Improv Everywhere
Encyclopedia
Improv Everywhere is a comedic performance art
group based in New York City
, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes."
The group carries out pranks, which they call "missions", in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of "chaos and joy." Some of the group's missions use hundreds of performers and are similar to flash mob
s, while other missions utilize only a handful of performers. Improv Everywhere has stated that they do not identify their work with the term flash mob, in part because their site was created two years prior to the flash mob trend.
Improv Everywhere has been profiled by many national and international media outlets including The New York Times
, The Today Show, and ABC's Nightline. Todd was interviewed on an episode of This American Life
in 2005. While touching briefly on two missions ("No Pants" and "The Moebius"), the show focused on "Best Gig Ever" and "Ted's Birthday", and how they created unintended reactions. Improv Everywhere was also featured in the pilot episode for This American Life's television show on Showtime. In 2007, the group shot a television pilot for NBC
.
. Later that year Todd started taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
in New York City where he first met most of the "Senior Agents" of Improv Everywhere. The owners of the theatre, The Upright Citizens Brigade
(UCB), had a television series from 1998–2000 on Comedy Central
. While primarily a sketch comedy
show, the UCB often filmed their characters in public places with hidden cameras and showed the footage under the end credits. Both the UCB's show and their teachings on improv have been influential to Improv Everywhere. Todd currently teaches and performs at the UCB.
in a park
fountain
to repeating a five-minute sequence of events in a Starbucks
coffee shop over and over again for an hour, from flooding a Best Buy
store with members dressed exactly like the staff to riding the New York City Subway
without their pants. All the missions share a certain modus operandi
: Members ("agents") play their roles entirely straight, not breaking character or betraying that they are acting. IE claims the missions are benevolent, aiming to give the observers a laugh and an experience.
IE have also performed several 'fake' missions which are staged and uploaded on April Fools Day as a real mission, causing outrage until the next day when the joke is revealed. Examples include the No Underwear Subway Ride, and the "Best Funeral Ever" prank.
and their channel is the 56th most subscribed on the site. IE's most popular YouTube video is "Frozen Grand Central", which has received over 26 million views. The two minute video depicts 200 IE Agents freezing in place simultaneously for five minutes in New York's Grand Central Terminal
. The video was listed as number 49 in Urlesque's 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos. Martin Bashir
declared on Nightline
that the video was "one of the funniest moments ever captured on tape." The prank has been recreated by fans in over 100 cities around the world.
" event involves a large number of people riding the subway
, all claiming to have forgotten their pants by accident. During a No Pants mission on 22 January 2006, the New York City Police Department
handcuffed eight members of the group while on the subway (according to the group, over 160 people had participated in the city-wide event). The eight handcuffed participants had been riding the 6 train
and were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct
. After appearing in court, the charges were dismissed. Despite the setback, IE continues the tradition each January, and in more recent years, the police have arrived at the event's meeting point not to make arrests, but to serve as friendly escorts. On January 9, 2011, over 3,500 people participated in the No Pants ride in New York, and thousands more participated in 48 additional cities around the world. Todd has stated that No Pants has evolved from a small prank in 2002 into an "international celebration of silliness".
On 21 May 2005 IE staged a fake U2
street concert on a rooftop in New York hours before the real U2 were scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden. A crowd formed, most of which thought that the people on the rooftop were actually U2. However, just like at the filming of the band's Where the Streets Have No Name
video in 1987, the police eventually shut the performance down, but not before IE was able to exhaust their four-song repertoire and get most of the way through an encore repeat of "Vertigo". The crowd, even those who had realized that this was a prank, shouted "one more song!," and then "let them play!" when the police officers arrived. This mission was number 23 on the VH1
countdown of the "40 Greatest Pranks."
During the Best Buy Invasion mission, an 80-person IE team entered a Best Buy store dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants—the uniform colors of Best Buy employees—and answered questions for customers (though denying being an employee of Best Buy if asked). While many of the store's actual employees laughed and took photos of the pranksters, the store's management called the police. After assessing the situation the police informed the Best Buy staff that they could not do anything except ask the IE agents to leave the store as there was nothing illegal about wearing a blue polo shirt with khaki pants.
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
group based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes."
The group carries out pranks, which they call "missions", in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of "chaos and joy." Some of the group's missions use hundreds of performers and are similar to flash mob
Flash mob
A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression...
s, while other missions utilize only a handful of performers. Improv Everywhere has stated that they do not identify their work with the term flash mob, in part because their site was created two years prior to the flash mob trend.
Improv Everywhere has been profiled by many national and international media outlets including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Today Show, and ABC's Nightline. Todd was interviewed on an episode of This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
in 2005. While touching briefly on two missions ("No Pants" and "The Moebius"), the show focused on "Best Gig Ever" and "Ted's Birthday", and how they created unintended reactions. Improv Everywhere was also featured in the pilot episode for This American Life's television show on Showtime. In 2007, the group shot a television pilot for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.
Background
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Todd started the group in August of 2001 after playing a prank in a Manhattan bar with some friends that involved him pretending to be musician Ben FoldsBen Folds
Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and television personality. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world...
. Later that year Todd started taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre or UCB Theatre is an improvisational theatre and associated UCB Training Center with locations in Chelsea, New York, the EEast Village, New York and Hollywood, California.....
in New York City where he first met most of the "Senior Agents" of Improv Everywhere. The owners of the theatre, The Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...
(UCB), had a television series from 1998–2000 on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. While primarily a sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show, the UCB often filmed their characters in public places with hidden cameras and showed the footage under the end credits. Both the UCB's show and their teachings on improv have been influential to Improv Everywhere. Todd currently teaches and performs at the UCB.
Missions
While long-time members of Improv Everywhere are usually the principal performers in missions, many are open to the public. IE has organized and carried out over 100 missions, from synchronized swimmingSynchronized swimming
Synchronized swImming is a hybrid form of swimming, dance and gymnastics, consisting of swimmers performing a synchronized routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied by music....
in a park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
to repeating a five-minute sequence of events in a Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
coffee shop over and over again for an hour, from flooding a Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
store with members dressed exactly like the staff to riding the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
without their pants. All the missions share a certain modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
: Members ("agents") play their roles entirely straight, not breaking character or betraying that they are acting. IE claims the missions are benevolent, aiming to give the observers a laugh and an experience.
IE have also performed several 'fake' missions which are staged and uploaded on April Fools Day as a real mission, causing outrage until the next day when the joke is revealed. Examples include the No Underwear Subway Ride, and the "Best Funeral Ever" prank.
YouTube popularity
Improv Everywhere's videos have been viewed over 170 million times on YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and their channel is the 56th most subscribed on the site. IE's most popular YouTube video is "Frozen Grand Central", which has received over 26 million views. The two minute video depicts 200 IE Agents freezing in place simultaneously for five minutes in New York's Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
. The video was listed as number 49 in Urlesque's 100 Most Iconic Internet Videos. Martin Bashir
Martin Bashir
Martin Bashir is a British journalist and media personality, currently with NBC News as a contributor for its Dateline program, and an afternoon anchor for MSNBC, hosting Martin Bashir...
declared on Nightline
Nightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
that the video was "one of the funniest moments ever captured on tape." The prank has been recreated by fans in over 100 cities around the world.
Police intervention
Some IE events have attracted police attention. The annual "No PantsTrousers
Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
" event involves a large number of people riding the subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
, all claiming to have forgotten their pants by accident. During a No Pants mission on 22 January 2006, the New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
handcuffed eight members of the group while on the subway (according to the group, over 160 people had participated in the city-wide event). The eight handcuffed participants had been riding the 6 train
6 (New York City Subway service)
The 6 Lexington Avenue and Pelham Local and Lexington Avenue Local and Pelham Express are two rapid transit services of the New York City Subway. The 6 local has a circle shape while the ' express has a diamond shape...
and were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct is a criminal charge in most jurisdictions in the United States. Typically, disorderly conduct makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to "disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such...
. After appearing in court, the charges were dismissed. Despite the setback, IE continues the tradition each January, and in more recent years, the police have arrived at the event's meeting point not to make arrests, but to serve as friendly escorts. On January 9, 2011, over 3,500 people participated in the No Pants ride in New York, and thousands more participated in 48 additional cities around the world. Todd has stated that No Pants has evolved from a small prank in 2002 into an "international celebration of silliness".
On 21 May 2005 IE staged a fake U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
street concert on a rooftop in New York hours before the real U2 were scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden. A crowd formed, most of which thought that the people on the rooftop were actually U2. However, just like at the filming of the band's Where the Streets Have No Name
Where the Streets Have No Name
"Where the Streets Have No Name" is a song by rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree and was released as the album's third single in August 1987. The song's hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song's introduction and...
video in 1987, the police eventually shut the performance down, but not before IE was able to exhaust their four-song repertoire and get most of the way through an encore repeat of "Vertigo". The crowd, even those who had realized that this was a prank, shouted "one more song!," and then "let them play!" when the police officers arrived. This mission was number 23 on the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
countdown of the "40 Greatest Pranks."
During the Best Buy Invasion mission, an 80-person IE team entered a Best Buy store dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants—the uniform colors of Best Buy employees—and answered questions for customers (though denying being an employee of Best Buy if asked). While many of the store's actual employees laughed and took photos of the pranksters, the store's management called the police. After assessing the situation the police informed the Best Buy staff that they could not do anything except ask the IE agents to leave the store as there was nothing illegal about wearing a blue polo shirt with khaki pants.
Book
In May of 2009, Harper Collins released a book about Improv Everywhere, Causing a Scene The book, written by founder Charlie Todd and "Senior Agent" Alex Scordelis, is a behind-the-scenes look at some of the group's stunts.External links
- Main site of Improv Everywhere
- A NY Times profile on the group
- Audio Interview with creator Charlie Todd on The Sound of Young AmericaThe Sound of Young AmericaThe Sound of Young America is a public radio program and podcast based in Los Angeles, California and distributed by Public Radio International...
: MP3 Link - Charlie Todd on The Today Show (February 2008)
- Charlie Todd on The Today Show (June 2009)
- Charlie Todd on The Today Show (November 2009)
- This American Life radio episode
- Charlie Todd lectures at TED]