Chapter 1: What is Sal Vulcano's journey from Staten Island to comedy fame?
What does your shirt say? Short girls. Short girls. God only lets things grow until they're perfect. Some of us didn't take as long as others. Short girls. That's a very nice way of making yourself feel better about it. How short are you? You don't seem that short. I didn't ask for the backstory. You could have just went 311.
Wait, you, all right, wait, because when I asked, I told you, this is how it started, and we'll finish it. You went, well, my jeans, I don't know what's going to come next right now. Your jeans.
your jeans are capri pants so that's a capri pant is usually supposed to show up like a whole ass calf what are you really you really are five foot all right you like to say five one but you're honest the first time yeah anyone here shorter than five feet i didn't mean to do that to you i I was trying to, like, help you out. I'd be like, see? That person's 4'10". But, man, it was silent in here.
I mean, you could have heard a small person drop.
On this episode of the Commercial Break.
In the bottom of my heart, I cannot believe what I do. I can't believe it. I can't believe I... I don't know how I... I truly, to this day, think all the time that all I ever wanted to be was a comic, and that's what I am, and that's what supports my life. I swear to you, I think about it all the time. I can't believe I got a show on television that stayed on.
I can't believe I do stand-up as a professional comedian. Like, I just can't believe it. But, um... You know, it just was about exactly. It was a lot of luck, a lot of hard work, a lot of rejection. And then at some point you create an opportunity. An opportunity meets preparedness, meets luck. It's a lot going in there that's out of your control.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now.
Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green and I'm by myself on this DCV infomercial Tuesday with Sal Volcano. I'm super excited about this way for 12 time. Impractical Joker Sal Volcano here with us today. I'll tell you all about everything he's got coming up. But first, a little explanation as to why I might be by myself.
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Chapter 2: What challenges does Sal face when filming episodes of Impractical Jokers?
Memphofest.com for tickets. I think they're still available. I believe that Memphofest is just an excuse for Chrissy and Jeff to avoid her responsibilities here at the commercial break and party with their friends. But, you know, far be it for me. If I could, I would. That's all I got to say. Widespread panic for two nights. An extended and stacked lineup will be playing and tickets available.
Memphofest.com. So go ahead, join her. If you see her, say hello. Tell her we miss her here in the studio. And it's likely I won't even hear from her until she gets back. But that is not relevant today. Here is what is relevant today. Sal Vocano could not... We've been trying to get this together with Sal for a long time, so I could not pass up the opportunity to interview him.
I will miss Chrissy dearly, but we will get through this together. Sal is not only an impractical joker. That's probably where most people know him from. But... He is making noise out there because after many years of being a stand-up comedian, he is finally seeing his comeuppance. He's playing in the Chicago Theater. He's playing, I think it's the Beacon Theater in New York.
Let me check that out. He's here in Atlanta at the Symphony Hall, and he's many other places. You can go to salvocano.com. Yep, he's playing the Symphony Hall. And then where is he in New York? Let's see. He's at the Beacon Theater. Oh, my gosh. Unbelievable. These comedians, these, like... Really good stand-up comedians are selling out these incredibly large houses and playing to huge crowds.
And I love it. I love it for the art of comedy. I love it for us because we need them now more than ever. We desperately need comedy in our lives. So Sal will be at the Beacon Theater. That is on December 27th. Go treat yourself after the holidays. If you're up there, go see Sal. I'll put links in the show notes to the tickets.
A couple of weeks later, he's playing here in Atlanta, but then he's got many other dates on the books, all available at his website. You can go check out his YouTube special, Terrified.
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Chapter 3: How does Sal Vulcano maintain humility despite his success?
You can watch it ad-free also if you'd really like to support him. And... Then Impractical Jokers is now on season number 12. I think it's like a split season. I believe they did one part of the season earlier this year. I think that's already out and wrapped. And then now they've got the second half of the season coming out. Will season 13 appear? Will TBS pick them up for another season?
I don't know. All these questions and more to be answered when I get him here. I will tell you, though, that after nine seasons at MTV, Catfish, the television show, which I got obsessed with for like six months. I watched all the reruns for six months. Here's how it happened. I turned on MTV one day. just to have on here in the background in the studio, and Catfish was playing.
Now, I'm familiar with the show. I know exactly how it goes. Some asshole out there is catfishing some other person, and Nev and Max, the two hosts of the show, at least originally, the two hosts of the show, help them get to the bottom of who exactly is catfishing them. Usually the story goes like this. I met him in a Discord server, and now we've been dating for 12 years.
He sent me one picture. His iPhone never seems to work, so we've never FaceTimed. And I loaned him $16,000. But he promised he'd come meet me, and he hasn't shown up yet. That's usually how the story goes. It's almost like carbon copy, cut and paste on every single episode. But it's always fascinating to see how they get to the bottom of who this is.
And then when the eventual confrontation happens between the two people, I would say that 90 percent of the time it is not the person like, you know, it's the profile picture was a catfish. Their backstory was a cat. Everything about them was a lie. But then there's the 10 percent of time when it does happen. So happened that the iPhone camera was broken. Yeah.
And they really needed the money and they just couldn't afford the plane ticket to meet their loved one in person. But after nine seasons, that has now been canceled. And here's why it's interesting to me.
Because as I mentioned, when I turned on MTV one day and I saw the episode of Catfish, I then saw another episode of Catfish and then another episode of Catfish and then a fourth episode of Catfish. They were playing back to back to back to back episodes of Catfish every weekday, every For six months that I was watching it. And so I kind of got obsessed.
It would be here on the studio and Chrissy would come in. I'd be watching another episode of Catfish and we'd get all involved in who or we'd take bets on whether or not it was an actual catfish and no more. I've been over it for a while, but I just read it in whatever, Entertainment Weekly or whatever. Entertainment Weekly.
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Chapter 4: What are Sal's experiences and thoughts on stand-up comedy?
I don't think Entertainment Weekly has been a magazine for six years. Anyway, salvocano.com. I will put links in the show notes. When he gets here, I want everyone to remain calm. Don't freak yourself out. I do like Sal. I do like Impractical Jokers. I am very excited about this one. We'll be missing our co-host here dearly, but I think we'll figure it out. All right.
So since Chrissy's not here to ask the question, I ask you, the listener, what do you say we take a break? And then when we get back from that break, through the magic of telepodcasting, I will have Sal right here in the studio on that television screen that you can't see, but you can check out at youtube.com slash thecommercialbreak.
And we'll ask Sal all the questions you've ever wanted to know. How did he get here? What is he doing next? Will Catfish, in fact, I mean, will Impractical Jokers, in fact, have a 13th season? We'll ask all the questions. We'll get to the bottom of it right after this break. What do you say? Okay, we'll be back.
Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcbpodcast.com and visiting the Contact Us page.
You can also find the entire commercial break library, audio and video, just in case you want to look at Chrissy, at tcbpodcast.com. Want your voice to be on an episode of the show? Leave us a message at 212-433-3TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us, and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode. Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine, too.
We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.
And Sal is here with us now. Sal, there's so much going on in the world. You join us at a very fraught time here in the country and around the universe. I don't know what to say. Let's get right into it. I'm just going to ask you the hard questions first. Corey Feldman, no longer a part of Dancing with the Stars. How are you holding up?
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Chapter 5: How does Sal balance his career and personal life?
I was hoping – I knew it would be quick. What week did he go? Two. We were hoping to get past one. It's funny. I don't know if you know that I like actually – like Corey Feldman is like his – I've gone to see him in concert and he's like – I've been following his career like for a long time.
yeah so god bless him god love him um and uh you know i was hoping that we would all like kind of like get those votes in for him and get him further along the line but honestly week two i almost did dancing with the stars or i i i i think they might have asked me or i was gonna i knew someone there that said like hey you can be honest if you know if you want let me know and uh i was like Yeah.
I just can't. I don't know, man. It's too much pressure.
I think it would bring you to a whole new audience. But I imagine, and I don't know. I mean, you know your career better than I do. But I would imagine your reach is pretty big already. And I'm not sure that Dancing with the Stars, I can see why you might say, eh, maybe not.
But Corey. The challenge seems good. But I just tip my hat to anyone. I mean, good for him. I don't know if I'd be on it if I make it to week two. I don't know. I have rhythm, but I also lack stamina.
Yeah, me too. That's my thing. I can dance for the first five seconds at a wedding, but then once I start sweating, I just don't know. My body breaks down.
I'm not that kind of guy. I jump around for the first chorus, and that's it.
My wife is Venezuelan. So when we go to a party, there's I always have to keep my eyes like on it. I keep my head on a swivel because there's all these beautiful men that know how to shake their asses. And I'm Irish. I don't have an ass, so I can't shake it, let alone have it. But I was hoping that Corey like, do you remember that one year at American Idol when we all voted for that guy, Sanjay?
You know, vote for Sanjay because he's like the worst singer ever. But Howard Stern got everybody all riled up and everyone was voting for Sanjay. I was hoping we'd get – as a country, we would come together.
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Chapter 6: What insights does Sal share about the future of Impractical Jokers?
It's like, how in the world has Corey continued to captivate audiences? And it's no knock on the guy, like any way you can do it. And I always wonder to myself, probably like me, I'm hoping like you do. Does Corey is Corey in on the joke or are we just is he like laughing at us or we laughing at him or we all laughing together? I'm not really sure.
I don't know. I think that at some point he became self-aware because of, you know, online. I think that he understands that there is a probably a contingent. of people that maybe watch to hate. To poke, yeah. To poke, yeah, yeah. So for me, it's like, all right, okay, growing up, it's like you got, I don't need to name all the movies, but you got so many great movies, right? Yeah.
You got Lost Boys and Goonies. Goonies. And License to Drive, I believe. And Star by Me. Yeah, Star by Me. Just so many great ones. And then you got, you know, entering that Michael Jackson phase. And then it was, you know, he's always been like, when he first started coming out with his music and the angels and everything, I watched it and I was like, this is, this is something. Yes.
It's, it's, it's. It's entertaining and inspiring. I agree with you. When he did that morning show shit. For intents and purposes, he's a very, if we're just being honest, and not a knock on the guy, God bless, but he's a very average, you know, like, you know, but the confidence is a 10 out of 10.
10 out of 10.
And the motivation is a 10 out of 10. And I mean, if you got those two things, I'm on board. So I've gone to see him live. Is he just amazing? One of his managers is – you remember DeBarge? I do. Yeah.
We're the same age. Yeah, I do. I remember.
Yeah. Well, his son is one of his agents or managers or something. And I'm at the show and I went with some friends. And you go to be like, I want to see the spectacle in person. And it lives up to the hype. And then he was like – he came to me, I guess –
the i i i don't want to not remember his name correctly but debarge's son's okay something debarge i'm so sorry barge jr yeah and he said oh he would love to meet you i was like unreal so i went upstairs after the show ended i was with like 10 people they all had to wait downstairs for me because you you know i went up and i waited up there for like
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Chapter 7: What new projects is Sal Vulcano currently working on?
I would say a good 20 to 30 minutes just sitting in a seat. I thought I was going to go up to say hi, shake his hand or whatever. And so, so finally he comes out and it was his birthday. So they gave him a cake and sang happy birthday and he blew out the candles. And then he was introduced to me and no clue who I was at all. The way it was framed was Corey would love to meet you.
Yeah, Corey wants to meet you. Big fan.
Come on up. I just said, hey, I'm a big fan. He's like, oh, thanks. No idea of anything. I took a photo with him and I got out of there. Oh, my God.
That is one of the better stories told. Listen, I have become – he slowly turned me. I watched like everybody else did. There was like a guy who put a video together on YouTube and it was like Corey – Corey always has some issue with a microphone, with the audio at every single show. And he put this long cut together of the time he cracked his tooth.
And, you know, this guy, he starts restarting the songs all the time.
I love it.
I love it. It was performance art. I was like, this guy must be trolling everybody. And now we're all captivated. And he's with Fred Durst. He had a fucking picture with Eddie Vedder the other day. Eddie fucking Vedder from Pearl Jam.
I couldn't believe it.
That's unreal. Good for him. that's crazy that is crazy but let me ask you something because i'm i'm curious so i've you know been a fan of um jokers for a long time obviously millions of people have watched this show it's very extraordinarily popular when you guys started can you walk down the street this is my question can you walk down the street without being noticed um
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Chapter 8: How does Sal view the evolution of comedy in the digital age?
Most of the people I meet are very complimentary. And I understand that, like, they're very enthusiastic and everything. And then, you know, I've had moments in my life. Pre and post being in the public where I saw someone I really liked and I questioned whether I should approach them.
And then if when I either I wouldn't or if I did, some of them were really nice and some of them, you know, I probably got them at the wrong time. And I never really want to leave a sour taste in anyone's mouth. I always think, too, of like my parents. approaching someone. And like, I try to like, depending on the age, any kid is fine.
But like, depending on the adult, I was like, well, if my parents approached someone, how would I want that? So like celebrity or public to act toward them. So I try to keep that. Yeah. But you know, then there's people that are just like, you give them a picture or even a video or even a minute or two, five minutes of your time.
And then they want more or like they're maybe at a function where they're intoxicated or, or they just don't really understand just natural things.
etiquette to be polite to hold on a second to this there's those people that kind of like the other minority and those people can kind of be a bummer sometimes but for the most part it is what it is I'm fine especially if I'm out on my own if I'm with my family I like kind of like to keep people at a distance a little bit sure but no but of course I mean it's if anything I'm just very grateful for everyone so
But, you know, I can imagine like I don't I don't know that I've been noticed. You know, this show does it's not doesn't have we're not on TV, but there's people who have noticed me and it's been very nice. Like it's been nothing scarier. You know, it's like, hey, are you that guy from that podcast kind of thing? But I don't have the kind of notoriety that you do.
My curiosity also runs into whether or not that affects me. the show that you film like does it ever get to a point where it's like uh we just can't do this because we can't find any stooges that don't know who we are like in in the practical in the practical sense of filming impractical joker for sure yeah um well
That's why we film in New York City, in the surrounding area. It's densely populated. On the street, you're going to have to account for it in our scheduling. You're going to have to account for it. And when we usually do things like focus groups or things in office spaces or stuff like speeches or things like that, we have a whole vetting process that we created.
Interesting.
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