“Murr-Live”: A Lot of Impractical Laughs at the Egg

A cross-section of Albanians filed through the Concourse to the base of The Egg last week, where they piled into high-capacity, rounded elevators. The elevators opened into the Hart Theater lobby, which looks just like you’d think the inside of The Egg would from the outside of The Egg—Rockefeller-era, brutalist architecture. Think Soviet, softened with Danish wood trim. The crowd was there to see James Murray, “Murr,” one of the stars of Impractical Jokers, the TBS/TruTV comedy team now going into its 10th season.

The opening act was Jason Nash, a self-described YouTube comedian who riffed on how addicted he was to producing content. Every moment in his life is an opportunity to yell, “Smash that like button!” He joked about his much younger fiancee wanting children. His conundrum is that he likes kids but hates babies. Babies start off cute, but Hitler was a cute baby, so…

Murray came out after Nash’s fifteen-minute set, saying we’d see a lot more of him later in the show. He said the second half would be made up as we went based on audience input.

The first half was a treat for Impractial Jokers fans as Murray shared a number of anecdotes about his time working with his three best friends, Brian “Q” Quinn, Sal Vulcano, and Joe Gatto. He shared screen shots of group chats between the four Staten Island natives. They were lovingly vicious as they belittled and attacked each other. For example, Gatto asked his buddies to support his daughter’s school with a donation; they mocked him.

Next, Murray brought three volunteers onto the stage and had them surrender their iPhones. He rifled through their texts and asked questions about their contacts. Once he found someone who made them uncomfortable, he composed a rudely awkward text to them and sent it. Once all three were sent, he face-timed the recipient. One victim, whose girlfriend’s mother was the recipient, was worried he’d be in big trouble because Murray texted that he was cheating on the girlfriend by feigning a never-mind-wrong-number message after sending a cheating text. The mother hung up on the face-time request and two phone calls from Murray to set it right.

Murray masterfully orchestrated the return of the opener, Nash, to the spotlight, thrusting him into the lively streets of Albany for an audacious endeavor. Nash embarked on a live-streamed rendition of an Impractical Jokers stunt, where he became the unsuspecting puppet of Murray’s whims. Venturing into a nearby bar, Nash fearlessly attempted to execute comedic mischief, including an audacious attempt to lower the pants of a bar-goer and a bold sip pilfered from a woman’s drink, leading to a tense confrontation with her protective date. The duo seamlessly engaged in impromptu crowd interactions, displaying a knack for improv that hinted at training reminiscent of Second City in Chicago. Nash, conquering his own trepidation, even dared to playfully disrupt an unwitting stand-up comic, guided by Murray’s coaching. The climax involved Nash strategically parading a stolen palm tree from the bar lobby onto the back-of-the-bar stage, resulting in a concoction of three parts hilarity and two parts awkwardness. While the audience grasped the humor, the reveal somewhat tempered the impact, leaving a lingering sense of amusement mingled with a touch of unease.

The whole show lasted about an hour and a half. It was a solid TBS/TruTV episode, but not a ton more. Murray gladly assured the crowd that the tenth season of Jokers would begin airing in January, with an 11th season to start shooting in 2024.