Last week we participated in the NY Shecky’s event. Or as we like to call it, our chance to finally find out if our friends and family have been lying to us all these months. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with Shecky’s, imagine a girl’s shopping party on steroids. Luckily we were featured as one of their hot picks, which aided in the stampede.)
We were told that over 2,000 women attended each night. That’s 2,000 women out to shop, gossip and drink free Midori Margaritas. It’s also 2,000 slightly buzzed women wildly swinging mammoth gift bags as they arm wrestle each other to get to the deals first … clearly, a golden opportunity. So we set up our store (and by store we mean trés chic folding table), consumed buckets of caffeine, and rolled out the pink carpet. At 5pm sharp the doors opened and we prepared for battle.
Our battleship
So what’d people think? Well, most women seemed to be first drawn in by the design, often saying, “Oooh look, so pretty.” Others would catch sight of our sign (The Pretty Evil Collection), purse their lips, squint, and come investigate. Regardless of how they were drawn into our little web, everyone had what we called “the moment of discovery.” Their eyes would drift over the cards, settle on the design they liked best, and then, as they read the copy, suddenly their faces would light up and squeals of laughter would pour out. Women would snatch their friends by the sleeve and say “Look at this card!” then, “No, no this one!” “Ha. Ha. Check out this one!” They would then pore over each card one by one. (Sometimes reeeeallly slowly while we stood by awkwardly gaping at them like zoo animals.) These were magical moments.
Here are some of our favorite sound bites…
‘These are so me.’
‘These are amazing.’
‘Do you have a can opener?’
‘I’m buying these and I’m framing them.’
‘You’ve definitely got a new customer.’
‘Can you point me in the direction of first aid?’ (Likely the result of an errant gift bag.)
‘This is the only thing I bought tonight.’
‘These are so much better than a necklace.’
‘I absolutely LOVE these cards.’
‘You were the one thing I wanted to come tonight to see.’
Look, people laughing!
More laughing. Is it the beer or our fabulous wedding card? Definitely the card.
Of course it wasn’t all rainbows. One woman visibly pinched her nose at our “welcome new baby, adios sex” card (we’re guessing she was either personally scarred by something similar or revolted at the concept of talking about – gasp! – sex) and another was so excited when she purchased our good luck card until her friend whispered something and she turned back to us and said, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize that it said good luck with that. I think that’s kind of rude. Can I have my money back?” Ummm, sure.
It was an interesting three days and, besides the blistered feet, (yes, we wore heels even though we were standing for FIVE hours nightly - we had to make up for style-lacking folding table somehow) we got what we had dared to hope for; validation that we’re not insane and knowing that the incredible feeling of making someone laugh never goes away. And no, no one called us phat hos, though we did meet one. After hours of standing on our feet, exhausted and slightly delirious, we sat numbly in the back of our cab, only to have our own moment of discovery:
We’re taking it as a sign. And also maybe a new card line.