--- title: Jimmy Fallon and Paul McCartney Pranked Fans at 30 Rock description: The elevators at 30 Rock were the place to be thanks to Jimmy Fallon and Paul McCartney's antics. canonical: https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-07T15:32:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:43.891Z og:title: Paul McCartney pranking fans in elevators is just a delight og:description: They had the funniest reactions og:url: https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1af03f017fd00fa1/698939ae7cdbac785fd5de0c/paulmccartneypranks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1497 og:image:height: 842 og:image:alt: PaulMcCartneyPranks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul McCartney pranking fans in elevators is just a delight twitter:description: They had the funniest reactions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1af03f017fd00fa1/698939ae7cdbac785fd5de0c/paulmccartneypranks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul McCartney Pranking Fans in Elevators Is Just a Delight > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0f6b9cdc-5052-4941-a9f2-0d0936e7e6d3&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 7, 2018 3:32 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 7, 2018 3:32 PM UTC [Paul McCartney](http://time.com/5347052/paul-mccartney-abbey-road/) has been in the music industry for a long, long time, but he still knows how to surprise his fans. McCartney stopped by _The Tonight Show_ on Thursday night to preview his 17th solo album, [_Egypt Station_](http://time.com/5388362/paul-mccartney-egypt-station-review/), but he didn’t just play a few songs. Instead, he and Jimmy Fallon decided to prank unsuspecting fans who were simply riding the elevator at 30 Rockefeller Center during an NBC Studios tour. In the segment, Fallon and [McCartney](http://time.com/5367945/paul-mccartney-james-corden-office-tour/) set up outside the 30 Rock elevators and when the door opened fans got an eyeful. One time the door opened to reveal Fallon and McCartney casually lounging around in velvet robes while reading the newspaper. Another the door opened on the two stars playing ping-pong. The greatest prank, though, was when the elevator doors opened and Fallon asked fans, “Wanna see a magic trick?” and then made the former Beatle appear from behind a blanket. The final joke was on Fallon and McCartney, though: As they sang The Beatles’ hit, “Drive My Car” to surprise another group of tourists with an impromptu Beatles concert, when the elevator doors opened no one was in it at all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/"},"headline":"Paul McCartney Pranking Fans in Elevators Is Just a Delight","datePublished":"2018-09-07T15:32:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:43.891Z","description":"The elevators at 30 Rock were the place to be","url":"https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1af03f017fd00fa1/698939ae7cdbac785fd5de0c/paulmccartneypranks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1af03f017fd00fa1/698939ae7cdbac785fd5de0c/paulmccartneypranks.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"PaulMcCartneyPranks","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5389860/paul-mccartney-prank/","name":"Paul McCartney Pranking Fans in Elevators Is Just a Delight"}}]}] ```