Brian Quinn

**Brian Michael "Q" Quinn** (born March 14, 1976) is an American comedian, actor, and producer born in Brooklyn, but moved to Staten Island before he was 2 years old. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe also consisting of Sal Vulcano, Joe Gatto, and James Murray. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series *Impractical Jokers*, which premiered on December 15, 2011 on TruTV.

## Early Life

Quinn was born on March 14, 1976 in Staten Island, New York. He is of Irish and Italian ancestry. Quinn attended Monsignor Farrell High School. Along with Murray, Vulcano, and Gatto, he was a member of his high school's improvisation club. He studied at Brooklyn College before joining New York City Fire Department where he served for eight years.

## Career

### Early career

Despite not being an initial member of his friends' comedy troupe The Tenderloins, after one of the original members, Mike Boccio, left the group in 2006, Quinn became the troupe's fourth member.

The Tenderloins began producing comedy sketches together, posting them on YouTube, MySpace, and Metacafe, accumulating millions of views online. In 2007, the troupe won the $100,000 grand prize in the NBC *It's Your Show* competition for the sketch "Time Thugs".

### *Impractical Jokers* and other television shows

*Impractical Jokers* premiered on December 15, 2011 on TruTV. The first season was watched by over 32 million viewers. The show quickly became the most popular series on TruTV and has boosted Quinn into the public eye.

In 2019, Quinn, along with the other members of The Tenderloins, starred in *The Misery Index*, which is hosted by Jameela Jamil and is based on Andy Breckman's card game "Shit Happens".

*Impractical Jokers: The Movie* was released on February 21, 2020.

### Podcasts

#### *The Tenderloins Podcast*

The group began hosting a podcast in April 2012. It is available on their official website and iTunes.

#### *What Say You?*

*What Say You?*, an occasional podcast hosted by Sal Vulcano and Quinn, was named Best New Show at the 2013 Stitcher Awards. The increased popularity of *What Say You* sparked a friendly competition among the comedians, spurring Joe Gatto and James Murray to release their own Tenderloins podcast without the other two members. In 2015, *What Say You?* was nominated for the Comedy, Entertainment, and Best Produced Podcast Awards at the 10th Annual Podcast Awards. Vulcano and Quinn have stated that the podcast is their own side project, not a replacement of *The Tenderloins Podcast*. The group explained that it was difficult to coordinate the schedules of all four members outside of work, making it challenging to produce their troupe's official podcast with any regularity.

#### *Tell 'Em Steve-Dave*

Q is also a part of the podcast *Tell 'Em Steve-Dave!*, which he co-hosts with Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan. The podcast started in February 2010 with Quinn in the role of the off-mic audio engineer, then shortly after as occasional commentator and ultimately co-host.

## Personal Life

Quinn suffers from arachnophobia. He has a cat named Benjamin. Quinn has suffered from depression in the past and has been very open about his struggles throughout the years.

While taking a trip to Germany in 2009, Quinn was arrested for disorderly conduct while visiting the Oktoberfest. Another guy started a fight, punched him in the face, knocking his tooth out. Quinn was escorted back to America by German police and was bailed out by his Tenderloins troupe members.

Since his time on *Impractical Jokers*, Quinn has donated $50,000 to the New York City Fire Department and he occasionally meets with his former coworkers.

In 2019, Quinn revived the Rubsam & Horrmann Brewing Company on Staten Island.

## Punishments for Q

### Season One

* Who Arted - Q has to show and explain art that the other jokers made to a crowd of people.
* What Did I Eat? - Q is forced into smelling people's breath, but this punishment isn't over until he can accurately guess what they ate.
* Pick a Loser - Q has to pick his nose and it will be shown to a whole baseball stadium.
* Supercuts - Technically a tie where the Jokers had to give each other funny haircuts. Q gets bright red curls.

### Season Two

* Birds and the Bees - Q is forced into explaining the birds and the bees to his parents, under the original impression that he would be teaching a room of 6th grade students.
* Out of Fashion - Q has to pretend he is a fashion designer and he has to show off his fashion masterpieces that have been made by the other Jokers.
* Joker vs. Joker - Sal and Q had to shoot basketballs and whenever they missed they were hit in the leg by a little girl with a baseball bat. Q missed several times and was hit in the leg alot.
* Film Fail - Q has to show clips from his new movie to a group of people in a theater, except the movie was made by the other guys.
* Everything's Just Rosie - Q shows a group of people his clone that is played by guest star Rosie O'Donnell.
* All the Wrong Moves - Q shows off his break-dancing skills to a baseball stadium full of people. The only problem is Q has no break-dancing skills.
* Trouble Shoot - Q has to wear a cast and record all the things the Jokers tell him to do on camera.

### Season Three

* Scarytales - Q reads his new children's book to a group of kids and you guessed right the other Jokers wrote it for him.
* Bigger in Texas - Q finds himself tied up and being dragged by a horse through a rodeo.
* Make Womb For Daddy - While teaching a class of childbirth to a room of pregnant women, a nurse attaches Q to a device that simulates 8 stages of labor.
* The Lost Boy - Q dresses up as Peter Pan thinking while he is joining a musical but is actually in a wrestling match against Tommy Dreamer.
* The Permanent Punishment - Q, Sal and Murr all get embarrassing tattoos chosen by Joe. Q's tattoo was a cat that says: "38. Lives alone and has 3 cats".
* Just Say No - At a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game, Q is forced to publicly refuse a marriage proposal in front of everyone in the stadium. Then, he has to face the wrath of the crowd and the proposer.

### Season Four

* Welcome to Miami - In Miami, Q poses to be an alligator expert thinking he's going to give a presentation to a crowd but the jokers actually put his backpack on the crocodile but it turned out it wasn't his Joe was hiding it the entire time.
* Wrong Playwright - Q poses as a playwright giving workshop lessons to young actors having them act out scenes based on real-life events of Qs at the end Q presents synopses for new plays that he is supposedly in the process of writing.
* Deal With the Devils - Q and Sal pose as goalies as former New Jersey Devils players Colin White and Grant Marshall swing slap shots at them.
* Car Sick - The other jokers planned to make a massive mess in his Jeep. Q had to eat a fancy three-course meal in the backseat while a stunt driver hired by the others took him around an obstacle course. The first two courses, Q spills his soup, margarita, and tacos all over the interior as the racer makes several sharp turns and hits speed bumps. After Sloppy Joe gets in for the third course, the ride is over afterward.
* Smushed - Q is forced to do whatever the other guys tell him to do while dressed up as "Smush" the clown at a children's birthday party.

### Season Five

* Bidder Loser - Q is forced to go to an auction house to sell his items when they come up, and every time the auction is about to close on them, he has to change his mind about it and take them back. The last item is supposedly his tires, and he must let them go.
* The Good, The Bad, and the Punished - Dressed as a sheriff, Q is forced to "arrest" outlaws in a Western setting.
* Brother of the Sisterhood - Q is forced pose as a professional and award-winning women's rights blogger at a feminist event and to "respectfully disagree" with whatever statements are made.
* Heckle and Hide - Q is forced to pose as a little league dad watching the game, and do and say whatever he is told by the other guys.
* The Chairman - Q is forced to spend time in "The Death Chair", a remote controlled wheelchair with a bullhorn, a leaf blower and a confetti cannon attached to it, all completely controlled by the other guys.
* Spider Man - Q's fear of spiders is put to the test when he has several tarantulas placed on him while strapped down to a board.
* Stage Fright - Before becoming a comedian, Q was a fire-fighter of the FDNY. Q is forced to take part in an embarrassing musical in front of all his firemen buddies.

### Season Six

* X-Man - With Q taking the final loss where he refused to cross out a child's painting with red paint, the surprise punishment forced him to paint a red "X" over every painting instead.
* Drum and Drummer - As revenge for the punishment that Murr and Sal went through last season, Q and Joe are forced participate in a drumline marching band, followed by dancing.
* Stuffed Turkey - Q attends a speed dating event while his hands have two turkey legs attached to them, and the punishment doesn't end until he finishes both of them.
* Universal Appeal - Q is forced to dress as a spider and perform on stage in a barnyard stunt show at the Toon Lagoon Theater; he also has to protect the barnyard from a mixed martial arts master dressed as a cow.
* Mime And Punishment - Q is handcuffed to a mime for 24 hours while all 4 of the jokers are on tour.
* Three Men And Your Baby - Q, Sal, and Murr pitch their own television show called "3 Men & Your Baby", but none of them know about parenting.
* Dover And Out - Q poses as an artist and must talk his way out of a town mural that says "DOVER SUCKS" (with a picture of New Jersey with a turd on it).
* G.I. Jokers - Q is forced to watch as his prized Jeep Wrangler is destroyed by a M18 Hellcat after getting three questions wrong.

### Season Seven

* Guilty as Charged - Q is forced to work at the front door at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, collecting cover charges for Tight Fright. Later, he goes into the audience and an announcement is made that the show is free, so everyone goes after him for their money. Unfortunately for Q, all he can give them is a sack containing quarters.
* Lords of the Ring - Q and Sal are forced to be given a turquoise ring that they must sell by rotary telephone while in an extremely hot room with only 1 gerbil water dispenser each to stay hydrated. After 4 hours of unsuccessful attempts to sell the ring, Q manages to sell it to the owner of a pizza joint that he regularly visits.
* No Child Left Behind - Q is forced to go into a kiddy's playground where the guys have put a toddler wearing a soiled diaper. Q must find the child amongst several other kids by sniffing their diapers for the soiled one. Right as he is about to be removed from the playing area by security, Q successfully finds the kid and the punishment ends.
* The Needy and the Greedy - Q is forced to pose as a volunteer and has to eat every donation in front of all the workers.
* To Hatch a Predator - At a children's museum, Q is forced to take a bucket supposedly containing turtle eggs and break them all over himself in an attempt to break a world record. The children in the audience are told that Q is a scientist helping these turtles hatch. After he smashes the eggs, which are later revealed to be store-bought, on his head he must give a presentation on turtles while the children berate him.
* Hump Day - Q is forced to spend a single day locked in a den at the zoo where he experiences life inside a zoo, with his only companion being a baby camel. He is told he cannot leave until the other guys unlock the gate to the den. Q is forced to do things animals do in the zoo such as cooling off in a swimming pool, being showered by a zookeeper, and lying on a pile of hay as his bed. He eventually calls Joe when the day is over, only to realize that the gate had never been locked by the other guys the entire time he was there.
* Autograph Corrector - Q is forced to go to an autograph session with former Yankees player Tino Martinez, where he must purposely destroy autographs or delete photos on their phones.

### Season Eight

* Blue Man Dupe - At a Blue Man Group event, Q is forced to rudely ask strangers to get out of their seat; because he thinks that the seat is his, where he later finds an error on his ticket. Later, Q must sit in the front row when the show starts in just his clothes, unlike in a poncho-like everyone else, and get disgusting substances all over him, and made a mess of with things like toilet paper.
* Cake Loss - Q is forced to pose as a judge at a cake decorating contest, and he must ruin the contestant's cakes. But, it is later revealed to Q that he is not a judge, and he is a contestant, where the real judges come out to judge the cakes.
* The Antisocial Network - Q is at a networking event, and is forced to find one person to continually follow around the entire time.
* The Show Stopper - Q is forced to repeatedly stop the Studio Tour ride for ridiculous reasons by using an emergency brake rope whenever the other guys tell him to.
* Irritable Vowel Syndrome - Q is forced to attend a Health Conference where he must find strangers whose names begin with all 5 vowels. The punishment? Every time that he finds someone whose name lacks a vowel, he must give the person an inappropriate insult prepared to him by the other guys.
* Bad Carma - Originally, Q has to post inappropriate notes on people's cars. After no one reacts badly to these notes, the guys change Q's punishment, ordering him to attempt to siphon gas from someone's truck.

## Trivia

* Q suffers from arachnophobia (a fear of spiders), which was used against him in one of his punishments.
* He and Murr have lost teeth while filming, both were caught on camera and used in the show. He and Murr each have one fake tooth because of it. Murr's issue, meanwhile, escalated into a punishment.
* His favorite author is Hunter S. Thompson.
* Brian was the first Joker to lose his virginity. While her identity has not been revealed, he met her on vacation with his parents and she is currently in prison.
* As of March 2020, Q has had the second least amount of punishments at 51. However, Q has also done the least challenges out of all the Jokers, due in part to his health problems.
* While taking a trip to Germany in 2009, Q was arrested for disorderly conduct and a Police officer punched him in the face, knocking his tooth out. Q was escorted back to America by German police and was bailed out by the other guys.
* Q will not eat peanut butter and sushi. The latter fact was used to make him automatically lose a challenge at a sushi bar.
* He is an avid car enthusiast, and owns 8 different cars. He likes to drive a stick shift.
* Q has a cat named Benjamin that he absolutely adores.
* Q boasted about his love for Taylor Swift's 1989, noting it was one of his favorite albums of the year. He also revealed the best live show he'd seen in a long time was Bruno Mars (which Joe seconded).
* In Season Five, Q had his head shaved as a punishment and his hair was turned into a wig which the other Jokers made Murr wear for the rest of the season, though it began to wear out midway in.
* Q suffered two broken ribs when he fell off an ATV and was left wincing in pain when he laughed at Sal's punishment in "Swim Shady".
* On the special road show episodes where the Jokers hold challenges in unique locations, Q has often suffered the most physical punishments.