Monday, January 23, 2006

I'm not a pathological liar

I have never been able to pull off a prank or a joke or a lie successfully without cracking up and giving myself away....until one day, when I totally surprised myself.
A friend of mine was in from London and had never been to New York before so I took a day off from work to play tour guide. He told me about all the exciting things he had done and seen so far - like Stern College, and all the different types of shampoo of one brand. But what made him the most excited was that he was able to eat kosher veggie pepperoni pizza. Apparently they don't have that in London. He was soooo excited about it, that he couldn't stop talking about it. It was really kinda funny how a normal guy from London was so incredible excited about something that we take for granted. So of course we had to go out for lunch to Pizza Cave where we could get this veggie pepperoni pizza.
Then we were shmoozing about what he wanted to do and see the rest of the day and I asked him if he likes fishing. He said that he likes fishing but it's kinda pointless b/c you can't keep what you catch b/c of kashrut and stuff. So, in a completely normal tone, I said "Well ya know, there's a kosher fishing pond in Brooklyn where all the fish are kosher so you can totally keep whatever you catch." Now you can only imagine how excited he was. He had just finished his incredible kosher pizza and now I just told him there's a totally kosher fishing pond in Brooklyn where you can keep whatever you catch. His whole face lit up and he screamed "REALLY?!?!?" And with a big smile on my face, knowing I had just pulled off a joke for the first time in my life, I said "yeah...no....I was just kidding". Then we both laughed a lot.
The funniest part of this story is not that a stranger believed me, and not that I totally tricked someone. The funniest - and also scariest in a way - part of this story is that when I retold it to friends, some who grew up in NY, even in Brooklyn, I would get to the part about the kosher fishing pond and these friends, who grew up here, also believed me! I was a little in shock that people here fell for it. But hey, I pulled it off again and again so score for me!
After this story, I decided that sometimes, it's fun to make up stories and see how far you can go with them. For example, my name in modern hebrew means closet. Really, I wasn't named after anything having to do with a closet. I was named after my grandfather. But when people ask me what my name means, or where it comes from, it's fun to just say that my name means closet and I got it b/c my parents met in a coat room, much like the squishy one in shul, and that's why they named me after a closet. And people fall for it. It is amazing!
Another fun "story" I've told is how I met people in my neighborhood. I was at a meal once with a very random mix of people in the same room. There were about 20 people at the meal and I happen to know most of them from random places like the neighborhood or from college or wherever. The girl sitting next to me asked me how I know everyone there. So I said to her "See that guy over there? We used to play in the sandbox when we were 3". She thought that was the cutest thing. So did I. That's why I made it up. But then I told her the truth, that I actually met him in shul much like most of the people at the meal. I started using that line about the sandbox a lot more until someone had heard it for the second time and caught me. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Someone pointed out to me that if I keep making up stories like that, one day, people will stop believing me. So I slowed down.....a little. So I'm really not a pathological liar. I just like to have fun with people's heads once in a while. It keeps people on their toes and it makes my day waaay more fun.

2 Comments:

At 2/09/2006 10:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's like playing the qustion game that they play on "Whose Line is it Anyway?" I used to play it all the time, where you contantly reply with a question. It drives people nuts!!!!!

Ziggy can't stand it so I've sort of stopped. It's a fun/bad habit.

btw, you should sleep more often. Why are you posting at 2:50am?????

 
At 2/09/2006 11:08 AM, Blogger Sameach18 said...

How, on this earth, is it at all like the question game? which by the way is reeeeally fun, but how is this like that?

 

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