IMPRACTICAL JOKERS // THE SSE HYDRO, GLASGOW
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS BRING THEIR 'SANTIAGO SENT US' WORLD TOUR TO GLASGOW'S SSE HYDRO
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS PERFORMING ON STAGE
PIC BY: Joe Papeo
★★★★☆ (4.5/5)
In Impractical Jokers, New York comedy troupe The Tenderloins invigorate the prank TV format with the teasing laddish banter you can only really get with four friends who've known each other since youth. Their live tour, Santiago Sent Us, similarly rests on the appeal of their personality – but that’s about all it has going for it.
Fans may get a buzz from being in the same room as their pals from the TV – even if that room is the soulless Woe2 Arena; a venue with worse acoustics than your average railway station. But there is very little sense the comics have put much effort into creating a show for the occasion. Considering the giant payday the quartet of Joe Gatto, Murr Murray, Brian Quinn, and Sal Vulcano played a indoor-arena with capacity of 13,000 people at Glasgow's SSE Hydro on Friday evening.
They can't, of course, recreate the hidden camera action stunts on stage – but it's telling that the funniest moments they can involve on stage by playing footage of some of the outrageous dares from Impractical Jokers on the massive screen. Including, as a finale, Murr eating dog shit. There’s certainly an ‘oh my god, did he really do that?’ excitement in the room when that’s played.
In between, they each take a turn at telling stand-up anecdotes with occasional interjections from their mates, which feel surprisingly scripted given their improve background. The stories hold mild interest – a road-rage incident, checking out a suspected break-in with a cop, gushing over Wendy’s calorie-packed Baconator burger – but they over-sold, and soon becomes dull.
The chief joke of the evening was in their arsenal is to say: 'you look like…' and unleash a round-robin of insults at each other. ‘Rosie O’Donnell banged a Sasquatch’, ‘someone left Jack Black in a microwave’ and so on… Even Joe’s poor, decrepit dog gets a barrage of abuse, while in another clip they joshed each other about how they looked when they appeared on the Katie Couric morning show.
It’s all pretty simple, unsophisticated stuff – as if you couldn’t tell from that dog poop clip. Even though the Tenderloins all seem endearingly delighted to be here – as well they might – just being good, jocular guys doesn’t seem enough to justify charging up to £70 a ticket, even-through the venue was sold-out.
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS 'SANTIAGO SENT US' WORLD TOUR CONTINUES:
Sat October 7th 2017 - SHEFFIELD Arena
Sun October 8th 2017 - CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena
Tue October 10th 2017 - LEEDS First Direct Arena
Wed October 11th 2017 - NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena
Thur October 12th 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Barclaycard Arena
Fri October 13th 2017 - LONDON The O2 Arena
Sat October 14th 2017 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Metro Radio Arena
Sun October 15th 2017 - DUBLIN 3 Arena