February 17th, 1999:
I returned home to my Pittsburgh apartment after performing a magic show to see there were 2 messages on my answering machine waiting for me. The week before I had given my mom a card to give to my aunt Mary Lou for her birthday. Mary Lou is a big fan of scratch-off lottery tickets, so inside the card I also included 5 tickets for her. I hit the play button on my answering machine to hear message #1 from Mary Lou:
OH MY GOSH...OH MY GOSH...MIKE I JUST WON $10,000 ON ONE OF THE TICKETS YOU GAVE ME. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT...I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. I'LL GIVE YOU SOME. I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! (In the background I could hear people, "yeah, she really won" and celebrating along with her). OH, I AM SOOOOOOO HAPPY! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'LL CALL YOU BACK LATER. Click.
Now, I knew what message #2 was going to say, but let me back up. A few weeks before this, I came across fake lottery tickets at the Ross Park Mall. They look absolutely real...and they work exactly the same a regular scratch off tickets and they are all "$10,000 winners". The only difference is, the "fine print" on the back of these tickets say:
Winning tickets of $10,000 or more must submit form by mail. Claim forms supplied by Santa Claus. All winning tickets must be validated by the Tooth Fairy and conform to her game rules. Winning prizes may NOT be claimed anywhere, so forget about it! All winners are losers and must have an excellent sense of humor.
Of course I knew someone at the party finally figured it out and told Mary Lou it was a joke. Now to pull off a good joke (as I have done plenty of times), you must "disguise" it well. For this prank, the other 4 tickets were real and legitimate. Had I only included the "fake" ticket the joke may not have worked at all. But as I hit the button for message #2, I heard Mary Lou again:
Mike (10 second pause)...That wasn't funny (10 second pause). That just ruined my day. SLAM.
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Happy Birthday Mary Lou...hope this one goes better for you!!!
5 comments:
oh Mike,
no that was not funny......
I have seen this 'gag' on videos before and wondered, "who would be so mean???". Now I know.
:-0
Mike,
I don't think MaryLou will ever forget that day. It was really hard to know we had to tell her it
was a joke!
Mom
Mike,
I don't think MaryLou will ever forget that day. It was really hard to know we had to tell her it
was a joke!
Mom
haha - I've seen those on America's Funniest Videos....too funny!
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