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Event review
It was the first time that us Brummies were able to see Sal, Murr, Joe and Q up, close and personal as the Impractical Jokers embarked on their ‘Santiago Sent Us’ UK arena tour…and what a night it was!
If you’ve never seen the Impractical Jokers before it’s kinda like the perfect combination of Jackass and Trigger Happy TV…without the potentially fatal dares and novelty sized phones.
The comedy quartet, known as The Tenderloins, are life-long friends and literally film themselves doing and saying what the other guys tell them - and it’s so damn funny! If my words aren’t doing it justice you can check out the some of the funniest bits from the show here.
The two hour or so performance was packed full of silly gags, playful banter and of course unsophisticated jibes - which is exactly what us Impractical Jokers fans came to see!
Joe Gatto was compared to Steve Carell…if Steve Carell had eaten Steven Carell, Sal Vulcano’s less manly side was often poked and with Brian ‘Q” Quinn’s uncanny resemblance to Jack Black, well, the Jokers just had a field day with one of the guys referring to his looks to a 'microwaved version' of the Tenacious D front-man. But of course, the Joker who received most of the abuse during the live show…James Murray.
Obviously nothing is personal between the guys and it’s easy to see that they’ve been friends since they were kids, but James “Murr” Murray is a metaphorical punch-bag. From having his eye-brows shaved off, regularly referred to as the Ferret and, as revealed at the end of the show, pressured into eating dog poop (yep, actual dog poop). Murr is often, nay always, the butt of most jokes.
If you’re reading this thinking “that’s abuse” or “he is being bullied” literally just watch a few episodes of the show and you’ll quickly release that they are all as bad as each other…kind of.
The biggest question I was asked leading up to show night was “what are they actually going to do live?” my response (and hope) was that maybe the Jokers would literally just be themselves out there - no corny attempts at reacting stunts or crowd participation - just four mates having banter and making us laugh…and they delivered.
The guys didn’t try and imitate their antics from the Impractical Jokers, but they did however cleverly blend together unseen footage from the show with hilarious anecdotes to create the perfect comedy experience for dedicated fans.
Q admitted that he may have had one too many shandy’s the night before the show and although his voice was a little horse he still delivered some hilarious, well timed digs to his fellow Jokers!
The unseen footage had the whole arena in stitches as the guys competed to a 'Who's The Weirdest' type competition...and yeah you guessed it, Murr won. Quite comfortably, perhaps a little too comfortably.
Verdict
It was literally like watching four mates in the pub on a Friday night just taking it in turns to rib one and other... and I loved it! If you love the show, you NEED to see the guys live on stage, you simply must.
Reviewed by Todd Newton
