Begin to type the letters “imp” into the Google search bar and — right after impeachment — the auto-fill option is “Impractical Jokers,” a hint to how popular this simple reality show is. Starring four comics who have known each other since their adolescence on Staten Island, the eight-season show is the basis for a feature-length movie directed by Southampton’s Chris Henchy.
A visitor to the South Fork since the 1980s, Mr. Henchy said last week in a phone interview that back then he “did the shares with 15 people. I think I had only three weekends one summer.” His wife, Brooke Shields, was a child when she first starting coming here. “Her dad was a member of the beach club in Southampton years and years ago and her grandfather ran the tennis at the Meadow Club.”
Over a decade ago, they began visiting again as guests of Jay McInerney and Anne Hearst, and in 2013 they bought a house that “checked all the boxes.”
Their daughters, Grier and Rowan Henchy, are counselors at the Future Stars camp in Southampton. “Once the girls are out of school, we’re out there all summer. I spend as much time as I can in the ocean and out boating.”
Professionally, Mr. Henchy has written films such as “The Candidate,” “Land of the Lost,” and “The Other Guys,” and produced many others, often with his co-creators of the Funny or Die website, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.
“Impractical Jokers” is a TruTV half-hour series where James Murray, Brian Quinn, Joe Gatto, and Sal Vulcano compete in hidden camera challenges, playing practical jokes on an unsuspecting public. Not unlike the “Candid Camera” of old, in this case the joke is on the pranksters as well, especially if they find themselves the losers of the episode.
It isn’t a natural for a big screen feature, but the challenge appealed to Mr. Henchy, who is making his debut as a feature-length director.
“I’ve sat next to a lot of directors as a writer and producer: Jay Roach, McKay, Sean Anders, and Ben Falcone.” He said they told him — “in the best possible way” — that instead of “sitting on the left of me with all your thoughts and telling me what to do, why don’t you direct a movie yourself?”
The next step was figuring out what that movie would be. Not long after he decided to pursue this path, his agent asked him if he was familiar with the series. “Coincidently, like two weeks before, I had walked downstairs and my kids were watching it.” Like a lot of people, he said he watched one challenge, then stayed for the next. “Before I knew it, an hour and a half had gone by. I really responded to the guys.”
The format of the film, which is bookended by a scripted fictional story to launch them into their real challenges, “seemed like a great way to have my first directing gig.” But a hybrid movie presented its own challenges. “The audience doesn’t want an hour-and-a-half version of the show, but they also don’t want a scripted movie.”
They needed a reason to get them on the road. “Then, I had to have a graceful hand off between what’s written and what’s real. . . . We really kind of pushed and pulled to figure this thing out.”
It is critical to the show’s fans that none of the challenges are scripted. “If it’s fake, it doesn’t work,” he said. The 10 challenges, one of which involves a Bengal tiger, are more complex than those in the series. “They have to be real and the reactions have to be real.” Once the guys have their earpieces in, “It’s like improv. You have no idea what you’re going to get, but you hope you get something.”
The narrative part of the film, with its own adventures involving Paula Abdul in 1994 and now, was a straightforward directing job. The reality segments required only prep work, he said. “You scout the location weeks in advance, think about where to hide the cameras, and build a blind for them.” Then it is up to the comedians and what they have planned for each other. “At that point, I was behind the monitor. I could say, ‘Yes we can do this or that,’ but that’s about it.”
Ms. Abdul appears in the film along with Joey Fatone and Jaden Smith. Those with sharp eyes will notice another uncredited cameo. A low-budget film shot on a short schedule, it helped that those guest stars were fans of the show.
Although fictionalized, the story and its 1994 setting were based on where the boys were and what they liked back then. “I started with a different restaurant, but they said ‘No, we’d go to Red Lobster,’ so I said ‘Okay, we’ll put Red Lobster in the movie’. . . . Sal went off for an hour on how much he liked Paula Abdul, so I said ‘Okay, we’ll get Paula Abdul.’ ”
The film opens in theaters Friday.
