I recently found like in my archives like this really ridiculously poorly written press release, but somehow news stations showed up, nbc and abc local affiliates, and then it rippled out to most of those affiliates throughout virginia and it eventually made its way onto cnn story about we are still living the story about controversial sports teams, like the redskins and the braves are ever used the three it i depeg with antlers into that. My grandmother called me from wichita i thought it was on drugs, asked if i was on drugs. And can become it just got me thinking about, you know, if i, a kind of clueless 20 yearold College Student who had no idea how to write a press release and i had a budget for about eight stamps, if i could do this, imagine what Big Companies are doing all the time along with the lobbying firms and the publicity firms that they hire to shape what we read. So it fundamental change the way i think about media, and it also sort of kicked off sort of quasipranks. Thanks. Also tossed about the robot. Robo professor. It is read from the book, but i wont. Well, okay, so in 2008 during the primaries, bill clinton was stumping for hillary at the imu. Ive been mad at him for years for many reasons but one reason was what he did to Sister Souljah who was largely forgotten figure but the name is actually entered the lexicon of politics, whats called the Sister Souljah moment when basically a politician publicly tries to distance him or herself from their more radical base. And so he called out Sister Souljah for something she said to a reporter. She was asked this was right after the l. A. Riots in 1992, in which a white truck driver was dragged out of his truck and brutally beaten and she was asked by the reporter what was going on in the minds of the people who did that . And so it was a very thoughtful response, and it included the sentence black people are killing black people in the streets every day and the government doesnt care so why not have a day in which you kill white people . But it was one of have a deal and kill white people is what bill clinton called her out on at Jesse Jacksons convention, gathering of the rainbow convention, his political organization. And it was just, first of all, it was kind of like a prank but it was like a mean spirited prank because, yeah, he was shading the truth in ways that were, well, bothered me for many years. So anyway i finally had the chance to confront him about it. But im not going to you cant get anywhere by screaming and shrieking, bastard, or whatever, right . Implement the crowd and its a big imu main room, like i would have no effect if i was just shouting at them. So i decided to dress like a robot. Dress like a robot and i talked my way into the press stands along with the bloggers and cnn and stuff. So the cameras are all around me and it was a reversible robot costume. I brought everything an agenda, a silver helmet, silver shoes before joint security didnt notice, and i had this reversible black and silver jacket that sort of formed the basis of my costume. And i stood up and interrupted his speech and said, bill clinton, apologize to Sister Souljah. Robots are the world want you to apologize to Sister Souljah. By the time i finished saying that, you know, secret service and hillary staffers had surrounded me and told my High School Musical amplified microphone out of my hands and ushered me out, but not before i had thrown out a bunch of little cards with a website that had a robot manifesto on it that explains why. Because i knew that i would be shut out really quickly. Anyway, it ended up looping, this was a monday and it ended up looping on the Cable News Networks a good chamber for all week. It became a huge story, and i got the name robo professor. From the des moines register. However, it was in many ways a failed prank because it took me so long just now to sort of set up the store to explain who Sister Souljah was and what happened and so on. And so, instead, for instance, like they cnn anchor in explaining what was going on and why i did it, i still remember this quote, Sister Souljah was a black rapper who called for kill white people they which bill clinton called racist. Thats like it wouldve taken an intro with access to google like seconds to figure out that state was completely wrong. And, unfortunately, for those people who didnt remember that Sister Souljah moment in the first place, or only vaguely did, or you have, basically for everyone, not like the thing to remember was the news stories that framed it that way. So it was a failed prank. So four years later sarah palin came to the hamburg inn i hadnt upgraded to point a robot costume, super fly. I stood outside the hamburg. It was packed with support from waiting for a bus to arrive. The reason i learned from my mistake, the bill clinton mistake, which was it needs to have a simpler message. So i also, one of the things ive learned from printing, you need a good hook printing. I thought of having a robot protester in the first place bill clinton would help circulate the story. So if i said sarah palin, i did mean to. It was Michele Bachmann. Did i said sarah palin . It was Michele Bachmann. Same basic thing. [laughter] answer this time like my hope was robo professor was coming out as gay because i knew the term gay robot would be the perfect hook like circulate the story internationally. And it did into becoming an international story. And so assume she got off the bus, first of all i also had the foresight to get met steel from Little Village to shoot hd video of the, cheap consumer hd video camera so we could document it. Because i also knew that, yeah, blogs were possibly other news outlets would want to would be more likely to publish the story if it was embeddable. So basically he company as i a cost of Michele Bachmann as she got off the bus and Michele Bachmann not only are you a robo pope, or not only are you at homophobe, youre a robo pope. I will not leave that they support equal rights for human and gay robots. So i followed her and that only lasted about a minute. I started like, yeah, people start chanting go back in the closet, go back in the closet. [laughter] and i responded i cannot help myself, i was program to do this. I am day. And then the manager of the hamburg, the manager working at the time could you please leave . I felt bad for her, specially, of course. So i left. I was spoken to by the Iowa City Police officer who told me they would be consequences if i return. And i said affirmative. [laughter] and that was that come into they came back to prairie lights coffeeshop and quickly edited the video that matt steele shot down to like them to become a it to youtube and then within three hours that full minute of footage was used like on msnbc program about so anyway, yeah. And the last thing i want to say about it is trying to learn from my mistakes, mike pranking mistakes, even for people who disagreed with my message, because i targeted something that was a key part of Michele Bachmanns political identity, her homophobia, you know, even if they understood in ways with the bill clinton prank that didnt work. The mic is coming around, sorry. [inaudible] its being taped. Thank you. To talk a few times about failed pranks on people lose control of the narrative that they initially created. Are the times where losing control of that narrative actually doesnt detract from the political message but, in fact, enhances it . Can you talk about it maybe started out feeling but somehow when the pranks lost control a rebound . Thats a really interesting question. And you know, ive never actually found a case. What i have found is when the narrative starts spinning out of control, the key tactic is the big reveal where, so for instance, with the bill clinton or with robo professor versus bill clinton, immediately crafted an oped to the Washington Post which published it explain what i did and explaining the context, explaining what bill clinton did to Sister Souljah, even the reporter when asked, the reporter who are rich and interviewed her when asked said yes, bill clinton totally took her words out of context. So but i havent found an instance where it spirals widely out of control and something to deposit or productive for whatever comes out of it, but maybe i just wasnt looking when i was doing research. But the big reveal, thats really important. They may have a section of this in the book but maybe to talk about the yes men and how they fit into the whole prankster tradition. Yes, the yes men. They been around for about 15 years now. And one of the most famous pranks was when they sent out a press release stating that dow chemical was on the 20th anniversary of the horrible Chemical Spill in india which killed a lot of people and have lots of longterm Health Effects for the population, the Company Union carbide that purchased, that was responsible for the spill, it was purchased by dow. So the yes men used the fact that dow purchased Union Carbide as a fulcrum to, well, remind the world about what is still going on in india. They sent out a press release. They set up a fake website in which they said dow chemical is going to sell off Union Carbide and use the proceeds to compensate the community and of the victims. And so bbc world news and guided dow chemical official on which turned out to be a yes man, and dow chemical stocks crashed by like 3 billion within like an hour or two. They rebounded after dow chemical was forced to say no, we are actually jerks and we are not going to compensate the victims, the victims of the company we now own. And that we shoot you because it wasnt just the fact that he got on the air and that was viewed the first time by a few Million People probably, but that story, though referred a sex act or threat me and he became a really big story. So they succeeded i think because they reminded the world of what Union Carbide and by extension dow chemical to. I guess we have time for one more question. [inaudible] you mentioned something about the big reveal, and the yes men prank was actually the apology. They basically apologized for dow and that was when the prank emerged, thats what made that such a powerful statement spent i wish you try to sell the five star, but yeah, no, yeah, because i was actually, that was the thing that kicked things off. Got things rolling in terms of spreading the word about the prank and reminding the world. Yeah, one last question, anyone . Going once. Okay. If the big reveal is the defining feature of the prankster, is Edward Snowden a prankster . Is Julian Assange a prankster . Im just curious to hear, you know, where are the limits of the prankster and other forms of subversive decent . Thats a great question. I me, i dont really have a high apology of drinking a second distinction between pranks and cons. They all use the same strategy, the only difference is the underlying motives of the perpetrators. I would think that what Edward Snowden dead in terms of, you know, thinking about how he can use media to come well, raise awareness about something that deeply concerned in. I think that i would hesitate to call him a prankster, but i think it still lines up with, yeah, the same tactics that pranksters use. So maybe he is a prankster though. Ill think about it. Is all great questions. Thanks so much, everyone. [applause] both guys would be happy to sign some books. Come up here, get some Trading Cards by buying a book or just by sitting here, talked to steve. He drove in from minneapolis today and is going to d. C. Tomorrow. So lets send him off right. Thanks everybody. [inaudible conversations] you are watching booktv, nonfiction authors and books every weekend on cspan2. Booktv sat down with Hillary Clinton in little rock to discuss her newest book, hard choices. I learned, well ever before but serving as secretary of state to expect the unexpected. Nobody expected the socalled arab spring until it was upon us. And we have to learn to be agile and ready for the unexpected while we try to build the world that we want, especially for our children and now for my future grandchild, but weve got to be a where of the fact that all these other countries, all these billions of people, they are making our choices every single day. We have to be ready for that because i am