"A Practical Joke Gone too Far" or "Why being a Celebrity is hard Work." (1222 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.7 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Will Zone <dianoga101.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2004-02-17 08:38:15 EST
It's been almost a year now, so its time for me to fess-up. If you got caught up in the madness then I apologize.
The Back-story:
Ever since I moved to NYC I've lost touch with a lot of my friends from Long Island and from college. Its one of those things that naturally happens. Part of growing up. We tried as best we could to keep in touch via emails, and IM's but those relationships are only so strong and last so long. These friends knew I was moving to NYC to pursue my acting career. That's all they know.
My friends also know that I'm a huge "Christopher Guest" fan. This is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, and Best IN show...some of my favorite movies of all time. This is key to the story...this joke.
The Joke:
As an improviser I got caught up with all the hoopla surrounding the release of Christopher Guest's newest mockumentary "A Mighty Wind". A musical improvised comedy!? My dream come true. I'd follow all the cast releases on IMDB.com with wide-eyed anticipation. Then it happened. It was late one night and I'm on IMDB and it came to me. I will add my name to the cast list of this movie. I had an account for IMDB and it was as easy as an email. So I sent it out, not ever thinking they would post it without a confirmation from some body somewhere in the magical world Hollywood. It didn't show up for like 3 weeks.
Then it was posted. Look at it. My name "William S. Nunziata" surrounded by some of my comedic idols. I was so happy with myself. I was trapped in my bubble...I wasn't even thinking that if I could see this...millions of other people can see this...I mean, I did think that...but I didn't care. The joke came to fruition.
Cut to me on the phone with an old friend from college. We were talking about auditions and what not, and I told him that I auditioned for a role in the Michael Douglas/Kirk Douglas movie at the time which was called "Smack in the Kisser", which was true...I never got it...also true. Then he told me an acting story, and then I saw my opportunity. I told him about how I got a part in the new Guest movie and he was like "yea right", so I told him to check out imdb.com to see if they posted a cast list yet...knowing full well they did with my name on it. He did it while on the phone and freaked out when he saw it.
I told him that I don't want people to know, and to keep it hush-hush. He said sure.
Over the next few weeks all sorts of friends flood my cell phone and my email inbox. "I heard you got a part...congrats....I can't wait to see it....I knew you would make it..." Ugh. I'm half loving it and half freaked out by it. I feed the fire and verify the story... not that I have to..IMDB does that for me.
I get a lot more calls when TV spots start airing. The "best" one is a call I will transcribe from my friend Lisa.
(ring, ring) I don't recognize the number (ring, ring)
Will: Hello?
Lisa: "Blah-blah-blah. (she proceeds to say some odd quote I don't recognize)"
Will: Hello? Who is this?
Lisa: Come on movie star. I just saw your commercial.
Will: My commercial? who is this, what are you talking about?
Lisa: Its Lisa.
Will: Oh hey...what's doin...what commercial are you talking about.
Lisa: For the movie you did... A mighty Wind.
Will: (pause) Ohhhhh.
Lisa: They are showing you in the commercial!
Will: What? What the hell are you talking about?
Lisa: I saw you in the promo...you had some line about the ceiling of the theater.
Will: Oh really...I don't remember.
Lisa: You looked good.
(turns out she thinks I'm Michael Hitchcock's character. I have no clue, I've yet to see a promo)
Will: Really? What did I say?
Lisa: That quote I first said...it was so funny. don't you remember your lines?
Will: No, um, Lisa, um, it was improvised...we shot like hours worth of footage so I have no clue what they put in the movie. (digging myself deeper)
Lisa: oh my god, that's so awesome. I can't wait to see it!
Will: Me neither.
Lisa I can't wait to see you on the big screen.
Will: Me neither.
The conversation continues and we change subjects. I'm in too deep.
I see the movie, love it, and am surprised, as I assume my friends are too, that I am not featured.
The Aftermath:
Right before the movie hit theaters an official cast sheet hit IMDB and my name was removed.
But, still to this day, if you were to do a google search for "William S. Nunziata" and "A Mighty Wind" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22William+S.+Nunziata%22++%22A+Mighty+Wind%22&btnG=Google+Search ) over 100 WebPages will pop up. I assume that all these people who created these pages took the cast list directly off of IMDB.com while my name was still listed on it. It's kind of embarrassing now. And also, it can't be good for my chances of getting into a Christopher Guest film in the future...I can imagine Mr. Guest reading reviews of his movie and seeing this odd Italian name popping out at him... I can only hope he didn't waste too much time reviewing it or making phone calls about it...I actually just hope he never saw it at all.
On a positive note, in my own small way I created buzz and I helped sell some tickets for folks to go see this great, funny and touching movie.
I've since fessed up to my friends who still ask about it. Fessed up meaning I'll tell them my stuff got left on the cutting room floor. But depending on my relationship with the friend I might tell them it was a big lie. But after this day, I will only tell the truth...its been too long.
And every once in a while I get a random email from an odd person in the world asking me about working on "A Mighty Wind". I no longer play along and quickly delete the email.
The Appeal:
Can you find it in your hearts to forgive me? And please, don't try this at home. DO NOT ADD YOURSELF TO IMDB. It leads to nothing but lies, lying and more lies...and no one likes a liar.
Sincerely and Sorry,
William S. Nunziata
A.K.A. Will Zone
PS- Does anyone else have a grand-scale joke story that they feel like fessing up to?
User Reviews
Submitted by Improv Addict <improvaddict.at.hotmail.com> at 2004-04-23 23:22:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Thunderlips (user info) at 2004-02-23 11:16:11 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
To all my love slaves out there: Thunderlips is here. In the flesh, baby. The ultimate male versus...the ultimate meatball. Ha, ha, ha.
Submitted by Swik (user info) at 2004-02-18 23:19:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cause you are BASTARD PEOPLE, and I'm gonna go home, and I'm gonna BITE MY PILLOW!
heh love that movie
mockumentaries are great
Submitted by ruggles (user info) at 2004-02-18 23:07:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yes. SMELL THE GLOVE. good shit.
Submitted by Ninjaburger (user info) at 2004-02-18 18:00:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
that fact that you show up in a google search for the movie is worth a +2. Funny
Submitted by tardbacon (user info) at 2004-02-18 17:48:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm confused.... which character were you?
Submitted by theWELLofZION (user info) at 2004-02-18 08:18:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2004-02-17 16:07:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
what reallybored said.
Submitted by Quartermain (user info) at 2004-02-17 15:49:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I've never had the patience for the grand-scale practical joke. All of my pranks have been pretty much instant gratification types.
Submitted by SpikeGoddess (user info) at 2004-02-17 14:50:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You are BASTARD PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But this is still fabulous. I bet Christopher Guest would get a kick out of it.
SpikeGoddess
Submitted by NotApologizing (user info) at 2004-02-17 13:28:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2004-02-17 13:21:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent!
Submitted by polyamorousaj (user info) at 2004-02-17 10:42:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
That's awesome. The only large scale joke I played was when we got a new kid at school and I got everybody to go along with telling him this asshole at our lunch table was gay. So for about two weeks this kid thinks the guy is hitting on him, all the while he's just trying to be nice. Then the guy did something to piss me off, ao I sent a Valentine's balloon from the guy we were saying was gay, to the new kid. The guy got his ass kicked in PE and I never got caught.
Submitted by WillZone (user info) at 2004-02-17 10:37:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i think the key is submitting before the movie comes out...before the official release is sent to IMDB
Submitted by Mac (user info) at 2004-02-17 10:30:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Zone,
Good story. I can't believe IMDB didn't have some sort of authorization system. Hmmm....guess who's about to be in every Jenna Jameson movie ever made? Oh that's right.
Submitted by WillZone (user info) at 2004-02-17 10:15:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I know, I know...the secret is now out.
Submitted by reallybored (user info) at 2004-02-17 10:09:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You real last name isnt Zone?
What a bummer.
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2004-02-17 09:34:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
heheheh. Spinal tap rules.
Submitted by Trout (user info) at 2004-02-17 09:05:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Funny.
Submitted by antiLemming (user info) at 2004-02-17 08:38:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment