The 24th of August 2016 will be forever etched in my memory and 2016 being one of the most epic of birthdays ever. Thanks to the amazing PulsElites, The MYFM Breakfast Show and DJ JEFF, it is also immortalised in cyber space forever. The team worked with The MYFM Breakfast Crew for a month to create a MYFM first of its kind production that scared the hell out of me and in the end left me moved and touched.
About a year ago we started a ritual of pranking every PulsElite (save for some lucky ones!) on their birthdays, starting with me.
Every time your birthday month comes round here in Pulse Asia, you’d be looking over your shoulders and continuously wondering when and how bad its going to be. Before we come to the epic prank that marked the end (or is it? hehe) of our birthday pranking ritual, lets have a quick look at some of the notable pranks The PulsElites have pulled off. Gives you some ideas on what you can do to your colleagues!
1. The lousy client
The PulsElites got a friend involved and sent one of our colleagues on a wild goose chase around the Klang Valley (this was pretty bad stuff!) on fictitious meetings and site visits.
A good friend played the role of a client who kept asking her to go to various venues, only to change the meeting venue after our colleague had waited for 30-minutes. The final venue of course was where we were gonna be having lunch, and all The PulsElites were there to greet her!
2. Eat Your Cake!
One of the first few pranks before people realised it was becoming a ritual. You walk in to office one day, and all your colleagues bring out a cake and sing you a birthday song. You feel mushy and loved, then just as you are done with blowing your candles… your buddy tips the cake onto your face! Not only does he just tip it, he presses it into your face! To make matters worse… your claims for the month get handed to you in coins!
3. The Superstar
Our colleague walks in to office and sees this totally out of this world banner hanging above his table, has a laugh about it and blows out the candles on his cake. Then comes lunch and we head out to a nearby shopping mall, packed with lunch crowd. As he is walking in from, the rest of The PulsElites open up the banner and started chanting his name as we walk towards the restaurant! While trying to enjoy his lunch, we string the banner up and make sure everyone sees it!
4. Whipped Cream Mania (and ink soles)
You go to the toilet to relieve yourself and suddenly there is a deafening silence, you slowly open your door and a bunch screaming girls come barging in! Not what we are fantasising about, as these girls are armed with whipped cream and they are unleashing it all on you!
It doesn’t end there for you though as these girls have got more planned. You grab some fresh clothes, find a pair of slippers to wear and are happily thinking its all over while moaning about the mess. As you are scrubbing off the sticky stains from all over your body, the girls are outside painting your slippers with BLACK INK!! Oh the joy of putting those slippers on after a good scrub….
Here’s the video. Nuff’ Said.
24th August 2016. The Epic Prank.
Here’s what went down for those who don’t understand mandarin/cantonese. (MYFM is as you may have already noticed, the most popular mandarin/cantonese radio station.)
I attended a meeting in the morning and our managing partner invites me out for lunch at a nearby restaurant. While we are busy eating, the MYFM Crew along with The PulsElites were busy rigging the The Hub (Pulse HQ) with 6 hidden GoPro cameras and rehearsing their ‘act’ . When they were done, our managing partner was sent a text to bring me back to the office. (should have suspected something when he asked me to ‘down!’ that cup of tea!). As soon as we step in, two guys from the team step out for a “meeting”. This as i was told later, was to reduce my bravery by reducing the number of men in the office. Within a couple of seconds of them stepping out, 3 guys comes straight in, one of which is pretty big with a scar on his arm. Big dude (i later find out he’s a pro stunt man) heads straight for my colleague Alan and starts yelling at him to pay up a loan he took and even smashes one of our cups! (that was really scary!! the screams you hear are real… even though the girls were in on it, they got freaked out too by the realism of it all!)
Cutting to where i come in, Big Dude starts yelling at Alan asking him where his boss is and Alan tries his worldly best to defer answering, he finally relents and points to me… and Mr.Big Dude now unleashes his fury on me! Kicking the table, chucking my documents around, and of course yelling at me. A quick check with my accounts manager (who’s in on the act too! everyone was…) on how much we have, i tell the Big Dude that i’ll give him ten thousand (because thats all we have actually.. lol!). That’s where he brings in his ‘BOSS’, strutting in in a Hong Kong gangster movie style is none other than DJ Jeff… who walks up to me and asks “do you know who i am?!”, a shrug from me and the rest of the ‘gangsters’ yell out MYFM Gotcha!! (in cantonese) and the rest of the PulsElites walk in with a cake with everyone singing Happy Birthday.
As you can see from the video, that made me jump from my seat to take it all in. Shocked. Was on the brink of tears as i was extremely touched by this amazing surprise gesture. You watch such pranks happen on TV and i never expected the team to go to such lengths for my birthday. Just knowing that the team had put in such effort to pull this off left me lost for words. I can’t say it often enough, i am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with such an amazing bunch of people. The team really lived up to our values of WOW, WE ARE FAMILY, and HAVE FUN AT WORK and put it all into one epic performance!
A big thank you to all The PulsElites, The MYFM Breakfast Show and DJ Jeff for making my 37th birthday so memorable! I’d like to extend a special thank you to the ‘ring leader’ and resident ‘prank instigator’ Ms.STING! Thank you for helping to continuously improve and mould our culture, practice our values, as well as always keeping us all accountable.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone!
“We are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we respect, trust and care for each other.”
jwanheah 