Q&A with James (Murr) Murray

James (Murr) Murray performing. Photo by Jack Morgan.

So, on your tour you’re showing never before seen footage from “Impractical Jokers.” What is a standout scene or clip that was put in the show that you weren’t so fond of?

I mean on last night’s episode of “Impractical Jokers” I lost and they covered my body with leeches while I had to reenact George Washingtons last hours because that’s how George Washington died, from leech therapy. It took about a month to heal. I still have scars on my chest from it. We filmed that five months ago so I wish I could undo that.

Do it for the art, I guess?

(laughs) Was that art?

I think your viewers might say so. You’ve come back to Rhode Island numerous times for RI Comic Con, and to perform stand-up shows. Do you remember your first time in the smallest state, even outside of work obligations?

I’ve been to Rhode Island a thousand times at this point. It’s close enough to New York that we used to travel there all the time and go to bed and breakfasts and ski and what have you. The guys and I have been there many, many times to perform and it’s just the best. I was actually supposed to get married in Rhode Island, at the same place Taylor Swift is set to get married at. We put the deposit down, had the venue locked in and then Covid hit. The venue didn’t reopen for our date, so we had to pivot and get married in Pennsylvania. But I was supposed to get married in Rhode Island because it’s just such a great state.

You, Joe, Q and Sal have been buddies for decades. Has there ever been a moment in the show that caused an actual friendship fight when the cameras were shut off?

Oh yeah, part of it is even on camera. The only time in the history of our 16-year-old show that one of us stopped filming was because Q thought we went too far. It was during my punishment. We filmed this punishment where the guys shaved off my eyebrows and then made me go straight from set to the DMV to get my license, which is essentially a 10-year punishment. That was over nine years ago. In three weeks from this weekend, I can finally get a new license. So, Q on camera says, ‘hold on, are we going too far?’ and in reality, he stopped filming and they had to beeline to the three guys saying how it was too much. We kept it in and went through with it obviously, but that was a tough moment for sure.

How has it been having a license photo with no eyebrows?

I will tell you, it’s gotten me out of every speeding ticket for the past ten years. Right where my wife and I live, there’s like a speed trap and I get busted all the time. I have never gotten a speeding ticket. They always ask for my license because they want to see it and they laugh and let me go.

Well now they must know your face from the show. That leads me to my next question, how is it doing the show nowadays when you guys aren’t unknown faces anymore? I mean before you could be working behind a pizza counter and no one would know but now people know you guys.

It’s a lot harder. I mean, that’s a good problem, right? Ultimately because it means that the show’s popular and it’s still doing well. We have tricks to keep the show real because it has to stay real. For example, coming up in a few weeks is the season finale of this current season that’s on TV. I wanted to go to a wedding for the prank, but we can’t go into a wedding anymore, right? The last time we pranked a wedding was 12 or 13 years ago and even then, it was hard. The way we got away with it this time is they put me in prosthetics for three hours. I had different hair, different colored eyes, different cheeks, forehead and nose. So, I’m playing the videographer at this 300-person wedding. Only the bride and groom know that I’m there. At the end of the punishment, I had to take down the entire wedding cake, which was a duplicate cake identical to their actual one. I took the whole cake down and the guests of the wedding literally grabbed me and they threw me out of the wedding. It was wild but that’s kind of how we get away with it now.

There’s a part of your live show where you do a segment called Impractical Jokers Live, where you choose someone from the audience, put an earpiece in their ear and send them out into the world. I remember the last time I saw you at the Comedy Connection the person ended up in a van that then drove them away. Has a performance ever gotten too out of control or shocked you?

I remember that! That’s the only time in my solo show history that that has ever happened. The first half of my show is regular stand-up comedy. I’ll tell some of the most embarrassing moments of my life and some “Impractical Jokers” stories. The second half of the show every single night is different every time. I borrow three audience members phones and just start questioning them. As soon as I have an idea from the information I gathered, I start texting people from their phone on their behalf. We pull up FaceTime on a screen and start face timing those people. It’s wild and it’s always different. The last thing I do on stage is I play Impractical Jokers Live. We watch on screen while a person has to do and say whatever I tell them to do through the earpiece. The show you went to, I remember that I sent my buddy out on the streets, and I said, hey, just open the back door of a car and say, ‘Uber for Mark.’ The driver let him in and then just took off, that was a standout wild moment for sure. That’s the cool thing about the live shows, it’s different every single night because I have no idea what I’m going to do or what I’m going to tell the person to do. So, if you come back to see me in Providence next week and you saw me a few years ago, it would be completely different again.

 Let’s talk more about this new tour. What should fans expect this time around?

I’ve got a lot of new material that I’ve developed over the past two-ish years. It occurred to me recently that we’ve been on TV filming a prank show for 16 years, and what that has done is warped our brain chemistry to think that we can get away with the same stuff in real life because of our career. Because of that, the first half of the show I tell the audience about my most embarrassing errors of judgement. All I’ll say is, the doorbell camera company took away my camera. You’re going to have to come to the show to find out why.

How would you describe this tour in a sentence?

It’s like hanging out with your best friend from TV for a while.

Photo courtesy of Impractical Jokers.

 What do you think each Joker brings to the show that helps it keep going?

I mean, Sal’s the funniest guy I’ve ever met in my life. He’s all heart. He also has the most neuroses of any human being I’ve ever met. Like in high school, Sal had a list written down in his notebook of seven things he couldn’t stand. It was sweat, the common cold, strong wind, filth, general traffic, and I forget the others. But who does that as a teenager, you know what I mean? Like he’s nuts. He’s gotten increasingly more paranoid in a hysterical way. Q is certainly the best read and the best writer out of all of us. He has an edge that none of us have. I’m the baldest one on the show, that’s what I add. I try to keep it real with the audience.

I mean, you also get punished the most.

I certainly get it the worst.

Are you able to watch the Wonder Years the same way knowing Winnie (Danic McKellar) has seen, some would say, a little too much of you?

It’s one of my opening jokes in my solo show, that it’s weird being on stage knowing that everyone in the audience has seen me naked on TV Multiple times. For that punishment I was greased up in an American flag speedo. It was mortifying, my nipples were out and everything.

How does it feel to have yourself out there in that way for all to see?

During my shows I tell the story about another time last season that I was naked. Sal lost the episode and we made him be a motivational speaker at a real company in Manhattan. He walks in the conference room and there’s 20 people there at work in suits and formal wear. He doesn’t know what the punishment is and we’re just telling him that he’ll know soon. 20 minutes into his presentation, one by one, all the real employees in this company started taking their clothes off until he was in the room with 20 naked adult strangers. To cap it all off at the end, they wheeled out a giant birthday cake, and I popped out of the cake, also completely naked. It is weird man, being on TV naked this many times.

Yet the fans keep tuning in for more. So, your tour is called the Errors Tour. Obviously, a nod to Taylor Swifts Eras Tour. Is this you coming out as a Swiftie?

1000%! My wife and I went to go see her in Philadelphia at the Lincoln Financial Fields and the show was pretty outrageous. It was unbelievable and just a really great concert.

 What was it like getting a marriage annulled after marrying Sals sister during the show as a prank? A lot of paperwork?

Thank God not a lot of paperwork. We never mailed the paperwork in so even though the wedding, the priest and the paperwork was all real, I never mailed it so I didn’t have to officially annul it.

 What was the aftermath of that prank like? I

The best part of the punishment was just the look on Sal’s face. It was just the best. I will say though, and this is true, Sal didn’t talk to his sister for several months after that punishment. He was just so peeved at her.

What do you want to do on the show that you haven’t been able to do yet?

I can’t tell you. We go back to work in three weeks to film the new season of “Impractical Jokers” and I already know what I’m going to do. It’s giant and very topical. It’s something that’s happening in the world right now that did not exist a year or two ago. I’ve been waiting to do this for two years now and I think I finally have it figured out. That’s all I’ll tell you, you’ll just have to tune in when that new season is out.

Well, thank you for that elusive hint, I will definitely be tuning in. I appreciate you chatting with me today and I’ll catch you at your show.

Oh of course! Providence is one of my favorite cities in America, it’s just so beautiful, so I’m excited to be back and put on another show.

To find out more information and to purchase tickets for the show click here.