Comedian Joe Gatto will make his way to Cleveland in what has turned out to be a crowded field of laugh solicitors in town this fall!
Gatto is perhaps best known for the hit television series Impractical Jokers, for which the live tours with his co-stars saw him playing arenas including Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and most notably, New York City’s Madison Square Garden. More recently, he has been making a name for himself as one of the top stand-up comics in the country, with Matt Rife (arguably the best in the biz at the moment) telling his fans that if they only catch one show this year, to make sure it is Gatto’s!
Gatto checked with CleveRock ahead of his upcoming show at Cleveland’s prized Playhouse Square district (COMPLETE SHOW AND TICKET INFORMATION) to give us the scoop on all that is happening in his world!
After the obligatory introductions, where Gatto quipped, “Don’t you have anything better to write about in Cleveland?” (Sure, Joe, but Billy Corgan-owned NWA pay-per-view event or the 90s bands on comeback tours don’t tickle this writer’s fancy as much!)
When informed about the logjam of comics coming through town this month, Gatto wasn’t as discouraged as Lewis Black. “Everybody’s on the road, which is good. The world’s open back up and everybody’s out there touring,” he said. “It’s great, because people need to come out and laugh, especially now.”
True. Other than Dave Chappelle’s makeshift cornfield comedy club in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the only ‘live’ comedy was on streaming platforms. Comics couldn’t hear the laughs. Fans couldn’t hear others laughing. It was a dark and difficult time for fans and comics alike. The return to ‘normal’ is something nobody, including Gatto, is taking for granted.
To see the smile; the instant gratification of hearing the laughs, seeing the smiles, and just watching people literally enjoy themselves for the night is the best part of doing this live performance. Any comic will tell you, that just sitting up on that stage and looking out to see people physically coming in the room and just transforming into people smiling and laughing and forgetting about the BS that they’ve left at the door is the best part of the job,” he said. “We got to get out here and do it, and it’s been going great. It’s really been fun to have people come out who’ve been fans of me for a long time, and they get to see me in this standup comedy light now, and what a ride it’s been. I’m excited to come back and Ohio has always been great. I’ve been through there a bunch. I’m really excited to come back to Cleveland.”
His previous appearances in Northeast Ohio have been with Impractical Jokers. Taking the stage on his own now, the show will be entirely different than what his fans are used to.
“It’s one hour of my comedy, telling stories about my life and my perspective on things. I cover all the bases. My friendship with the guys, of course, and the stories that came from them involved not just the show, because I’ve been friends with them for 30 years. I have plenty of stories of us just being friends,” Gatto explained. “Then of course, things that are more just about me parenting with my two wonderful children, my crazy stories that involved my adopted dogs and my pack of rescue pups I have here. And, especially stories about my growing up with a crazy Italian mother. She was quite the influence in my life. You get a little bit of that. I like to say I was on the Impractical Jokers, I didn’t play a character. I was myself. If you liked me on that, you’ll end up loving the show because you get more stories just about the guy you already know.”
Many performers don’t like to look back at their past bodies of work, no matter how successful. (Puzzling, but true!) Coupled with the SAG-AFTRA strikes, this interview hesitated to ask about Gatto’s days on Impractical Jokers. Luckily, he didn’t mind one bit! He was sked if he had a favorite highlight from his days with that show that he could pinpoint.
“It was over a decade of my life; over 300 episodes of TV, and it’s been such a great thing. It’s so rewarding. But I always liked using my body as a comedic weapon,” Gatto said. “I was forced to be a genie and used me as a human wrecking ball to destroy the set of a community theater production. I thought that was a lot of fun, but more so, I mean, I just loved that show was just friendship on display and everybody got to see what it’s like to be hanging out with your buddies. And, I think that’s really what helped the success of that show was that people could understand that’s what it was all about.”
Aside from his stand-up shows, Gatto also hosts the Two Cool Moms podcast where he and fellow comedian Steve Byrne offer ‘maternal’ advice to listeners. The Podcast will be relaunching in the near future with a new partnership with iHeart.
“It’s been awesome. I mean, I love Steve Byrne. We have a fun time with our podcast. It’s based on Steve and I both had two really good mothers who had strong opinions and gave sound advice. We find each other to be each other’s confidants,” he said of the podcast. “The first half of the podcast we talk about anything comedy or growing up or stories about parenting and anything in between. And then the second half of it is we take fan-submitted dilemmas and we help them to the best of our abilities, giving great and funny advice.”
Queried if he has a favorite episode or the best piece of advice he and Byrne have dished out on the show, Gattow was quick to answer:
“A recurring question we get all the time is how to make friends as an adult. People get that. It’s really funny to see that. We get that from a lot of people. When you think about when you’re younger, your friends are given to you either in your neighborhood or your school or whatnot,” he replied. “When you get to a certain point in your life and you’re trying to find out how to branch out, how do you do it? Everybody frowns on social media a lot of the times, but there are some good uses for it. You could find people with interests and develop friendships with people. I think that’s a big part of it is don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and find people who are interested in the same things you are. I always say every best friend started as a stranger and people forget that. So you got to put yourself out there”
Perhaps even more important to his work in comedy (at least to his dog-loving interviewer) is his mission to help out with rescue animals. (GATTOPUPS.COM) Everyone wants a puppy for Christmas. Too many of these folks don’t want to care for them after the initial thrill of pet ownership wears off. Enter: Gatto.
“It’s my nonprofit that we run out here on New York on Long Island. We basically find homes for senior and unwanted dogs out here,” he explained. “It started with us just basically adopting and opening our homes to a bunch of senior dogs. We realized that there’s a lot that needed help, so let’s get into the game for real. We formed our 5013c, our nonprofit, and opened up an adoption center out here on Long Island to be part of the community. It’s been really great. We just had our 45th adoption with Cinnamon Roll this last weekend and we adopted out our 45th dog since we started officially last November. It’s been really, really rewarding just to be able to be part of helping out all these puppies in a big way. I’ve really been enjoying it.”
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