Brad Garrett Calls Out ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’ Comedy Scam

Who exactly is swindling who here? Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett is calling out an outrageous comedy scam that involves Joey Gorga of Real Housewives of New Jersey fame — although Gorga is crying victim as well. The whole thing involves a fake Brad Garrett and a fake comedy show and … well, let’s try to get to the bottom of it.

Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.

It all started with the promotion of a comedy show involving Garrett and his Vegas club. Garrett got one look at the ads and cried foul.

Garrett’s Instagram post appears to have gone through a version or two, but Deadline reported the copy from the original post: ALERT!! This is NOT AN ACTUAL Show at my club and people are being scammed to buy tickets via a fake link. So @joeygorga, @jackynmarfuggi wtf?! No one knows who you folks are in the comedy world nor are you working at my club. Remove these ads immediately. Geez. And @catchnewjersey has nothing to do with this as well.

WTF indeed. The phony ad makes it appear as if Garrett himself is on the bill (opening for Joey Gorga? What an honor!) Deadline published a screen capture of Gorga’s Instagram bio that provided a link to a website for seats at only $150 a pop, stating that “tickets for this event are in high demand.” (The link has been removed from Gorga’s bio.)

Anyone who would have skipped that link and visited the website for Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club instead would have seen no Gorga show was booked for Sunday, November 5th. It’s Garrett himself headlining that night, along with comics Karen Rontowski and Joe Praino. But a click on the link in Gorga’s Insta bio would have been happy to sell you tickets anyway.

What the actual heck is Gorga up to here? Turns out, he also claims to be a victim of the scam. “It was coming from a fake Brad Garrett,” Gorga’s representative told Deadline. “Joe’s attorney was scammed. They even had signed contracts in place.” According to the rep, Gorga thought he was booked for a Vegas show and he “is very disappointed as he was looking forward to performing” at Garrett’s club.

Just to make sure we have this straight: Gorga is claiming that a fake Brad Garrett called Gorga’s attorney, sent over contracts for a fake show, then set up a website to sell $150 tickets? And neither Gorga, his team nor his attorney bothered to check with the club itself about any of the details for a show that’s only a few days away? 

We’re not sure who’s more gullible — the people who bought the tickets or the people who are buying this story.