- 3 days ago
James Murray "Murr" talks season 12 of 'Impractical Jokers' and 'THE ERRORS TOUR'
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00:00On this week on Where to Be, there's really only one place that you need to be, and that is in Pottstown at Soul Jules.
00:07Yes, because James Murray, a.k.a. Murr from Impractical Jokers, is going to be doing his live comedy show there.
00:15And I am so excited that he is here with me today.
00:19Hello, Murr. How are you?
00:21Hi, Laura. How are you? Hello, everyone.
00:22So, I mean, I just have to say this has been the most fun interview to prep for.
00:31All I've done is just watch old Impractical Jokers clips.
00:36So there are so many funny classic moments.
00:39I know this is a hard question, but can you pick one of your top pranks or top moments from the show?
00:46We just – so the new season, Seasons 12, starts on TBS, gosh, in like two, three weeks, July 10th.
00:53And I just lost an episode last week.
00:56We filmed it.
00:57It will be on TV soon.
00:59And I lost the episode.
01:00They made me work as a waiter in a restaurant in New York City.
01:03And after going up two tables, finding out their dietary restrictions, allergies, what have you, I then walked over a few minutes later with like a plate of skewers of beef and with my bare hands without – I just pushed the chunks of beef in customers' mouths in the restaurant.
01:19It was horrible.
01:22It was crazy.
01:24It was wild.
01:25I pushed like chunks of beef into like 100 different customers' mouths over the course of my three-hour shift as a waiter.
01:31It was wild.
01:32They just let that happen?
01:34They did because it's so shocking.
01:36I thought for sure someone's going to sit up and take a swing at me.
01:40It did not happen in a single time.
01:42No one was even upset because it was just so shocking that a waiter push booty was like – some people laughed, burst out laughing.
01:52No one's got angry in the slightest.
01:54It was wild.
01:55It's very hard.
01:57Like we've been making the show now for 15 years to still be surprised by people's reactions.
02:03You know what I mean?
02:03Like I thought I – it all figured out like, oh, I know how this person is going to react if I do this or that or that.
02:09And this one totally shocked me that no one took a swing at me.
02:13So that's going to come out.
02:13Well, one of my big questions is because I've been a fan of the show for over a decade.
02:18So how are you in New York City doing this and people aren't recognizing you guys at this point?
02:24Well, I mean, I don't look famous.
02:25I look like a pharmacist.
02:27You know?
02:27People are going to be like, wait, you look familiar.
02:30Is my prescription ready?
02:31I guess that's true.
02:35Well, I can't tell you where we're filming for obvious reasons, but we're filming at a very large event coming up soon.
02:45I know this punishment because I have to know it in advance.
02:48I lose, and it's a really large event that we could never go to anymore because the show is too popular, because too many people would recognize us.
02:57But I will be in full prosthetics.
03:00Okay.
03:01So my eyes will be a different color.
03:03My, I'll have hair.
03:05My face will look physically different just to be able to attend that public event.
03:10So if you are at a public event, somewhere in the tri-state area in the next few weeks, and somebody's acting a little crazy, it's probably.
03:18It's probably you.
03:19That's awesome.
03:19It's in full prosthetics in disguise.
03:21Now, where do you, I know you can't disclose locations, but do you typically film just around New York City and Jersey or?
03:27Yeah, yeah.
03:28I'd say New York, New Jersey, that area, mostly.
03:30Will you ever find yourself in Philly?
03:34I would love, I'll tell you what, we should do a travel, it's not really a travel episode, but we try to do travel episodes to cities that have a really distinct character or voice, you know, or type of people.
03:45And Philly definitely fits the bill.
03:47Oh, yeah.
03:47You might get beat up here, but I don't know if they'd let it stick your fingers in their mouth here.
03:54It does feel like, speaking of the punishments and everything, it feels like you tend to lose the most out of all the guys.
04:01You're kidding, man.
04:02I know.
04:03Absolutely, I get the worst.
04:04You're kidding.
04:05I mean, just one second.
04:07I mean, my license still has no eyebrows because of the TV show.
04:12I mean, this is crazy.
04:18Like, you know what it's like to go through TSA security?
04:22I travel every week.
04:24Every week I travel.
04:25I'm in West, I'm in the West Coast right now.
04:28I fly tonight back to Philly.
04:30Oh, my God.
04:31I mean, that's my license.
04:33It's crazy.
04:33Now, when you're showing that ID to TSA, do they know who you are or they're just like, what's going on here?
04:41They burst out laughing because I look like Lex Luthor.
04:44Yeah, you do.
04:49Q always says that I specifically look like Lex Luthor's you-know-what.
04:57Oh, man.
04:58Well, that's got to be so fun.
04:59I mean, you've made a career out of hanging out with your friends.
05:03Yeah, it's a pretty sweet job.
05:04Yeah.
05:04Can you talk a little bit about, you know, the early days, how you guys formed and all of that?
05:10I mean, gosh, we went to high school together.
05:11I met them day one of high school 35 years ago in Staten Island.
05:16And then we just were best friends and did comedy together, went to different colleges.
05:19And then after college, came back and formed a comedy group and then failed for a very long time before we sold Impractical Jokers.
05:28Yep.
05:28And now, I mean, this is awesome.
05:30And I think I heard, so you guys have expanded into, I know it plays in all different countries, but now you've brought the idea to other countries, right?
05:41Yeah, sure.
05:42I mean, gosh, I just was talking about that this morning before our interview.
05:46But, yeah, the American version plays around the world in like 130 countries or so.
05:53And then, but the format for Impractical Jokers also plays around the world in lots of different countries.
05:58So, I mean, just two weeks ago, I was on with the Lithuanian cast and the Lithuanian producers teaching them how to do the show and consulting with them on the best challenges to do there in season one of the show there with four different comedians.
06:13And they're lovely people.
06:15And I was teaching them how to do the show creatively, how to write the packets for it, how to film it, how to set up the cameras and edit the show.
06:25And, yeah, but the format plays in Lithuania, Australia, Belgium, UK, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Holland, Italy, a bunch of different comedians doing the same pranks, the same things that we've done on the American version.
06:50So, how much of this show would you say is scripted and how much is just totally improvised?
06:57I mean, it's an improv show.
06:58That's why, like, in my life, you know, this weekend, obviously, I'm on tour nearby.
07:02I'm in Ocean City tomorrow night, Ocean City, Maryland.
07:07And then I'm in Pasta Town PA, two shows on Saturday night.
07:11Sunday, I'm in Red Bank, New Jersey.
07:13And in my live show, we play Impractical Jokers live at the end of the show.
07:18It's like my closing bit.
07:19Like it's a stand-up comedy show, but at the end of the show, we play Jokers live, meaning I choose someone from the audience, put them an earpiece in their ear, send them out in the streets of, you know, Pasta Town PA or Red Bank or what have you.
07:31And then we film them from a distance and live on the spot, they've got to do and say what I tell them to.
07:35It's completely improvised.
07:37It's like the TV show happened live in front of your face.
07:40It's pretty wild.
07:40I'd say we try to write jokes and plan what we think, ideas, what we want to try, but then you don't know how people are going to react or what they're going to say.
07:49So as soon as you say the first thing, then anything you can write in advance is out the window because it's all improv, you know?
07:56Oh, the show sounds so fun.
07:58So you do a little bit of stand-up, a little bit of Impractical Jokers live.
08:02I will say in my researching, I found a picture from your live show of you.
08:09It appears to be Sucking a Toe.
08:11Oh, no, no, no, no, that's a college show.
08:15Does that happen in all the shows?
08:16No, that is a college show.
08:18You saw a photo from me performing at, you know, a college show is a very different kind of show.
08:23A college show is specifically tailored to a college audience, you know?
08:26That was, and I do a different game with a college crowd than I do in my solo tour.
08:31So I will not be sucking on any toes.
08:34Okay, good to know, good to know.
08:37Do you have any plans to stop in Philly at all on your way to Potsdam?
08:41It's not quite on the way, but.
08:43I mean, my wife is from Philly.
08:45We're there all the time.
08:46Okay, perfect.
08:47We, she grew up in Philly, and the reason we live in Central Jersey was because when
08:52we got married, we kind of met halfway in between.
08:54That way she could still go back to Philly to see her friends and family, and she does
08:58make me wear Eagles jerseys every Sunday.
09:01I'd love to hear that.
09:02Because I'm from New York, I was raised a Giants fan, but now, of course, I'm an Eagles fan.
09:06You converted.
09:07I had no choice.
09:09You're very smart.
09:10Go Birds.
09:11Go Birds.
09:12There's a video of me, do you ever see this video?
09:17It was on social media.
09:19Let me find it, and if I can find it quick.
09:21Stadium is a good word to search for.
09:24It's me at the Eagles game saying, Go Birds.
09:28I'll find it.
09:29I'll show it to you.
09:29I'll look it up.
09:31It's me saying, Go Birds.
09:32I love it.
09:33It's a lot of fun.
09:35I'm fine.
09:36All right.
09:36Now, I can't help but notice your shirt.
09:39Good marketing there.
09:40Hey.
09:41Yeah.
09:41Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
09:44Sure.
09:44You know, so Melissa and I, this is Pacific Southern Railway.
09:49So the story is this.
09:51A few months ago, like in December, it hit the Wall Street Journal and a bunch of local
09:55papers in Jersey and Pennsylvania and New York that one of America's longest running,
10:01oldest professional model railroad clubs was about to go under because the president of
10:07the club and the owner of the house, it was built into a house.
10:10The model railroad club is, it's 12,000 square feet to track.
10:14It is bigger than my entire house, right?
10:16The house my wife and I live in is just not a big house.
10:19It's like 4,600 square feet, right?
10:20The model railroad club is three times the size of my house.
10:24It's bigger than the house itself.
10:25They built it in the basement of this home nearby in Jersey and they knocked out a foundation
10:30wall and kept going.
10:31It goes out under the lawn.
10:34It's wild, right?
10:35So it's been running since 1950.
10:37They started building the model train layout and the club formed in 1964 and it's been decades
10:42and decades of sweat and imagination and work put into building this professional model
10:49railroad club.
10:49It's like this small miniature trains.
10:52It's unbelievable.
10:53Anyways, last year, sadly, the owner of the house, the president of the club passed away
10:57from cancer and his widow was forced to sell the house.
11:01She's 76.
11:02She had to move down to Texas to be close to her kids and grandkids.
11:04So she's going to sell the house and the train club is, obviously anybody that buys the house
11:09is going to be like, I give you two weeks, get the hell out, right?
11:13Save what you can't get out.
11:14Otherwise, I'm taking a jackhammer to the place.
11:18And so I said, well, hold on.
11:19Let me go look at this.
11:20Maybe Melissa and I can help the train club out.
11:22Maybe Melissa owns a candle company called 95 Candles and she's shipping out like thousands
11:27and thousands of candles a year.
11:29And her business has grown and grown and grown.
11:31And I said, love, you need a bigger space.
11:34Why don't we get a warehouse and we can give the train club half the warehouse and you can
11:38do your candles in half the warehouse.
11:40And so I went to see the train club and then I realized, shoot, you can't move it.
11:45It's permanent.
11:46It's part of the home.
11:48You could not, you would destroy 90% to save 10%, you know?
11:52So the night before I went off for a public sale, my wife and I bought the house to save
11:56the train club.
11:57So now I'm a board member of one of America's longest running model railroad clubs.
12:01It's wild.
12:02Yeah.
12:03It's called Pacific Southern Railway.
12:05And the first thing I did was I relaunched their whole website, got a new logo for them,
12:09made it into a modern website where people from around the world can become a member of
12:14the club virtually.
12:16And it's tax deductible.
12:17They're a nonprofit.
12:19These guys have been donating all the money they make from the, they open up the house once
12:23a year to the public and families go through for decades to see the trains and the work.
12:28And they donate all those proceeds to fire and EMT in Jersey and it's a nonprofit.
12:34So if you join the club Pacific Southern Railway, go to pacificsouthern.org.
12:39It's tax deductible.
12:40Like it costs you nothing.
12:41You just write it for your taxes and you become a virtual member from anywhere around the world.
12:45And you get biweekly videos from me from the train house showing you different parts of
12:50the layout, what we're working on, what's going on.
12:52And then you get a swag kit and you get a membership card and you get to come, you get free tickets
12:57to the open house in November.
12:58It's wild.
12:59Or you become an active member and join us every Wednesday night at our house.
13:03So are you there every Wednesday?
13:07Yeah, I'm there every Wednesday night.
13:08And you come in if you're an active member, play with the trains, build stuff, learn a
13:12new skill and hang out with me.
13:15I'm always there.
13:15It's a lot of fun.
13:16So you are clearly very, you know, excited about this.
13:20Always.
13:21It doesn't come across.
13:22Yeah.
13:22My excitement comes across.
13:24Yeah.
13:24It's definitely, you're selling it.
13:26I grew up with toy trains.
13:27Okay.
13:28My house is too small.
13:30My trains for years while living in Jersey have just been in the basement packed up because
13:34when my parents passed, I packed my trains up from their house.
13:37They were in my parents' basement.
13:39And then I just don't have the space in my house.
13:40I don't have a big house that we live in.
13:43And so they've been just in boxes.
13:45So when, so my trains are not compatible with Pacific Southerns, but the house has a three
13:51car garage separated.
13:52So I'm going to build my trains from childhood.
13:54My best memories of my father and I were, you know, until the day of my life.
13:58The day he died, he passed from Alzheimer's and we'd run him like an Alzheimer's charity
14:00called 95 Charity.
14:02And to the day he died, he couldn't remember us anymore, but he remembered several things
14:07to the day he died.
14:08Every Frank Sinatra song lyric, the movie airplane.
14:11And if you put a model railroad magazine in his hand, his face would let up and he would read
14:17everything in the magazine to the day he died because he remembers our toy trains.
14:20Isn't that wild?
14:21Oh, that's awesome.
14:22Just what a like serendipitous moment for you to realize that this house is up for sale
14:27and be able to kind of make it.
14:28So Melissa moved her candle company into the house.
14:31So now she has the space she needs for the candle company, which just has grown and grown.
14:35We run the Alzheimer's charity out of the house.
14:37And then, you know, I'm a board member of one of America's longest running model railroad
14:43clubs.
14:43You are living your childhood dream.
14:45That's very cool.
14:49Well, congratulations on all of that.
14:51I mean, you do so much.
14:53I'm very excited for your movie to come out.
14:55Thanks.
14:56Seven books, you were saying.
14:58I mean, find out now.
15:00Yeah.
15:00The newest one is called You Better Watch Out.
15:02That we just adapted to a screenplay and we're shooting at the beginning of next year.
15:06That'll come out in theaters in about two and a half years.
15:08But Don't Move is in the final weeks of post-production with the final VFX going in, final score, final mix.
15:17We're in L.A. right now for that.
15:19That'll come out, I think, end of the year.
15:21So can't wait to see it.
15:23Well, you can see Murr this weekend in Pottstown at Souljules.
15:28He's bringing his live comedy show there.
15:30Going to be a lot of fun.
15:32You might even be part of the show.
15:34There will be no toe sucking, so we're good there.
15:40But thank you so much for joining me today.
15:43Got it.
15:43And anybody who got tickets, I think the first show in Pottstown is sold out, but the second one has some tickets left.
15:48You can go to murrelive.com to get tickets and I'll see you this weekend.
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