A Brian Quinn Love Story

The Job and the First Meeting

With the new move, and the new time zone, my day starts off at a rocky 7am. Now most people have much earlier mornings, but for the night owl in me, this is rough. My day starts with a cup of coffee while I check all of my social media. Shower, throw something mildly nice on my body, and rush to catch the 7:30 train. Once on the train, I sit back and relax into my book for my hour long ride. Most people hate the commute but it’s sometimes my favorite part of the day. When I get into work, I find my office and get settled in for the morning.

I always take my lunch in Central Park. It seems sort of like a touristy thing to do, but i love the outdoors and enjoying a meal by either The Pond or The Lake is one of the best ways to spend it in my opinion. After lunch, I'm technically done for the day at the office. Even though I'm an editor, I still do articles and go out for some of the stories. I like to do as much as I can because I like staying busy. 

On this particular day, I stopped and grabbed sushi for lunch and then walked the three blocks to Central Park. I decided to sit by the lake since that was the closest body of water from the sushi restaurant. I chose a mildly secluded bench, but still swarming with tourists and locals alike. I finished my lunch and pulled out my book and began to read about the wildly fantastic life story of Elton John. I was so sucked into the story that I barely realized that the four guys on the Impractical Jokers were walking around filming for the day. It wasn't until Brian Quinn was standing right in front of me that I realized what was happening. He started to dance right in front of me and I stared in awe. Starting to realize what was happening, I decided to join him.

Being a fan of the show, I always liked to imagine what it would be like to be on the show. Would I give away the fact that I knew what was going on, or play along to help one of the guys either win or lose. I never really seriously played with this idea until I found out I would be moving to New York. Obviously I only half-mindedly played with the idea because I didn't think it was actually possible to actually see them at work.

Dancing with him while looking into those big, deep brown eyes was mesmerizing. This man was a literal teddy bear. I had always considered Q my favorite Joker. He started smiling as soon as I stood up to dance, obviously because this meant that he won the challenge. His smile was one of the greatest things I have ever been able to witness with my own eyes. After a while we stopped dancing because the bit was finished. 

After we both stopped, he started to explain what was going on, about how this was a hidden camera TV show and basically what the show was about. Mid sentence, I cut him off and said, “Q, I just didn’t want my favorite joker to lose the challenge.” I gave him a little wink at the end of my sentence. He kind of looked at me in awe, realizing that I was a fan and that he didn't have to explain the rest of the show to me. The producers came over with the form for me to sign basically saying that it was okay that they show my face on television. Q comes back up to me and seems not nervous, but almost shy, which I thought was totally adorable. He asked if I wanted to meet the other guys since I was a fan of the show. I slyly said, “I would love to, but i'm glad that I was able to dance with my favorite.” He led me over to a secluded area where all of the equipment was and, of course, the other 3 jokers. All 3 introduced themselves to me and while I was having small talk with them, I noticed Sal was mouthing things to Q who was standing right beside me. I figured it was something that had to do with the show so I didn't think too much about it.

We stood around for probably about 40 minutes just talking. I told them I was new to New York and how I moved out here because of the publishing job I just accepted. I figured I would leave out the whole part about the cheating ex because i just met some of my favorite people, I wasn't about to unload all of my emotional baggage on them. 

........... 20 minutes later..........
“So you're telling me, you would rather watch Ferris Bueller over ANY Star Wars movie?!” I was kind of blowing Sal’s mind right about now.

I threw my hands up in defense and said, “Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars, but Ferris Bueller will always hold a very special place in my heart and I just think it was a tad bit better than the Star Wars franchise.” 

I don’t really know how we got into this topic, but the guys invited me to stay so I could kind of see how things went off camera on the show. Joe was out waiting for the guys to pick a stranger for him to try and dance with, and obviously Sal, Murr, Q and myself were having a thrilling conversation. 

“Well I for one honor your opinion, but think you are completely out of your mind,” Q then delved into why Star Wars is one of the greatest films ever made. We laughed and talked, while watching Joe try and dance his way to a victory, but not having any luck. After trying for what seemed like forever, he came back, obviously defeated. I noticed the time and realized I had a meeting with a few editors in a few hours so I needed to make sure I made that on time. 

Joe turned to me and said, “We should all exchange numbers because we obviously need to continue this movie debate because it is far from over. We haven't even gotten into the genius that Forest Gump is.” I laughed and handed each of the boys my phone so they could put their numbers in. I sent them a group chat so they would have my number. Obviously the first message was ‘We need a movie night so we can debate these opinions with back-up.” I heard the guys laugh as I walked away, reading the message. I turned and waved, holding my glance with Q a bit longer than the other guys.

I decided to grab a cab for the meeting because it was halfway across the city and quite frankly I wasn't really prepared to walk that much. As I sat back in my seat, I pinched myself because I couldn't believe that I just spent that much time with some of my favorite human beings. The Impractical Jokers is one of those TV shows that you can always throw on when you're having a bad day and just instantly feel better. 
I smiled and was replaying the last hour or so in my head when I felt my phone buzz.

JOE: So when is this movie night? Because I'm so ready to prove that Forest Gump is possibly the greatest movie of all time. I'll make notes and serve them to you all.’
I let out a little laugh and said that tomorrow, anytime after 4 o’clock I was free. Murr responded back first and said that he would be cool with that. Sal said he had a doctors appointment at 3, but he would be down to hang out after he was done there. Q also said that he was down and that he was ready to prove that Ghostbusters was in fact the greatest movie of all time.

“Ah that is actually a really good one. This is gonna be difficult.” I responded to Q, not forgetting to put a little ghost emoji at the end. I added, "Why don't we all bring our favorite one, the one that tops all other movies. Then we'll debate the 5 movies."

Sal replied with, “Alright you guys can come over to my place once I'm done at the doctors.” We all responded back with either a thumbs up or an ‘Ok.’ Sal sent me his address right as I was getting out of the cab. I paid the driver and made my way into the office building.