The Magical Porta Potty 2

Credits

Created and Directed by: Charlie Todd
Executive Producers: Charlie Todd, Andrew Soltys, Alan Aisenberg, Juan Cocuy, Justin Ayers
Produced by: Andrew Soltys, Aleks Arcabascio, Justin Ayers
Co-Producer: Isabel Lopez
Director of Photography: Justin Ayers
Camera Operators: Mike Doyle, Keith Haskel, Alex Crowe
Hidden Camera Technician: Kraig Adams
Still Photography: Arin Sang-Urai
Production Assistant: Gaby Aisenberg, Kenzie Woodrow, Kelley Dunlap
Sound Mixer: Harris Karlin
Hair & Make-Up: Sasha Grossman
Editor: Matt Braunsdorf
Special Thanks to Governors Ball: Tom Russell, Andrew Cataldo, Danielle Berg

Cast: Bennie Road, Jeff Kornberg, Laura Rucker, Dan Fox, Robert Breitenbach, Jon Bander, Samantha Jane Gurewitz, Claire Harris Matson, Cameron Sun, Hal Phillips, Dan DeStefano, Candice Opperman, Claire Ganshert, Kerri Sohn, Alan Starzinski, Audrey Stanfield, Adrien Pellerin, Mike Fiedler, Sarah Audu

For our latest mission, we staged a series of surprises at the porta potty area of the Governors Ball music festival in New York. When random concertgoers opened our “magical” porta potty, they were surprised by a variety of unexpected performers streaming out of the door. This mission is a sequel to last year’s Magical Porta Potty.

Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.

When the Governors Ball music festival asked us to come back again this year we spent some time brainstorming new things we could do. It’s really hard to stage a surprise moment at a venue like a music festival where there is art and entertainment every direction you look. We came to the same conclusion we came to last year– you have to stage it where people least expect it. The best spot to stage a surprising performance at a music festival is, for better or worse, at the porta potty area. We didn’t want to just stage a repeat of last year, so we came up with all new types of characters that could emerge from the porta potty. Last year focused on musical acts so this year we focused on non-musical scenarios.

Governors Ball had actually saved the porta potty from last year, so we were able to use it again. They also cut a hole in an additional porta potty to give us the chance to use two at a time. Double the porta potties for the sequel!

Our first surprise of the day was to have an entire wedding party recessional to emerge from the porta potty. Agents Dan Destafano and Samantha Jane Gurewitz served as our bride and groom who burst out when a random person opened the door, followed by parade of bridesmaids and groomsmen. We had a speaker hidden in the porta potty that played the classic recessional music.

The woman in the photo above had the best reaction of anyone all day. The look on her face was priceless when she opened the door.

I loved this guy’s reaction too.

Next up out of the porta potties, mummies! Our morph suit mummies turned the porta potty into a crypt. Many of them had toilet paper stuck to their feet, in an added silly detail.

For the mummy surprise, we also used the second porta potty on the other side. For one take we just had the mummies walk from one to the other, crisscrossing each other in two giant lines.

The next surprise was escaped convicts. 20 people in orange jumpsuits paraded out of the porta potty, seeking freedom. Eventually two correctional officers emerged from the second porta potty and a Benny Hill chase ensued.

For the next surprise, we staged a running of the bulls with some of our participants dressed in white with red sashes and others putting on some ridiculous inflatable bull costumes.

The runners emerged first and frantically sprinted out. We used the second porta potty for this one too on some of the takes, having the bulls make a surprise appearance on the other side.

I think we had even better reactions this year. Thanks to Governors Ball for inviting us back! Thanks to all of our awesome participants and crew for purposefully hanging out next to the porta potties all day. And thanks to everyone we surprised for being a good sport!