Producers’ Pick | Impractical Joker James “Murr” Murray

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Visit Samsung.com to learn more about Galaxy Z Fold 4. So, previous bestseller. So, he's had a lot of success. Alan Summer kicks off an exciting three-book series. This is the first of a three-book series? Yes, it's Alien Summer. It's a typo on your sheet, Brian. Area 51 interns, Alien Summer. Although, Alan Summer is a fantastic, fantastic... No, that is my fault. That is my fault. Who is Alan Summer?

I'm like, it sounds mysterious. Alan and Alien. So, I blame myself for that. Yes, Alan Summer sweeping bookshelves right now. Go pick it up.

I really feel bad. Do you think people are going already to Barnes & Noble saying, I'm just here for Alan Summer? I think, currently, across the nation, there's a raid on Barnes & Nobles trying to find the non-existent book, Alan Summer. So, is this any good?

Yeah, Brian. You're a prolific author, of course. No, your other series is great.

Why start a new series? Because this is a children's book, our first ever middle-grade kids book about Area 51. So, you're talking about like 8 to 13? Yeah, it's like 8 to 12, I'd say, is the right age range. And it's about a group of kids whose parents just so happen to work at Area 51, the famed location, and they land a summer internship. And, of course, the first day of the internship, all heck breaks loose, all the aliens get out, adults get captured, and it's up to the kids to save the day.

It's a three-book series from Penguin Random House, and you can pick it up now. We'll go to area51novel.com, and I'll autograph one and send it your way. Now, what do you know about that audience, 8 to 13? Do they watch your show? That's our family, you know.

8 to 13? Yeah, I mean, when I met your family, your kids were, I mean... My son was in college. Now, Impractical Jokers started in 1973. That's right. We've been on TV for 43 years now.

Longer than Wonderama. That is incredible. Yeah, so, I mean, I met your kids. They were still in diapers when I met your kids. Right. I would not have introduced you to my children until I realized you were a success. I waited for you to break through. So, Impractical Jokers, by the way, you're back on live tour, too.

Yes, indeed. Murr Live. I'm playing Boston at the Wilbur Theater in two weeks. I'm at the Paramount in Long Island on June 10th. And this weekend, I'm in Louisville and Toledo and touring all over.

You can go to murrlive.com to get tickets. Now, Paramount is about 15 minutes, 20 minutes from my house. Oh, my God. Dinner beforehand. Don't you have to concentrate? No. You're that relaxed before a show?

What we do for a living requires very little concentration, Brian. You know that. You've been to set. No, but when you're on your loan, how is that different from being with the guys on TV?

It's similar. There's a giant screen behind me and I play videos I just shot for the live show. But the coolest thing we're able to do now, and you'll see it at the Paramount or the Wilbur, is I'm able to do Impractical Jokers live. I stick an earpiece in someone's ear, send them out outside of the theater, is being beamed into the theater on screen, and they can hear me on the microphone and the audience can hear what I'm saying.

And I get to tell them what to say and do live right there in person. Wow, that's fantastic. So Area 51 is the first of a three-book series. Yes, sir. And it's called Alien Summer. Yes, yes. Not Alien Summer. It's me and my co-author Alan Summer.

That is not true. We really worked hard at it. So we have to have you back, obviously, on One Nation. Do you think, Pete, should I put him on One Nation? Is he in? It is the whole nation.

The whole nation. You need to bring Alan with him. Right.

One Nation on Saturday. Okay. You're following my career.

I follow it. We have a dartboard in my house of your career path. That's not what I was hoping for.

At least make it the Velcro balls instead of the dartboard. So Impractical Jokers starts a brand new season. You're taping right after this.

I leave from here to go film. April 2nd. So the big, April 2nd, we see the first one on television. Yes, absolutely. It comes on, I mean, immediately after the NCAA Final Four game, we get simulcast on TBS, TruTV, and TNT.

And I'm not a bash fan. It's one of the few things that the whole family can watch. Yes. And I mean, I'm not exaggerating.

I mean, to be able to put something on where no one argues to say, turn that off. And even the repeats during the pandemic probably saved so many families. I hope so.

And probably broke a few up, too. I don't think so. It's a unifying factor because you make yourself the embarrassment.

You don't look to embarrass people. Yes, correct. We go right from here to go film. And we're filming a bit today where people are coming in to test new products, like a taste test kind of thing. But we come in as a doctor having to notify them legally about the possible side effects.

So some of the side effects, of course, are crazy and written by the other guy. How much pressure is on the producers and how much are you guys? I know in the original, when it first started, you guys. But now you have to come up with more and more regional variants of this.

How much pressure is on the producers? There's more variants than COVID. Right. It's unbelievable. We keep spitting it in new ways. And the vaccine doesn't work. It doesn't work.

There's no vaccine against impractical jokers. Right. We've tried. So do you feel as though you can sit back now and say, I'm a proven success, come up with a concept?

I mean, we've been coasting for 11 years now. You know that, Brian. Right. That's been the rumor. It's been the rumor. It's substantiated.

It's true. So do producers have any input? I mean, so much of the show is improvised. You know, like when I'm on tour and I'm telling somebody what to do, it's pure improv.

I look around with the camera, see what's going on. Last week, we were in Austin, Texas performing and I sent somebody out in the field and across the street from the theater, it just so happened to be a full wedding going on at a venue across the street. So I had the guy go across the street, stand on a table and shout that the wedding was off. It's all canceled.

Please leave. It's all improv, you know? And that is who? That is the guy that opens for me on tour. I sent him out. He has to bear the brunt of my impractical jokers skills.

And the best thing about it, you do not know what's going to happen. Have no idea. Right. So Joe's not going to be on the show. No, but the way the show works now is that every episode ends with a different celebrity guest. So the season premieres Eric Andre, the comedian. We have Brooke Shields we're filming with tomorrow.

We had Chris Jericho, Method Man from Wu-Tang. Every episode, Colin Jost. Every episode, a different celebrity at the end. And do you find that they're fans? You don't have to brief them on what the show's about. Do you find that they're all in on the concept?

Yes and no. We had David Cross, the comedian, on last week. He punished me. He had heard of the show but had never seen it.

Really? He sent him a few of the clips. He watched the clip of me being an astronaut in the space station, zooming to kids in their classroom. And they had me rotating upside down so it looked like I was floating in zero gravity. And he was crying, laughing and watching it and agreed that day, that moment, to be on the show. See, I would find that you'd have to, these people have to understand where you came from. The whole story about you guys in high school and what you were able to improv and pull off.

Came over on the boat, saw the Statue of Liberty. Right. Immigrants coming to America. See, I didn't even know this. I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about our great-grandparents. Right, which is, I wouldn't go that far back.

I would stick with more your life. Got it. I don't know how, you're a historian. You write a lot of historical novels. I didn't know how far back you wanted me to go. Right, so that's our fault but it is life. I know you're not used to working like that. But maybe if it was Impractical Jokers brought to you by 23andMe.

Then it would be, then it would make total sense. I'm trying to get you a sponsorship. So at what point during this conversation do you ask me to be one of the celebrities to come on Impractical Jokers?

Am I talking too much? We have. We keep getting shot down by your agent saying Brian Underlined will never be on Impractical Jokers. Or on.

We don't know which one it is. How do you think I would do? I'll tell you what, I would love to try. One day on Fox and Friends. I'm not convinced I'll do it. One day on Fox and Friends, my dream is to send you out and I'm in your, or vice versa, I'll do it. I'll be the recipient of your instructions.

One day, please give me my dream. It's like a make a wish for me. But what makes you, are you ill? I'm not. I'm not.

But one day I will be. So it's totally different from make a wish. You have a good 40, it's very different. It's make my wish. Can you rephrase that please? It's make my wish foundation.

It's not make a wish. And it's all about you. It's all about me.

It's just things that I want to do. That's good. I think that it's great.

I'm just very curious to see. So you guys start this Impractical Jokers where you put yourself in the most awkward scenes possible and every time seems like the worst. And that shows you have acting ability.

And then when you start emerging and have a success, and then these celebrities start recognizing you. Yeah. What is that like? What a great feeling. It's overwhelming.

It's incredible. By the way, I was just co-hosting Good in New York and you've never seen this and I've just realized I still have it in my pocket. There was an episode of Impractical Jokers where Q, unbeknownst to me, had been growing his hair out for like six months to like 14, 15 inches long. They shaved off his hair and made it into a wig and made me wear it on the TV show for six months of filming. And it's still my passport photo. It is not. I showed it on.

You're not going to get back in the country. I look like a see something, say something. Can you show it at least to the camera so we can pretend? There you go.

I'll try to. There you go. I'm sure we can't make that out. But so you did that. That's your passport photo. It's my passport photo. And my driver's license, of course, still has no eyebrows, which you've seen before.

Which I've seen before. Have you had problems with this going into clubs? You know how you go into clubs and show your passport? Because we don't like foreigners.

What kind of clubs are these? As a country, we're no longer a melting pot. It's get out. So let me ask you, what's married life like? That's fantastic. What is the biggest fight you've had? It's never anything big.

It always blows over immediately. I'll tell you what makes every day I'm married, I'm so happy because she's got a better sense of humor than I do. Get out of here. She's hysterically funny. You don't just guess me all the time. Laughter is the cure for everything. But does she think you're funny? No. That's what makes it work. There could only be one. That doesn't think you're funny? No, it's a good balance. Yin and yang. Right. So you think she's funny, but you're getting paid to be funny, and she doesn't think you're funny.

That's the irony of it. You know that Seinfeld story that he's told on the Tonight Show? I know the music's coming in. He said, I told my parents I was going to do stand-up. And they left the room. They opened back and goes, we're going to support you, but.