The David Storrs Interview | Pranks, Scare Tactics, and Scaring People
On The Babylon Bee Interview Show, Kyle and Ethan talk to David Storrs about the process of making prank videos, Fameless, and the one prank show David regrets making. Ethan reveals himself as a connoisseur for prank shows with David being one of his ultimate favorite pranksters. David has worked on the prank shows, Fameless, Scare Tactics, and Fright Club. David shares how he loves being in the awkward moments and how far he's willing to go in order to get them. Kyle and Ethan find out how some of the funniest pranks came to be. David shares stories of pranks that never made it to air and even the horror stories that happen when dealing with people that have no idea they're on camera. David shares stories of one of his favorite shows, Double Cross with Blake Griffin that should be getting a lot more attention. In the Subscriber Portion, Kyle and Ethan hear a cool story from David about the time a cop pulled a gun on him. David shares his holy grail of pranks that he has never been able to pull off. David goes into injuries that have happened while pranking. Ethan finds out more about David's views on conversation culture, instead of cancel culture. As always they end with the ever great 10 questions.
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Have you ever seen those crazy prank shows where people get pranked and then other people are pulling the pranks and the guy getting pranked doesn't know he's getting pranked and he's like, why are you pranking me?
I am a connoisseur of such shows.
Scare Tactics, Fameless.
Fameless, I don't think a lot of people know Fameless.
Also, Prank Encounters on Netflix.
Fameless is a prank show by, well, I think we talk about it in the interview, but we have David Storrs or Dave Storrs.
I know he's a cool guy, so he probably goes by Dave.
Davey.
David, Dave, Davis.
If you watch these lots of prank shows, including the three I just mentioned, he is very often, I don't know, did he give us a name of what that part he plays is?
He's always the guy that's kind of like with what they call the mark.
So the person who doesn't know.
I feel like he did give us a name and now I don't remember.
Yeah.
So he's often like if they put a guy, like often they'll do a situation where a guy is going on a ride along with the cops and he's going to get into some crazy situation.
And the cop that they put him with is Dave.
And he's, he plays this idiotic cop who just doesn't know what he's doing.
And so it forces this guy to take charge in a very dangerous situation.
Yeah, he's like the guy sitting near them that's kind of making them feel like, oh, this is weird.
He works at the chemical company and he's dropping chemicals everywhere.
He's clearly like an improv comedian, a very funny guy.
If you watch these pranks, I've been a huge fanboy for a while.
So I just decided to find him on Twitter.
And he's on there and I messaged him.
I'm like, would you be in our podcast?
And he said, sure.
And what ensued is one of my favorite episodes we've ever done.
And the best part is we didn't have to be hilarious as we usually are.
Yeah.
Because all we had to do was say, tell us another funny story.
Exactly.
The kind of podcast we like.
We just said, tell us stories.
And he just told us story.
His last name should be Stories.
Not Dave Storr.
So close.
Yeah, so close.
So close.
So without further ado, I mean, he's coming.
He's carrying.
Wow, he's right here.
There he is.
Why are you freezing?
Oh, hello.
Well, here we are in the Babylon Bee podcast.
Now, we do a lot of, you know, politics and theology and that kind of stuff.
Stuff about God.
Yeah, Bible.
But what do we never?
We never talk about prank TV.
I guess we haven't, huh?
No, I am a connoisseur of prank TV, and we have the Lynn Manuel Miranda of pranks right here.
David Storr.
Now, if you don't know who David Storr is, Storrs.
He's from Fameless, Prank Encounters, Scare Tactics.
What else we got on the list?
We've got Double Cross.
I'm going to look that up.
Yeah, that's with Chris Weber.
Okay.
I did a Fox.
It was a one-hour special called with Terrence Howard Fright Club.
Okay.
Got to look that up.
That's a great name.
Yeah, right?
Good.
And then I think you hit the kind of the major ones.
Yeah, scare tactics, famous, prank encounters.
So I'm a huge fan of Fameless, but I don't know anybody else who's watched it.
Except for my wife.
It's mostly 10-year-olds.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm huge with the 10-year-old.
Yeah.
I don't know.
10-year-olds watch True TV.
Oh, I did a pilot called Shaq's Got Him Good where Shaq pranks.
Okay.
But it's more good natured.
Fameless is a David Spade connected.
How deeply was David Spider actually connected to that?
Was he writing a lot?
No, no, no.
He wasn't writing a lot, but he would come to a couple meetings in the beginning and then he would do one or two pranks.
Okay.
Yeah, I remember a season.
Yeah, yeah.
He was always uncomfortable.
Like backstage, he's like, I think we should reveal.
I think this is getting too awkward.
Oh, yeah.
He'd want to end the prank early.
Right away.
He's like, I don't know.
I don't know, man.
I'm a little uncomfortable.
That's my problem.
That's how I would be doing pranks.
I know.
Awkwardness.
I would immediately feel like, you know.
Oh, that's my jam there, man.
The more awkward it is.
You want to dig into that?
The more I love it.
I'm like, let's just hang out here for a little bit.
It'd be awkward.
So my first question is just like, you're clearly a comedic actor from when I've seen you on these shows.
You're so good at playing an absurd kind of doofus.
Yep.
Like they have these ones where a person, they think he's a real cop, but he just has no idea what he's doing.
And they're on this ride along with him.
Yeah.
And so I assume you started out as an actor, but like, how do you go?
What was your journey into pranking?
Well, I was started.
I mean, I did the Groundlings, which is an improv troupe out here in Los Angeles.
And I was in the Sunday Company, which is kind of like their B company, doing sketch and improv.
And I studied acting in college at Ball State.
So I was a theater major.
And so then the casting director for Suzanne Broderick for Scare Tactics came to a show and got invited to audition for Scare Tactics.
And then, I mean, the first, and that was shot out in Vegas.
And I think I did the second season is when I first started.
And I just fell in love with it.
I just loved the because it's background in theater.
It is kind of like a live performance.
You get one shot at it.
Right.
Tops of improv.
Yeah.
Your audience, you have an audience of one who you, it's your job for them to think you're real and to think that you're believable.
They can't sniff out like, what is this?
So crazy.
And like scare tactics, you're having people believe in aliens and the absurd.
So it's the psychology of like taking someone.
And, you know, so I would, when I first got cast in a lot of these, these prank shows with scare tactics, I was always, we call them the shill or the friend role, but you want someone to go along with you.
So you're not the only crazy person or you're not the person that's always around the crazy people.
You want someone to be like, like when, you know, Sven, one of our actors, Sven, he's does all the, he's got the long hair.
He does, usually does those.
Yeah, yeah, the scary guy, whatever.
It was scare tactics.
There was always this enemy or element or this danger.
It could be an alien.
It could be a crazy person, a mob person.
But when they leave the room, you know, you want to leave the mark alone.
So we always have to have someone there with them.
And it's always just like they leave the room and you're like, even like that look, like.
And sometimes you don't even have to say anything.
Like, you know, you don't be like, that guy's crazy, right?
But you just look and go, and then they start talking, like, yeah, that guy's crazy.
I'm like, yeah, I think so.
Yeah, right.
And it probably keeps them from booking out of there more as often because I know you had some pranks where people just take off.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We have people run because we, which is natural, man.
That's you know, you know, we I met my wife on scare tactics and she was a producer and they always would have safety meetings before every prank and they're like, okay, here's where so she would have to sweep the set for objects that someone could pick up and use as a weapon.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
So you went from acting in them to I assume you're producing and a little more involved.
It seems like you're in almost all of them now, the ones I've seen.
I ended up really watching these, what they call them, story producers, which are writers for the pranks.
And they would be on set and they would be there with the beat sheet and they would sort of be the creative entity where they would sort of know what the prank was and they would work with the actors and the director and sit next to the director during the prank and they'd be in charge of making sure that we got what was written on the page and that the network approved.
And so, you know, the director's there calling cameras and, you know, talking to actors and making sure all that stuff and that they get the visuals and that the story producer would just sit there on the side like, okay, the next beat is, you know, so they would talk to the director and then they would, sorry, then the director would communicate with the actors.
So like, okay, go, let's go to the next step.
And depending on the skill of the actor, sometimes it's, you know, they'd be saying the words and they would repeat those words like a parrot.
And then others actors would just be like, okay, go to the next beat.
This is the, you know, find the, you know, dirty underwear in the drawer beat, you know, or whatever it was.
Dirty underwear is key to good comedy.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you have any questions?
Well, it does seem like writing a prank is like writing a good joke.
Like you don't, you can't be too safe and expected, but there's this like too far thing.
But it seems like the stakes are much higher because if you go too far, you're going to like kill somebody or something.
I guess we're too far from our point of view, be like, oh, no, it's not believable.
Or they'll never believe it.
But it's so funny.
I have that element too.
Yeah.
Isn't his spectrum also too believable?
Because I think that that's part of what makes a good prank good is absurdity, right?
Like, because there's a point at which just pure meanness, right?
Right.
Like if you pull a gun on someone and you, you know, that's, you're going to get that reaction of like, oh my God, they fear for their life.
Classic prank.
He thought he was going to die.
No, I realized there's one prank on scare tactics where I was like, I didn't realize it in rehearsal, but in the moment, I was like, oh, gosh, this guy's really in a pickle.
Because it was like, he had worked.
Yeah, you've had some guns.
Yeah, guns and like that.
But this one was where he was working with this guy and he had to go to this bank.
And all the, the mark, we call them marks, the people that are getting pranked.
The mark was given a backpack by this kind of shady guy who'd already dropped a few seeds of like, this guy's dangerous or he's kind of off his, you know, rocker.
It's dirty underwear.
Yeah, dirty underwear.
Yeah, he found dirty underwear.
Hey, man, you want some of my dirty underwear?
No, okay.
I'm just asking.
A lot of people, you know.
And then you move on.
Just handing him out.
Did he just ask if you wanted this dirty underwear?
I think he did.
So he's handed a backpack and he said, go into this check deposit place and give him a backpack and hand him this note in the envelope.
So I was the bank teller.
And so this kid walks in and I'm like, how's it going?
And he goes, hands me the note.
And I just look at it and I go, okay.
I just, I have to check with my supervisor.
And I just went to see if you're okay with that.
He's like, wait, what?
What's on the note?
I'm like, no, no, I don't want, please.
And the note said, like, give, you know, give me all the money.
I have a bomb in the bag.
And he's like, no, no, man, it's not my bag.
I'm like, no, And all of a sudden, when I press this little button, the sirens go off, and there's a security guard actor in the corner, and he reaches for his gun.
I'm like, no, no, no, man.
Put the gun away.
We can handle this, man.
We're going to get you the money.
And he's like, I don't even want the money.
I don't want the money.
And then the cops show up.
The car peels out.
That gave him a ride there.
So now he's got lasers.
Cops get out of the car.
They have point gun lasers.
He's like, what are your demands?
I was like, he's got a bomb.
He's like, no, I don't have a bomb.
He's like, what's in the bag?
He opens the bag and there's a bomb in the bag.
Oh my gosh.
And it's beeping, you know?
And I realized, like, this guy, that's when I realized, I'm like, oh man, this guy.
Do you realize that later?
Yeah.
In rehearsal, in rehearsal, we're like, oh, yeah, okay.
So he comes in with the bag.
I'll see the note.
All right.
And then he'll peel off.
The cops will show up.
You know, I didn't think like, oh, now this guy thinks he's, he's, he had three.
I asked him after the bit.
He goes, I mean, I had three choices.
I was either going to go to jail, which was the best option.
I realized in the moment.
I was either going to get shot by the cops or get blown up.
Like, those were his three options.
I was like, oh, man, I'm sorry.
He's like, no, you know, he's just happy.
He had a good, he had a good idea.
Yeah, he had a good idea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a big roller coaster ride.
There's a huge safety net, but you don't know there's a safety net.
And the fact you, if you knew there was a safety net, that ride would not have been as exhilarating for the person unbeknownst taking that ride.
So, yeah.
Have you, I mean, doing this, I mean, they're almost like social experiments.
I mean, you're finding out what people do in life and death situations or in really absurd situations.
Like on Thameless, you have Pitch Fit.
It was one of my favorite segments where you have this panel of Hollywood producers.
Someone comes up and tries to pitch, and they just like, they destroy the pitch.
But they're these big, they're these big, you know, muckety mucks of Hollywood.
So like, you got to do what they say.
The marks are the ones.
The mark is pitching.
They have a real pitch.
They have this great one with Michael Bolton as one of the people on the panel, and he keeps pitching like a theme song for the guy's show.
Right.
So on Pitch Fit, you pitch your thing to the.
But it's people that have poured their heart and soul to our real pitch.
They're pitching around.
And they're like, what about with sharks?
Yeah, Michael Bolton's like, oh, could there be sharks in it?
And you're like, yeah, I guess the biggest loser.
Well, they're trying to be agreeable to get the pitch.
Exactly.
Right.
Oh, yeah, sure.
Sure.
That sounds great.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
So pitch it back to me.
Well, okay.
So it was this little girl in House on the Prairie, but they're sharks.
Yeah, I guess they have a shark out in the pool of sharks.
So seeing people put in these situations where it really feels like life and death, or I could be famous right now.
What have you learned about people through watching them go through that, if anything?
Well, it's interesting because Fameless was exposed camera, right?
So people think they're on reality shows.
They all think they're on a reality show.
And so that is basically that mentality.
You learn a lot of like, I don't want to mess.
I want to kind of go with the flow of things.
And it's just, there's this carrot at the end, like, oh man, you're going to be famous or whatever.
And then quickly, when stuff goes wrong, it's like it's trying to save face or it's just trying to get through the situation as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Although everything that we've set up is designed for that not to happen, you know?
And a good prank for us, at least for me, what I believe is like we always try to make it the marks faults or some choice they've made have ended up in this situation.
So rather than it's just a show for the market, you walk into it.
It makes a good comedy.
You know, yeah.
So it's just like, you know, always like, what'd you do?
Like, that's always the question.
You know, and I always, and I, to help that facilitate that, you alluded this cop I play, Detective Ross.
I believe it was Detective Ross, and we became a recurring character because I was just a little bit, I was one pencil short, you know, of a good, I don't know, I don't know what a pencil short is.
Yeah, of a color, of a crayon set.
No.
But I was always just like, I was always hearing things a little late, or I didn't understand.
And part of that one is you want the mark to talk.
You want them to be the smartest person in the room.
So they're verbalizing rather than me having to say, like, oh my gosh, did you, you know, what was that?
They want it.
I want them to ask me that.
You know, like we did one where we did a ride along and I actually didn't, I, you know, early on, I was like, hey, man, I got some cookies off my partner's desk to have some cookies, you know, whatever.
And throughout the early part of the prank, I was just a little even further off than I'm normally at.
And then we get this call.
I'm like, hey, man, did someone steal these pot cookies from the evidence locker or whatever?
I'm missing my pot cookies.
And I'm like munching these cookies in the mic.
Just like, I didn't want to say, hey, I ate the cookies.
I was just acting more strange because I want him to say, you dude, you high.
But you just spot cookies.
I'm like, what?
I am?
You know, like, oh.
So now he's got to babysit me.
And he's on the radio.
Like, I think Detective Ross ate some of that.
I think he's high.
Like, come on, man.
Don't say that.
I'm going to get in trouble.
Yeah.
The element on Fameless of them trying to stay in character for the camera.
Like the one that comes to mind because I've been re-watching a bunch to get ready for this interview was Man Mud.
You guys have like a, oh, God.
You guys have like a, it's basically like a QVC.
Like, you know, it's basically, would you buy that?
Yeah, would you buy that?
Is that the name of that?
Yeah, would you buy that?
So they have this doctor that comes on and explains he has this face.
What is it?
It's like, yeah, it's a clay.
It's from the Zed Wellers.
The Zed Wellers.
Secret recipe from the Zed Wellers.
And you don't know what the recipe is.
And we kind of like get the person and put it on their face.
And he's just like the male model looking guy, very handsome and very well spoken.
And he wants to do a good job.
So he wants to sell it.
And so we just give them, we just, what happens is we give them so little information at the top.
And then it's like, action, go.
We're like, so you're going to come on and talk to the interview.
The doctor's going to come on and you're just going to sell, have you done this before?
No, you'll get that.
All right, three, two, one, go.
And they're like, what?
Hi.
So it's like not giving them any preparation and giving them any tools and letting them sort of flounder.
And he's got this on his face and he slowly starts to realize as he lifts the boards and shows the processor making it.
It finally shows, you know, basically a digestive system that says all the ingredients that this family eats.
And then it just basically implies that he just has their poop on his face.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we're like live TV and I'm like, sells.
And he's looking right at it and he's still talking very character.
And the greatest part about that is you'll cut to commercial and you'll get his moment when the doctor leaves and him talking to everybody without the doctor in the room.
Yeah.
He's like, do I have it?
Turnip.
And like, I know that bit, but I'm like, what?
I'm sorry.
What?
I wasn't paying attention.
What?
Yeah.
This guy's like on his face.
I was like, oh, we should ask him about that.
I know.
Three, two, one.
Yeah, keeping a straight face.
Yeah, that's hard, man.
I thought I'd not do a very good job of that at all.
You have to edit that out a lot.
No, well, it started out the first time it really happened was we did a bit where a guy was getting, it was called Virgin Tattoo or whatever.
He thought he was on a show called Virgin Tattoo, where, you know, we take Kat Von D, who's a great tattoo artist, and we give people their first tattoo.
And that's what they think they're on.
Well, we put some numbing cream on.
Kat does her tattoo, and then it's a time for the reveal.
And it's, and he wanted this like elegant tattoo of like, I forget what it was, Mona Lisa or something like that, but a skeleton.
And he brought in these images.
He's like, I want this, and this caffonte is amazing.
And it's like, okay, we're going to reveal it's going to be part of the show.
Before we reveal, though, I have to tell you something.
It's not really virgin tattoo.
He's like, what?
He goes, yeah, it's called Revenge Inc., where we give unique tattoos to people who have wronged somebody in the past.
He's like, what are you talking about?
I go, I mean, it all makes sense.
We have this actress come out.
She's like, hello, you know.
He's like, I know this woman.
He's like, in college?
He's like, to be honest with you, I was drunk in college.
I don't, maybe I remember you.
She's like, you screwed over my girlfriend and I want to get back at you.
He's like, what are you talking about?
He's like, listen, I forget what his name was.
He's like, listen, TJ.
He's like, no, I'm DJ.
He's like, wait, you're not.
I got, uh-oh, I got the wrong guy.
He's like, what?
I'm like, I think it's been a long, I don't know.
Let's just reveal a tattoo to me.
He's like, does this have something?
I go, yeah, it's just, I think it's called turnip is a tattoo where it's like a chicken with a butt on it or whatever.
And he goes, this is where I lost it.
He's standing there with a mirror looking at it.
He's like, he goes, is that what's permanently on my back?
I just are.
Yep.
He's like, are you laughing at me?
I'm like, sorry, man.
It's been a long week, but yeah, and I just couldn't keep a straight face.
He's like, my grandmother.
I'm going to see my grandmother next week.
It's just like all these layers of this guy.
This thinks he's got this real tattoo.
We put like numbing cream on it and people who never got a tattoo, like they just look lying.
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Oh, I know I am.
Oh, I sure am.
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I don't believe it.
I'm sure you can ask this a lot, but what's the percentage of people that just get all pissed off?
And, you know, you have to have them sign something.
People sign things.
To be honest with you, not a lot.
We are pretty good about people signing.
And it's a two-party signature where you get them signed before when they audition or for the show.
Like they think they're all.
I mean, I guess for that one, for famous is like, we got their signature, but still after the fact, then we reveal what the real show was.
We have to also get their signature.
Yeah, so how often does the person not sign afterwards?
Not a lot.
I mean, we sign a lot almost all the time.
There's only, I don't, maybe one or two of my entire really do like a screening process to see like, you think this person.
Yeah, they have this whole system set up where you, they've either they're auditioning for something or they're for her job interview and they fill out all the paperwork.
I'm thinking more like man on the street pranks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Higher percentage of that kind of thing.
Well, with scare tactics, the friend was setting them up.
So their friend was there.
That helps.
That helps.
Famous, you know, and usually with famous, it's like they just think they either ruin something, they're on the hook for something, and then what's all prank, you're off the hook.
You don't, oh, God, that's great.
But then I did a show.
I didn't talk about, talk about this one.
It was like, oh, God, it's one of the most embarrassing prank shows I've done.
It's called Smile, You're Under Arrest.
And it was with Joe Apio, that sheriff in Arizona.
Like, I got deputized in Arizona.
And you know, where you like, have you heard these stings where you're like, come on down for the lottery?
You know, sign up.
You got this pamphlet.
Come down and they show up and they're like, All right, you know, fill out your name, sign here.
This is who you are.
You're under arrest, actually.
You know, you have warrants out for your arrest.
So, anyway, so they took that and made that a television show.
So, they're like, so most pranks are where things get worse and worse and worse, and then you get left off, let out of the hook.
You're like, all right, it's all prank, whatever.
This one was the opposite, and it was like things got better and better and better for them.
And then they're like, and actually, none of this is real, and you're under arrest, but you really are under arrest, but they really are under arrest.
They actually had outstanding wars, yes, they had access, and everyone around them were actually undercover cops, all our extras and all whatever.
And we got deputized for that thing, and it was one regret I do have.
I wish I hadn't done the prank show, but what I realized, everyone signed.
So, you're talking about people signing, like, you know, you're just got arrested on national television.
Not national.
I don't know if it's national.
It's cable.
And what I learned was going to jail for these people was not that big of a deal.
And also, like, one guy was like, you know, what we do is because you can get a warrant.
I learned this.
You can warrant your arrest if you don't show up to your court date.
So, so what they would do is like, they would, they put them in handcuffs too, like on TV.
Like, we arrested them, or they, I didn't, they did.
And they give them enough money to post bail.
And then they set up a new court date.
So they're like, here, here, here's a, here's money to post bail plus a little extra.
Go home, then show up at your next court date, and it'll be fine.
And so that's why most people sign.
And also, one guy was like, he's like, what jail are you going to send me to?
He's in handcuffs.
They're like, oh, some.
He goes, oh, that's my home jail.
No, no, man.
Just, I don't want to post bail.
Yeah.
And then on Monday, he gets out of, he gets out of jail for that week and he calls the producers and thanks them.
Wow.
When will this be on?
I want to tell everybody.
I want to show my friends, you know, let them know.
Which for me, if I had gone to jail, I don't want that on TV.
I don't want that on TV.
You know, yeah.
I don't know what I would do if I was arrested.
So when you do these pranks, I assume I know I've seen on ScareTax, you guys have bonus clips where other people are going through it.
So how many times do you do one prank to get the right?
We usually have four people in the queue.
Okay.
So what happens the morning of our prank is we get there on set, the actors go through it.
We usually have our A mark, like they'll know like this, they'll rank the marks.
Like this guy, this girl's going to be great.
This guy, he could be lightning in a bottle.
So we'll usually do the first one, not with our A mark.
We'll be like, all right, it'll get the actors sort of, you know, we'll figure out the kinks, anything that's wrong with it, whatever.
It might not work.
You know, after the prank, we usually like sit down with the mark and be like, what would have been better?
Did you suss anything out?
Like, what was, so we take that information, then we pow out like, okay, this, this part here with a dirty underwear, that was too much.
Maybe we'll make it a dirty TV.
The underwear was too dirty.
It was too dirty.
Or whatever, you know, so we would learn and then we would pull the mark, you know, but sometimes we would get lightning in a bottle.
And that first mark was great.
And, you know, so with famous like that and scare tactics, it was usually like three or four people in the in the wings waiting to waiting to be like brought to set under the guise of it, you know, with scare tactics.
It usually was like a one-day job.
Like a temp job.
Yeah, temp job.
Same, and famous was like, hey, we're going to hang out.
And, you know, the producers aren't ready for you.
You know?
So.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now, with prank encounters, it's a little bit different.
Okay.
Because they're so involved.
It's usually like we go for broke.
And on the occasion, because there's two marks and they start in different locations and then they meet for the final bigger prank, we sometimes get a sort of a dud mark that we have to like, oh, okay, we're holding pattern over here for this mark.
We're gonna substitute, we're gonna let this person go and then we'll bring in somebody else.
So, what is like, what is the moral code of a prankster?
The moral code?
Yeah, I assume that at some point you have a we kind of talked about a little earlier, but like between a prank that's too mean and a prank that's just not believable.
Yeah, where is that?
Where do you go?
You must have, you know, while you're pitching the things, there must be ideas where you go, no, we can't do that.
It's just too mean.
Yeah, I would say like with pulling a gun on somebody or threatening their life with a person that's not an alien or like a real person with a gun point of view is for me is like, it's not interesting at all.
I mean, that's dangerous and I don't know.
But you'll threaten their life with a deadly alien.
Yes.
That's okay.
Yeah.
Well, or an alien that like, it's never like, I think with life, we never say, oh, this person is, they're going to attack us.
It's like there's this alien out there, and aliens aren't inherently scary, right?
We don't know what the aliens' intentions are.
They might attack.
You might see an alien attack somebody and go off in the maybe not see them get killed or whatever, but like fear the worst.
Yeah, I think that's okay in my mind for some reason.
I'm totally comfortable with that because it's an alien, you know?
And the more absurd it is, I guess the more digestible it is for people.
I have a pretty far line that I personally would go.
Like to me, like arresting people, I guess that was the line.
I'm like, I don't know.
That's not fun to really arresting.
Of a really arresting them, you know?
That's a sad thing.
And even though like they, which weird, but it's like they broke the law.
This is what the cops are doing.
They're going to get arrested anyway.
But the film that seems to, and for just the beats are backwards, just for them to like think that they're getting this amazing thing.
Yeah.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, there's some things that are just arresting a person and taking their freedom away is a necessary evil of society.
It's not really something you want to like laugh and take joy in.
Right.
I didn't take joy in it.
I got really uncomfortable.
I bet.
But like this, the Terrence Howard one fright club, this kid, and it was all like, Terrence Howard, like you're going to spend the day in New Orleans and then you come back and have an evening with Terrence Howard because they're all Terrence Howard fans.
But then when we go into or some or when you're on the property or I forget what it was, but it was this kid who there's there was a whole boat ride in the very beginning and he was super scared.
He was very timid.
We're like, oh, this guy, we might have to get a new mark because he's like very cautious and scared, you know, just like afraid.
And then by the end of the prank, when there was some sea monster, there was some sort of creature that was attacking the group.
He came, he like stepped up and he was like, no, he was like protecting people.
And it was like, he went from like this scared little kid to be like, in a matter of two, three hours, you're like, you know, all right, here's a plant.
Here's a plant.
He's diving off to attack the sea monster.
Yeah, that's a real hero's journey.
I get it.
Yeah.
Those would be the moments I'd be most excited to witness.
Like, because you say that to put people in these high-pressure situations and see like who frequently stands in front of the woman or whatever.
And then I've seen the ones you have where sometimes the guy just takes off.
He's like a big buff guy with his girlfriend and just takes off running and just But it's interesting, like, what, because we usually play that.
I mean, we play where, you know, everyone around you is an idiot and you've got to take control of the situation and you've got to fix it because no one wants to see actors fix the situation.
Right.
So you surround them with people like me who are like just a little bit off and are useless and they have to take control.
And that's one cracker short of a picnic.
I'm trying to think of what an analogy would be.
I was trying to think of a dirty unworthy.
Pickle slice short of a sandwich.
So you ever watch a prank show and you go, that's obviously fake.
That was obviously.
Some, yeah, I do.
Just because I, and when we're always doing that, like in the prank, in the prank shows that I'm doing, even live, I'm always looking at their eyes.
I'm like, is he buying this?
In my head, I'm like, is he buying this?
Does he think this is over top?
How do we adjust the levels going forward?
Like, is this person all in?
Can I, and usually, like, it's, yeah, I mean, what you see on television is a four-minute edited version.
We're planting seeds and there are these seeds that are just testing, like, it's like psychology.
Like, if they buy this, maybe I can push it here.
They're not buying that.
Okay, I'm going to pull back a bit.
I'm going to try to be kind of normal or whatever.
And because I'm just constantly looking at their eyes.
I'm like, is he darting around?
I want them to avoid looking around the room because they could spot a camera, but I'm also like gauging like that, you know, I just kind of like put like, it's like going fishing.
Like I put a little chum in the water.
I'm like, I act real stupid.
You know, like if there's my phone on the desk is ringing and I don't answer it.
Like what will he do?
Like some of me is like curious.
Like if I'm like, your phone's ringing.
Oh, is that me?
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
You know, just it's just like little, little like psychological tests, I guess I'm doing in the moment.
And when the real fun is like when you have them hooked and you can just play in that space and get them wound up and they're being, they're saying so much funny stuff that they don't even realize.
Like I'm thinking of the Ed.
I'm like, oh my God, this guy, he doesn't even realize what he's saying, you know?
How often does it happen a person realizes they're on a prank show before it happens probably 10% of the time or they spot a camera or they get too weirded out?
Like we had this one in Prank Encounters 1 where it was like, oh, you're going to do some inventory at this.
It's an old military facility and they forgot it was here.
We got to get rid of these boxes and we're going to classify we got to figure out what's classified and what's not classified was the whole that was a setup, which is kind of like bizarre already.
And sometimes like the miscommunication of like we telling these marks, oh, you're going to do a temp job.
It's going to be an office job.
And like these girls show up and they walk in.
They're dressed for like a nightclub and they're like, they're sitting down and they're looking across and they're like, this is your partner, Dave.
Hey, what's up?
They're like, they're just all suddenly like, the one girl's like, yeah, I'm going to go.
I'm not going to, you know, I'm not, I'm going to get out of here.
This is not what I signed up for.
And I, instead of being like, oh, it was a prank.
I just, they're like, all right, Dave, call it.
But I'm like, I just want to live in this uncomfortable moment.
Like, can I stay?
I'd love to stay.
I mean, if she's going to go, I can, can I do, can I get her pay?
You know?
You got any questions, Kyle?
I keep taking your questions, I feel like.
Well, yeah, I was asking about the fake shows.
Are there any that are?
Oh, yeah, the Astronomy.
I don't know giant of a celebrity, you know?
I guess unless you got people.
Sometimes I watch something that I go.
Well, okay.
So it's less of the produced shows and more of the little clips you see on YouTube or whatever you go.
Oh, yeah, YouTube, I think that was clearly staged or whatever.
But I don't know if you know of any shows that are like that.
Yeah, but I don't think people care that they're staged on YouTube.
Some of the things, you know, the comments are like, oh, I don't think they're, but yeah, I mean, I can, I haven't, I have a gut, but I never know.
You never know for sure because people will do crazy things.
We had one on scare tactics.
It was a cult, and they're going to pass the cup.
The final moment was like, everyone's going to drink from the cup and we're going to go see our, you know, our Heavenly Father or whatever, you know.
And so they're passing the cup.
And in rehearsal, like, okay, so you passed the cup.
You're going to foam with the mouth.
You're going to.
He did tell us he has no line.
He will know as far as so this guy was supposed to, the cup was coming to our mark eventually.
But in the meantime, all these actors are taking this, they're foaming and they're going down.
And so in rehearsal, we're like, all right, he's going to grab the cup.
He's going to protest.
We'll kind of push it.
You got to drink it.
And then he'll say, no, I don't want to drink it.
So the cup passes to him and he looks at it.
And we're like, all right, here it comes.
He goes, and then he passed it.
And we're in the truck.
We're like, what?
Oh, my God.
And then, like, after the bit, it didn't work.
You know, our pregnant work.
I go, I, I go, hey, man.
Are you okay?
I'm like, what were you?
I go, did you understand what the cup was?
Maybe you didn't?
He goes, yeah, yeah.
You drink the cup and you die.
And I go, yeah, yeah, that was a bit.
So I guess a follow-up question for me would be, why did you drink the cup?
And he goes, like, I don't know, man.
If it's my time to go, it's my time to go.
That's not how it works, man.
You can say no.
He's just like, went in room.
Yeah, went in room.
Everybody's doing it.
I didn't want to make an awkward situation.
Yeah, yeah.
Because we did the same, we did a similar thing like that on the on the Terrence Haver thing where it was like a voodoo thing.
And we had a guy like cut his mouth and his blood would spit out in the cup.
And then that cup would be passed.
Oh my God.
And the girl was like, I know, I'm kind of, I don't, I really can't.
I'm diabetic or whatever.
I'm lactose.
I'm lactose.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm the same.
Yeah, I don't, I'm really, really doing blood these days.
If I could just, I mean, I would, any other, any other liquid I could do, you know.
If you're British, you're like, oh, put a gun.
Do you have any gluten-free blood?
But so you never know.
I guess you never know what if people are faking it.
But I, you know, you get a sense of like, come on, you're not going to see the camera or whatever, you know, or the reaction's too perfect or whatever.
So, but you never know.
You never know.
Sure.
What are some memorable pranks or, I mean, just the most elaborate?
Or, yeah, we'll leave it there.
I have some questions.
I guess the most elaborate prank show I've done is either it's probably prank encounters because you are dealing with two people who don't never met and they're starting in two different situations.
And just from a logistical standpoint, it's like you got to have actors because the control room can only talk to one set of actors in dealing with one mark.
The other one is kind of gone rogue, not rogue, but like you're on your own.
Like I usually, I was put in that position a lot just because I wrote the pranks.
I knew the pranks back and forth.
I knew the beats I needed to hit.
And I would just, you need to get the mark to buy into your world and make sure they get like, we're going to this house.
We're going to get, you know, we're inspecting it for spiders or bugs or whatever.
Have you ever dealt with spiders?
No, you'd be fine.
You know, meanwhile, it's a whole thing about spider prank, you know.
So it's for me, it's in terms of the complexity of the prank and the biggest prank, prank encounters has my heart.
But, you know, Fameless too is just like so light and so funny.
The only thing, I guess, actually, the prank show I love doing the most is another true TV prank show called Double Cross with Blake Griffin.
That's when it's a little bit more digestible, I think, where you don't feel as bad because it's like, you're going to go prank him, but we double cross you.
So you're already buying in the fact that you almost get what's coming to you where you're like, you know, oh, we can, we can prank you because you're pranking your friend and it's a little bit digestible.
Whereas fameless is like people's hopes and dreams.
It doesn't feel as like some days you'd walk home like, maybe I crossed the line.
He thought it was like a bigger deal.
And it was.
I love that you had the one guy who you guys are like trapped in a trailer and like dinosaur eggs.
Oh, yeah.
You start to realize they're dinosaur eggs.
That guy brought a rock into the, did you see that?
Okay.
So we're doing the bit, right?
And this guy, he was like, we're going to go find some, I don't know what we were searching for, but I picked up an egg of a, well, like a dinosaur egg.
And he's like, we had some zoologist there and he's like, oh, that's not a rock, man.
That's like an egg.
And you hear this growling thing.
And yeah, I pissed off this, this, the, the mark.
He's like, I don't trust that Dave guy, man.
I don't know why this guy, I told him to put the rock down.
And it was like, I caused all this mayhem.
But like, you keep doing it.
Yeah.
And he's like, all right, you guys, get into the trailer, you know?
And so he picks up a rock.
And I'm like, I'm like trying to look at the cameras.
I'm like, producers.
Like, I'm like, he's like, all right, like, and we're in.
Boom, lock the door.
And like, and I'm sitting with this guy and he's a big, big guy.
Huge.
And I will try to say something.
He goes, shut up.
You say one more word.
I swear to God.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, I mean, we were trapped in a room not as big as anything like this.
And I got a guy who's pissed off at me and ready to like throw a rock.
And what is this?
You're trying not to anger the angry creature that's outside, right?
Yeah.
And it's their eggs that you have.
Yeah.
We have the eggs and then I break the egg.
Of course, you drop and then stumble and drop the egg.
But what I loved is at the end of that one, when it's revealed that the prank's on him, he goes, oh, of course I pranked myself because I want to do anything for fame.
Yeah.
I love that he, and he acknowledged that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We did one prank on Fameless that was very much not in this sort of realm of tone.
It was more of a scare tactics thing where we were like, it was, we're working with a border cross.
It was called border control or border something or alien or whatever.
And we're like, hey, we're going to, you know, this guy bought in the fact that we were going to sit in porta-potties as hides, which had no glass.
I mean, I'm really like, put my arm out there, like, we're not going to be seen, but we're supposed to be like, you're going to observe how illegal aliens are going to cross into this border.
This is a pickup spot.
And so we have these little rigs, whatever.
And the whole joke was like this, this truck came out and then like illegal aliens, you know, were hopping out of the truck.
But then a real alien came in and was like, it's just a pun.
Yeah.
Then I'm like a real alien.
And it's just like this guy, you're, it's so amazing where the person are witnessing it and like, what?
And then a guy comes around and like, what'd you see?
He's like, I saw like an alien.
He's like, yeah, I know.
It's no, no, no, illegal alien.
It's like a, and he couldn't even like, he's like, what am I about to say?
He's not, I saw it with my own eyes.
He's like, an alien alien.
Like, to me, we always have these like, you know, if once the mark starts, like, we have a beat sheet and like all these things, I, you know, they start saying the synopsis or anytime someone starts recounting what happened and it's following your beat sheet and they're saying things that you want them to see and hear, it's like, it's beautiful.
Cause you're like, they're buying into this.
Yeah.
This crazy thing.
What about any time things have gone wrong?
When things have gone wrong.
It seems like when I watch those shows, like there have to be times where just things did not go right.
Like this plan.
Yeah.
I mean, there was times where, and I don't remember what show, but when people run, that's probably the most dangerous.
We had one kid run across the street and it was like in a busy traffic.
He just wanted to get out because, you know, he thought he pissed some mobster person off.
And he just ran.
He took his shirt off and ran.
And we lost him for like 45 minutes.
And someone found him.
Was that the limo?
Yes.
Yeah.
And the guy's like, why did you take your shirt off?
He's like, I don't know, man.
I just wanted to change my appearance.
I did not want to.
He puts a fake mustache on it.
Yeah.
He leaves town, changes his name.
Well, do we want to go into the subscriber lounge?
Yeah, I want to get some more time here.
Crazy stories.
I feel like we could just like mention a bunch of his pranks and have him tell us the cool stories.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Oh, and is there anyone want people to check you out or follow you or anything?
Probably.
I don't know.
I'm so terrible at social media.
I don't even know what my handle is.
He is on Twitter.
I'm on Twitter and Instagram.
I don't even know what my Twitter is Dave Storrs.
Dave Storrs?
Yep.
That makes sense.
Dave Storrs is my Twitter.
And then I don't even want to, yeah, Instagram.
But yeah, watch his shows.
Watch Fameless.
Yeah, Fameless.
That's probably.
I mean, his all shows are good.
But the thing, I think what I love about Fameless is it's like for a lot of the shows, it's about the scare.
Fameless is about the absurdity.
Yeah.
Most of the time.
You would like Double Cross then, too.
I love the absurdity.
Yeah.
Because it's more light.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, we're going to dig into some more crazy behind-the-scenes stories and laugh a lot.
And we're going to go into our subscriber lounge.
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Or if you're subscribed to the YouTube right now.
Smash that join button and you can check out the rest of the conversation.
Coming up next for Babylon B subscribers.
This guy was just like, he was like, man, we're not getting anything out of this guy.
Anyway, he once, as soon as the breakaway face went, he lost it.
You got any cool stories?
I got a good story for that.
I was doing Tony and Tina's wedding.
Like to see less cancer culture and more conversation culture.
Yeah.
That's something that made me excited to have you on.
Well, you know what?
I think, I actually do think it's outside of social media.
Enjoying this hard-hitting interview.
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