DinoBrite organizes video shoot to entice visit from Daniel Tosh
The crew filmed a crowd of USC students singing and dancing to Rebecca Black's faux-teenage anthem and woefully viral video, "Friday," as part of a gambit to help bring Daniel Tosh and his Comedy Central program, "Tosh.0," to the Columbia campus. Tosh recently launched a College Campus Invasion contest, where he invited college students from across the country to send in videos convincing him to visit their campus.
"Boombox Guy" J.J Shepherd was on the scene sporting a terrifically tacky green sports coat, and he gleefully paraded down Greene Street to try and attract students to come take time to participate in the event. By 12:30 p.m., an enthusiastic crowd began to gather on the patio.
Talking into a loudspeaker, Thompson marshaled the students into a tight circle, efficiently feeding them directions. Some students were trying to get passers-by to come join, some were desperately calling friends to run over and take part and a passing bike rider even stopped to participate in a take of the crowd screaming, "We want Tosh," still mounted on his bike.
Looking into the camera with a crowd of students behind him, Thompson delivered his ultimatum: "Tosh, if you don't come to USC, we're going to stand outside your window in Berkeley and do this for weeks on end."
When Boombox Guy pushed play on his iconic device, more students and passers-by had filed in, with more still joining as the crowd jumped around and belted out "Friday's" horrific lyrics about weekend fun and the conundrum of choosing which seat to take in a car. Some even stepped out to strut their dance moves and crowd surf.
After it was over, Susi Wolff, a third-year international business student, and Ashley Sabripour, a first-year business student, commented in near-unison, "We, we, we so excited," quoting the lyrics of Black's song.
Others missed the chance to perform due to class or meetings. Austin Meredith, a second-year mechanical engineering student, said he arrived toward the end of the song, "but it looked amazing and like a lot of fun."
Molly McNutt, a first-year retailing student, agreed that the dancing and singing, "was freaking awesome."
Alex Anderson, a fourth-year media arts student and frequent DinoBrite collaborator, said she was excited that so many people showed up, even if it didn't reach the huge, 350-plus person crowd of people who said they were "attending" on the event's Facebook page.
"So many people joined in when they realized what was happening; that was really cool," Anderson said.
After thanking the crowd, Thompson seemed incredibly happy with the results. "There weren't as many people as we thought there might be, but everyone's energy really brought it up," he said. Thompson also stressed he was "really grateful" for the students who showed up and gave it their all.
While the "Friday" dance mob is only one part of the "Tosh.0" consideration video, you can check out a cut of the dance mob and follow DinoBrite's next move on their Facebook page, DinoBrite Productions, or their YouTube page (youtube.com/dinobrite).
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