(that is not me in the photo, but that is my Bluetooth headset I won)
I won! I won!
Here’s how it happened.
Pre-game
I’m sitting at work in the Tribune Tower. Outside my window at 11 am, I could hear a microphone with a guy talking, “Ok let’s start!” Verizon set up a claw machine in Pioneer Court outside the Tribune Tower. They are giving away phones!
A few hours pass, and I go to lunch and walk by the setup, and snapped this photo. I didn’t bother getting in line at the time.
I’m coming back to work from lunch with a meatball sandwich in one hand, and the Muppet Show comic book in the other. The line looked quite short and the game goes by pretty fast, so I figured what the heck. I’ll play just for the experience of it.
Each person gets two tries to aim the claw to pick up a round ball. This looks very easy as the round ball fits perfectly within the claw’s grips. It’s not like the tricky methods that all other claw games use. The heavy toy. The awkwardly sized toy. The toys jammed all together, so you can’t pick them up.
No.
These are just loose, light simple round plastic balls. In fact, they look like Pokemon balls. That made me giggle. Especially since when you successfully drop a ball into the bucket, the mohawk-wearing Verizon MC takes the ball out and hands it to a woman on the side. She then cracks open the Pokemon ball to pull out a piece of paper that tells you what you win. Super simple. Especially since I’m a claw game MASTER. (It’s true, I’ve blogged about the claw game several times)
Standing in line
When I get in line, I look up at the Wrigley Building’s clock saying 2:00 pm. I try to study what the best method is for securing a ball. But the goofy security guards standing there kinda blocked the view. The line moved really fast. I saw one of my coworkers in line, and he was playing with his iPhone. I told him, “dude, you can’t be playing with that in line. This is Verizon, man!”
While in line I was thinking about having the mohawk dude with the microphone yell out, “SHOUT-OUT TO 14TH FLOOR TRIBUNE TOWER!” When that short 15-minute wait was up, I was so excited to play the game, I dropped my meatball sandwich and Muppets comic book on the ground by the game and grabbed the joystick.
Playing the game
Ok, strategy time. Which ball? Following the standard claw game strategy, you go for one on the top and close to the bucket. I eyed a nice ball over the wall, and as the claw moved, it had a laser pointer. I yelled out “A LASER POINTER, NO WAY! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!” Seriously. I do these things.
As I move the claw to the wall, and think, “WHAT AM I DOING? THIS IS THE WALL? YOU DON’T PICK UP A BALL BY THE GLASS.” Thankfully the claw was multi-directional. That is you don’t get just two movements, and that’s it. You can move it around as much as you want. I slide the claw over to another ball closer to the bucket and press the red button. The claw drops.
The claw squeezes.
The claw doesn’t pick up a ball. NO! What?!
I couldn’t believe it.
Thankfully each contestant gets two tries. I become more determined. A steely glaze comes across my eyes. I dance in front of the machine looking for the perfect ball. I hop over to the side of the machine in search of the perfect ball. I found it. Right by the bucket.
I say, “I’m getting that ball right there. Oh yeah.”
The laser gets aimed right on top of the ball. Dead center. This is a winner. I drop the claw. A nervous chill covers my entire body as the claw is slightly off-center. I exclaim, “ut oh. It’s a little off center.”
The claw GRABS the ball. YES! YES! YES! But now the deadly carry-over. The claw carries the ball over. The machine is shaking. My heart is pounding. DON’T DROP THE BALL!
The claw finishes its trip over to the bucket and releases the ball. I WON! I WON! I turn to the crowd and yell, I win! I win! I think people are thinking I’m crazy, cuz nobody else was doing that.
As I bend down to pick up my meatball sandwich and Muppets comic book, the machine starts spitting out fog smoke, RIGHT WHERE MY SANDWICH IS SITTING. Literally. It was really crazy. It was like the machine was trying to cook my sandwich.
I walk over to the girl on the side to find out what I won. I was just happy enough to have gotten the ball. I didn’t really care what was inside the ball. She opens up the ball and says, “it’s a Bluetooth.” That’s cool! I yell out BLUETOOOOOOOOTH!
Post-game analysis
Oh man, that was fun. They handed me my Bluetooth, which funny enough, doesn’t work with my iPhone. But I’m happy, cuz I’m sure someone will be able to use it. Yeah, I could sell it on eBay, but meh. It came to me for free, so I’ll be happy to give it to someone.
So now when I hear the mohawk guy outside my window, yell out, “We have a new winner! Another phone,” I’m very happy. A couple of times I have yelled out at work, “A new phone winner!” Now I’m trying to convince my coworkers to play the game. It’s so much fun, everyone should play!
Great story! What an experience! Did the fog make your sammich taste any different than if it hadn’t been fogged on?
When a fog machine fogs all over you sandwich, it makes it very soggy.
FYI, that previous comment made it as a quote of the day as tweeted at: http://twitter.com/spudart/status/5027550954
Exciting! Did someone youtube your experience/win? or at least the “dance?” 🙂 Great story. and Congrats! And to think I was in that area earlier today (kind of, 4 blocks north) … shoulda woulda coulda …
Heh, if my iPhone could take video, maybe I would have recorded it. I didn’t have my S850 with me today (that’s what I use to shoot video). Oh man, that woulda been cool to take a video. Although honestly, the whole event was rather blah. People were just standing there all quiet in line. The mohawk dude, tried to get people excited a bit. But I think those security guys just standing there was a mistake on Verizon’s part. There was like four or six of them. All standing quiet looking tough. It set the tone for people to be quiet and not cheer. But since the MC guy wanted people to cheer, I would do it. The more frequent people win a phone, that means I would have a better chance at winning a phone. If only one in fifty won, that’s ok. But if one in five wins, that’s great! So i’m happy if someone wins a phone. I’ll cheer! You were four blocks south? Huh. Interesting. I thought I saw someone that looked like you on Michigan Ave. For lunch I went down to the comic book store a block south of the Cultural Center… that was about four blocks south. Did you see that the puppet bike was out?! They were doing a dance to the Muppets’ “mahna mahna.” SO CUTE. Oh how funny that I ended up buying a Muppets comic book too.
My Mich Ave time was a dart here and a dash there. Not sure, possibly went up to 2 blocks north of your claw machine bonanza … (now why did I use that word?…ha) Was in a hurry. sigh. And NOW I learn about the muppet thing? (hands held up in the air, screaming …. Nooooooooooooooo!) sounds like fun, though.
I wish we had such events in Wheaton. I seem to remember you yelling, “A LASER POINTER, NO WAY! THIS IS INCREDIBLE! when I had a laser pointer built into my custom croquet mallet. The 505Hammer is a classic piece of Americana. Please tell me you walked through the Cultural Center (Randolph to Washington) as you were walking south. There’s absolutely no point in using the sidewalk between Rand. and Wash. when walking on Mich. Ave.
I did walk through the Cultural Center on my way to the comic book store. In fact, only a couple times have I walked along the outside the building (when it was closed). They don’t have any good shows up on the Michigan Avenue galleries. I wonder they got a new curator there recently. The past couple years, the shows in the Michigan Avenue galleries have suffered. (sorry if you are the curator of the Michigan Avenue galleries, but i’m just not digging the shows).
The claw event happened by my school on 14th street in NYC so I did it and I WON THE PHONE!!!! WHOOOOO HOOOOO