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Topic: Practical Jokes on "newbies"

Bill Hallsworth
Film Handler

Posts: 34
From: Loganville, GA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 06-08-2002 11:09 AM

Personally, I like to scare the hell out of anyone that happens to be in the booth. I prefer having zero lights on (the only light coming from the projectors, platters, and othe equipment), and just lay and wait, or sneak up on someone. I remember once, it took me almost an hour to talk the projectionist into coming down from the ceiling.

Another good one is walking up behind someone and dropping a pair of film cans right behind them...it works especially well if they're asleep.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-10-2002 02:19 AM

Michael: Once or twice, when crossing a rep print in convincingly battered cans over to a cinema I didn't like very much (usually one which has a reputation for damaging films), I've been sorely tempted to stick 'Nitrate' and 'Danger - Flammable Solid' labels on all the cans and the transit case (I'm sure this wouldn't bother Securicor one bit - they'd probably accept enriched plutonium if you asked them to ship it) and imagine the scene when all hell broke loose at the other end...

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-17-2002 10:39 PM

Here’s one I actually pulled once some time ago. It was not meant to be a practical joke, it is just the way it turned out.

A lamphouse door had a weak magnet. When the door was raised, the magnet would not hold it in the up position. While I was working on the lamp, the door came crashing down on top my head.

I told the secretary of the company (who was really not a newbie, and she was a blond at that) to order a new MAGGOT for a bla bla bla lamphouse of bla bla bla theatre.

She called the theatre supply house and tried to order a MAGGOT for the lamphouse.

After the supply house laughed their butts off at her, I caught hell for it. It just so happens to be the secretary was the owner’s wife. (I already knew that, but I really didn't care.)

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Joseph D. Olson
Film Handler

Posts: 26
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 08-18-2002 01:37 AM

In regards to dangerous practical jokes... I was trained in the booth before I showed up at the theater I'm at now, but I was unfamilliar with the new equipment, so the booth manager training me made a habit of sabotaging all of my threads to see if I double-checked them. Things like disengaging a variac, removing an aperture, screwing with the masking. He only got me once, and it was on a turret change. I'd never used turrets before. I waited for the Fandango tag to end and stopped and switched back to Scope. Sneaky little bastard.

Anyway, one example of how "pranks" could be useful. If the guy who trained me hadn't taught me to be vigilant about double-checking, I would have been screwed that day, but would have learned my lesson pretty fast.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-18-2002 05:25 AM

A chief projectionist at a neighbour cinema use to like sending his trainee over to me for a joke. I always did my very best so that the joke would backfire.

A packet of changeover dots! That was easy as I emptied the desk paper puncher.

A rubber hammer! Well it so happens that I did have a real one, which was a proper tool.

Technicolor carbons! No, I could only burn them as I had generators, they would be no good with his rectifiers.

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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene

Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-18-2002 06:39 AM

A prank that was pulled upon myself by my so wonderful staff was to flip the release valve on our CO2 just before they walked out the door the previous night.

As this was now a sunday morning when I opened up, with NO co2 to speak of, and expecting a large crowd, I had no choice but to call up our provider on a weekend to fill it up. We normally only spent about 25 dollars a week on the stuff, but the total fill on the built in tank, the extra visit and the fact it was on a sunday, ran me 238 dollars.

I terminated the manager that did that to me three days later, when I got the bill.

I love practical jokes.

Dave

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Michael Gonzalez
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 790
From: Grand Island , NE USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-18-2002 09:51 AM

A packet of changeover dots. Ha I love that one

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 06-29-2010 07:36 AM

It has been 2871 days since the last post.

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Jeremy Jorgenson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1002
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 06-29-2010 07:36 AM

Well, if this is going to be linked to, it guess it should be bumped up...

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Manny Montes
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: United States
Registered: Feb 2010

posted 06-30-2010 07:25 AM

I like to "prank" the new projectionists but i'd even consider it training, if there aren't any customers in a theater they screened, i'll make a couple of slight "adjustments" to that projector while they aren't looking and see if they can figure it out.

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Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 07-01-2010 12:27 AM

I don't have anything I do upstairs. I try to avoid any kind of horseplay just because I don't want to set a precedent. However, I'll do things like show an employee a quarter roll right before I throw it at them - of course the roll is empty.

The employees have a tradition of making newbies take a butter shot.

Another thing the employees will do to new employees is tell them the door for the mop room won't open from the inside. This forces them to try and hold the door open while the prep a mop bucket - which is nearly impossible. This prank worked much better before we put a stop on the door.

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Eric Robinson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 538
From: Santa Rosa, CA
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-01-2010 11:21 AM

Once I plugged a drill into an outlet which went live when the projector started. I locked the trigger and hid it on the floor on the non-operator side. When the projectionist started the movie he heard the drill noise and got scared and stopped the projector. He tried this several times before I clued him in on the prank.

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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-01-2010 03:19 PM

I've never enjoyed practical jokes (neither as a giver nor a receiver). So if I found out that the show I paid to watch was disrupted because the staff was pulling pranks on each other, I would be more than furious. And I would insist that the management deal with the situation swiftly and severely. [Mad]

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 07-01-2010 03:22 PM

Greg =

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Kenneth Wuepper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1026
From: Saginaw, MI, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-01-2010 04:53 PM

Clowning is for the circus!

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