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[00:00:00] What's your favorite Star Trek story?
[00:00:12] What's your favorite Star Trek story?
[00:00:16] Probably more Star Trek, these days.
[00:00:21] Q is on Star Trek Picard.
[00:00:24] Yeah, I was in season 2 with Picard.
[00:00:27] Q is named after a character on Star Trek.
[00:00:30] Q?
[00:00:31] Well, I like to think he's named after me.
[00:00:33] It's funny because my buddy was doing a Star Trek con.
[00:00:38] So I went and I sat down at the table
[00:00:40] and they made a sign that said the other Q.
[00:00:42] Oh, it's funny.
[00:00:44] So you guys are new each other for a long time
[00:00:45] and I'm surprised that that specific conversation
[00:00:48] has never come up at any point.
[00:00:50] Oh, it has.
[00:00:51] We've forgotten half the things we've said.
[00:00:53] Just two crabs in a bucket.
[00:00:56] Are you just like interviewing Marathon today?
[00:00:59] Going from one place to another?
[00:01:01] Marathon.
[00:01:02] It's more of like a steady jog, not a full 26.
[00:01:07] Like a 5K.
[00:01:08] It's more like a 5K.
[00:01:10] Like a charity 5K that nobody's really in it
[00:01:13] for the gusto.
[00:01:14] That's kind of what it is.
[00:01:15] Two preparers watching some interviews
[00:01:17] largely with the group.
[00:01:20] I was thinking about how each time
[00:01:23] you sit down for an interview,
[00:01:25] you probably have no idea what to expect
[00:01:29] as far as how serious the interviewer is going to take it.
[00:01:33] I am fascinated.
[00:01:34] You've said something already that we've never thought about
[00:01:38] in 14 years of TV.
[00:01:40] What's that?
[00:01:41] You sat down to prepare.
[00:01:43] Like I've never heard that.
[00:01:45] I wonder do people prepare to interview us?
[00:01:48] I don't know why.
[00:01:49] That blows my mind.
[00:01:50] Here's my trick after having done this a very long time
[00:01:52] is that at very least you should listen to
[00:01:55] or watch an interview with the person
[00:01:57] so you know how they respond to questions.
[00:02:00] I'm curious because I'm sure that a lot of them
[00:02:03] have a fairly jokey term,
[00:02:05] but every once in a while you'll sit down
[00:02:06] and somebody will want to get super serious probably.
[00:02:09] What did you glean from your preparations?
[00:02:12] What takeaway did you have?
[00:02:14] You seemed like very genuine
[00:02:16] and genuinely, like the two of you specifically,
[00:02:19] I was like, oh these guys are smart.
[00:02:22] These are two smart guys.
[00:02:25] You have done your research, excellent.
[00:02:28] Brian, with you specifically I got the impression
[00:02:33] that you are well read,
[00:02:36] but maybe it has some difficulty actually expressing that.
[00:02:42] Is that a fair assessment?
[00:02:44] It's the speech impediment.
[00:02:45] I don't know why everybody's got to bring it up.
[00:02:47] Sorry.
[00:02:48] You are the best read out of all this.
[00:02:50] I read a lot.
[00:02:51] Tell me what's wrong with me.
[00:02:54] That was a compliment.
[00:02:56] Well, listen, I watched the Dom Marrera interview
[00:03:01] from, God, like nine years ago now
[00:03:05] and you were really...
[00:03:08] You had your feet to the fire because of the use of the word tablo.
[00:03:12] So the two of you kind of have the opposite?
[00:03:15] Yeah, I was a big tablo guy.
[00:03:17] He was dropping tablo left and right for like six months.
[00:03:19] Do you know once every five months Dom Marrera calls me?
[00:03:23] But I'm always in the pool and my phone rings from Dom Marrera
[00:03:28] or I'm making love to my wife and the phone rings from Dom Marrera.
[00:03:32] He knows.
[00:03:36] I will one at some point.
[00:03:37] Yeah, I love Dom.
[00:03:38] I just make a lot of love.
[00:03:39] I never get to go on back.
[00:03:40] When was the last time you talked to him?
[00:03:42] Oh, I thought you were going to say it was the last time
[00:03:43] you did love.
[00:03:45] First question for a second
[00:03:46] and then we'll do each question one at a time.
[00:03:48] Sure.
[00:03:49] So first, last time you talked to him
[00:03:51] and the last time you made love.
[00:03:55] I'm going to text him right now.
[00:03:57] He's on LA time.
[00:03:59] He's up at 7.50 in the morning.
[00:04:01] Well, he doesn't have the answer right now.
[00:04:03] We'll just call him then.
[00:04:04] No.
[00:04:06] He's like 75 so like old people get up early, right?
[00:04:10] That's racist.
[00:04:11] That's racist.
[00:04:14] Yeah, maybe about a year ago last time I spoke to him.
[00:04:17] Yeah.
[00:04:18] But a great guy.
[00:04:19] And the last one made love about a year ago.
[00:04:21] Same same answer.
[00:04:22] Called at that exact moment.
[00:04:24] So the reason why you haven't spoken in a while
[00:04:27] because you've been going through a drought.
[00:04:29] But it was interesting like specifically from that interview
[00:04:32] because I felt like the two of you had the opposite problems
[00:04:36] with specifically with the word Tableau
[00:04:38] that you were sort of going out of your way to use a...
[00:04:41] I mean, you regretted it the next day it seemed like.
[00:04:44] You felt like an asshole for having used the word Tableau
[00:04:46] in a casual conversation.
[00:04:48] It was fun to remember.
[00:04:50] Like it's become a regular part of...
[00:04:52] You were high on Tableau.
[00:04:54] I was high.
[00:04:55] Well, so Sal is high.
[00:04:56] We're all high on words.
[00:04:57] I remember the time you dropped Tableau on us
[00:04:59] where we all started laughing.
[00:05:00] We were in LA.
[00:05:01] We were driving to CIA at the time.
[00:05:03] Yeah.
[00:05:04] And you said something about Tableau.
[00:05:05] We were like, did you just say Tableau?
[00:05:07] And I said it and I owned it.
[00:05:08] Yeah.
[00:05:09] And there was a few weeks where we were all about Tableau
[00:05:12] but now we use it.
[00:05:13] We're all hot on certain...
[00:05:14] You go through phases, right?
[00:05:15] Yeah.
[00:05:16] Sal's been hot on the unmitigated golf phase for a long time.
[00:05:20] Sal went through...
[00:05:21] How do we solve for this?
[00:05:22] Oh, yes.
[00:05:23] How do we solve for this?
[00:05:24] And what's the other one he uses all the time still to this day?
[00:05:26] Get away from me.
[00:05:27] I don't care if you're a fan.
[00:05:28] That's it.
[00:05:29] That's it.
[00:05:30] But how do we solve for this is a little bit marketing speech.
[00:05:32] It's a little bit like we'll circle back to that.
[00:05:34] Yeah.
[00:05:35] I don't know who taught it to Sal
[00:05:36] but I'm saying it out of nowhere.
[00:05:37] Yeah.
[00:05:38] Yeah, recently.
[00:05:39] Was Tableau specifically...
[00:05:41] Is that part of your television background?
[00:05:44] No.
[00:05:45] We've got time.
[00:05:46] We won't talk about this entire time.
[00:05:47] I want to get to the bottom of this.
[00:05:48] I'm sure the question is, but Tableau is a common word.
[00:05:53] It's a word that can be used in daily conversation.
[00:05:56] I use it all the time.
[00:05:58] Yeah.
[00:05:59] That doesn't mean it's common.
[00:06:00] Doing the job that you were doing at the time,
[00:06:02] whether that influenced your vocabulary.
[00:06:04] Because obviously you were now working on both sides of the camera.
[00:06:08] I don't think I ever used it in the TV development days.
[00:06:13] You don't go into a pitch meeting and be like,
[00:06:15] so this is a Tableau.
[00:06:17] You've got to dumb it down for people.
[00:06:19] You've got to dumb it down.
[00:06:20] Yeah.
[00:06:21] We're supposed to talk about the Radio City Music Hall show,
[00:06:23] which is...
[00:06:24] You talk about it.
[00:06:25] You play...
[00:06:26] We're not supposed to talk about anything.
[00:06:27] This is...
[00:06:28] Oh, I was told specifically that we have to talk about the Radio City.
[00:06:30] We're a little shaky because we just survived an earthquake.
[00:06:32] I don't know if you heard about that.
[00:06:34] Oh, yeah, I'm a Queens.
[00:06:35] Oh, yeah.
[00:06:36] Did you feel it?
[00:06:37] I don't know if it's because I'm from California,
[00:06:40] but everyone was texting me about it.
[00:06:42] I just did not notice it at all.
[00:06:45] Yeah.
[00:06:46] You guys seem to have gotten through it pretty well.
[00:06:48] It was terrifying.
[00:06:49] Things were falling off the walls and stuff like that.
[00:06:52] People were tripping and stuff.
[00:06:54] It was kind of scary over here.
[00:06:55] We're in Manhattan right now.
[00:06:56] Are you being serious?
[00:06:57] Things are literally...
[00:06:58] Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:59] It was pretty crazy.
[00:07:00] We were in the elevator and the elevator started hitting a little bit.
[00:07:02] We got out and then people were kind of running around chicken with their heads.
[00:07:06] Yeah, it was dogs and cats living together.
[00:07:09] Mass hysteria.
[00:07:11] Fueling the pink slime underneath the city.
[00:07:14] It's what?
[00:07:15] Because I remember the last time...
[00:07:17] I've been here for like close to 20 years at this point.
[00:07:19] I remember the last time there was like a big and upper earthquake to be notable.
[00:07:24] Like, I remember exactly where I was.
[00:07:25] It's that rare in New York City that it's triangulate that moment that it happened to you.
[00:07:30] Yeah, it's like the Kennedy assassination.
[00:07:32] Yeah.
[00:07:33] You know where you were when you were killed.
[00:07:35] We weren't born yet though.
[00:07:36] We were not, but my father...
[00:07:38] So you did know where you were in a sense?
[00:07:40] We were running alongside the motorcade.
[00:07:42] Your father claimed he was...
[00:07:44] My father met JFK on Fulton Street in Manhattan when he was a serviceman.
[00:07:49] Oh, wow.
[00:07:50] And JFK got out of...
[00:07:52] I mean, several weeks before he died,
[00:07:55] got out of his motorcade and shook servicemen's hands
[00:07:58] and shook my father's hand on Fulton Street.
[00:08:00] And my father in his late last year's life
[00:08:03] warped the story to being that he was running alongside the motorcade in Dallas.
[00:08:07] Wow.
[00:08:08] Yeah.
[00:08:09] That's a pretty common thing
[00:08:12] that sort of conflation with the things that you went through and like in pop culture it seems like.
[00:08:17] I think so.
[00:08:18] And it makes me wonder what are we going to conflate
[00:08:20] or what tableaus will weaker in our minds that...
[00:08:23] Probably something involving making love to Dom Marrera,
[00:08:27] which you might get.
[00:08:30] I'm probably shortchanging people,
[00:08:31] but a lot of times it seems like it's a result of having
[00:08:35] maybe not have had that many experiences
[00:08:37] that people would classify as notable.
[00:08:39] So you conflate them with the things that you've seen on television.
[00:08:42] But like if the last, you know,
[00:08:44] 15 plus years of your lives have been pretty remarkable
[00:08:48] from where I'm sitting.
[00:08:49] Yeah, I think so.
[00:08:50] We've got to do a lot of cool stuff with each other.
[00:08:52] A lot of cool stuff.
[00:08:53] Yeah.
[00:08:54] I wonder how we're going to warp that.
[00:08:57] You know?
[00:08:58] What if this, what if you're lying in bed right now
[00:09:00] and this is all a memory?
[00:09:01] It could...
[00:09:02] I arrived early this morning when we started to press
[00:09:05] and I had a half hour to kill
[00:09:06] and I fell asleep in the car.
[00:09:08] I lay down flat and I had...
[00:09:10] This could be part of that dream.
[00:09:12] Maybe I am still in the car on 6th Avenue.
[00:09:15] You've got to update your dreams if this is what you're dreaming of.
[00:09:18] Sitting in a conference room on a podcast, well...
[00:09:20] Yeah.
[00:09:21] Like my dreams have like Samantha Fox from 1988.
[00:09:24] Running around.
[00:09:26] It would be like this, but I'd be slightly more attractive.
[00:09:29] I mean, my dream was pretty epic though.
[00:09:31] I just caused an earthquake in New York, New Jersey.
[00:09:35] That's an epic dream, man.
[00:09:36] Yeah, that's pretty cool.
[00:09:37] You stick with Samantha Fox.
[00:09:38] I'm shaking the world in my head.
[00:09:40] I'm okay with that trade-off.
[00:09:42] At this point, after so many years, do you still have surreal moments?
[00:09:46] Oh yeah, all the time, man.
[00:09:48] It's funny because I was putting together a package for a charity thing
[00:09:53] and I was signing our action figures for them to auction off.
[00:09:56] And I was like crazy.
[00:09:58] It was like, oh wow, we have three action figures.
[00:10:00] They made Halloween costumes out of us.
[00:10:03] It was all weird stuff.
[00:10:04] You know what, it's cool when you first hear about it
[00:10:07] and then you kind of forget about it.
[00:10:08] Yeah, well that's the way life is.
[00:10:10] This is true.
[00:10:12] Do you sort of have to have those moments where you can sort of step back
[00:10:15] for a moment and realize how...
[00:10:17] We do have moments like that.
[00:10:19] The moments for me, not to answer questions seriously, but I will.
[00:10:22] Madison Square Garden, that's that moment.
[00:10:25] I took the subway from my apartment downtown, got out of the subway
[00:10:29] and Madison Square Garden said, and brought in with Jokers.
[00:10:31] And I literally had tears streaming around my face.
[00:10:33] The first time we stepped on stage at Radio City Musical
[00:10:37] was a huge moment.
[00:10:39] I remember staying on stage, seeing the audience for the first time
[00:10:42] in the crowd and just tears streaming.
[00:10:44] We were all... we were two minutes, we couldn't talk.
[00:10:46] It was cool.
[00:10:47] Like the Reiman Theater in Nashville was great.
[00:10:50] It was a big one.
[00:10:51] Yeah, the Greek theater.
[00:10:52] That was my favorite show we ever did.
[00:10:53] I was just talking about that last night
[00:10:55] because Tim Robinson from I Think You Should Leave
[00:10:57] is playing the Greek.
[00:10:58] Oh yeah?
[00:10:59] Yeah, it's my favorite show we ever did.
[00:11:01] We had a great time.
[00:11:02] Me too.
[00:11:03] I mean, Radio City being a hometown venue for you.
[00:11:05] It's probably like, well, Madison Square Garden obviously as well.
[00:11:08] But there's something like next level about that.
[00:11:10] Not just this huge historic place,
[00:11:12] but being an effectively your hometown.
[00:11:15] Yeah, I mean, I saw those Rockettes when I was a kid there.
[00:11:18] Yeah, did you know the story of the last time I was...
[00:11:20] Before we got on stage at Radio City,
[00:11:22] the last time I was in Radio City?
[00:11:23] No.
[00:11:24] It was like 20 years ago.
[00:11:25] I went as a kid, of course,
[00:11:26] see the Rockettes the whole thing.
[00:11:27] But 20 years ago, maybe 1998, 1999,
[00:11:30] I snuck into a David Copperfield show
[00:11:34] at Radio City and then hung around
[00:11:37] and, you know, sculpt about
[00:11:40] and got into his meet and greet.
[00:11:41] And there's a meet and greet of like eight people
[00:11:43] in Radio City.
[00:11:44] How old were you?
[00:11:45] I was in college.
[00:11:46] I was a junior...
[00:11:47] So 21, I guess, junior.
[00:11:49] And snuck into the meet and greet
[00:11:51] and met him in the late 90s.
[00:11:53] Wow!
[00:11:54] And now you have his number.
[00:11:55] And now I have his number.
[00:11:56] He won't answer my calls.
[00:11:57] Yeah, well that's because of...
[00:11:58] Do you have David Copperfield's number?
[00:12:00] He does.
[00:12:01] I do.
[00:12:02] We took his phone one time and started calling him
[00:12:04] or texting him or pretending we were you.
[00:12:06] Well, he tried to get me to leave him a voicemail
[00:12:09] but he picked the phone.
[00:12:10] Oh, that was it!
[00:12:11] Everyone froze.
[00:12:12] We didn't realize it was his cell phone number.
[00:12:13] I thought it was his office number.
[00:12:15] And then I prank called David Copperfield
[00:12:18] live on the radio.
[00:12:20] Are you friendly with him?
[00:12:23] Were you able to explain the situation?
[00:12:25] Not anymore.
[00:12:26] Not since...
[00:12:27] He knew who you were at the time
[00:12:29] and then has cut you off since the prank.
[00:12:31] Yeah.
[00:12:32] Do you have free tickets for your show?
[00:12:36] I got free tickets and then got a free meet and greet
[00:12:39] pass to a show in Vegas.
[00:12:41] So I have to this day never paid to see him before.
[00:12:44] Nice!
[00:12:45] One was a total...
[00:12:47] They were both scams.
[00:12:48] What is it?
[00:12:49] Yeah.
[00:12:50] Maybe that's actually the source of the
[00:12:53] friction between the two of you.
[00:12:55] Again, obviously there's something about playing
[00:12:58] like a Madison Square Garden or Radio City.
[00:13:00] Do you feel like you need to sort of up it to the next level?
[00:13:03] Is there something that you need to bring to shows
[00:13:05] like that when you're playing a venue
[00:13:07] that's that venerated or historic?
[00:13:10] You want to make sure you have a good show?
[00:13:12] Yeah.
[00:13:13] For sure.
[00:13:14] Yeah, you know, we kind of always do what we do.
[00:13:17] We're doing something new with this tour
[00:13:19] where we're punishing Sal on stage,
[00:13:21] live on stage and we bring up
[00:13:23] somewhere from the audience to...
[00:13:25] Whoa, just spoiler right?
[00:13:27] Yeah, might as well.
[00:13:28] Yeah, we put shock collars that we have Sal wear
[00:13:30] on the show sometimes and we have him wear them
[00:13:32] on stage and we bring someone up from the audience
[00:13:34] to control the buttons to shock him
[00:13:36] while he tries to tell a story about his
[00:13:38] Jaden Smith tattoo.
[00:13:39] So that just brings down the house every night.
[00:13:42] Yeah.
[00:13:44] People like watching Sal suffer.
[00:13:47] I get the sense that there's always has to be
[00:13:49] this escalation that happens,
[00:13:51] but after this many years,
[00:13:54] is there a point that you get to where
[00:13:57] there's got to be a point where you can't cross, right?
[00:14:00] I think the show will end one day when
[00:14:04] one of us just dies during the show.
[00:14:06] Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:07] Really shut the fuck up.
[00:14:08] In the Impractical Jogers movie that came out
[00:14:11] about 20 minutes before COVID hit,
[00:14:13] in theaters, I lose the movie
[00:14:15] and I had to fly outside of an airplane
[00:14:18] and the only way they would ensure the movie
[00:14:20] and let us film it is if we film
[00:14:22] the punishment on the final day.
[00:14:24] That way, if I died doing it,
[00:14:26] I think it's you will release the movie.
[00:14:29] There just be a little like shot of you
[00:14:31] at the beginning of the movie,
[00:14:32] just like an in-memoriam.
[00:14:33] How did you guys get through COVID?
[00:14:35] How did that impact your shooting schedule?
[00:14:37] Well, you know,
[00:14:39] it's hard to make a hidden camera show,
[00:14:41] you know, when you're allowed to stand
[00:14:43] in near-interview people.
[00:14:44] So we were down for a little bit.
[00:14:45] A few months, yeah.
[00:14:46] And then when we came back,
[00:14:47] you know, they had all these rules about
[00:14:49] like shooting TV shows
[00:14:51] and all of them were like,
[00:14:53] we can't make a hidden camera show
[00:14:55] with these rules that you guys are doing.
[00:14:57] But we figured it out.
[00:14:58] We basically built a studio in New Jersey.
[00:15:01] Remember that? That college campus?
[00:15:02] Yeah, you want that college campus?
[00:15:05] And we turned it,
[00:15:07] we took over this college campus
[00:15:09] and turned it into different looks
[00:15:11] and invited people there.
[00:15:12] They had multiple buildings on campus
[00:15:14] and houses and things like that
[00:15:15] and the campus was empty.
[00:15:17] So we were able to, for months,
[00:15:19] we shot almost exclusively there
[00:15:22] and did focus groups and all sorts of taste tests
[00:15:24] and everything you want.
[00:15:25] We did a psychic experiments, you know,
[00:15:27] because they had all the science lab.
[00:15:29] They had all these great set pieces, essentially.
[00:15:32] And people thought it was legit
[00:15:33] because they're going to a college campus
[00:15:35] and it was all in Proctor of Jokers.
[00:15:37] It was a weird time to shoot
[00:15:38] because we never get that experience
[00:15:40] of going to the same place for work every day.
[00:15:42] And it was 25 minutes from my house.
[00:15:44] It was the best season ever.
[00:15:45] It was good.
[00:15:46] Because everybody,
[00:15:47] Warner Brothers put out this rule
[00:15:48] that everybody that appears on one of their shows
[00:15:50] has to have been tested.
[00:15:52] And we were like,
[00:15:53] well, we can't shoot in Manhattan
[00:15:55] and have a person walking down the street.
[00:15:56] We don't know if they've been tested or not.
[00:15:58] So we had to create a situation
[00:15:59] where we could test them
[00:16:00] before they got in to see us.
[00:16:02] It worked out well.
[00:16:03] And then we created a show during that time
[00:16:05] called Dinner Party
[00:16:06] and Proctor of Jokers Dinner Party.
[00:16:07] My favorite thing we ever did.
[00:16:08] Yeah, me too.
[00:16:09] Me too.
[00:16:10] I loved it.
[00:16:11] It was like us having dinner on Zoom together.
[00:16:13] We recorded it,
[00:16:14] recorded it and put it on TV
[00:16:16] when we couldn't shoot jokers.
[00:16:17] And we had a blast.
[00:16:19] It was so much fun.
[00:16:20] The surprises were great though.
[00:16:21] Yeah, we had Ed Harris on, right?
[00:16:23] Ed Harris and Jeff Daniels.
[00:16:25] Jeff Daniels.
[00:16:26] We had Patty Jenkins came on.
[00:16:28] We had Helen Jones.
[00:16:29] Yeah, we had tons of people on.
[00:16:30] And I loved that show.
[00:16:32] That was also the most purist.
[00:16:33] I would love to do it.
[00:16:34] Yeah, I agree.
[00:16:35] I would love to do it again.
[00:16:36] Yeah, something I hadn't considered
[00:16:37] is something I talked to
[00:16:38] about musicians and writers a lot
[00:16:40] are the power of,
[00:16:42] is the power of constraints, you know,
[00:16:44] working within a certain confines
[00:16:48] can actually make you more creative
[00:16:50] because you have to find creative ways through it.
[00:16:52] And it sounds like that was very similar
[00:16:53] to your experience during COVID.
[00:16:55] One of my favorite punishments in show history
[00:16:58] was because of COVID.
[00:16:59] We couldn't film in person with people,
[00:17:01] what have you.
[00:17:02] So we created this punishment idea
[00:17:04] where there's a bunch of kids in the classroom on Zoom.
[00:17:07] They were like seven, eight-year-old kids
[00:17:10] that thought that they were zooming
[00:17:12] into the International Space Station
[00:17:14] and they're going to be talking to an astronaut.
[00:17:16] And we built this set piece
[00:17:19] in a warehouse of a capsule
[00:17:22] that looked like the space station
[00:17:24] and I was rigged up to the capsule
[00:17:27] and the whole capsule rotated.
[00:17:29] The camera was fixed
[00:17:30] and the camera would rotate with me.
[00:17:32] So the kids thought I was hovering upside down,
[00:17:34] but I wasn't.
[00:17:35] The camera was just rotated with me
[00:17:37] so there was still gravity on Earth
[00:17:39] and I'm showing them how things are done
[00:17:41] in space like eating spaghetti
[00:17:43] or drinking milk
[00:17:44] and it's falling upward instead of down.
[00:17:46] I'm just upside down on set.
[00:17:48] So much fun.
[00:17:49] You were pranking children though.
[00:17:51] Basically, yeah.
[00:17:53] I mean that's got to be heartbreaking for them, right?
[00:17:55] Once they realize that.
[00:17:57] It does seem like their problem.
[00:17:59] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:18:00] Well that was the worst one we did with a kid, right?
[00:18:02] The worst one was the turtle legs.
[00:18:03] Oh my God.
[00:18:05] So they got this music,
[00:18:06] Children's Museum on Staten Island
[00:18:08] and they go just go in that room
[00:18:10] and just do whatever we told you.
[00:18:11] So I didn't know idea was going on.
[00:18:12] I got in a room and there's all these kids in front of me
[00:18:14] and there's all these chicken eggs
[00:18:16] and they're going slam the chicken eggs on your head.
[00:18:19] We told the kids they were like in danger of turtle legs
[00:18:22] and the turtle's about to hatch, right?
[00:18:24] So I'm pranking these eggs and the kids are going
[00:18:26] No, no, no.
[00:18:28] I had no idea what they were screaming about.
[00:18:30] It was pretty funny.
[00:18:31] At a certain point,
[00:18:32] you've been doing this for so long,
[00:18:34] you know, you are fairly recognizable at this point.
[00:18:36] That in and of itself
[00:18:37] must be a fairly major constraint
[00:18:39] for doing some of these things.
[00:18:41] We get around it.
[00:18:43] I don't think NUS really look famous.
[00:18:46] I think I look like a pharmacist more than anything.
[00:18:49] But we get around it.
[00:18:51] What you don't realize is that taking out of context,
[00:18:54] you only see one of us at a time.
[00:18:56] We're out of context.
[00:18:58] We're like the last week we were working at
[00:19:00] Raising Canes the Chicken Restaurant in Brooklyn, right?
[00:19:02] And we've got hats on,
[00:19:04] we're the manager polo shirt.
[00:19:06] I have different glasses on.
[00:19:08] And you're in the middle of people's real lives
[00:19:10] deep in Brooklyn.
[00:19:11] Like they just,
[00:19:12] we still get away with it to this day
[00:19:14] because of that very nature of the show, you know?
[00:19:16] There must be a certain percentage though
[00:19:18] that just don't make it in because you are
[00:19:20] in fact recognized from time to time.
[00:19:22] It's not as much as you think we have.
[00:19:24] We never discuss them in detail,
[00:19:26] but we have methods that we people out
[00:19:28] before they even get to us.
[00:19:30] Like you said, we've been doing this a long time,
[00:19:32] so we figured out a trick or two.
[00:19:34] But we never say what they are
[00:19:35] because we don't want people to be able to circumvent them.
[00:19:37] Especially in the early days
[00:19:38] when you were still figuring out some of these tricks.
[00:19:40] Was there anything that just,
[00:19:42] have you ever had to completely scrap a thing
[00:19:45] just because it just didn't work?
[00:19:47] Yeah, mimes.
[00:19:49] Mimes.
[00:19:51] Yeah, it was your punishment, right?
[00:19:53] No, it wasn't a punishment.
[00:19:54] It was my idea.
[00:19:55] Oh.
[00:19:56] And you guys didn't want to do it.
[00:19:57] And I pushed it through
[00:19:58] and it was a total disaster.
[00:19:59] It was,
[00:20:00] I still think the bit could work.
[00:20:02] I agree.
[00:20:03] We just, we got,
[00:20:04] you got screwed by the weather.
[00:20:05] So we're dressed like monkeys
[00:20:07] and we had to go up to people in Central Park
[00:20:09] by Bethesda Fountain
[00:20:10] and we had to get people to guess what we were miming
[00:20:14] and the guys were behind us holding up the sign
[00:20:16] so you had to mime real stupid stuff.
[00:20:18] Not a bad bit.
[00:20:19] No, on paper it sounds great.
[00:20:21] We were dressed in all black head to toe
[00:20:23] with berets and Mime make like pancake
[00:20:25] and it was 104 degrees that day.
[00:20:28] In Central Park.
[00:20:29] It was, I think we were dying.
[00:20:31] And within five minutes of filming
[00:20:33] the guys and I,
[00:20:35] we were melting.
[00:20:36] There was no way to shoot in South,
[00:20:38] starting to complain so much.
[00:20:39] Remember he was so angry.
[00:20:40] Did we finish the bit?
[00:20:41] No, we gave up.
[00:20:42] We just like fuck it.
[00:20:43] Let's get out of here.
[00:20:44] It's a red lobster.
[00:20:46] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:20:47] Pretty good though.
[00:20:48] Only one really jumps to mind after that
[00:20:50] many years of doing the show.
[00:20:51] Two, I think there's only two we've ever.
[00:20:53] Yeah, there's one other that we had to scrap.
[00:20:55] Oh no, there's another one.
[00:20:56] A third way to scrap.
[00:20:57] My punishment in season one
[00:20:58] where you guys had me go to a,
[00:21:00] that biker bar
[00:21:01] and ride the mechanical bull.
[00:21:04] Oh, yeah.
[00:21:05] It was just too much.
[00:21:06] It just looked like I was having too much fun
[00:21:08] and I was, it was a blast.
[00:21:09] Oh, I forgot about that.
[00:21:10] Yeah.
[00:21:11] You never heard?
[00:21:12] Yeah.
[00:21:13] That's something that I hadn't considered
[00:21:14] that you appearing to enjoy the punishment
[00:21:17] would be enough reason to scrap it from the show.
[00:21:19] Yeah.
[00:21:20] I was having an absolute blast.
[00:21:23] Even when you're being put in a difficult situation
[00:21:25] it's still a pretty amazing thing
[00:21:29] that you get to do this for a living
[00:21:32] and then you've been able to do it
[00:21:33] for as long as you have.
[00:21:35] Well, we had Bruce Campbell on
[00:21:38] I'm like the biggest Evil Dead fan in the world
[00:21:41] and they had me basically reenact
[00:21:44] the plot of Evil Dead 2
[00:21:46] what Bruce Campbell directing me
[00:21:48] and he made it horrible.
[00:21:49] Like they just doused me in blood
[00:21:51] put my face in a river broke plates on my head
[00:21:54] and it was really hard and miserable to do
[00:21:56] but at the end of the day
[00:21:57] I was like, oh I love that so much.
[00:21:59] Yeah, it was like the best thing ever.
[00:22:01] Bruce Campbell comes on set
[00:22:03] he's gonna help us punish Q
[00:22:05] my favorite thing he said the whole day
[00:22:07] at the beginning of the day
[00:22:08] I was like Bruce, we're huge fans
[00:22:10] we grew up watching you
[00:22:11] we love the Evil Dead movies
[00:22:12] I said you know you hear
[00:22:14] on the set of Impractical Jokers
[00:22:15] did you know the show before
[00:22:17] have you seen the loss of it
[00:22:18] he goes never heard of the show
[00:22:19] I was like you've never heard of it
[00:22:21] he goes no, no
[00:22:22] I said but you're here on it today
[00:22:24] why'd you agree to do it
[00:22:25] he goes you guys paid me
[00:22:27] I was like
[00:22:29] all right there you go
[00:22:31] following Bruce Campbell's career as much as I have
[00:22:33] like that applies to I think a lot of the things
[00:22:35] that he's done over the years
[00:22:37] when the crew loved him man
[00:22:39] when he left set he rolled down the window
[00:22:41] and he looked at the director and he goes
[00:22:43] say you'll late a jerk
[00:22:44] and then he rolled up the window
[00:22:45] and then that night
[00:22:46] because we shot that on Staten Island
[00:22:48] the crew came back to my house
[00:22:49] and we were all drinking beers
[00:22:50] there were like 30 people in my house afterwards
[00:22:53] and Bruce started texting me
[00:22:55] he goes I'm watching the show for the first time
[00:22:57] after he had shot it
[00:22:59] I'm watching the hotel for the first time
[00:23:01] you guys are almost funny
[00:23:03] and then he was just watching
[00:23:05] and he watched like four hours
[00:23:06] and he kept texting
[00:23:07] and I kept reading his texts out to the crew
[00:23:09] we were all like doing shots and stuff like that
[00:23:11] he's the man
[00:23:12] but that was a tough thing to shoot
[00:23:14] but it was so much fun in retrospect
[00:23:16] it is a really rare occurrence
[00:23:17] when you meet a famous person
[00:23:18] and they're like exactly
[00:23:19] like you think they would be
[00:23:21] yeah, yeah, he's one of them
[00:23:23] I know you get asked a lot about
[00:23:24] the jobs you had prior to doing this
[00:23:28] you having been in television
[00:23:30] and you having been a firefighter
[00:23:33] was there ever a point when
[00:23:35] I know obviously at some point
[00:23:37] all four of you had to really drop it
[00:23:40] and go all in on this
[00:23:41] but are you still
[00:23:43] do you still consider
[00:23:44] do you still have this like feeling deep down
[00:23:46] that at some point this might just go away
[00:23:49] and that you might have to
[00:23:50] go back to your previous life
[00:23:52] well I'm too old to be a fireman now
[00:23:55] yeah actually I'm coming up on
[00:23:57] what would have been my 20 year retirement
[00:23:59] oh no kidding
[00:24:00] yeah
[00:24:01] no I think we've done enough at this point
[00:24:03] that like we could probably
[00:24:05] after the show ends coast
[00:24:07] I think for the live show
[00:24:08] you just do cons or whatever
[00:24:10] we gotta ask to be in movies and TV shows
[00:24:13] I think once you've been around
[00:24:14] as long as we are
[00:24:15] like there's always gonna be someone
[00:24:17] that has some interest
[00:24:18] isn't it strange
[00:24:19] we've been on TV 14 years now
[00:24:21] right we started filming the show
[00:24:23] May of 2010
[00:24:25] yeah so 13
[00:24:26] right and
[00:24:29] it's always been year by year
[00:24:31] yeah
[00:24:32] never in TV you never have any job security
[00:24:35] it's not like oh I'm a company man
[00:24:37] I've been there 18 years
[00:24:39] it's every year is the same kind of stress
[00:24:41] of we'll be on TV next year
[00:24:43] or next year you know what I mean
[00:24:45] it's year by year by year
[00:24:46] yeah so
[00:24:47] I don't know it's kept us
[00:24:49] I guess on our toes
[00:24:50] kept us on our toes yeah
[00:24:52] I think once they guaranteed two seasons
[00:24:55] it's wild to be the most popular show
[00:24:57] on a station and still feel like
[00:24:59] you're year to year
[00:25:01] yeah it's the you know
[00:25:03] we could depress your audience
[00:25:05] it's a rough business
[00:25:07] yeah
[00:25:09] no I mean gosh we have the
[00:25:11] rear of that my mother always said
[00:25:13] you don't know your golden years
[00:25:15] into your past them
[00:25:17] I think about that all the time
[00:25:19] we have been in our golden years
[00:25:21] you know decade plus
[00:25:23] yeah but we don't know what's gonna come next
[00:25:25] that's true I know in eight days
[00:25:27] yeah he insists that an asteroid
[00:25:29] is gonna hit earth in eight days
[00:25:31] I've been tracking it for years
[00:25:33] I just haven't told anyone did you predict the earthquake as well
[00:25:35] um it could be connected
[00:25:37] I'll let you know we'll see
[00:25:39] but you'll find out and we'll see
[00:25:41] when when's that I was gonna say
[00:25:43] I've gotta get this show up pretty quick
[00:25:45] so we'll see what happens in the next eight days
[00:25:47] well because the next sign is the solar eclipse
[00:25:49] that it's not coincidence my friend
[00:25:51] yeah the solar eclipse
[00:25:53] is going to affect the gravitational pull
[00:25:55] on the asteroid that's coming through our solar system
[00:25:57] as we speak is gonna skew it slightly
[00:25:59] ever so it hits the key
[00:26:01] yeah key hole in it and he talks like this
[00:26:03] all the time
[00:26:05] since he was 18 years old
[00:26:07] he's been predicting that
[00:26:09] as it was
[00:26:11] yeah yeah
[00:26:13] it actually feels slightly better that you've been
[00:26:15] when the end does come it's gonna be a wonderful table
[00:26:17] ha ha ha ha
[00:26:19] talking about being ear to ear
[00:26:21] and talking about the difficulty
[00:26:23] of the television business
[00:26:25] I'm curious how
[00:26:27] you know you've signed
[00:26:29] a contract for a new channel
[00:26:31] how that changes the math for what you do
[00:26:33] nothing not at all
[00:26:35] oh maybe that we uh start airing on tbs
[00:26:37] yeah
[00:26:39] no I mean it's
[00:26:41] a network they always
[00:26:43] we're always related to them so it's just kind of
[00:26:45] yeah and we had a show on tbs
[00:26:47] exclusively
[00:26:49] for three seasons called misery index so it's just family
[00:26:51] yeah same
[00:26:53] same difference
[00:26:55] the same clowns
[00:26:57] ha ha ha ha
[00:26:59] we're the clowns
[00:27:01] yeah yeah
[00:27:03] ha ha ha
[00:27:11] yeah
