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Who are The Tenderloins? A look at the Staten island comedy troupe at the heart of 'Impractical Jokers'

They are actually the creators, executive producers, and stars of the superhit reality show 'Impractical Jokers'

If you are a fan of the prank comedy show ‘Impractical Jokers’, which will soon return with its ninth season on truTV, you need no introduction to The Tenderloins. The famous comedy troupe has won hearts and accolades across the globe for their witty skits and humor. In fact, they are actually the creators, executive producers and stars of the superhit reality show ‘Impractical Jokers’, which premiered in 2011. 

Who are The Tenderloins?

The troupe comprises Staten Island comedians Joe Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The four have been close friends since high school. In 1990, they met in the religion class of freshman year at Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, New York. Incidentally, all four of them hail from Staten Island, though Brian Quinn was born in Brooklyn and moved to Staten Island with his family at the age of 2. 

In school, the four friends joined the improv club because they believed it would help them “meet girls” since theirs was an all-boys high school. The name of the group has an interesting anecdote as well.

Sal Vulcano maintained a list of words that the group felt embarrassed to use in a public setting, which comprised words like ‘culottes’, ‘nougat’, and ‘gargoyle’. They resorted to the list to search for a suitable name for their group and finally zeroed in on ‘The Tenderloins’. 

The success of The Tenderloins

After high school, the friends went to separate colleges for higher education but always kept in touch with their funnier side. James Murray had started working for the Staten Island Ferry after college where one day he ran into Sal Vulcano. The two friends reunited over fond memories at school and reconnected with Joe Gatto to try their hands at improv comedy again. Along with another friend Mike Boccio, the group practiced improv comedy at Joe’s house for six months. Eventually, in 1999, they launched The Tenderloins officially as a live improv and sketch comedy troupe. 

Initially comprising five members (including Gideon Horowitz), The Tenderloins started climbing the success ladder. However, Horowitz left the group in 2001 for personal reasons. After years of enthralling the audience with their live shows, the troupe started filming comedic sketches in 2006. The year before that, Brian Quinn had joined the troupe replacing Mike Boccio. 

Their sketch comedy videos gained millions of views across YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe and other social media portals of the time. In 2007, The Tenderloins participated in the NBC show ‘It’s Your Show’ and won the $100,000 grand prize, bringing them into national limelight. 

In 2011, The Tenderloins bagged an entire series with truTV called ‘Impractical Jokers’ which premiered on December 15, 2011. The first season itself was a huge success with over 32 million viewers. From then on ‘Impractical Jokers’ have spanned eight successful seasons on television and even a feature film titled ‘Impractical Jokers: The Movie’ that released in February 2020.

Following the success of their TV show, the troupe has toured around the world especially in the last four years in the US and UK. In 2017, they ever started their own radio show - The Tenderloins Radio Show. They also started hosting ‘The Tenderloins Podcast’ in April 2012.

‘Impractical Jokers' Season 9 is all set to premiere on February 4, 2021, at 10/9C.