Sal Vulcano is one quarter of The Tenderloins, the comedy troupe at the heart of the truTV
show Impractical Jokers, which has been on air since 2011.
If you've somehow never seen it before, the series follows Vulcano and his longtime friends
James Murray, Joe Gatto, and Brian Quinn as they compete to be the last man standing in
public practical joke challenges.
Examples include cutting in line in ludicrous ways, soliciting for hilariously fake charities,
and even straight-up insulting strangers, just to see what happens.
"You just gotta say 'Howdy, ass----."
"Howdy, ass----."
"Oh!"
The results are always awkward, but the Joker has to do it, the loser faces punishment,
and that's almost always worse.
"This is ridiculous."
The gang's friendship must be pretty ironclad for them to still be pals after regularly
tormenting each other over the course of a decade.
How did it all come together?
This time, let's focus on Sal Vulcano, and see what he was doing before Impractical Jokers
took off.
"Look out!
Look the f--- out!"
Born in 1976 in Staten Island, New York, Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano is the only brother to three
sisters Kelly Ann, Diane, and Jenna, the last of whom has actually appeared on Impractical
Jokers and even married Murray as a prank.
"I, James Murray, take you, Sal's sister —"
Sal's parents, Sal Vulcano Sr. and Dianne Fernandez-Vulcano, divorced when he was very
young.
Between them, Vulcano has Italian, Cuban, and Puerto Rican roots.
Vulcano's fate as a comedian began to take shape when he was a teenager in the 90s, when
he began attending the private Monsignor Farrell High School.
There, Vulcano participated in several sports, was a member of the chess club, and in his
junior year joined the school's improv club, where he met the other three men that would
in adulthood become his best friends and co stars.
Unlike the reputation they cultivate on screen, Vulcano and the other boys are remembered
as being rather respectful young men in high school, a fact they often bring up themselves
as a reason why they never perform pranks too out-of-line.
"Touch his groin!
Touch his groin!"
"Nah."
Between 2010 and 2014, Sal put his background as a bartender and his finance degree from
St. John's University to use as business manager for a bar called Full Cup, a well-known music
and comedy venue in his home borough that had gone through several owners in its long
local history.
After Impractical Jokers catapulted him into the national spotlight, he sold his stake
in the bar in 2014, and sadly the business soon struggled to survive.
It was rebranded as the Hashtag Bar under new management in 2016, and ultimately closed
later that year.
Turns out, Sal was pretty important to keeping the place afloat.
As Sal's former business partner, Robert Parker, told SI Live in 2016,
"My famous partner left me.
Sal was the professional business guy, so when he left, it was really hard."
Along with that work, Vulcano assisted friend and fellow Staten Island local Jay Miller
with writing for his longtime local-access comedy talk show Midevenings with Jay Miller,
a Staten Island entertainment institution that gives local musicians and other talent
a platform, David Letterman-style.
The two got on so well creatively that Sal asked Jay to join Impractical Jokers as a
producer in 2013.
"I just wanna say, you are number one in my book."
Before landing the lucrative TV deal that became Impractical Jokers, Sal and the others
toured and performed live shows as comedy quartet The Tenderloins.
They also self-produced sketch comedy content for a number of years during the early days
of YouTube.
The channel is still active, and many of their oldest videos are available to watch if you've
got a free afternoon to dive into a decade's worth of memories.
"You do not do that!"
That sketch comedy work got them significant attention, first in the form of a failed scripted
comedy pilot for SpikeTV, and then the television deal with truTV for the series that eventually
became Impractical Jokers.
With all their previous material available online as a proof-of-concept, as well as their
professional background touring, they were given unusually generous creative control
as executive producers for their first big deal television foray.
If the best improv is fostered through a sense of trust, Vulcano and the Impractical Jokers
boys certainly have it, and that's all thanks to time and experience.
With trust comes the understanding that when conflict comes, they can manage it between
each other.
As Sal explained in a Reddit AMA,
"Of course we fight from time to time, but we are so used to it, it's never personal."
"Ah, I love watching your blood boil."
"Oh, you f---in'..."
If that isn't an ultimate statement on the strength of this foursome's friendship, we
aren't sure what is.
It must have been fate for the four of them to spend their lives doing this to each other,
and it couldn't be more charming to watch.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite TV shows are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.