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When you watched Joe Gatto on Impractical Jokers, you probably would not expect him to be a big advocate of the power of positivity wherever he goes, whether in his stand-up shows or interviews.
He feels that this is his calling as a comic. The real Joe Gatto is not far from what you saw on Impractical Jokers, but he hopes his stand-up set shows fans different sides of him.
“That is where it is expanded a lot, and I think people get to see my perspective on life is super positive,” Gatto explained. “I get that a lot now. People are like, ‘Wow, you're a really positive person.'”
However, he concedes that his Impractical Jokers character was a “wrecking ball.” This was an effort to make his friends and fans laugh.
Gatto, now a children's book author, has had his hands full between his podcast, book writing, and stand-up career since leaving Impractical Jokers. The series, which consisted of his high school friends Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, and James “Murr” Murray, will live on forever. But Gatto is cementing a legacy beyond it.
“I'm definitely aware of legacy, and my kids, and trying to raise good children and leave my mark,” he said. “That, I think, is probably one of the things now that has come into focus more than [before].”
Calling in from Long Island, New York, where any successful person from New York moves, Gatto is fresh off his first weekend on the road. While not as expansive as his previous two-and-a-half year, 181-date tour, it will keep him busy until June 2025.
Balancing family and comedy life
Luckily for Joe Gatto, his tour schedule is set up to give him time with his kids over the summer. He currently goes out two or three times a month for shows between Thursday and Sunday.
Otherwise, he is home with his family, picking his kids up from school, and doing all the regular things parents do. This schedule also works in Gatto's favor, as his kids are usually busy on weekends anyway. He gets to be the one to tuck them in on weeknights, reading them a story.
The library he chooses from includes his latest published work, Where's Bearry?, which was inspired by his kids. Gatto lamented a few times during our chat how surreal it is to be a children's' book author.
Antiquing and pit stops on tour
While without kids and on the road, Gatto likes to get acquainted with the city he is performing. After arriving, he will explore the city's main street—maybe even grab a “donut or two”—and visit the mom and pop shops.
At this point in his career, Gatto considers himself “well-traveled.” He has been to the major cities countless times and has performed live comedy in all 50 states in America. “That was a bucket list item for me, and I checked that box in 2023,” he proudly revealed.
As for specific experiences that stood out, Gatto specifically named crashing a “big” family tour at the Hershey Factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
He also enjoys antiquing, or “‘tiquing,” as he called it. Some may scour antique stores for records or vintage furniture. Gatto searches for childhood items that he has not seen for years. These specifically included a glass red apple that he broke as a kid in Indiana, a little red dog he and his sister received after getting their tonsils out, and a Fisher Price camera.
“There was this little red dog I had gotten [as a child]. When I got my tonsils out when I was little, my parents bought us matching red dogs — me and my sister got our tonsils out at the same time,” Gatto recalled. “I was nine years old, and I still remember mine was Jell-O, and hers was Sherbert.”
Upon finding it, Gatto immediately texted a picture of it to his sister before purchasing it. These artifacts reside in Gatto's home office. He gazed at them while talking to me.
Getting recommendations
Some antique stores have gained Gatto's trust. He will revisit certain stores that leave a mark on him, such as Martin Patrick in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Whenever he is in the area, he stops in and gets his outfit for his show.
The best part of having a following like the former Impractical Jokers star is getting recommendations from fans. After each show, Gatto does meet-and-greets. Fans will recommend the best local cannoli spots or send him Instagram messages with recommendations.
“It gets really fun to have fans tell you where to go,” said Gatto.
A day in the life of Joe Gatto
After antiquing before his stand-up shows, Gatto will take a power nap. Even Gatto needs to recharge his battery before performing in front of thousands.
“I like a good 15-20'er to shut her down,” he said. “And before the show, [I will] listen to music and hang out with whoever's with us and get out there and do my thing.”
Like any sports player, after the show ends, Gatto will analyze the tape and see what went right and wrong. He has a 16-page note document filled with jokes or bits he wants to try or the things he improvised that night. If successful, they could be punched up for future use.
Impractical Joker's legacy
Even though he is not on the show, Joe Gatto holds Impractical Jokers in high regard, even though he is not on the show. He brought it up on his own several times during our chat.
However, if you are a YouTube prankster who is a public nuisance, do not try to impress Gatto with your pranks. While there are some exceptions—he specifically named AreYouKiddingTV, with whom he recently collaborated, as a reference—he will call you out if he does not approve.
“Yeah, they mostly annoy people and make people feel bad. I'm not down with that,” Gatto said of some YouTube prank channels. “I watched some of this stuff — it makes my stomach turn. It's like, Why would you do that to somebody?”
He then revealed how he calls out YouTubers who try to show him their pranks. Gatto will have them show him their footage. If it is mean-spirited, he will call them out. “I'll make people show me, and they'll show me,” he said. “I'm like, ‘That's not what I do. Did somebody tell you to do that? Did you feel bad doing that? Was it like against your inner core trying to get it together?'”
Going too far
On Impractical Jokers, Joe Gatto and Co. would always draw a line. If a bit went too far, they would stop.
“There'd be plenty of times in Jokers when we were doing something, and if people were feeling bad, we would [take a] timeout, stop, not use that stuff, and be like, ‘What are we doing wrong?'” Gatto explained. “That was the indicator to us that something was going wrong. If we were feeling bad for people, it's not right.
“There would even be moments when people were like saying stuff and open up, and we would stop them from talking. We'd be like, ‘Hey, hey, that's good.' Or you hear in your ear, ‘Shut them up, tell them to stop,' if they are getting too personal or it's going in a weird way. That was a huge thing for us because we were the ones being attacked, right? We were attacking our friends who opted into this. We've all opted into it,” he continued.
This is what they signed up for
Gatto reassures me the Impractical Jokers crew did not bully each other and knew what they signed up for. “We all know what we're doing — we're getting paid to do this. We all signed up for it,” he clarified. “So that's a major difference across the board — we know what we're doing, we know what we got into.”
That is what sets Impractical Jokers and AreYouKiddingTV apart, according to Joe Gatto. They do not make the random strangers they approach the butt of the joke. He described AreYouKiddingTV as “weird and awkward.”
“They stand there quietly, give people a weird task, and they will give them money or tickets to something,” explained Gatto. “They will do something and don't say anything — they just stand there. I could easily see that be something we did, something weird and odd.
“I could see the inspiration, and the payoff is right. So there is some good, I guess. I haven't ruined a lot,” he concluded with a laugh.
Will return to Impractical Jokers?
Since Joe Gatto left Impractical Jokers, everyone wants to know if he will return. However, Gatto seems content with not being on the show, acknowledging that his former co-stars have figured out a formula without him.
That said, do not rule out a reunion with the boys on another project. Gatto emphasizes that he is still good friends with his former Impractical Jokers co-stars Sal Vulcano, Brian “Q” Quinn, and James “Murr” Murray.
“It's funny because I'm still friends with those guys in real life — we're just not co-workers anymore,” he said. “So, will I work with them again? There's a good chance. Is it Jokers? Probably not. They've come up with their formula now. I've moved away from it.”
However, Gatto did reveal a challenge he wish he pulled off before exiting the show. He was going to pull off a surprise escape room under the guise of a meeting. Despite it being all planned out, it never came to fruition.
“We were gonna have a meeting, and then I was gonna leave and lock the door, and it was gonna be an escape room that I had set up in there,” he excitedly revealed.
Joe Gatto's passion projects
Back to Gatto showing a different side of himself post-Impractical Jokers, he revealed that filmmaking was his first love. It led him to Impractical Jokers and now stand-up. “I'm super into the art of filmmaking and entertaining across the board in any format I do,” Gatto said. “I just take pride in it.”
Currently, Gatto is working on some action comedy scripts. He also revealed that he is working on some horror projects as well, as his wife and nine year old daughter—who dressed up as Pennywise for Halloween last year—are fans of the genre.
Keeping stand-up exciting
Whether you are a musician or stand-up comic, every performed is bound to perform a similar show every night. Are the Stones capable of playing a show without “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction”?
Still, Gatto is determined to make every night different. Whether he tries out a new bit or spontaneously leans into a reaction from the crowd, something changes each night. Gatto also said it never gets mundane, thanks to the audience's reactions and the energy you get from them — “It's not like you're just talking into a vacuum,” he said.
He provided an example from his recent Messing with People special. An audience member whistled as he made a self-deprecating joke about his body. He kept that in, which he has never done with a comedy special.
“I wasn't afraid to take a swing. And it landed,” said Gatto. “I'm not afraid of those moments, but I like to make sure I'm presenting something worth a night out.”
The pressure he puts on himself is due to wanting to justify fans spending money on his shows. Gatto's ultimate goal is to provide an outlet for fans to “forget about how terrible life is because we all know it [can] suck pretty hard sometimes. So you might as well come into a room with a couple of thousand strangers and laugh.”
He feels that is his job, and he wants to ensure he is happy with the product. Stand-up is still relatively new to Gatto, but he has found fulfillment in it.
Fans may miss Joe Gatto being on Impractical Jokers, but he is thriving.
