Friday Night Cranks: The Real Deal

Since early 2007, Jared McMullin, Kristin Rose, and Joe The Camera Guy (as he is known) have been broadcasting their outrageously funny crank calls on Friday nights weekly for thousands of viewers on Stickam.  A mix between the F.N.C. crew’s creativity and viewer suggestions generally yields spectacular results. Calls will vary; from a three way call between a 7-11 and Chinese restaurant creating mass confusion, to a what you could call interrogation of health standards at the Domino’s Pizza Store recently featured all over the news as a result of it’s employees contaminating the food on video tape – it’s always unpredictable.

Erictric recently had the opportunity to ask the F.N.C. crew a few questions about their program, personal lives, and future:

How exactly did Friday Night Cranks come about?

Jared: To keep the long story short…We got really bored. We wanted to do a webshow, but we did not really have a good idea for a show. I figured there were way too many talk shows and radio shows on the internet, but not any live prank call shows.

Kristin: Jared, Joe and I used to watch a webshow called Sunday Night Stu.  We found Stickam.com from him, and created the idea of prank calling.  Then, we just put the pieces together and Friday Night Cranks was created.

Joe The Camera Guy: Well, it was a pretty long story, which is gonna be mentioned in the book, but in a nutshell, we thought of the idea in our grandmother’s basement.

FNC went as you describe on your website from ‘one of the biggest shows on Stickam, dropped to the bottom, and came back only to top the Stickam charts once again’. How hopeful are you that F.N.C. becomes even bigger than it is now? Does it really matter to you, or is it all about  having fun?

Jared: It is definitely nice to say that we are one of the most popular shows on Stickam, but we have always been in this for the fun. I think we just keep trying to make things as much fun for us as possible. Yes we do keep in mind what the fans want, but so far the more fun we have, the more fun it is for our fans.

Kristin: I am very hopeful that FNC becomes bigger.  I love getting the chance to entertain people, and FNC is the best way to do it.  But I also have loads of fun doing FNC, and I nothing means more to me than doing the show.

Joe The Camera Guy: I’m pretty hopeful that FNC will make it big time, and it doesn’t really matter to me, because it is about having fun. But I’m not going to lie, we all hope and try out hardest to become really famous, and hope at we do. But if we don’t, we probably still wouldn’t care, and continue to have fun.

Some of your crank calls tend to get serious, for example; not long ago you had a Wal-Mart on lockdown with possible police intervention. Do you ever feel nervous or regretful over a crank you’ve pulled on the show in fear you might be caught?

Jared: Haha well that one is probably the only one that I would never consider doing again. I was pretty sure we were going to be getting a few phone calls after that one. But we try and keep our pranks not as serious as that one. I personally like sticking to calls like the time I called the law office saying I got into a car accident, then later reveled that it was all over an X-Box game.

Kristin: I honestly don’t get nervous or regretful over a crank because we might get caught; we use Skype, which blocks our number so there so our calls cannot be traced.

Joe The Camera Guy: I personally get a little nervous, but I know that Jared always has a way to get out of things, and he hasn’t failed at it yet.

Do you ever think there will be a day when you’re too well known to pull off a prank call, in other words, the so-called victim will know exactly who you are by the sound of your voices?

Jared: That would be cool, but we are always trying out new voices on and off the show. So the chances of that happening are very slim.

Kristin: I’m not really sure, but it would be extremely cool if someone actually knew who we were when we called them. Of course it would take away from the prank call, but it would still be awesome.

Joe The Camera Guy: Ha! I have actually thought about that, but radio stations are famous for doing prank calls at a certain time every morning, afternoon, or evening, yet people still don’t know. So probably not.

Has it gotten to the point yet where people stop you in a public place and say, ‘Hey, you’re from Friday Night Cranks?’

Jared: Actually Yes! I went upstate for a competition for my school last week and the three days that I was in the hotel, I got recognized by at least 10 people. It was pretty awesome seeing them react and take a step back and continue to flip out. They all asked how Joe and Kristin were and told me about their favorite prank call. Meeting fans is something still new to me, but I am loving more and more each time.

Kristin: It doesn’t happen very often, but we have gotten stopped from people. We have met fans in places such as upstate New York, Long Island, New York, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Joe The Camera Guy: Kind of, in the past we have tweeted (Twitter) where we were going to be, and people have met us there. But nothing for me personally considering I am doing the tech work most of the show.

How many suggestions will you have received in the days prior to the broadcast of F.N.C.? What constitutes a good request submission?

Jared:  It averages around two thousand now. Most of them are pretty lame I have to admit. A good prank call to me is something that has not been done before. Like “My mom runs a ghost hunting company..call and say you think you have ghosts in your house”, that was a great idea which was pulled off successfully.

Kristin: For a good prank call, it has to be something silly, but funny,.  In other words we need a really good situation that no one would ever expect, but still believe.  Usually we have 2 thousand requests in 7 days, and we usually pick the top 50.

Joe The Camera Guy: We’ll receive about 1,000-2,000 requests per week. A good call (in my opinion) is a call with a good back-story, like if someone says “their friend ordered a prom dress, and say you accidentally sold it to her rival” (Actual example)

Where do you hope to take Friday Night Cranks from here?

Jared: We just want to keep this up as long as we can. The three of us are always going to be doing projects together. We may not be doing prank calls forever, but “Friday Night Cranks” as in us three will always be doing something. We have many talents, and prank calls are just scratching the surface of what we are capable of as a group. So I think the staff at Erictric should keep a close eye on us!

Kristin: I would like people to know us, and to look up to us.  When someone’s having a bad day, the coolest thing ever would be if the first thing they did was watch a Friday Night Cranks video.

Joe The Camera Guy: I hope to be known worldwide from the web so everyone knows about us. Kind of like “Fred” from Youtube…Except we have actual talent in our videos!

So – the next time you find yourself free on a Friday night, head on over to www.fridaynightcranks.com, and let the beauty of live entertainment play itself out. You can catch it live Friday nights from 9PM-11PM Eastern.