees of this company. They're dressed in suits, formal wear, their work, you know. And he goes, well, what's the punishment? We said, sal, you'll know when, you know, 20 minutes into his presentation, one by one, all the real employees of this company started taking their clothes off until he was in a conference room in Midtown with 20 completely naked adult strangers. And he's such a germaphobe, he lost his mind, right? Like. And then he's. He's panicking. He's grossed out. Then at the end, they said, hey, it's our buddy Jim's birthday. We want to sing Happy birthday tonight. And they wheeled out a giant birthday cake. And I popped out of the cake, also completely naked, but I had crazy glued on a prosthetic penis that was like a foot long, man. We had to blow the whole thing out. And it's swinging like this. And. And then they brought out hot dogs for every silver. So I'm eating a hot dog as my. My Phallus is. It was so funny, man. And he had to take it seriously in character.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: God, how do you come up with this? Like, how do you guys come up with this? Like, are you sitting around a round table and like, let's do this, let's do this, Or.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: I mean, you're surprising each other, though, too.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: I mean, it's just.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: It's just improper.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: I'll tell you what. Like, when we start. We start go back to pre production in a few weeks.
Just don't go to bathroom. Once you leave the room to go to the bathroom, that's when you come back in five minutes later. And the writer's like. And he's like, they just came up with something while I was out of the room to punish me. Yeah, that's how it happens.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
So that's. It's just such a great show. It's such a great idea. Obviously, you know, it's been so successful for so long, you know. So now you have some shows coming up?
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I got a couple local shows. You know, we. I have four shows or five shows at the Stress Factory. I mean, right here, away in New Brunswick, February 20th, 21st, with the stress Factory. I do my live. I do a solo comedy show.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: In addition, we do the Impractical Jokers tour. But I do a lot. A solo show as well.
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: And then March 6th, Friday, March 6th, I'm in Peekskill, New York.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: Up on the Hudson at a theater. A great town, Beautiful town. Performing live as well. It's. It's a lot of fun. My solo show is. It's wild, man. My voice is sore right now because I had four shows this weekend. I just got back last night. I was in.
I was in.
I'm in Tacoma next weekend.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Make me feel better about myself. I don't remember yesterday.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: How was I, man.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: But you travel a lot. It's okay.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: I was. I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Actually, I did see that.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Wait, was there this weekend? Next week? This coming weekend, I'm in Tacoma.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: I also saw. I don't. Was there just an episode where you did the weather a few weeks ago? Was that a few weeks ago? Yeah.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Dude, I've never done the weather before. Yeah, I didn't. There was. Where the hell we were right?
[00:30:42] Speaker A: In the Midwest?
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah, in the Midwest somewhere.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: I can't remember. So they had me do the weather live, and I'm like, well, I don't know how to do weather, nor do I know how to Do a green screen.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Because it's the opposite of what you're seeing.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Right. Which is hard.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Like I look at that camera, I know left and right. I can figure it out.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Right, Right.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: But the green screen, when you're watching yourself on the monitor, it's the opposite. I don't know why they flip it, but they do so. And also, I don't know what the goddamn symbols mean, man. Like these, they have the cold front coming in through also. The bit was like four minutes long.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: You know, hard it is to talk for four minutes straight about weather.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: So by the end, it just derailed.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: Right though.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: It wasn't. Go outside and look, man.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Like, you know, open your window shades, look, you know, live.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Yeah. You didn't do that.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Stop asking me whether. Look outside.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I think you. I forget how you ended it. You said, you know, go out. What, the last days we have or something.
You said something like that.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: Yeah. The final days we have left on Earth, you know, there's an asteroid hurtling.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Towards us, and that's how you ended it. Go out. Enjoy the final days left on Earth.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: I know, I'm just, you know, it is like I literally, I'm literally. I just show you a funny thing. Like, literally, I'm. I always joke that there's an asteroid hurtling toward us right now.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:53] Speaker B: And I'm the only one that knows when and where it's gonna hit.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Literally on my phone right now. What was I just watching before in the bathroom here? Independence Day, when New York City gets destroyed by goddamn aliens.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: I. I love that show, man. I know, too. I love to watch, you know, disaster movies where. Especially when New York is getting, you know, it's always the target.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: New York, man.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: You know, it's cool. It's kind of cool.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: It's great city in the world, you know, that's why.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: Then you think, what would I do if I was in this situation in Independence Day? But.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Oh, so. I knew. I was just saying. So. Yeah, I'm on tour. I got a couple local shows coming up.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: How do people get tickets?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: You can get your
[email protected] m u r r murrellive.com My live show is wild. The. Because the whole second half of the show, I have no idea what's gonna happen. I make it up as I go. So first half of the show is like stand up comedy, Like a traditional stand up comedy show. I tell some of the most embarrassing errors of judgment I've ever made because of Impractical Jokers. But the second half of the show, I do two games with the audience that are different every single show. First game is, I call it text roulette. I borrow three audience members cell phones.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: And I start scrolling through their text messages and I start asking them questions. And when an idea hits me, I say, do you mind if I text your boss? Do you mind if I text your mother, your son, what have you? And then from their phone, I text on their behalf as if it's them. And then it starts texting back and forth. And inevitably I FaceTime the people that I just texted, and it's absolute chaos. It's hysterical.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: And then, and then the final game I play is Impractical Jokers Live.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Right?
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Meaning I choose someone from the audience, put an earpiece in the ear, send them out in the streets of Jersey or, you know, Peacekill, New York, and live on the screen. We watch them in the theater and live on the spot, I tell them what to say and do. I just come up with it off the top of my head. It's like watching the TV show happen live. It's wild.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: Is there anything that you, you know, when, when the guys, you know, they, they tell you what to do and it's just interesting because, you know, I can see your face or whoever, you know, when you got your face just like, oh, man, I got to do this. Is this something you just haven't done? You've just. You're like, I couldn't say that or do that or it's too far. You're just like, yeah, whatever, I'll just do it.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: We. We all have our Achilles heels.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: You know, I think we were.
Yeah. I, I would never disrespect an elder or things like this. I mean, did he throw like water.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: In some person's face?
[00:34:16] Speaker B: I did. Well, that's the twist with that. That was a bit in Brooklyn. We filmed in Brooklyn. We filmed a pizzeria. Right. And the, the. The challenge is you've gotta storm Ang. You gotta angrily storm into the pizzeria and then grab a. With a glass of water. And then the guys tell you in your ear why you're about to throw a glass of water on the cashier's face.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Well, you don't. So you don't know the reason. There's always something ridiculous like, you know, you said, whatever. You said my. My breasts aren't big or whatever.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: You said I need a breast implants, but I'm A man, you know.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: It is something dumb they come up with, right? You don't know the reason and you also don't know who the cashier is.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Which is the twist. So the last time we play the game, I go storming into the pizzeria full like jug of water.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: And behind the counter was my, my wife's grandmother.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Oh, is that right?
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Her 80 something year old grandmother Betty, who's lovely. And she's there, she's got the, the, the hair net on, she's got the uniform from the pizzeria. I'm like, I'm like, fuck, man, I gotta, I gotta throw a full glass of water on my grandmother in law. It's. And you've got, you know, it's like, how do you do it?
[00:35:26] Speaker A: But you did it.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: I did it, yeah. You know I did.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: It was. That was it.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: But then I broke at the end. I couldn't, you know, I broke characters like, are you okay? I'm sorry. Nanny.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah, y. That was, that was pretty cool. You know, there's an episode too. What makes me laugh is just, you know, you know, you're playing these jokes on people and then they're just how their brains are and they're looking at you like, what's going on? Who is this guy?
You, you talked, you went and acted like this guy from, from this magazine.
I think the name of the magazine.
But at the end of the conversation, you know, you said that your girlfriend or your wife was walking in and so you're like under the table talking to him. And it's funny how you get people just, people just go along with it and you're both underneath the table talk.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: You know, underneath the table talking. Because you don't want to, you know, her to see you there.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, that was one of those challenges. So the crux of it. You explained it well, the crux of it is working as workers that are a fake company. We set up, we hire a temp worker for the day to fill in for an employee that's out. Right. And there's a lot. We faked the whole thing. There's a lot of hullabaloo going around. We have other crew members walking through.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: We.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: The. It feels real, right? So this temp worker that's hired, there's no reason they would think it's not a real situation.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: You're a real office building here in Manhattan. There's lots of other employees going in and out, what have you. And then we embed with this person, what you don't see on TV is we embed with them for like 25 minutes to form a relationship with them of normalcy before incomeradery. Before we start with where things get weird.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: And we cut it down to 30 seconds. TV of makes sense. Normalcy. Right. But this person has had 20 minutes to form a human relationship. Laughing where you from? You know, blah blah. I've worked here six years. Whatever you're saying. Right. And trim it down on tv. But that's how you, you have to wait until you feel it's the right time to, to strike. And at the key moment when we feel we formed a human bond with the person and they'll go along for the ride. And you're also judging. This is another secret of the show.
Like I look at when we, we hire. Fake hire.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: We, we hire 30 people to fit. We. We only need three spots. So I need three employees. One for me, one's for Sal, one for Q. Right. But we hire 30 people for the day and then our producers will go through pre interview them downstairs. They don't know they're on tv. They don't, they're. They're doing other jobs in the company for like an hour before they get to us. They're jumping around different departments because the producers are getting a sense of their personality. Are they good tv? Are they. Will they fall for the bit and they'll pitch us the. Our producers will say I like this guy or this woman a lot. You know, she's outgoing. She, she, I think she'll fall for it, what have you. And then we'll look at the pictures, think about it and we'll choose. Right. And then we choose the person. In this particular bit. It was a wild cr. Like we're like, can we pull this off? Because the crux is you've gotta, you don't want your boss to come in to confront you. So will can you hide under their desk and will this person lie for you?
[00:38:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Say you're not there. Right. So you've got to talk a stranger to allowing you to climb under their desk between their legs and lie on your behalf that you're not there in the office because you don't want to get culpable or whatever. Right.
That's a big ask.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: And you know, it takes a certain kind of person to go along with that ride.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: But if you get them, if you get them, if they go along with the initial ask, then you're golden.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: You know, and how far can you Push, you know, that's the bit.
[00:38:59] Speaker A: It's great and it works great. That one worked. I mean, you know, you're going on the desk and the, the guy who we talked to the test, you know. Yeah. You know, it's hilarious.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: I think Jokers is really a study of human psychology.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: It really is, yeah. You know, have you ever heard of Darren Brown, maybe?
[00:39:14] Speaker B: Darren Brown is a magician, hypnotist, artist from the uk. He does a lot of shows in New York. He comes on his tour, worldwide tour.
Brilliant, brilliant comedian, hypnotist, what have you. Mentalist. One of his classic bits is his brilliant psychology.
He writes a letter to like a thousand people saying that he is a psychic. And he gives them a hundred dollars in the envelope and he sends the envelope out to a thousand strangers and says, I want you to, I'm a psychic, I have a prediction for you that so, and which, you know, this horse is going to win the race this Saturday. Okay, here's the hundred dollars bet on this horse. And there's seven horses in the race, right? And he sends seven different horses to a thousand people, right. You know, so and so of those thousand people, a percentage of them are going to win, right? Right. There's a percentage, there's like 70 people are going to win percentage wise because they bet on. He bets all seven different horses. He bets, you know, 100 people, this horse, 100 people, this horse,100 people, what have you, right? So of the 100 people that won from the thousand, he then sends another letter a week later with another hundred dollars saying this to prove you I'm a psychic, I'm going to send you another hundred dollars bet on this horse next Saturday. And of those hundred people that have won, they bet. And of Those hundred people, 50, you know, 10 win. And then after four weeks in a row, there's one person from that pool of a thousand originally that has won four weeks in a row based on this guy being a psychic. And then he does the final ask and says, now it's your turn to prove that you believe in my abilities. This person has won four weeks in a row on someone else's money, right? Then he says, now is your turn to prove that, you know, believe me, I want you to bet a thousand dollars of your own money on this horse. And they always do because now they've got the belief.
[00:41:14] Speaker A: Right? Yeah.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: For infra. Niche in. For a mile. Is that the expression or whatever? Mile, yeah, whatever the expression is, you know, he's convinced the person, it's psychology to Go. If you can get him on this initial ask and keep going and going, going. Suddenly by the end, you're like, how the hell did we get this far? It's brilliant.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: It's in a sense, I don't know, like the superstition of people wearing the same jersey to a. To a game too. I don't know.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Belief. The power of belief.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Right, the power of belief. Ah, this is interesting.
But, you know, how often do people. Does it not work? Is that a question I can ask?
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good question.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: You know, like when people just kind of like this, you know, I. I.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: Think we've gotten fairly good at knowing how to choose our marks carefully to minimize that. The variable we can't control is how many people recognize us.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: That is what it is.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: It happened a lot.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: So it's definitely more difficult to film in malls, things like big public spaces.
But I think we're a pretty good judge character and reading people almost instantly. So we'll pull the plug in 30 seconds before we waste our show. You know, whether somebody doesn't pop for TV or is not going to play along, we'll pull the plug almost immediately.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: So I think we have a fairly good percentage success rate.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: Right.
So, you know, I know you got it. I know you got to get going soon, so. And I have. I could talk to you for hours. This is so interesting.
Real quick. Are you scared of heights? Not.
[00:42:37] Speaker B: I don't think anymore, man.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Yeah, they throw him out of an.
[00:42:40] Speaker B: Airplane in Joker's movie. I was gonna move outside a plane on the wing. I free climbed onto the wing of an airplane and held on for an hour. So am I scared of heights anymore?
[00:42:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I was thinking that, you know, I did read that and I thought when you do jump out of planes and stuff. But, you know, the Roosevelt island tram bit that you guys did too, I mean, with. Was it Sal who was Joe. On top. Yeah, on top.
Gosh, that gave me anxiety just watching that, you know.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: No kidding, man.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: You know, I don't know how he stood on top of that.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: People ask like, how. How we got away with that. Roosevelt island tram is the only privately owned public transportation in New York City. It's a little fun fact for you. It's not part of the mta. It's not part of, you know, it's not part of LIR or not or.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Metro card or whatever.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's its own private company owns that tram. That's the only possible way. I don't. Dude, I don't know how, man.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: How long did it take to do that bit with the Roosevelt island tram?
[00:43:34] Speaker B: A couple hours. The rigging was the issue. You know, you had to get, you know, and time it with us going by. It was tricky.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Wow. That was. That was. That was.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Yes. I can't believe you pulled that off.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that. That was. Stressed me out watching that.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: I think this is only us and Spider man pull that off.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly, Exactly. I always say that, you know, when I'm with people, if it breaks down, sp man will help us.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: So you have a, A. A parachuting ferret tattoo you like. How is this guy knows this.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: This is a high camera. We should be able to get there.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: It is. I didn't plan him doing this. This is awesome.
[00:44:15] Speaker B: It's better that it's not focused.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: It's better. It's better.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: It's better that it's out of focus.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: That is so funny. Well, thanks, Mark, for showing people. I didn't. I didn't. That was not planned.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: And then also, before you ask, yes, my driver's license, My New York state driver's license still has no eyebrows.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
Look at. Yeah, no eyebrows. Tell them the story. Tell them that story real quick. Yeah, that's so funny.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Everybody, hold on.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: Hold on. Everybody.
Tell everybody the story. Tell everybody.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's about to. It's about to end. Finally, in March, I get a new one. It's. It's. They. They shaved my eyebrows off and shaved all my hair. Hair. And then they made me go straight from the punishment with no eyebrows to the dmv, right? So I go downtown to the DMV over there on the west side, right?
And I walk in, I take the photo with. No. I look like Satan, right? Like, yeah, I look like I see something, say something.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: I walk in, I take the photo. The woman turns the monitor around. She goes, sir, do you want to take a new photo? I was like, nope, that's the one.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: That is awesome.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: Dude, I look like I look like a baked potato going through a divorce.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Oh, man, it's been awesome having you on the show. Okay, Mur 10 question. Quick fire. Hit me. Maybe 11 best NYC pizza.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: It's closed. Nunzio's in Staten Island.
Yeah, sorry. Shut down, though. But if you know, if you know.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: You know, Subway Pet peeve.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Subway Pet peeve.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: I don't like the bread. I like Jimmy John's better.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Bodega order at 5:00am 5:00am specific.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I said, it's always the same.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: Talked about that Earlier. A little like on the train too.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Nice.
Nice.
Times Square, yes or no?
[00:46:28] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Yeah, but no.
Best people watching location.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: You named it Times Square.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: Or Rockefeller Center Steps Watching people ice skate.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: Oh, that's a good one too. Yeah, over there. Do you have a favorite NYC movie?
[00:46:48] Speaker B: Oh, good question. Independence Day.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: Yes. There you go.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Great answers, my friend.
So, Mer, before we let you go today, we here at the New Yorkers want to know what it means to you, James Murray, to be a New Yorker.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Good question.
I think that I'm proud to be a New Yorker. Of course, it's our heritage. Our, you know, our families are all from here. We're multi generation New Yorkers. But also New York is the unspoken character of impractical jokers. You know, it's. It's its own.
You cannot extract New York City from impractical jokers because the people are so unique and is such a cross section of humanity.
I think it is the magic recipe of what makes our show so special. It's just how many cultures, how many different kinds of people with varied interests you interact with on a daily basis. It's what makes New York City great.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: Completely agree. Nicely said, my friend.
Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of the New Yorkers Podcast.
James, why don't you tell everyone where they can find you on social media?
[00:47:59] Speaker B: You can find me anywhere on social media. You know where to find me. But also get your
[email protected] Become a member of Pacific Southern Railway virtually or in person by going to pacificsouthern.org and new episodes of Improv Jokers every Thursday night on tbs.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: Once again, I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, also known as New York City Cop, all across my social media, please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers Podcast and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media at the New Yorkers Podcast. You can leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you're enjoying the show. My friends, we read through all your comments and DMs, so please, we would love to hear from you. Thank you Sue Rothwell, Morgan Braun and Julie Alexander for your kind words on the last episode. It means a lot. My friends, thank you. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify.
And also thank you, Rhonda McNeil, Kurt Reimer and Mike Martin for your comments on Facebook. My friends, have a lovely day and we will see you next time.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: This is the last stop on this train. Everyone, please leave the train. Thank you for riding with mta New York City Transit.
