First, watch the prank here and the out-takes here.
Next, let us first
off proclaim that Michael Harrington is a fun, good-natured, beat-boxing guy who attended the reputable U of North Carolina and who has a
very bright future on the soccer field for the Kansas City Wizards.
That being said, everyone wants to know how in the world he fell for
the April Fool’s Day prank. The short answer can only be: because he is
Michael Harrington. Yes, he was proud of himself when he got the text
saying he was going to be in a Maxim photo shoot the next morning. No,
when he bragged to teammate Teal Bunbury when they were in the car
about it and Teal suggested it sounded a little fishy. He knew he got
the big call from Maxim – he was convinced. He did win bachelor of the
year in Kansas City last November and was (for real) featured on the
cover of KC Magazine. This was just the natural progression; the next
step.
Wrong. We “hired” two photographers, Amy and Chase Ashurst from The Rye
Studio, who are good friends and who came talking/acting/looking/and
even saying they just got in from Los Angeles (must have been on that
very popular SW Air Thursday 3:30am flight from LAX). We had intern
Sarah pose as the makeup artist, equipped with mouse ears and orange
and black makeup. The premise was simple (over-the-top stupid): Maxim
Magazine is touring the nation and getting hot professional athletes
who support Pet Appreciation Month to be in a photo shoot. We did not
inform Mikey of the details until he arrived on the morning of the day
that changed his life (i.e. exposed him to hearing meow’s and purring
from other MLS players and fans on every road trip for the next 3+
years).
At first, he was a tad hesitant, much like a real cat if you were to
try to put a birthday party hat on it. After Chase immediately said,
“Listen we have Pujols as a penguin at 4 o’clock and are really on a
tight schedule,” good ol’ #2 got into character. The makeup was put on
quickly, orange glob on the nose, black whiskers and some great
eyeliner. We then marched to the turf field at Swope for the “shoot.”
It started off simply with just some regular snaps from Amy, but
quickly transformed to prancing, pouncing, bopping a ball in the air
with his “paws,” stretching out in the sun, preening, climbing the
fence and getting tangled in the net of a goal. Amazing, but it is not
over yet. With shouts of encouragement from the photog and her helper,
Michael then complied with the request to walking on all fours for
about 70 yards on the field, stopping intermittently to claw at the
air. If this wasn’t already an instant classic, about 10 minutes prior
to this, more than 60 12 and 13-year old girls from Canada pulled up in
a bus to have a training session. Sadly, they did all know it had to be
an April Fool’s prank, but they were quickly thwarted to letting on to
anything.
The session ended with a quick Q&A. One example was:
Q: Who is faster you or a jaguar?
A: “I am pretty fast, but so are they”
OK, now time to break the news, because surely Mikey has figured it out
by now. Wait, maybe a couple more minutes. After the starting right
back thanked the photographers for their work and to make sure they put
good pictures in Maxim, he quickly (like a jaguar) darted back to the
locker room to wash his face and get ready for training. As he entered
the door to the training facility at Swope Park, Kansas City Wizards
assistant coach Zoran Savic was there (as scheduled) to tell him that
head coach peter Vermes needed to see him in his office immediately.
Harrington pleaded to go wash his face first, but Zoran said it had to
be right then. We had a hidden camera in Vermes’ office to videotape
the exchange and although Peter proved that he is a much better soccer
mind than actor, he did manage to get out a couple of great lines on
film (the outtakes will be up shortly), but what did not make it was
when Peter asked if Michael wanted to be a soccer player or a cat
(Michael correctly answered with soccer player).
Now he was off to train. The players all did a tremendous job of not
letting on to the hoax; some even acting a little jealous that their
teammate was selected for Maxim and not them. We quickly cut the video,
inserted sound and some of the pictures and synced the whole thing for
the player’s lounge when practice ended. All the players gathered
around to break down the previous game and they put Michael up front.
When the TV turned on and there was Michael in his cat face, the crowd
erupted. The video played, the players bonded and it ended with an
“April Fool’s” chant in unison. Michael Harrington was punked. He could
not believe it was all a joke, but now he realized how could it not
have been. Players wept and hugged in celebration and tweeted, but most
of all were dumbfounded. Yes, Michael Harrington actually believed the
entire thing was real. Face paint, mouse ears, Albert Pujols, climbing
on fences, roaring to the camera (cat’s actually meow right?), the
coach calling you to the office and a guy dressed as a animal
centerfold piece in a magazine for guys.
Michael took it like the champ and best yet, survived pretty much
unscathed; maybe a little battered ego in front of his comrades, but it
would all be forgotten by dinnertime. He then sat down in front of the
television and did what most 24-year old guys do; flipped on ESPN for
Sports Center. Boom, there it was. After Pete Carroll, Mark Cuban,
Shaq, Ken Griffey and other sports stars who were involved in an April
Fool’s joke were shown, Michael Harrington was featured. They played a
clip of the entire event, start to finish and even the hosts had to
throw their two cents in. Mikey’s phone starting blowing up, calls and
texts coming in from around the country. ESPN sent it to every ABC
affiliate in the United States. The video continues to run rampant on
the web. The local media made a big deal about it. Then, just when a
twinge of guilt started to creep in, Michael got his revenge. The phone
rang, it was Jesse Brukman, from you guessed it…Maxim Magazine. They
had seen all the postings of the video and had seen it on TV. They
wanted to interview the star and they made space for a story in the
June edition. He did it!!! Mikey took the easy route to get a picture
and article in Maxim Magazine. His path was simple; all he had to do
was to be Michael Harrington on April 1, 2010.
