dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (05/18/84)
A friend of mine uses: "Hi, this is Richard on tape. Leave a message at the tone." Definitely not boring. Dave Sherman Toronto -- dave at Toronto (CSnet) {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave
ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP (Dave Ihnat, Chicago, IL) (05/22/84)
Actually, there are two sides to this. I've enjoyed acting and writing skits for about seven years now, and am a (somewhat GAFIAting) member of a science-fiction comedy improv group, Moebius Theatre. Naturally, when I got my answering machine, I realized that here was a thirty-second skit in the making. Thus, my messages have covered such topics and themes as: -The Great Cappucino Fission Reactor Disaster. Upon my purchasing a La Pavoni Espresso/Cappucino machine, I caught a lot of the 'what in the world does it *do*?' and 'Ghods! It looks like a Scottish Engineer's nightmare!'. (FYI, this is the same machine that James Bond demonstrated to M in one of the last couple of movies (after hiding the young lady). M's response was typical--after the ritual of making the espresso, steaming the milk, etc., he stared, dumbfounded, and said 'Is that *all* it does??') Thus, with this type of lead-in, I concocted a 10 or 12-part series of messages divulging that this thing was really a Cappucino Fission Reactor--but something had gone wrong, Dave and John are somewhat busy decontam--er, working in the kitchen--etc. This escalated, as you can imagine. I finally quit either during the China Syndrome, or the Mutant Invasion of the Living Room... -Topical Holiday Items. This has usually been accompanied by background effects, such as Elton John's 'Funeral for a Friend' (it that the right title? Oh, well, you know which one I mean) when my long-suffering knife fish died, or a Bela Lugosi duet with my friend John on Halloween. (Cuteness is punishable by a visit by the shade of A. G. Bell.) -One shots. For instance, the current message (somewhat stale, so it won't be around for long) covers the attack by the Wild Killer Yeast Cells that invaded my beer vats. For a friend who complained that he couldn't come up with anything, we worked up a Three Stooges skit using--count 'em!--four people. (It took 4 takes, though) In general, just keep in mind that you have 30 seconds to get in a real message--always give a name, and admonish the caller to leave a message-- expository material, some development, and the wrapup. Practice..it gets easier. What was the other side I mentioned? Just that you'll get a *lot* of no-message calls from friends of people who have heard about your messages. The topper was this last message--I'd called MicroPro in California about a WordStar problem, and when the tech engineer called back and heard the message, she told others about it. I was later told that the entire group called--and I believe it! Dave Ihnat ihuxx!ignatz
karn@mouton.UUCP (05/24/84)
My answering machine currently has the following greeting: "The number you have reached...[imitate intercept machine here] ...is an imaginary number at Bell Communications Research. Please rotate your dial 90 degrees and try your call again, or leave a message at the tone."
jcz@ncsu.UUCP (John Carl Zeigler) (05/24/84)
<> The bit about message pairs is interesting. How about voice-activated recorder for incoming messages. Is there a machine with this feature? John Carl Zeigler
lrd@drusd.UUCP (DuBroffLR) (05/24/84)
I was amused when, calling a friend, I heard the following message (recorded as a duet): "Hi. This is Mike and Denise. We're newlyweds and can't come to the phone right now..."