On this edition of THE INTERVUE, In February 2023, the hidden camera reality show in “Impractical Jokers” started its 10th season on truTV where four lifelong friends conduct a series of competitive dares in which the Joker is rated by the others performance. And today we’re talking with one of them. In fact, our guest has some roots here in the DMV.
He received his B.A. in English at Georgetown, Go Hoyas! He is the author of the Sci Fi novels “Awakened” in 2018. And its sequels “The Brink” and “Obliteration”. And now, America will see him bring his historical interactive stand-up comedy to the Capital One Hall in Tysons Corner, Virginia – December 15th. Tickets click HERE
Ladies and gentlemen, we got an early Christmas present, as we’re talking to “Murr” himself, James Murray.
James, welcome to THE INTERVUE!
Hi, Dean, how are you, buddy? I am baffled and intrigued by your description of my live show as being “historical” you said. I love it. I’m gonna start saying that my comedy show is “a historical comedy show.”
I see we got a special guest in the background seen Nicolas Cage.
Yeah, you know, my buddy Nick comes over. We can’t get rid of him once he shows up. He won’t say much he won’t. He’ll be a good guest in the background. But if you’re adding a little star power to the meeting…
You know it! As I mentioned at the start of our program, you have roots into DMV, you earned your Bachelor of Arts in English at Georgetown University. I want to first talk about your time here at the prestigious university.
I live there for four years. I was there in college from 1994 to 1998. I loved DC, still love it to this day. I try to get back to campus as much as I can. You know, Georgetown is such a beautiful area. But I’m used to go out all the time and DuPont Circle we go down to the Capitol all the time, have picnics on the mall. It was great.
And what was your favorite thing about your time in DC?
You know, I tell you what, if I knew that my life would go the direction it did, I would have done DC so much different because I did well in school. I studied it a lot, got really good grades, went to Georgetown. Q dropped out of college became a tollbooth collector. And then sold ice cream and became a fireman and him and I make the exact same amount of money. So, if I could have done life over, I would have just enjoyed DC and gone out everyday partying like every other college student that are working as hard as it did.
Now, one of the things that impressed me about your bio is you have a love of science fiction and horror, especially with your novels and your middle school reader, “Area 51 Interns”
The new one just came out, “Timechasers”
Yeah, there’s I’ve written there’s my eighth book that I’ve written now, in the past five years. Every year I got another book or two coming out. “Area 51 Interns” is a kid’s book. I wrote three kids books with Penguin Random House. And it’s about a group of kids that are going into their freshman year high school that land a summer internship at the infamous Area 51 as if it was a thing, right. And of course, every book something goes haywire and it’s up to the kids to save the day in Area 51.
This is book three, you don’t have to read each one. You can just read them separately, but this one is all about time travel. It’s awesome! And yeah, they’re really good man. By the way, anybody can get an autographed copy to go to Area51novel.com.
I was an English major in Georgetown. I always dreamed of being on TV. I was trying to be a comedian, but I also dreamed of writing books and thrillers. particularly.
Well, that’s amazing. I’m so glad that you have written great books. That’s perfect timing. So what some of your favorite science fiction and horror when it comes to movies or television or both?
I mean, come on. I was at Georgetown. “The Exorcist” of course. It doesn’t get much better than that. But my movies, probably “The Descent”, which is such a good movie. If you haven’t seen it, go see it. It came out maybe 15 years ago, so scary. I was a huge fan of “Aliens”, “Event Horizon”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Friday the 13th”, things like that. And all my books, other the “Area 51 Interns”, are adult thrillers. I’ve another one coming up soon.
I’ve written a sci-fi trilogy with HarperCollins called “Awakened”. Then, I did a like a Creature Feature for Blackstone Publishing called “Don’t Move”, which turned into a movie. Last year, I did a serial killer novel sitting on a cruise ship called “The Stone” with St. Martin’s Press. Next year from St. Lawrence, I have another serial killer novel coming out set during Christmas time and the book is called “You Better Watch Out”.
You have such a great talent! You’re writing novels. You have the comedy show & Impractical Jokers. Where do you find the time to rest?
Ah you know, when you love what you do, you make time for what’s important. Right? I’m writing every chance I get like when I’m come onto the set to film “Impractical Jokers”. I’m writing when I’m coming back and writing. We’ll do something else like launching a book or what have you. So it’s a lot of fun. There’s a couple of things in my life that give me a big rush. One is the TV show, seeing the episode finally on television. Now like 10 o’clock on a Thursday night is a huge rush. Getting on stage, performing live, look and performing in Tysons Corner in a few weeks.
Getting on stage in front of fans is wild rush. And then the day when you finally take so long to write a book and to get it published. You sell it, plan it out, write it, rewrite it so on so forth. By the time you sell a book to when it comes out in stores, it’s about a year and a half, right? So, we wrote this a year and a half ago. So about two weeks ago, there’s ringing of the doorbell. I open the door. There’s a box waiting for me – this day is real. It comes just like in the movie “Back to the Future” right? At the end of the movie. You remember Marty McFly, his father opens the door and he’s got his box of sci-fi books. That is a real moment for an author. You open the door, and you don’t know when it’s going to arrive with publisher has sent you your advanced copies of the book is the first time truly you’re seeing it done in your hand. You open it up and you see the cover and feel and smell reverse and it’s a wild rush man. It’s so creatively satisfying.
That’s sensational that not only you earned your B.A. degree at Georgetown, but you have also put it to great use! For those who have not seen your show yet, which I’m going to be seeing your show come December 15th, what can we look forward to?
Oh gosh, the guys and I tour of course. We do the Impractical Jokers tour. We go back on that tour in January (2024). But in the meantime, I’m performing across America to my solo show – “Murr Live”. It is extended comedy mixed with live videos just for the show they can only see in the theater, the coolest part of my live show. I’m playing Tysons Corner. But I’ve been in Roanoke as well.
But the coolest part of my live show is we play in “Impractical Jokers” live at the end of the show. What do you mean by that is I choose someone in the audience. I put an earpiece in their ear. I set them out into the streets of DC/Virginia what have you and we’ll watch on screen in the theater as I, live on the spot, tell them what to say and do in public. It is wild and outrageous. It’s like watching the TV show happen live in front of you uncensored but the show of course it’s family friendly. And anybody can get tickets if you’d like it murrlive.com
Now, did you have any idea that when Impractical Jokers started in 2013 that it will become the success that it is now with the tours and 10 years on truTV?
The crazy thing is that it’s been thirteen years. We started filming 2010. Like before, at the beginning of the show, I had like more hair. My weight stayed the same, but I had so much more hair. We were like thinner, more hair, younger, like Americans watch this get older, fatter, bolder on TV, it’s wild. No, man, you can never anticipate a ride like that. It’s been wild and humbling.
I can’t believe I literally feel like we’ve grown up with our fans and their families, because so many kids watched the show that are now parents themselves. They started watching the show when they were 13 years old and now they’re 26 and they still watch the show. And they’ve got their first child and they’re married. And it’s wild to think of that.
What would you like to say to all of your endearing fans who have followed you from the beginning to your career to where it is right now?
Good question. The unique thing I think about Impractical Jokers is that the guys and I were 35 who are on TV, and like a month before we sold Impractical Jokers, we were told to have faces that we were too old for TV. And then here we are, 13 years later still 300 episodes and it’s still going strong, many more seasons to come. And I think what I would say is this, we got on TV because we had failed for so long. We were just regular guys. So today to this day, we remain regular guys. And I guess what I would say is thank you! I feel like our fans are not our fans. I feel like they are our friends, our family.
Like I mentioned before, I feel like I’ve grown up with our fans’ families. And it doesn’t escape us because we were regular guys. We got the TV show and remain that way to this day. It doesn’t escape us how amazing this ride has been. And we know entirely is because our fan base, I say thank you for the lives you’ve given us, for the opportunity you’ve given us, and we promise to keep you laughing for a long time to come.
Check out MURR LIVE, December 15th at Capital One Hall at 7:00pm, Tickets are available through Ticketmaster HERE and you can purchase the Post Meet & Greet HERE. Note, a show ticket MUST be purchased to attend the MEET & GREET!
And purchase Area 51: Time Chasers at your local bookstore or on his website https://jamesmurrayofficial.com/
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