Johnny Monsarrat Pranks: Hall of Fame #6: Eviction? Call the Lawyer! -- Johnny Monsarrat Pranks

July 30, 1996. When you play a prank, the victim needs to be someone who'll appreciate the joke. Otherwise, it's not fun. However, the best victim is someone who'll appreciate the joke, but doesn't normally believe in pranks. You can catch this person totally unaware.

Such a person was my lawyer and friend, Jeff Stoler.

It was Jeff's birthday, and I'd arranged something special with his legal partner, Jim Bilodeau. Jim fed us the legal procedure for how the county sherriff would arrive and shut down Turbine, if the landlord demanded it.

At a time predetermined to be convenient, I phoned Jeff with a desperate problem. As CEO, I was right person to place this call. "Jeff, help! There's a sherriff here and he's evicting us!"

"What?" Didn't they give you any notice?" he asked.

"Yes, I talked about it with Jim earlier." I said.

Back at the office with Jeff, Jim shrugged and apologized for "forgetting to tell" Jeff earlier.

We put "the sherriff" on the phone, a marvelous acting job by Rickland Powell. He went through all the procedure we'd been briefed on. He literally had Jeff speechless. I was worried about a heart attack situation occurring, so we had to end the prank quickly.

A bunch of Turbine employees gathered around the speakerphone, and I said "Jeff, there's one more thing I need to tell you..."

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" we all shouted.