Surprise Entertainment comes in many forms...!
Hi guys! Alex here, director of Club Mob. Back in December we were part of such a beautiful and unusual surprise that I just had to share it with you! A few months ago I got a call from the wonderful Daisy from The Proposers (a proposal and romantic events company). The brief was simple...to help recreate, shot for shot, McFly's video 'Love is Easy' as a surprise for Junella, a huge McFly fan - using 50+ props, and her friends, family and fiance as crew and cast...LIVE. Simple...right? Check out the performance we were recreating below....
Ok, we were being pretty ambitious. The entire cast lived in the USA and Hong Kong so couldn't come to London until the day before the performance, the 50+ props had to be almost entirely handmade, we picked the 28th December when most theatres and studios are closed, and to top it all off, we were using a live band so that the fiance, Patrick, could sing the song live! And we would only get ONE real shot at this. But if The Proposers and Club Mob have one main thing in common, it's that WE LOVE A CHALLENGE.
Some of the initial props, and the brilliant Hoxton Hall theatre
Daisy and her team set to making the props and securing the theatre - my job was to plan out, second for second, the choreography and plan out where and when each of the props would be needed, and by who.
Daisy & Co particularly had a lot of fun with the bird costumes.
The commitment from The Proposers, Patrick, and Junella's friends and family was incredible to see. The main players rehearsed for a solid 4 hours with me the day before the performance, running through 1 minute of umbrella choreography over and over. Practice makes perfect...after that rehearsal they made the swift entrances, exits and spinning around the stage look effortless. Patrick's singing was spot on, and we all felt confident going into the final day.
The amazing home made props by Daisy and The Proposers
And what organised chaos the performance day was! Here are some shots during the dress rehearsal, side by side with McFly's original...
And then came the moment! Junella was led into the theatre, under the guise of a 'dining experience'...it kicked off and everyone was absolutely perfect. She gasped and of course cried, recognising the video and the song from the first bar - it was one of the quickest 3 minutes I've ever seen. The star of the night was Patrick with his brilliant rendition of the song - and the sneaky boy hadn't told anyone that it was in fact his birthday!! Watch the amazing performance in full below...
We ALL had a surprise after this, even Daisy and myself, when he showed all of us a video from Harry from McFly, congratulating them both on their recent engagement and wishing them luck remaking the video, which he admitted had taken days and days to originally film. He even invited Junella to give him a call should Patrick fail to pull it off...a joke, I'm sure!
Myself, Patrick, Daisy, Sam and the Proposer's and Hoxton's theatre team after the show
So this just shows you that a little ambition can go a long way. There were times when we all doubted whether it could be done, but with some expert advice and A LOT of planning - and of course, some CONFETTI, no Club Mob job would be complete without it - a bit of surprise entertainment can be anything you want it to be.