My Funny Prank

My good friend, Daniel, has a problem with phones. He keeps losing them. When this happens, he loses all of his contacts.

During Kiss Me, Kate, which Daniel stage managed, this happened. He accidentally got my number mixed up with a semi-closeted gay guy who was MAJORLY in love with him. We'll call that gay guy "Rod." There were some AWESOME mix-ups during KMK involving Daniel thinking that I was Rod and Rod was me.

Here we are a few months later, and Daniel has done it again (twice, I think, actually). So, during tech/Hell day for Ah, Wilderness! I decided to have some fun. I got Daniel's fiancée, Liz, involved. I texted Daniel and started flirting with him. Right from the get-go, I was hoping he'd think I was Rod. He thought I was someone else that was a friend of his, so he played along. After a little while, he tried to call me. I didn't want it to go to voicemail, so I answered and hung up. What I didn't take into consideration was that Daniel knew my caller tune. So, he approached me and said that somebody had been texting him and oddly enough, they had the same caller tune. My response: "Oh, yeah? My EQ President has that on his phone too, and every time we call each other, we laugh about it." With that simple statement (which is true), Daniel was off my trail.

I texted him off and on all day Saturday and then again on Sunday afternoon. He tried to call me again a few times and I did the same answering and hanging up trick. On Tuesday night, I started texting him again and this time, I would send him messages from my pocket so he would get them while I was standing there. Liz and I were having a blast screwing with him. However, over the course of that night, he was starting to take it too seriously, so I decided to start to let him down gently. While John was giving notes, Daniel was sitting by me (and actually resting his head on my knee at some points). I kept sending texts when he was right there. They didn't go through, though, so that plan failed.

On the drive home, Daniel texted and said "Why do you hang up every time I call you?" So, I immediately called him. I figured that if I talked to him, he'd figure it out. I disguised my voice to sound like an upset girl, and he TOTALLY fell for it. I talked to him for a minute or so and then hung up on him. He texted me later and asked if I was sure I knew who he was, and I responded with his full name. Liz told me the next night that seeing his name in the text REALLY freaked him out.

So, Wednesday night, I let Liz know that by the end of the night, I was going to let him know it was me. She agreed that was best, but we decided to have as much fun as we could in the meantime. Daniel told me all about the phone call (which, btw, one of my favorite parts of this whole prank was getting to hear everything from Daniel's point of view, and having to act like I didn't already know it). I told him that it had gone on too long and I was getting involved. So, I started texting myself, and I'd show Daniel my texts so he could see that it was coming from my number. I brought up Rod, and told Daniel that it sounds like something he'd do. He even agreed that the girl on the phone sounded like she could have possibly been a guy pretending to be a girl.

Through my texts, we established that the person who was texting him knew Liz and me as well. They also knew that Daniel and Liz were engaged, and Jeremy is a dick. Daniel was freaking out and had a theory that it was a girl in the department, and he was certain that Wes would know her number, so during intermission he was going to ask Wes. The problem was, Wes has MY number, too, so the joke would end there. Liz and I had been going too long to let Wes be the one to ruin it. I said I would text Becca and ask her if that was that girl's number. I texted Becca and asked her to send me a text that just said "No. Not her." She did, and on my way to tell Daniel, I accidentally deleted it. I told Daniel about it, though, and he believed me. Phew. He didn't ask Wes. Daniel was now fully convinced that it was Rod.

During the second act, I started texting him like crazy, and he got REALLY serious. He started apologizing profusely for not remembering my number and for screwing around. He explained that he thought I was just a friend screwing with him. I responded "Maybe I am, and maybe I am." He didn't catch it, though. He apologized again, and I sent him a text that said "The next time I see you, you can give me a hug. And I'll squeeze your butt."

He didn't respond. Liz went over to see what was unfolding, and I waited a couple minutes and did the same. Liz had just left, and Daniel got really excited with me and said "Liz knows who it is!" I asked how he knew, and he said, I kid you not: "She just lied to me and said she didn't. I can tell when she's lying." Hmm…

I put my arms around Daniel, and he hugged back. Then, with both hands, I grabbed his butt. He didn't catch on. He just said "What are you doing?" So, I did it again. He pulled away and said "YOU KNOW!" (The whole situation was very Friends. Think Chandler and Phoebe in The One Where Everybody Finds Out.)

I said that I did know, and he asked who it was. I smiled, but he still didn't get it. He told me that Liz wouldn't tell him either, and reminded me that he KNOWS when she's lying. Here's the gist of the dialogue that happened next:

Me: Are you sure you know when she's lying?
Daniel: Yes!
Me: Because what if she's been lying to you all along?
Daniel:…I think she has been!
Me: So, the question is – who is a better liar? Me or Liz?
Daniel: YOU KNOW! Who is it?!

I waited a second, then put my arm around him, leaned in toward his ear, and in my girly phone voice, I said "We're talking now. Are you happy?"

Daniel FREAKED – but in a good way. He was laughing. He immediately said "Were you just texting yourself tonight?! You called yourself a dick!!!"

I filled him in on everything. Then I asked him why he didn't catch on when I grabbed his butt. He never got that text! Stupid reception in the concrete jungle of UVSC.

I ran down the hall laughing, and had to fill Liz in. Some of the other cast were onto what was going on, so I had to tell them all about it, too. I followed Liz to talk to Daniel, and he looked like he wanted to die. He told her he could never trust her again, but then he admitted that if I wanted to play the same trick on her, he would have gone along with that. I left them alone and then told the whole story two more times to other cast members, because by now, almost everyone had heard about it. They were all teasing Daniel, and it was great.

During notes, I sat by Daniel, and he seemed cool about everything. He was his usual cuddly self. (Sometimes, I don't realize how gay Daniel and I seem until I put it down in writing. Hmm.) Then afterward, everyone else started grabbing his butt, because they didn't want to feel left out. Hehehe.

So, the moral of the story? Liz and I are much better actors than Daniel gave us credit for. You hear that, UVSC?! I CAN ACT! Suck on that, theatre department. J