Brian Quinn and the rest of the Impractical Jokers get their embarrassment in front of the camera.
They get their adulation on the road.
“(Touring) is a lot more work, a lot more travel, being away from home,” Quinn said during a telephone interview. “On the TV show, at the end of the day, I’m back home with my cat. But it’s better in a lot of ways. On the TV show, you’re keeping your head down, not being seen, not being noticed. But being on stage, you feel that love you’ve gained over the years. Interacting with fans of the show, which we don’t get to do on TV, is kind of the best part of the job. You really feel the love, you see people so happy to see you.”
The Jokers will feel the love from Mahoning Valley fans when the trio brings its Drive Drive Drive Drive Drive Tour to the Covelli Centre on April 20.
For those who haven’t seen the TruTV television series, Quinn, James Murray and Sal Vulcano (and former member Joe Gatto) do a variation on “Candid Camera”-style hidden camera shows. However, while the unsuspecting people on “Candid Camera” usually were butt of the gag, on “Impractical Jokers” most of the humor comes from the embarrassing situations the stars are put in by their fellow cast members who have been friends since they were teenagers.
“We were just doing what we always did,” Quinn said.
However, on the television series, they do it on a much bigger scale. The guys started out as an improv troupe called The Tenderloins, which they did on the side while working day jobs.
For Quinn that day job was working as a New York firefighter, a job he kept during the first few seasons of “Impractical Jokers.”
Those worlds collided while shooting the fourth season. In every episode, the friends have to do different challenges and stunts with the loser facing a punishment. On one episode, Quinn has to perform a musical about his life. What he doesn’t know is the audience will be the crew from his old firehouse.
“We just found out ‘Impractical Jokers’ was renewed for seasons five and six, so I had to officially retire from FDNY,” Quinn said. “Before that, I had taken leave of absence. I was pretty emotional about it, and I didn’t know I was going there.”
The episode was edited to make it look like Quinn was laughing when he saw his fellow firefighters as his audience. In reality he was choking back tears.
“Those first few seconds I was getting really teary eyed and emotional,” he said. “Afterwards, I told the guys and we went to a bar and had many celebratory drinks.”
After facing life and death as a firefighter, one might think a job where the greatest risk is embarrassment would be easy by comparison.
“It was the opposite,” Quinn said. “I was used to being respected and appreciated. Now people were looking at me like a freak and a weirdo. That was actually hard.”
There are plenty of perks, though, even occasionally with the supposed punishments. One that turned out better than Quinn’s friends expected was an episode where Quinn had to reenact the movie “The Evil Dead” while being directed by the film’s star Bruce Campbell.
“It was putting my face in a swamp, hitting me with fake blood, breaking plates on my head, putting spiders on me,” he said. “It was like an endurance test with Bruce Campbell being mean to me the whole time. They told him (to act like) nothing I do is good enough.
“It was so hard to do physically, it killed me. But at the end of the day — ‘Oh my God I got to do ‘Evil Dead’ stuff with Bruce Campbell.’ I don’t care how hard it was, that was beautiful.”
The live show is a mix of standup comedy, behind-the-scenes stories, film clips (some shot specifically for the live performances and others that couldn’t be shown on television) and some audience interaction.
“We punish Sal on stage and have someone come up on stage and help us kind of torture Sal,” Quinn said. “It’s turning out to be a bigger hit than we thought it would be.”
After the tour ends, Quinn isn’t sure how long it will be before they do it again.
“Sal tours solo. Murr tours solo. I don’t tour solo. This might be the last time to get to see me on stage for a few years. If you’re a fan of old BQ, this would be the tour to see.”
There still is plenty of “Impractical Jokers” to come on television. Two episodes from season 10 haven’t aired yet, and the group is shooting season 11, which should debut by late summer.
“It was a major challenge making a hidden camera show during the COVID years, if you know what I mean,” Quinn said. “This is the first season since the pandemic where we’re really able to cut loose. It feels almost like a throwback to earlier seasons.”
And Quinn has other projects to keep him busy, although like “Impractical Jokers,” those projects give him a chance to hang with friends.
He’s appeared in several television series that involve his friend, show runner Terry Matalas.
“He puts me in as the same character in all of his shows — Dale, and I wear this specific tie. He put me in ’12 Monkeys,’ I popped up in ‘MacGyver,’ I popped up in ‘Picard.’ I’ll be popping up in a couple more things coming up. If you follow the scenes, they roughly tell a story about Dale, what we’re calling the Daleverse. Terry goes, ‘Hey, we’re doing this. You want to have some fun?’ I’m not sure I’d want to do things without my friend. I wouldn’t want to audition, go to a set not knowing anybody, ‘Hey, I’m here for a week and playing whatever’ … I don’t think I’m the greatest actor on the planet, but I have a lot of fun doing it.”
If you go …
WHAT: Impractical Jokers
WHEN: 7 p.m. April 20
WHERE: Covelli Centre, 229 E. Front St., Youngstown
HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $49.75 to $154.75 and are available at the Southwoods Health box office and through Ticketmaster.
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