The World Of Prank Shows
- Andrew and Melissa Curtis
- Apr 23, 2023
- 4 min read
All productions are different animals and most of them have their unique set of benefits. If you’re working on a late night talk show, you’ll own a house in the LA market. If you’re working on scripted shows, you’ll always carry the union insurance.
With hidden camera work you’ll laugh at lot, at least more than the average day on a reality show. I missed the years of Scare Tactics and the first version of Punk’d, but I did get to catch up on hidden camera shows with things like Deal With It, Freak Out, La La Land, and the like. All of these shows are different, but all are similar in that the base idea is to pull off pranks with strangers.
On Deal With It we always worked in restaurants, so the benefit there was that we could build our camera station into a booth. That space insured we would have access to soft chairs and plenty of opportunities to order appetizers from the restaurant itself. Sure, they weren’t always open when we arrived at 7 am, but by the time we started shooting the actual prank, we’d be elbow deep in a tower of onion rings, or sorting out some fresh sushi.
A typical morning on the crew of a prank show meant arriving at sun up to unload a large box truck and then breaking out cables and equipment to build. In my world that meant monitors, robo cameras, joysticks, cables, tables and chairs all needed attention. We would be building a control room and then also building the stations to robo-op from, as well as the engineering racks to record all the nonsense chucklery that would fill our afternoon.
A walk-through of the location with the department heads was a must, as we’d have to consider where the action would take place, where the hides should live, and where to record all of it. As people put dibs on their spots, my fellow cam op Gary and I would work a little extra hard to find the perfect booth to hang out in. It didn’t always work out the way we wanted, but it worked out enough that I have several fond memories of leaving shiny fingerprints on robo controls from fries or tater tots and all the greased-up confections we would order. The food wouldn’t be the only bonus, a lot of restaurant staff arrived extra early to prepare for the day, and this meant excellent coffee would be available.
Once all the gear was placed and hidden by the art department, we would play the waiting game. Some "marks" (the person being pranked) were pre-planned and they’d arrive on time and we’d go through the punches. Some reactions were good and some were not. Some people called the prank mid-way through, and we'd have to stop shooting them and start over. When we’d run out of pre-planned marks we’d have to go "fishing" (getting random people to come in and see if we could get them to play along). Those usually worked out better than the pre-planned ones in a lot of ways, to be honest. I think it was having that initial energy and being picked that helped raise them up just a tiny bit more than someone pre-cast.
For a show like Deal With It, the best part was that the writers and talent would be doing jokes in real-time. Sure, they had the original idea and that was the reason we were there in the first place, but there was always room for more jokes, improvisation, and piling on. This made it fun to shoot, but also difficult because we were busy laughing and trying to not be too loud.
At the end of each day, it was always the same, wrap it up, load the truck and if you’re lucky, the Director has left his code at the bar (Clifford the Big Red Dog ) with an open tab to say "thank you" for a job well done.
There are many prank shows in my history, some were great and some weren’t as well done. Some have lingering lawsuits and the most recent one which I only day played on, Jury Duty, is getting its deserved virality.
Spoilers - sort of?
The last episode of Jury Duty was truly one of my favorites. In the past, the part of the prank show when the jig is up, and camera people come out of hiding, and someone points to all the cameras and goes "It’s a prank show!" is a moment that is only a couple of seconds at best. Jury Duty did it right by dedicating an entire episode to it, with the curtains up, and we all get to go along for the ride.
So if I can leave you with one bit of advice when you’re having a meal out and things are starting to get strange, don’t go looking for cameras and microphones, just enjoy this ride. It could pay out. Nah, wait, this is actually bad advice! You should always have your head on a swivel and keep an extra tight grip on your mace (or pocket knife) just in case you gotta throw down.... And don’t forget to lawyer up! They’ll get you way more than you could get on your own...
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