Johnny Brennan of The Jerky Boys spews off about the history behind the kings of crank

Most people get tired of making prank phone calls by the time they get out of high school. But, that's when Jerky Boy Johnny Brennan was just getting warmed up.

"It all started a good 20 years ago in the late 70s. I had these characters I was developing. I thought, 'These guys would be good cartoon characters. Let me get these guys on tape.' ThatŐs when I got the idea to let me fuc*king interact with somebody, and tape the phone calls. And bang, that was history," said Brenan, the creator of the now famous Jerky Boys.

He does the voices for Frank Rizzo, the angry Italian, Sol Rosenberg, the ever-ailing man, and Jack Tores, the showman. Brennan said the characters are all based on real people.

"Sol Rosenberg is a combination of my mother and my uncle. When I say that, it's kind of strange. But, I took characteristics from both people and blew them up, exaggerated the hell out of them," Brennan said. "Characters are born that way."

He started recording the phone conversations he was making and then making copies of the tapes and handing them out to friends. Brennan claims he didn't always have the cushy job of being a prankster. He worked in construction for many years.

"It's not like I didn't know what work was. I worked my ass off for a lot of years," he said.

Brennan met his partner Kamal when they were children in Queens. Brennan was about seven years older than Kamal. He asked Brennan if he could do a couple voices for the tapes, and Brenna was quick to oblige his old friend.

Kamal started doing a character called Tarbash, an East Indian. Brennan said that the only time he ever broke out laughing on a call was when Kamal did Tarbash.

The duo has released four albums. The latest recently hit stores and has tracks from their early days as well as being interactive with home computers.

Even though the cranks get a bit raunchy, the two have never caught much flack about their content. "Not many problems, now that politically correct bullsh*t is on the way out. If you listen closely at our albums, we're making fun of our own characters," Brennan said. "We're not making terrible remarks towards any race or religion."

Brennan treats the Jerky Boys like a job, so he doesn't perform any prank calls unless he's preparing for an album. Of course, to stay fresh, he does mess with his mother from time to time.

"Yeah, I fu*k around with my mother a little bit. I give her the business. I call my mom up and say, 'What the fu*k are you doing you crazy fu*king bit*h? What's wrong with you?' And she's like right away screaming at me, 'You call your mother and you talk that to me? You come over here and I'll put a fu*king slug in the back of your head, you prick.' This is the shit I get from my mom," Brennan said.

"Thank god I've got a lot of brothers," he said. "Sometimes my mom gets too crazy and they jump her and beat the shit out of her. It's good having a bunch of brothers," he said.

Brennan insisted that his parents don't mind that he makes his living irritating other people on the phone.

"They love it. They're like, 'That fu*king Johnny, he's a wacky prick.' That's my father. And my mom, she's proud no matter what I do, and she always knew I was gonna do something zany," Brennan said. Besides the albums, the Jerky Boys released a movie a few years ago with Alan Arkin and the late William Hickey. "It was awesome. It was a great experience," Brennan said.

They also received a Mercury award for the commercials they did for Bud Light.

They have never had calls backfire before, except for when people think they're being pranked. "They never think it's the Jerky Boys calling. They always think it's someone imitating us," he said.

"One guy beleived it was us and he was like, 'I love your sh*t.' We all busted up and started laughing," Brennan said.

Future plans for the Jerky Boys include starting an animated project for the characters. Brennan said they have over 20 characters now, and that was how he originally intended for them to be.

Brennan is one jerky tough guy who always knew what he wanted. He took his own advice. "This is America. Go out there and have some fun."