Practical Jokes – A Call to Action
Sure is fun getting away from the serious side of photography once in awhile and perfect for a Saturday morning. Two more contributions from Chris Fawkes and Dennis Pike and a bonus from my college days – not really in the photo industry, but a great stunt just the same…
Chris Fawkes: ” I was in Sydney and I knew my buddy Darren in Melbourne was having an easy weekend with no wedding on. So I had a friend who he did not know call him that evening and pretend to be an upset groom demanding to know why Darren had not turned up that day to shoot his wedding.
My friend hung up after giving “D” a blast and i let him sweat it for five minutes before giving him a call. As soon as he heard my voice the penny dropped.
Dennis Pike: A couple years ago I went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum with my then girlfriend, now fiance. While there, I took a cell phone photo of me sitting next to the Ozzy Osbourn sculpture, and sent it to my sister saying “Look who I met!” she believed me and told all her friends (who happened to be big Ozzy fans) I let her believe it for about a week before I finally told her. 3 years later and she still gets mad when I bring it up!
And last but not least – there’s an interesting phenomenon with a blog. It brings out things from your past that are totally irrelevant from people long ago…so meet Rich Fuller, one of my best friends from college and definitely responsible for numerous stunts over the years. These guys may have nailed me with the following event years ago in a dorm room, but it would still be a good stunt to pull off in an office today!
Long ago ( 42 years) in a place far far away (south western Ohio) our young hero Steven B went off from his college dorm room for yet another night of beer drinking and women chasing ( mostly the former). While he was gone, a group of friends entered his room with some 5000 ft of kite string and turned his room into a spider web of gigantic proportions. Each and every item in the room was connected to every other one from at least 5 different directions. Upon his return that evening young Steven open the door to his room and came face to face with the web. He batted it with his hand and the entire room vibrated. At this point he told the gathered crowd that all he wanted to do was go to bed. ( remember the part about beer drinking) He asked for a pair of scissors and began to cut his way in. Ten minutes later after only a few feet of progress he became frustrated and jumped into the remaining web. EVERYTHING in the room large and small crashed in on him and he became hopelessly tangled. The crew went on to do other evil deeds at young Steven’s expense, but this still remains one of the classics. Right Skip?
Come on you guys, there are so many other stories out there. I’ve got a classic that was pulled on Don Blair years ago that I’m saving. Anybody else got a good one to contribute?
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This post has 2 comments
September 7th, 2009
OK – how about the time Dana Curtis of Curtis Color Lab and Wayne Byrne of Art Leather stacked a wall of bricks in front of Ron Warwick’s hotel door and then pulled the fire alarm?
September 8th, 2009
I did pretend to hold up a Burger King once. My life long friend Jeff was manager and we were going out for drinks at 1am after he knocked off.
The staff were looking at me funny as i walked in with a balaclava on (it was cold) but i thought everyone knew it was me given the plans so i jokingly told them to put their hands in the air.
When Jeff and all the staff shot their hands up and asked me what i wanted i realized they had no idea who it was.
I won’t be trying that one ever again but the look on Jeff’s face and subsequent relief as he made out who i was as i pulled off the balaclava is something i’ll never forget.