The Tenderloins


The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe composed of Joseph Gatto, James Murray, Brian Quinn, and Salvatore Vulcano. The group stars in the television series Impractical Jokers, which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program airs on truTV in the U.S. and on Comedy Central in the UK, Ireland, and India.

Origin

The comedians met in religion class during freshman year at Monsignor Farrell High School on 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", as their private high school was only for boys. Sal Vulcano kept a list of words they felt embarrassed to say in a public setting. When searching for a name for their comedy troupe, Sal's list, which included "culottes", "gargoyle", and "nougat", was used. The group eventually chose "The Tenderloins".

Career

Stage

After finishing college, James Murray worked for the Staten Island Ferry where he ran into his friend Sal. They reminisced about their enjoyment doing improv. After reuniting with Joe and another friend, Mike Boccio, they practiced 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.
The troupe briefly consisted of five members. However, Gideon Horowitz soon left the group for personal reasons. After the success of Impractical Jokers, the Tenderloins have also taken part in several American and international tours. They have performed in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and participated in the San Francisco Sketch Comedy Festival and the Miami Improv Festival.

Internet success

In 2006, following years of live shows, the Tenderloins redirected their talents to filmed comedic sketches. Brian Quinn subsequently replaced Mike Boccio as the troupe's fourth 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 at other locations around New York City. Spike TV ultimately passed on the series. A second pilot starring the Tenderloins was officially selected for the 2009 New York Television Festival.
On April 12, 2011, truTV announced a new series to star the Tenderloins. Impractical Jokers premiered on December 15, 2011, executive-produced by the troupe themselves. Season 1 consisted of 16 episodes. The first season was watched by over 32 million viewers.
The show's second season premiered on December 13, 2012 and consisted of 28 episodes. Its third season had 31 episodes and premiered on January 2, 2014. On April 21, 2014, truTV announced that the series would be renewed for a 26-episode fourth season. With the fourth season renewal, a 6-episode spinoff series, Jokers Wild!, was also announced. The show was renewed for a fifth season, which began on February 2016. On July 22, 2016, a sixth season was announced, which began on February 9, 2017. After another successful season, Impractical Jokers was renewed for a seventh season that began on February 1, 2018. In March 2018 TruTV announced the Impractical Jokers was renewed for an eighth season that will consist of 26 episodes and will premiere sometime in February 2019. A feature-length movie, , was released theatrically on February 21, 2020.
In 2019, the troupe will star in a new TBS series, Misery Index, based on the card game "Shit Happens" created by Andy Breckman, who created and wrote the popular TV series Monk and the recent Netflix series The Good Cop.

Live tour

The Troupe has toured steadily over the last four years with its highly-successful, "Where's Larry?", "Santiago Sent Us," & "Cranjis McBasketball" tours playing to hundreds of thousands of fans in the US and UK, including three sold-out nights at Radio City Music Hall, a sold-out Madison Square Garden, and five sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena.

Radio

In February 2017, Murr tweeted that he and the group had recorded the first episode of an upcoming limited-run show for SiriusXM Radio. On August 17, 2017, The Tenderloins Radio Show made its debut on SiriusXM Radio channel 94. In the hour-long broadcast, the comedy troupe pranks friends and acquaintances, takes calls, answers emails from fans, and does sketches in a segment called "Tenderloins Theatre".

Podcasts

''The Tenderloins Podcast''

The group began hosting a podcast in April 2012.

''What Say You?''

What Say You?, an occasional podcast hosted by Sal and Q, was named Best New Show at the 2013 Stitcher Awards. The increased popularity of What Say You sparked a friendly competition among the friends, spurring Joe and Murr to release their own Tenderloins podcast without the other two members. In 2015, What Say You? was nominated for the Comedy, Entertainment, and Best Produced Podcast Awards at the 10th Annual Podcast Awards. Sal and Q have stated that the podcast is their own side project, not a replacement of The Tenderloins Podcast. The group explained that it was difficult to coordinate the schedules of all four members outside of work, making it challenging to produce their troupe's official podcast with any regularity.

Members

Current


ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:30
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2019
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1999
ScaleMinor = increment:2 start:2000
Colors =
id:Brian value:yellow
id:James value:purple
id:Sal value:red
id:Joe value:green
id:Gideon value:orange
id:Mike value:black
BarData =
bar:Brian text:"Brian Quinn"
bar:James text:"James Murray"
bar:Sal text:"Sal Vulcano"
bar:Joe text:"Joe Gatto"
bar:Gideon text:"Gideon Horowitz"
bar:Mike text:"Mike Boccio"
PlotData=
width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:Brian from:01/01/2006 till:end color:Brian
bar:James from:01/01/1999 till:end color:James
bar:Sal from:01/01/1999 till:end color:Sal
bar:Joe from:01/01/1999 till:end color:Joe
bar:Gideon from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2001 color:Gideon
bar:Mike from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2005 color:Mike