Jay Leno recently scored a hit on The Tonight Show with an episode of the popular gas station sketch called “Pumpcast News” after a musical prank starring a former Chicago bartender Will Sims and his fitness instructor wife Monifa, went viral garnering more than 7.5 million views since the video was uploaded on YouTube on May 9.
The couple was at a gas station filling up their minivan when the screen on top of the pump went live with fake news anchor Jack Rafferty, portrayed by Tim Stack, for the “Pumpcast News”, engaging in a conversation with Will before asking him to sing for the show, something that he did with great success.
Will pulled off a truly entertaining karaoke to the tunes of Bon Jovi’s 1980’s hit “Livin’ on a Prayer”, with his wife Monifa joined in afterwards singing Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams.
While the singing duo impressed everyone with their joyful attitude and pretty good voices, and even though they were invited to Leno’s show to prove that they are legit, some viewers and websites have cast doubts about that, for a couple of reasons.
The first is that Rafferty referred to Sims with his name at the 1 minute and 1 second mark, while the Smoking Gun reported that his wife Monifa, has appeared in Pumpcast News before, something she acknowledged: “When it happened again, I said, ‘I cannot believe it!'”.
Also, according to the Chicago Sun Times, it turns out that both are professional thespians — founding members of Chicago’s Congo Square Theatre company, something that was not mentioned during their appearance with Jay Leno. Will said that they didn’t mention it so people wouldn’t think it was staged: “[The producers] didn’t want [people] to think we were actors and it was a ‘plant’,” Will says. “They were like, ‘You’re a bartender and she’s a fitness [trainer].’”
Will’s wife Monifa also stated that the prank was real: “I wouldn’t have looked like that, that wasn’t my best look after working out,” she said.
Well, we hope it was real because both offered an amazing performance and it would be a shame if it were to be proved that the joke was staged. Hop over the jump to watch the video for yourself.
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