The Tenderloins

The Tenderloins
The Tenderloins in Times Square in 2010. From left to right: Brian Quinn, James Murray, Joe Gatto and Sal Vulcano.
Medium	Television
Nationality	United States
Years active	1999-present
Genres	Sketch comedy Improv comedy
Notable works and roles	Impractical Jokers (2011 - present)
Members	Brian Quinn James Murray Sal Vulcano Joe Gatto
Former members	Gideon Horowitz Mike Boccio
Website	thetenderloins.com

The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe currently composed of Joseph "Joe" Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano. The group stars in the popular television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program is currently being aired on Comedy Central in the UK, Ireland, and India, and on truTV in the U.S.

Before The Tenderloins

The comedians met at freshman year in religion class at Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island in 1990. They became interested in drama and improv and joined an improv club, because "it was the only way to meet girls".^[1][2] While coming up for a name for the troupe, Sal Vulcano had kept a list of words that they'd be embarrassed to say in a public setting. Words in the list included Coolats, Gargoyle and Nougat. Eventually, they chose Tenderloins.

Career

Stage

After finishing college, James Murray was working in the Staten Island ferry where he met his friend Sal and were reminiscing about their enjoyment doing improv. After reuniting with Joe and another friend, Mike Boccio, they would practice improv at Joe's house three days a week, for six months. The Tenderloins began in 1999 as a live improv comedy and sketch comedy troupe. They have performed in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in addition to shows at the San Francisco Sketch Comedy Festival and the Miami Improv Festival. For a time, the troupe consisted of five members, with the addition of Gideon Horowitz, but left early for personal reasons.

Internet success

Following years of live shows, in 2006, The Tenderloins redirected their talents to filmed comedic sketches. Brian Quinn subsequently replaced Mike Boccio as the troupe's 4th member.

The Tenderloins comedic sketches have accumulated millions of views on YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, and other websites. In 2007, the troupe won the $100,000 grand prize in the NBC It’s Your Show competition for the sketch “Time Thugs”.

Television

Following the troupe's online successes, the four were signed to develop a scripted comedy pilot for Spike TV based on their own lives. The pilot was shot on location in 2008 on Staten Island, as well as other locations around New York City. Spike TV ultimately passed on the series. A second pilot starring The Tenderloins was named as an official selection of the 2009 New York Television Festival.

On April 12, 2011, truTV announced the new series Impractical Jokers, starring and executive-produced by the Tenderloins, which premiered on December 15, 2011. Season 1 consisted of 17 half-hour episodes. The first season was watched by over 32 million viewers.

The show's 28-episode second season premiered on December 13, 2012,^[3] and its 31-episode third season premiered on January 2, 2014.^[4] On April 21, 2014, truTV announced that the series has been renewed for a 26-episode fourth season.^[5] With the fourth season renewal, a 6-episode spinoff series, Jokers Wild! was also announced.^[5] They were renewed for a fifth season which first aired on February 2016, and on July 22, 2016 announced a sixth season.

Podcast

The Tenderloins Podcast

The group began hosting a podcast in April 2012. It was available on their official website and iTunes.

What Say You?

A new podcast, hosted by Sal and Q, called "What Say You" began and is released fairly regularly. This caused a friendly competition, with Joe and Murr releasing a Tenderloins podcast without the other two members, following the increased popularity of "What Say You," which was named Best New Show at the 2013 Stitcher Awards.^[6] It was nominated for the Comedy, Entertainment, and Best Produced Podcast Awards at the 10th Annual Podcast Awards in 2015.^[7] Q and Sal have stated on their podcast that it is not a replacement of The Tenderloins podcast, but their own side project. The group had cited difficulty coordinating the schedules of all four members outside of work to complete the troupe's official podcast with any regularity.

Current members

Brian Quinn

Brian Michael "Q" Quinn: (born March 14, 1976) is an improvisational comedian from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He was born to parents Carol Murphy and James Quinn. He has Irish ancestry.

He attended Monsignor Farrell High School where he was involved in numerous activities including drama, where he performed in musicals such as Bye Bye Birdie (playing the lead role as Conrad Birdie), Meet Me In Saint Louis, On The Town and Godspell, and sports. During high school, he worked as a fish hauler at Fulton Fish Market. During the year 1997, he worked in an office for ViewAskew with founder Kevin Smith. Following his graduation, he attended Brooklyn College and later got his first job as a ride operator at Beachland Amusements, before getting a job as a video clerk in Blockbuster. He eventually went on to join the New York City Fire Department as a fireman. He is also the third host of the podcast Tell 'Em Steve-Dave! on SModcast.com, along with Walter Flanagan and Bryan Johnson. He is also a co-host of the podcast What Say You, with Sal Vulcano. Brian was to feature as a co-host for the show Comic Book Men, but was unable to be featured in the series due to the conditions of his contract for the TruTV series Impractical Jokers.^[8] He has, however, made an appearance in two episodes of the series as a guest.

Brian has made his acting debut in the movie Warshots in 1996, playing as a soldier. In 1999, he appeared as an extra in the Kevin Smith movie Dogma. He also portrayed Vance in Big Helium Dog and a traffic cop in the thriller movie Vulgar. In 2015, Brian appeared in the second season premiere of 12 Monkeys, where he played as Dale, a hapless guy who talked to Jennifer, portrayed by Emily Hampshire. He will play Austin in an upcoming horror comedy movie expected to be released in 2017, which will be directed by Adam Green.

Brian had suffered from depression and has talked about it in a few episodes of Tell 'Em Steve-Dave!. In 2009, Brian was arrested in Germany for disorderly conduct and a police officer punched him in the face, knocking his tooth out. Brian was escorted back to America by German police and was bailed out by the other guys. Brian started to show flu-like symptons during some episodes of his show Impractical Jokers, where he even asked his friend Joey Fatone to take his place in a challenge. Doctors have confirmed that he was suffering from serious encephalitis and meningitis. He recovered from the illness. In 2016, Brian broke two ribs, pulled his neck muscles and suffered nerve damage on his left leg after injuring himself during training by Travis Pastrana for the Impractical Jokers Live Nitro Circus Spectacular by falling off the quad bike after going mid air. He announced in the season finale that he would not participate and again got his friend Joey Fatone to replace him.

An animal lover, Brian has three cats, named Brooklyn, Chessie, and Benjamin, the latter being used as a scare tactic for his friend Sal Vulcano, who has a fear of cats, by getting a production crew member from the show to wear a black cat costume and chase him. Brian is an arachnophopic, which was used against him by his friends in a punishment of their show. He is also a Star Wars fan. He is a fan and supporter of Manchester United.

James Murray

James Stephen "Murr" Murray: (born May 1, 1976) is an improvisational comedian from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He has two younger sisters - Christine and Danielle.

He attended Monsignor Farrell High School there and was also a part of a community theatre, where he played in many of the musicals, along with his friend Brian Quinn. He continued his education at Georgetown University where he received a BA in English. In 1997, James made an appearance as a student in the autobiographical comedy movie Private Parts, which featured Howard Stern. The following year, he portrayed Judas in the movie Damned!, which he also directed. In 2015, he played a sanitation worker in an episode of the crime show Bones, along with his friend and co-worker Sal. He appeared in an episode of 12 Monkeys, where he played as Don the desk clerk, and the action comedy film Return to Return to Nuke 'Em High aka Vol. 2, portraying Chuck Flingus. He will appear in the upcoming movie My Brother the Time Traveler as Dr. Murphy and provide a voice to an unannounced character in the upcoming movie Minions 2.

He has written his first novel, a sci-fi thriller titled Awakened.

He continues to work at NorthSouth Productions where he is the Senior Vice President of Development, where he produced shows for truTV, A&E, TLC, MTV and more. Although Joe is the only one officially married, James married Jenna Vulcano (Sal's sister) as part of a punishment in an episode of Impractical Jokers. He announced that they anulled the marriage the next day.

Sal Vulcano

Salvatore Edward Anthony "Sal" Vulcano: (born November 6, 1976) is an improvisational and stand-up comedian from the New York City borough of Staten Island. His parents are Dianne Fernandez and Sal Vulcano Sr.. They divorced when he was at a young age. He has three sisters - his eldest Kelly Ann, and his two younger sisters, Dana and Jenna. He is of Italian, Cuban and Puerto Rican descent.

He attended Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island where he took part in various sports such as hockey, basketball and football. Upon graduation, he attended St. John's University where he earned a degree in finance. He worked as a pizza delivery guy for a brief time before getting a job as a bartender at The Full Cup, which he co-owned in 2010. Passionate with stand-up, he frequently does solo tours around the US, where he includes other comedians like Chris DiStefano, Godfrey and Big Jay Oakerson.

He has made his acting debut in the 1998 movie Damned! as a lawnmower boy. The movie was directed by his friend James Murray. In 2006, he played as Pinky in Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy. In 2015, he played as a sanitation worker in an episode of Bones, along with his friend and co-worker James Murray. He played as a security officer in an episode of the sci-fi TV series 12 Monkeys in 2017, along with Joe Gatto.

Joe Gatto

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Gatto Jr.: (born June 5, 1976) is an improvisational comedian from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He was born to late parents Gerri Amato and Joseph Gatto. His father died of pancreatic cancer due to alcohol poisoning in 1995, which made Joe swore to himself to not drink alcohol. He has Italian ancestry.

He attended Monsignor Farrell High School. After graduation, he studied at LIU Post where he received a degree in accounting. He worked as a salesman at the baby retail store, Giggle, until January 2011. Aside from appearing in Impractical Jokers, Joe portrayed a security officer, Larry (inspired by the fictional character that he created on the show), in an episode of 12 Monkeys, along with Sal Vulcano. Joe also co-hosts a podcast called PBR, which is an acronymn for Pizza Beer Revolution, along with Mike Pullano and Derek DeAngelis.

He married Bessy Gatto in September 2013 and have two children; a daughter Milana Francine (b. May 7, 2015) and a son named Remington Joseph (b. July 31, 2017).

Former members

• Gideon S. Horowitz: (born August 3, 1980) is a general manager at Kings Bowl America, LLC, in Miami, Florida, where he was born and raised. He was also a general manager for the restaurants 50 EGGS and Hard Rock International. He was the shortest living member of the group, having left the group in 2001.

• Michael "Mike" Boccio: is a senior/executive managing director at RF|Binder, a communications management agency. He graduated from St. John's University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. He left the group in 2005 and was replaced by Brian Quinn.

Timeline

References

External links

• The Tenderloins official site
• Impractical Jokers on truTV
• The Tenderloins on IMDb