Impractical Jokers James “Murr” Murray, at left, and Sal Vulcano perform at DTE. Photos by Phil Custodio

BY PHIL CUSTODIO
Clarkston News Editor
Performers on tour experience many odd things. For James “Murr” Murray, performing at DTE Energy Music Theatre with The Tenderloins troupe, one of those was kids coming up to him with action figures of himself.

“It’s surreal. I mean, we’re certainly not action stars,” said Murray, who performed with Brian “Q” Quinn, Joe Gatto, and Sal Vulcano as part of the TruTV Impractical Jokers’ “Cranjis McBasketball World Comedy Tour,” Aug. 9. “They could have given me more hair, you know?”
Kids and adults filled the auditorium to hear the comedians talk about their television show “Impractical Jokers,” and show the crowd some hidden-camera challenges made just for the tour.
“It’s like hanging out with your four best friends from TV for the night,” Murray said.
In the show, the four lifelong friends compete to embarrass each other out amongst the general public with a series of dares. This season, they pose as hot dog vendors, gymnasts, waiters, clerks at a bridal shop and more. Losers of the dares have to go skydiving, ride the rodeo, get a body piercing shop, or perform some other stunt.
“We love each other. Only best friends could do this to each other,” Murray said. “We knew we could sell a hidden camera show, but we wanted to do a twist on it. What we don’t like about a prank show is you feel bad for the people getting pranked. So we took that element away, we turned it upside down. It’s a hidden camera show where the joke is on us instead of the public. The public is just there to witness our embarrassment.”
They had one idea they used to pitch the show which they’ve never tried, he said.
“None of us have the nerve to do it,” Murray said. “The idea is, the loser of an episode has to stand up at a stranger’s wedding. When they say, ‘speak now or forever hold your peace,’ he has to object to the wedding, go into detail why he objects, realize he’s at the wrong wedding, apologize, and leave. It’s would be a great punishment but none of us have the nerve to do it.”
The TruTV show recently had its 200th episode and was picked up for its ninth season.
“I think the biggest compliments we get is, it’s the one show the family can all agree on,” he said. “The grandparents, the parents, the kids all watch it together. It reminds people of a time where you work all day or you go to school, you come home, you turn on the TV, and you just want to watch your favorite show and have some good old fashioned laughs. It’s like an island of positivity in a crazy world.”
The Tenderloins met 30 years ago during their freshman year of high school in Staten Island, New York.
“We became fast friends and did improv together in high school, then went to different colleges,” Murray said. “After college, we came back and formed a comedy show, the Tenderloins. We say we’re an 11-year overnight success story, because we formed the Tenderloins in 1999. We finally got a TV show in 2010. It took a lot of failure, years and years of failure.”
Murray is also a bestselling author, with his newest book “The Brink” available now.
“It’s book two of my ‘Wicked’ trilogy,” he said. “I wrote ‘Awakened’ 15 years ago, but I wasn’t famous, I wasn’t on TV. At the end of the year, I had sent it out to every publisher in New York, and they returned it to me unopened. They wouldn’t even open the manuscript.”
Now he’s being published by Harper Collins, and “Awakened” is a number one Sunday Times bestseller.
“It’s a sci fi thriller,” Murray said.
In the first book, New York City builds a new high-tech, high-speed subway train under the East River. On the train is the mayor’s wife and 100 lucky New Yorkers, the mayor’s in the pavilion with the president, and the press is covering the event.
“When the train pulls into the pavilion, all the passengers are missing, including the mayor’s wife, the cars are covered in blood, and the windows shattered outward,” he said. “What you come to realize in the first book is there are these creatures that live underneath all of our major cities that have plotted against us. Book one is like, escape from New York, get the hell out of the subway tunnels before all hell breaks loose, and the mayor has to hunt down and try to fight to save his wife.”
In the second book, the mayor and his team hunt for the mastermind behind all the creatures.
“It’s a story of heroes and villains, great drama, and a love story,” he said.
The third book in the trilogy is set to come out next June, he said.
Coming up, Murray and the rest of the Tenderloins will be recurring panelists on a new game show, hosted by “The Good Place” star Jameela Jamil, called “The Misery Index.” They’re also going on the fourth Impractical Jokers Cruise in February of 2020. For more info, check Impracticaljokerscruise.com.