Robyn Candyce
By Robyn Candyce featuring with audio featuring guest co-host Paul McHugh
On September 3rd, 2015 the famed “Impractical Jokers” Joe Gatto, James “Murr” Murray, Brian “Q” Quinn, and Sal Vulcano attempted a hirewire walk five stories above the streets of New York City’s South Street Seaport. The event was aired live, at 10pm on TruTV, the network which airs the “Impractical Jokers” series. Not only was the stunt widely watched in homes across America, as well as overseas, it was also performed in front of a crowd of what seemed to be thousands with Howie Mandel as the Host, and Bello Nock (Ringling Brother’s, “World’s Greatest Dare Devil”) preforming the stunt first, several times to display how easy it was. Nock also was responsible for preparing the Joker’s for the event and making sure they were able to perform it safely.
The event wasn’t just to publicize the Jokers, or to promote their show though. The Jokers were actually competing to donate money to their favorite charities (Daniel’s Music Foundation/Joe, Make-A-Wish/Murr, Stephen Siller Tunnels to Towers/Q, and Doctor’s Without Borders/Sal), with the winner receiving $50,000 dollars towards their favorite charity. TruTV partnered with FanDuel, the largesr one-day fantasy sports operator, to fund $25,000 of the winning donation, TruTV graciously took responsibility for the donations beyond that, with Q taking the win and $10,000 being donated to the other’s choice charities. Not only did Q win he was able to complete the task using his own specially devised method. The other Jokers did do impressively well with Murr and Sal making it almost 10 feet across and Joe, while wearing his Captain Fat Belly costume – voted most likely to walk the farthest – walking about five feet.
Although the main event didn’t begin until 10pm, there were festivities happening at the South Street Seaport to honor the Jokers as well as their fans from 10am leading up to the Jokers’ highwire adventure. I was invited down to the scene where I bumped into guest co-host Paul Mchugh. After taking in the overwhelming spectacle of fans – already beginning to line up for the evening festivities – we were able to hangout for a few minutes with Jokers Joe, and Sal as well as Nock. The Jokers chatted with us about the creation and inspiration for their hit TruTV series in addition to giving me some helpful pointers on how to stay safe on late-night, New York City subway rides. We also caught up with Nock who spoke with us about the “Dare Devil” lifestyle, and how he trained, prepared and kept the Jokers safe for their highwire extravaganza. Apologies about the background noise, the audio was recorded on location. “Impractical Jokers” airs on TruTV, Thursdays at 10/9 PM Central time. For more information visit TruTV.com. To hear the interview with Joe and Sal click the link below, to hear the interview with Bello click the one below that.
Bello
Impractical Jokers
