When you join the Urban Prankster Network on Ning, a profile is required. One of the fields is “special skills.” Just what sort of special skills does one need to be an urban prankster?
I researched many of the urban prankster profiles and compiled a comprehensive list of urban pranksers special skills:
–squirt guns
–pillow fights
–treeclimbing
–standing really still
–looking inconspicous
–looking conspicuous
–pretending
–laughing
–quasi-ninja moves
–fitting into small spaces
–fence hoppin
–boogie police
–house gymnastics
–leaving art on sidewalks
–slo motion
–parlour
–thinking I can parlour
–fitting into small spaces
–disguises
–impressions
–voices
–poker face
–ninja moves
–sarcasm
–crying on cue
If you have any more to add, please leave them in the comments, thanks.
My urban prankster profile contains the following skills: Leaving art on sidewalks, squirt guns, pillow fights, treeclimbing, standing really still, looking conspicuous, pretending, laughing, fitting into small spaces, quasi-ninja moves, fitting into small spaces, fence hoppin, boogie police, house gymnastics, slo motion, thinking I can parlour.
Note, I did not include disguises, impressions, voices, poker face, ninja moves, sarcasm, crying on cue, looking inconspicuous. Some things you just gotta be real with yourself about.
I have to wonder if I was a “victim” of some Urban Pranksters. I saw them before I was “attacked” and witnessed others being “attacked”. A group of 20-somethings were standing on the stairs leading to the promenade area of the Sears Tower. One by one, each person would target a “victim” and run up to them and make small talk, try to engage the victim in the same and then run back to the group on the stairs. In my instance, a pleasant looking guy ran up to me and complimented my nerd-tastic habit of tucking the tail of my necktie into my shirt so that it doesn’t fwap around in the wind. He said it was “cool” and that he was going to start wearing his ties like that too, told me I was cool to chat with him, thanked me and then ran back to the group while I continued on my journey. I don’t know if he was sincere, I don’t know if he was an official Urban Prankster, but I thought the whole experience was cool … even if I did check my back pocket to see if my wallet had been lifted. HA! The only thing I’ve done is sidewalk chalk art at my old courtship building up in Ravenswood. I would sneak out after hours and draw relatively elaborate chalk art on the sidewalks for everyone who lived in the building. I never heard any comments or questions about it, but I enjoyed seeing the decorated sidewalks in the mornings on my way to work.
Oh interesting Tom, you bring out another aspect of the Urban Prankster I never thought about. I tended to think that Urban Pranksters were the same as a flash mob. Well, i only thought that for the past couple days since I came across the Urban Prankster Network on ning. They define themselves pretty much as a flash mob–that is all their actions are done in one group of people at a predetermined time, and then they immediately disband on cue and act as though nothing happened. But taking that background out, and just looking at the phrase “urban prankster” it can be just one individual doing something pranky. Hmmm. So was the Sears Tower incident a flash mob? I don’t think so. But it sounds like it could be something very urban pranksterish. Although it certainly sounds like something very pleasant they were doing! I often wonder what it was like 100 years ago in chicago. Did strangers talk to each other more? Sidewalk chalk! How neat! What would you draw?
The incident at the Sears Tower seemed to be very friendly. The guy who approached me was smiling and immediately talking while his band of brothers [and sisters”> waited and watched. They each took turns approaching someone rather than all approaching different people or the same person at the same time. My sidewalk chalk designs were simple line drawings of smiley faces, peace signs, hearts, swirls, frogs, paper clips, flower pots, squares, circles, triangles, etc. all drawn very close together in different colors. Nothing fancy-schmancy, the designs were supposed to create some kind of impact and hopefully stop people for a moment to look at the designs more closely. Sometimes I wrote words, but mostly they were very basic design elements.