Wednesday, March 19, the Ampersand International Arts Festival hosted comedian and author James “Murr” Murray in Colonial Williamsburg’s Kimball Theatre for a stop on his “Errors Tour.” Murray performed standup about his past errors of judgment, interacted with audience members and played a few practical jokes on the people of Williamsburg.
Murray is best known for his role on TBS comedy series “Impractical Jokers,” which features his childhood friends Brian “Q” Quinn, Sal Vulcano and formerly Joe Gatto. The Jokers challenge one another to perform ridiculous mischief in public and face equally ridiculous punishments for failing to execute the dares.
Murray’s current tour is also dedicated to promoting his latest of nine thriller novels, “You Better Watch Out,” co-authored by Darren Wearmouth. Murray also mentioned that his 2020 novel, “Don’t Move,” is being adapted into a film which will release in the fall.
“My whole idea of writing these thriller novels has been hoping that one day they will be turned into movies,” Murray said.
Murray opened the show with stand-up comedy about errors of judgment he has made in his life. Accompanied by a slideshow, he discussed fanmade Impractical Jokers memes, prank messages sent in a Ring doorbell “Neighbors” chat and humorous interactions with Amazon chatbots.
The final error Murray noted was a farewell voice message to his deceased mother recorded by his six year old brother-in-law, who couldn’t attend her funeral. Murray broke down the message’s gaffes, including “you had a good run,” and “well, God tried his best.”
“I immediately texted it to Sal, Joe and Q,” Murray said. “Joe was the first one to write back, he says, ‘if this is not in your new tour, I will never speak to you again.’”
The show also included unseen clips filmed for “Impractical Jokers.” Murray showed a video in which he drew on cartoonish eyebrows (his own eyebrows were bleached for a punishment) and interacted with fans in London. He also introduced a clip of a “creep off” competition between the Jokers where they competed to be the creepiest in public.
“This video is one of my favorite things we’ve ever filmed,” Murray said. “We don’t show it on tour anymore; it was never on TV.”
For the second half of the show, Murray called three audience members onto the stage for a game of “text roulette.” He asked the participants about their text conversations and sent dramatic prank messages to their friends and family.
“Every time we do the show, it is completely different. Why? Because the entire second half of the show, truly, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Murray said. “We’re in it together, we’re going to make it up as we go.”
Jessica Sigsbee ’24 was called onto the stage, where Murray took her phone and texted her friend Charlotte that he had thrown up all over her. After she responded, he FaceTimed Charlotte in front of the crowd as a surprise.
“It was just super fun. I grew up watching ‘Impractical Jokers,’ so when I heard Murr was coming here, I was like, I have to go,” Sigsbee said. “And my friend Charlotte, Murr is her favorite so it was just really funny.”
Supporting comic Chris Johnston stepped in for the final portion of the show to play “Impractical Jokers” live outside the theatre. Connected to the theatre via FaceTime, Johnston shot basketballs into tables and knocked over stanchions inside Precarious Beer Project at Murray’s request. This challenge was not his first rodeo.
“I’ve done it with Murr a bunch. It’s always nerve-wracking, there’s always anxiety,” Johnston said. “A couple people asked me here, ‘did you get in trouble?’ I’m like, ‘nah, everybody here seems pretty cool.”
At the start and end of the show, Murray noted that “Impractical Jokers” is celebrating 15 years of filming this month. Murray observed that the Jokers were already in their 30s and well into leading regular lives when their celebrity lives began, giving them a down-to-earth perspective.
“It makes me realize that all the amazing things that have happened to us in the past 15 years are entirely because of you,” Murray said. “I do not consider you guys our fans; I consider you my friends, my family. I literally feel like I’ve grown up with you and your families on TV.”
The Williamsburg stop was special to Murray as his extended family hails from the Richmond and Norfolk areas. During the show, he spoke directly to his nephew and brother-in-law in the audience.
“It’s like coming home,” Murray said.
The annual Ampersand International Arts Festival is organized by AVAdventure Productions with support from the City of Williamsburg. The festival sells tickets to its events, but students of the College of William and Mary can also wait in line for free standby seats as availability permits.
Student programming and logistics interns help run the week of films, guest speakers and more celebrations of the arts. Josephine Rozner ’25 served as the lead intern for Murray’s show and arrived early to help set up for the event. The interns filter the crowds into the auditorium, answer questions and complete other miscellaneous tasks such as selling merch. The crowd for Murray’s show was the largest the student interns had seen at this year’s festival thus far.
“We had a really great turnout. We were able to accept a lot of students that were on standby, I think like 32 students on standby,” student intern Abby Johnson ’25 said. “That was really great that people were able to come in even though they couldn’t get tickets, because it was a sold out show.”
