While walking through a mall and taking photos with multiple fans, former “Impractical Jokers” star Joe Gatto noticed three teenage boys staring at him. Thinking they knew who he was, Gatto pointed a handgun at them and uttered one line he said he vowed never to say again.

“I’m all caught up in the moment, you know me, I’m all fun, fast and silly. So for some reason I go, ‘What’s up f*ckface?’” he said. “I could have said anything…  but I went with f*ckface and I shot him in the mouth, as hundreds of fans were taking videos of me.”

The group of boys got defensive and didn’t recognize Gatto, so he said his instinct was to go hide in one of the stores in the mall.

Gatto performed an hour-long set at Thursday night’s Round Up Comedy Show held at the Yuengling Center in front of just under 6,000 of audience members. Comedian Mark Jigarjian, who goes by the stage name of “Jiggy,” performed an opening act for the show. Jiggy has also made appearances on “Impractical Jokers.”

Lines to get in the Yuengling Center were wrapped outside of the doors, with one entrance line extending to the C.W. Bill Young Hall ROTC Building, or about 0.3 miles from the center.

Students sitting at the stage left momentarily interrupted the beginning of Gatto’s performance, telling him they couldn’t hear him. CSI Student Programs Coordinator Hannah Sutherland said there were issues with the production company’s equipment that made it hard for people seated in some sections on the far sides of the center to hear clearly.

After briefly addressing the concerned crowd, Gatto continued with his performance. Sutherland said the production company and CSI worked throughout the show to fix the issue, but students sitting in those areas were encouraged to move to the center of the arena.

Gatto is most known for starring in shows like “Impractical Jokers” and “The Misery Index.” He left “Impractical Jokers” in 2021 for personal reasons.

“Impractical Jokers” stars Gatto alongside his three lifelong friends, Brian Quinn, Sal Vulcano and James Murray, as they complete embarrassing dares in public.

He addressed many questions he said he gets asked frequently, such as his favorite moments and his most embarrassing punishment on “Impractical Jokers.” As he recalled these memories, some audience members cheered and laughed as they recognized the scenes he was referencing.

Gatto said he was most embarrassed when he was forced to attend a baseball game and steal signed baseballs being thrown to children by a player on the field and tell them they could buy it on eBay.

“I stole a woman’s child to use it to get a baseball. I didn’t give her the baseball, I gave her back the child but I think she would have rather [had] the baseball because she was upset,” he said.

One of Gatto’s favorite punishments he endured was when he was strapped in a harness and performed as a genie in a small play, he said.

However, he had no control over his movements, causing him to continuously fall and crash into set pieces while uttering his signature line, “Genie does as you wish.”

Though his time on the show has given him memorable and embarrassing moments to reflect on, Gatto said he values the time he gets to spend with his “Impractical Jokers” former co-stars outside of the show.

After performing at a small comedy club almost a decade ago, the owner of the club asked the four friends if they wanted massages in their hotel rooms from people “he knew.” Vulcano was immediately reluctant, bringing up concerns with sanitation since they didn’t know the people. Gatto, however, volunteered to go first and said he would let Vulcano know if it was worth it.

When the masseuse arrived at Gatto’s hotel room, he said she set up a flat, 6-foot white foldable table with a linen cloth spread over it, laid down an American Airlines travel pillow as a face rest and turned on carnival music from her iPod for background noise. 

However, Gatto said the iPod died two minutes into the massage, making the room dead silent. The masseuse began clearing her throat loudly throughout the massage, but Gatto soon realized why she was doing that.

“That’s when I realized what she’s trying to do is cover up the sounds of the farts coming out of butt hole, the iPod’s dead but the a** part is on shuffle, and it’s playing all the hits,” he said. “But the problem was our volume and frequency are completely off. So I’m just getting crop dusted with a cacophony of fart sounds and throat clearings.”

Gatto texted Vulcano following the massage, telling him it was the best massage he had ever received. After Vulcano got the massage, Gatto said he stormed in the room furiously, ranting about how terrible his experience was, while Gatto was sitting with a straight face pretending not to know what was wrong.

“[Vulcano] goes ‘Well, this 45 minute massage turned into a 25 minute massage because halfway through, she had a stop and she took her sh*t in my bathroom,” he said.

Gatto interacted with the crowd multiple times throughout the show, resulting in loud laughs and applause. At one point, he stepped off of the stage and stood next to a student who appeared to be much taller than him. The crowd cheered and smiled when Gatto stepped up on the student’s chair to try to match his height.

Outside of his work life, Gatto has two younger children. He recalled a time when he watched “Cinderella” with them, and when the movie was over, his 5-year-old son asked why Cinderella’s glass slipper didn’t just change back to her regular shoe at midnight. Gatto, who didn’t know the answer, responded by saying, “That’s just some Disney bullsh*t.” 

Following their viewing of the film, Gatto and his son went to Disneyland and rode “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance” together. Gatto said he loved every second of it, but realized halfway through the ride that his son was having a different experience given that he had never seen a “Star Wars” movie.

“We are in outer space, where an intergalactic battle begins. Things are exploding, the whole thing is shaking, people are screaming. I look over and my son is hugging the guard rail and goes, ‘I want to go back to Earth.’ The doors open and he’s face to face with 100 human-sized death robots with guns pointed at [him], and his father is all smiles.”

“I’m hugging him and rubbing his back and going, ‘Don’t worry buddy, it’s only a ride’ – information he could have used about 18 minutes ago… He pushes off my chest, looks me dead in the eye and goes, ‘This is some straight up Disney bullsh*t.’”

Though Gatto performed pranks and jokes with his friends on television, he advised the crowd to do funny things on their own to brighten their lives. One prank Gatto did outside of the show was responding to a person who texted him using the wrong number. 

The person thought they were texting their boss, so Gatto played along and asked them to arrive at work 30 minutes early, bring pastries for the rest of the staff and bring their dog into work – to which the person agreed. The next morning, Gatto received a text from the person that read, “Who the f*ck is this?”

The idea of bringing laughter and joy into one’s life in simple ways was something Gatto emphasized during his performance – and is the reason he does what he does, he said. 

“Everybody in this room, I wish you nothing but happiness and joy, especially laughter,” he said. “And doing that is just by living your best life having some fun and not caring what other people think.”