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    Q&A with Q

    Impractical Joker Brian 'Q' Quinn laughs his way through 10 questions with Ken Hoffman

    Ken Hoffman
    Mar 25, 2019 | 3:10 pm
    Brian Quinn Impractical Jokers
    Quinn and the Impractical Jokers crew are bringing their nuttiness to Houston.
    Photo via TruTv.com

    Got Brian “Q” Quinn from TV’s Impractical Jokers on the phone. Asked him, “How does it feel to be on TV more than Steve Harvey, Ryan Seacrest, and the GEICO Gekko combined?” I was kidding.

    Not really. Let’s take a typical Monday: truTV is running eight episodes of Impractical Jokers from 5 to 9 pm then five more episodes from 9:30 pm to midnight — and five more episodes from 12:30 am to 3 am. Channel 57 is airing two episodes from 7 to 8 pm — opposite the same show on truTV. Tuesday is a load, too, with 10 episodes from 4 to 9 pm, followed by five more episodes from 9:30 pm to midnight.

    And that’s not counting Channel 2’s airings on weekends, and truTV’s marathons on weekends and holidays. Oh, and the Jokers have two other shows that air on truTV: Inside Jokes and Impractical Jokers: After Party.

    “Q” says, “I know we’re on truTV all day, but I didn’t know about the other stations. It’s crazy. It makes me worry for the safety of the United States that they’re playing us that much. I can’t watch the show. I hate watching myself. I only like the ones when my parents are involved with the show, because I like them being on TV.”

    His buddies on Impractical Jokers — Joe Gatto, Sal Vulcano, and James “Murr” Murray — are four grownups (though they don’t act it) from Staten Island, New York, who challenge each other to make total goofballs of themselves. They keep score, too, and each episode’s loser must be punished. It’s the most successful, most aired, certainly, hidden camera show in recent TV history.

    Impractical Jokers begins its eighth season Thursday, March 28, on truTV, and the Jokers are bringing their live stage show Sunday, March 31, to Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land on the “The Cranjis McBasketball World Comedy Tour.”

    Here’s my “Q” and A with Brian Quinn:

    CultureMap: How is your live show different from the Impractical Jokers television show?

    Brian Quinn:
    What you see is four middle-age men up on a stage telling jokes into a microphone. We show some videos that we shot just for the live audience. We tell stories and make fun of each other and stuff like that. We obviously can’t do a hidden camera thing onstage, so we try to translate the spirit of the show. The things that people like about us, we try to re-create onstage. It’s fun. We used to take questions from the audience, but we’d get one good question for every five dud ones. So we decided that we’ll just get the info out that they’d ask, anyway.

    CM: Let’s review: Impractical Jokers has aired 180 episodes, and you’ve been punished 44 times. You’re in third place behind Sal and Murr. So far, you’ve been beat up by pro wrestler Tommy Dreamer, been dragged by a horse at a rodeo, jumped 10 feet into a pile of horse manure, and been the target of 100-mph hockey pucks. Have you ever thought you might be seriously injured?

    BQ: Not really, we’re not out to kill each other, these are my best friends. How are you with your friends? You want to rub it in a little bit, but not too much. You don’t want to hurt them. It’s all in fun. I don’t want anybody to get hurt, and I don’t want to get hurt.

    CM: After wearing your hair long the first five seasons, you shaved your head on a 2017 episode. Of course, Murr had to wear a wig made out of your hair that entire season. Are you growing your hair back or keeping it short this year?

    BQ: I try to change my look every year. I’m actually growing my beard out this year, but the hair is staying short. We don’t want people recognizing us. I like changing up my looks as much as I can every so often. It might help now that my hair is going almost completely gray, so that’s good.

    CM: With all of your success and TV celebrity, how do you keep from becoming the biggest jerk in the world?

    BQ:
    I think the key is, I didn’t get on television until I was 36 years old, you know what I mean? The level of success we have now really didn’t come in until the last three years. You’re talking about a guy, look, man, I was a fireman. I know what’s real and what’s not real. I think we just hit too old. I’m already set in my ways.

    I’m not like these people who get on TV when they’re 19. I had time to develop as a human before I got on TV. I’m friends with the same people, I hang out with the same people. It hasn’t changed my life that much at all. I was single when I was a New York City fireman, and I’m single now. I go to the same restaurants. I drove a Wrangler then, I drive a Wrangler now. I could say, hey, we’re good guys, which I think is true, but I think age has something to do with it.

    CM: Are you worried that Impractical Jokers is becoming so popular that people will recognize you when you’re filming and ruin everything?

    BQ: We shoot in New York City. There are 8 million people on a 14-mile island. If every person in New York City knew who I was, then damn right, I’d be flying private jets. But it’s still a pretty small show in the grand scheme of things. Most people still don’t know who we are, so that works to our benefit.

    CM: You have three cats: Brooklyn, Chessie, and Benjamin. As a punishment, Joe made you get a tattoo that reads, “38. Lives Alone. Has 3 cats.” Who watches your cats when you’re on tour?

    BQ: I have a team. It’s mostly a guy from my old firehouse named Dan Finn, he’ll help me out. But I have friends and family who help me out, too.

    CM: Last year, you took your show to Madison Square Garden. What was that like for someone who grew up in New York?

    BQ: That was crazy. But we had already played Radio City Music Hall, and, I don’t know why, that was a little more magical to me. But when I walked out at Madison Square Garden, it was like, this is crazy. On top of that, I used to be with the fire department, the FDNY, and my whole fire house was there, and I could see them. We sold out Madison Square Garden! That’s not a sentence I ever thought I’d say in my life. It’s nuts.

    CM: Eleven foreign countries, including England, Lebanon, Italy, Sweden, and Greece, have their own versions of Impractical Jokers with local casts. You OK with that?

    BQ: We don’t have any involvement in that. What they usually do is take the bits that we’ve done and just re-create them. We did spend some time with the British cast, hanging out and drinking with them in London. They’re really good guys, and I thought they made some funny episodes. We watch the foreign shows out of interest, but we have no say in anything about that. I’d rather they do what they want to do without us.

    Let’s see what they can do. If they get four really funny people together, it wouldn’t be the same as our show. I don’t think they should try to be like us. I know people online are like, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing? They’re trying to be like you.’ Look, I don’t make any money from it, so I don’t care. But it’s pretty cool because it’s a different culture’s humor.

    CM: What’s going on with your movie? When’s it coming out already?

    BQ: We shot the movie last year. They’re working on it now with the distributor. I’m one of those guys, I don’t want to know about something until it’s done. I don’t know any of the details. I know that we had a great time making it, and I love the movie. We worked on editing it, so we’re really excited about getting it out.

    It’s about 80 percent challenges and punishments. We have a wraparound story, but the story is not to be taken seriously in any way, shape, or form. We break the fourth wall. We play ourselves in high school at one point, but we didn’t set out to re-invent the wheel. It’s mostly what people would expect from us, with a little goofy sauce on top.

    CM: Do you ever get tired of seeing Joe get naked on Impractical Jokers? Not to be unkind, but seriously, it’s amazing to me that a guy like that, who calls himself, “Captain Fatbelly” has no problem taking off his clothes in front of strangers. It’s hilarious.

    BQ: Maybe his wife does, but not me. Oh God, no!

    I want you to think about this, Joe Gatto has never had a drop of alcohol or done any drugs at all in his whole life. Never. Can you imagine if that guy started drinking? The world couldn’t handle it. I’ve never met anybody like him. He’s a special animal for sure.

    ---

    Laugh it up with the Impractical Jokers on the "The Cranjis McBasketball World Comedy Tour," Sunday, March 31, at Smart Financial Centre, 18111 Lexington Blvd., in Sugar Land. For tickets or more information, visit Live Nation.

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    game, set, zina.

    Best of Ken Hoffman: Interviewing Houston's greatest tennis icon

    Ken Hoffman
    Aug 29, 2024 | 12:30 pm
    Zina Garrison, tennis player
    ITATennis
    Garrison, a tennis legend, is now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation.

    Editor's note: After the sudden death of beloved columnist Ken Hoffman on July 14, CultureMap is republishing some of our favorite "Hoffman's Houston" columns. In honor of the U.S. Open, here's Ken's interview with Houston tennis legend Zina Garrison; it was originally published on June 27, 2022.

    As a child, Zina Garrison learned how to hit a tennis ball on the public courts at MacGregor Park during the 1970s and became, simply, the most accomplished player ever from Houston.

    She developed into a Grand Slam champion, a Top 5 ranking in the world, Wimbledon finalist in 1990 with 20 tournament titles, Federation Cup captain, and Olympic gold medal winner and later Olympic coach.

    Now Garrison is back where she started, only this time she’s devoted to making Houston a great place to learn and play tennis … again. Like she did.

    “I am now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation,” Garrison tells me. “I’m over all the public tennis programs and facilities. The job came open recently and I applied for it.”

    Wait... she’s the greatest champion this city has ever produced — and she had to apply for that job?

    “To be honest, I was more interested in the benefits than the money. As you get older, you start thinking differently,” she shares.

    Unlike the major sports leagues in America, tennis doesn’t provide any healthcare insurance or assistance once a player, even a legend, retires.

    “They’re working on it,” Garrison, 58, notes. “But as of now, nothing.”

    Garrison said her first priority as Houston’s tennis director is to repair the public courts.

    “I want to bring the public tennis facilities up to where I’d be proud, where everybody would be proud, to bring people to use our courts. There are cracks in the courts. Nothing’s really been done in the last 20 or maybe 30 years,” she says.

    “I’ve traveled to Florida and some other places and they have really nice public courts. Tennis in Houston was really thriving for a while and we had nice courts and people could play in the parks. We had junior programs. We flourished. That’s my main goal.”

    While I had Garrison on the phone, I served up some questions:

    CultureMap: Wimbledon is on. You’re familiar with that tournament, right? Who are your picks to win the men’s side and women’s side?

    Zina Garrison: Yes, I’m familiar with Wimbledon. I have my alarm set for the early morning so I can watch. I have a weird pick, a more personal pick, for the men.

    I would love to see Rafael Nadal keep going on, but it’s going to be tough for him. The guy from Italy, Matteo Berrettini, I watched him play a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. And I am absolutely in love with that little guy, Carlos Alcaraz, from Spain. He’s made me watch tennis again.

    On the women’s side, I don’t think it will be Iga Swiatek. I think it’s just too hard to keep a streak like hers (35 matches in a row including the French Open title) going in today’s game. It’s really wide open. I don’t really have a pick, it’s just who comes in and plays well at the right time.

    CM: What do you think about Natela Dzalamidze, the doubles player from Russian who switched her nationality to Georgia so she could play Wimbledon, which has banned players from Russian and Belarus this year?

    ZG: I don’t like that she was able to do that. I was just on the phone with (former pro turned broadcaster) Chanda Rubin talking about what’s going on in tennis these days.

    First of all, there is the human rights stuff that’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We have to start forcing accountability for actions. A lot of people didn’t agree with what Wimbledon did, but I think they had to take a stand.

    CM: The women’s GOAT is easy — it’s Serena. But who do you think is the men’s GOAT?

    ZG: Wow, that’s a hard one. If you had asked me earlier this year, I would have said Roger Federer because of everything he’s accomplished. But right now I’m going to have to go with Nadal. Nadal has taken tennis to a whole ‘nother level, of getting people to watch, coming out of the pandemic, where he has matches and you think he can’t come back and he’s still grinding no matter what.

    For me, he is the epitome of what we need in this world right now: Never give up but not be selfish about helping others. I know it sounds clichéd, but that’s what I’m going through right now.

    CM: When I first met you, you were painfully shy. It was hard to get an answer out of you. Now you’re a TV commentator and a regular chatterbox. What happened?

    ZG: I was an introvert but I had always been intrigued by people of wisdom. A lot of it came as I developed confidence in myself. I had always been told at a very young age, if you really knew me, I spoke a lot. If you didn’t know me, I would be quiet. I would only speak about things that I was extremely passionate about.

    As I’ve gotten older, because of my experiences. I feel like I can help people so I’m not afraid to say what I want to say.

    CM: Starting the week after Wimbledon, coaches will be allowed to communicate with men players during matches. Up to now, that’s only been allowed in the women’s game. Every other sport allows coaching. Do you think tennis should allow coaching, too?

    ZG: I don’t think coaching should be allowed. That’s one of the great things about tennis. That’s a part of the sport, that you grow and figure things out. You learn to think for yourself.

    There’s always been little signals from coaches, but now you have these full blown conversations. Another bad thing about allowing coaching is it gives the players the opportunity to blame a loss their coach. That’s not good for the sport.

    CM: You were known for wiggling your butt when receiving serve. Did you know you were doing it? Did you do that on purpose?

    ZG: It started off as kind of a joke with my coaches. They said, we need you to move your feet. I said, you mean like this?

    So, it started as a joke but I realized that it helped get my feet moving: Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.

    I’ll never forget that year after I got to the Wimbledon finals, 1990, I went over to Japan and there were 1,200 people there … and all of them started wiggling!

    CM: What was the first extravagant thing you bought for yourself when the tennis prize money started rolling in?

    ZG: It was 1982, and I bought a candy apple red Volkswagen convertible with a white top.

    CM: You were on the Biggest Loser, the show where contestants compete against each other to lose weight. Let’s just say you didn’t win. Are you happy you went on that show, or do you regret it?

    ZG: I was one of the first who had to leave the competition. (No, you were THE first.) It was an experience, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I think I regret going on there. It wasn’t what I thought it was.

    It was reality TV and at the time I didn’t know what reality TV was .I was more ready to get out of there than anything else.

    CM: Now here’s the big question, Zina. For years, I’ve had a running disagreement with ESPN 97.5 FM morning host John Granato about which is a more demanding, tougher sport – golf or tennis?

    Granato says it’s golf, because the tournament winner has to beat every other player that week, while in tennis the winner just has to beat seven players at most. And, each week, golfers have to contend with a different course.

    But, I say it’s tennis because players have to be in top physical condition, while nearly anyone in any shape can win a golf major.

    Plus, in golf, players have a caddy helping them make decisions. In tennis, players are on their own.

    In golf, you can have a bad day on Thursday and still win the tournament. In tennis, if you have a bad day in the opening round, you’re on a plane out of there.

    In golf, it’s the player against the course. There’s no defense in golf. In tennis, there’s a human opponent trying to beat you.

    In golf, the ball is lying still. In tennis the ball is coming at you at 140 mph.

    So which is the tougher sport, golf or tennis? I’m right ... right?

    ZG: Are you serious? Who is this guy who says golf is harder? The answer is tennis and it’s not even close.

    You’re playing against someone. You’re only controlling the ball when it’s on your side of the net. You can’t control what the other player is doing. It’s almost like a boxer coming at you.

    You have to have both the physical and mental capacity to win. In golf, if you have a bad day, it’s because you’re having that bad day. There’s no opponent competing with you. So, I’m saying it’s tennis.

    CM (note to John Granato): I win. Granted, it might have been the way I asked the question. Also, Garrison is a former tennis pro.

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