46.0°,
A Few Clouds Forever a Joker: Laughing along with Joe Gatto
All roads lead back to Lynbrook it seems. Certainly for Joe Gatto.
He’s stepped away from his comfort zone — “The Impractical Jokers” — to the dismay of many folks. His loyal cadre of fans came to know him from the popular improvisational hidden camera show, which he hosted with his buddies Brian “Q” Quinn, James “Murr” Murray, and Sal Vulcano, for nine seasons.
Fans were certainly disappointed when he moved on from Q, Murr and Sal in 2021 to focus on co-parenting his two kids, Milana and Remington (now 9 and 7).
But you needn’t fret. Gatto is doing just fine — as is “Jokers,” now in its 10th season.
Since leaving his pals to carry on “Jokers” without him, the jokes certainly continue as Gatto’s taken his energy — and his comedic talents — to the stand-up circuit.
His tour, “Joe Gatto’s Night of Comedy,” arrives Friday at The Paramount in Huntington. Minus his friends, fans get an hour of Gatto, as he riffs on life, his family, and probably even his dogs.
“I’m extremely proud of this hour of comedy I’ve put together, and am so excited to film it at the first theater I performed on this tour back in February 2023,” Gatto says. “It also happens to be one of my favorite theaters, too, which is nice since it’s in my ‘hometown’ of Long Island.”
Of course, there were some nerves involved in going solo.
“After my time with ‘Jokers,’ I needed to figure out the next step in my career,” Gatto reflects. “I needed to figure out different ways to make people laugh because that’s what I love to do. Stand-up presented itself as a way to do that. My agents and managers were like, ‘Why don’t you give stand-up a shot?’”
And so he did, on a winter’s evening in a small club in Appleton, Wisconsin, in January 2022, for a brief 35 minutes.
“I enjoyed it right from the get-go,” he says. “It quickly graduated into an hour show, and I moved up to theaters. Fans were coming out, and we’re having a great time. Telling stories of my life and thinking about different ways that I could express myself to get people to know me a bit better has been a really fun journey.”
Gatto readily admits it’s been a learning experience.
“It was a different format that I wasn’t necessarily versed in, so I was a little nervous,” he says. “The biggest thing for me was I had never performed live before. For 20 years, I was part of an ensemble, stand-up being its own art was a thing I needed to adapt to. I quickly took to it.
“The challenge of writing the hour, curating it, and thinking of what stories I want to tell and how to tell them and punch up the jokes, was fun to do.”
Everyone’s in on the fun right along with him.
“I’ve always been pretty open on ‘The Impractical Jokers,’” he says. “I was always myself. I didn’t play a character, so when people watched it, they really to got to know the sense of me, my personality. Even a lot of my personal life was in that show as well. People who come to my show know me already from that. But here I get to tell different stories. I talk about parenting, I’ve got lots of stories of my kids, also the craziness of animal rescue with my dogs, growing up with my crazy Italian mother on Staten Island, and of course, my friends, the Jokers. There’s no shortage of stories.”
Oh yes, about those dogs. There are nine of them in the Gatto household, all older rescues.
“It’s like a pack mentality,” he says, laughing, insisting his four-legged companions “pretty much follow the house rules.”
Eventually the Gattos realized they couldn’t rescue every dog in need. Hence their nonprofit Gatto Pups & Friends, which facilitates adoptions for mainly senior and disabled dogs, opened in Glen Head in November 2022.
“We wanted to do it in our neighborhood,” he says. “We love being around here. We found a cool space for the storefront, right across the street from one of our favorite places for lunch. It just all aligned.”
Although firmly ensconced in Glen Head, the South Shore still calls out to him. Gatto frequently visits Lynbrook, where he lived between 2014 and 2017, and where his sister still resides.
His family ties bring him frequently back to visit.
“I love Lynbrook,” he says.“I had such a great experience there. There’s always something special about your first home.”
Plus, “Vincent’s is still one of my favorite pizzerias,” he adds.
You’ll even find him hanging out at Lynbrook’s Regal, taking in a movie with his niece and nephew.
“I go there all the time with them,” he shares. “They’re movie buffs like me, and that’s our go-to movie theater.”
In fact, a film may be in his future.
“I’m doing pretty good, enjoying my ride right now,” Gatto says. “But I’ve always wanted to write and direct film. That’s actually why I got into entertainment. So that’s what I’m focusing on now. That’s what’s left on the bucket list, along with always creating and thinking of new ways to make people smile.”
And as for his outing at The Paramount, it’s being filmed for a comedy special.
“I’ve been working to two years on the thing,” he says, “so I don’t it want it to just go away.”
And there’s always the possibility of another collaboration with his “Jokers” buddies.
“I never un-united with them,” he says. “They’re still my friends. We’re just not ‘friends from work’ anymore. I love creating with those guys, so who knows what the future holds.”
