A man walks on to a subway train in New York City wearing a button - down shirt , tie , case jacket and boxer shorts . He stands and scan the newspaper . At the next stopover , a woman walk on the train wear down a down coat , scarf , perspirer and panties . She sits down and mind to heriPod . A few stops afterward , there are perhaps a dozen pantsless multitude on the 6 train , none of whom seem to know each other , and most of the people whodidremember their gasp that day have gone from staring at their laps to looking around questioningly to laugh out loud to placing mock bets with strangers on how many pantsless people will room at the next stop . In fact , at the next plosive , a individual boards the train selling pants for $ 1 a pair .
It take a tidy sum to surprise multitude in New York , the city where Naked Cowboy roams Times Square in his tighty whities playingguitaron a regular footing . The metropolis where an underwear party sent out men and women in their slavey to roam the street as a promotional stunt . But the people at Improv Everywhere judge real hard . The pantsless subway drive is amission(a public presentation ) that the group’sagents(the actors ) have carried out once a year since 2002 , and it ’s just one of many missions that Improv Everywhere set up up , often with unbelievably punctilious preparation . The end ? fit in to Improv Everywhere founderCharlie Todd , it ’s " to make import that are so astonishing , people will have a story to tell for the relaxation of their lifespan . "
Almost all of Improv Everywhere ’s delegacy take place on the streets and subway train of New York City . It ’s not precisely improvisation , of course , because the performance are planned out in approach ; but many of the initial , core member of Improv Everywhere bring together the group when they were pupil at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre , a schoolhouse that teaches long - phase improv techniques ( and sport many graduates who run on to do stints on Saturday Night Live ) . The agents apply a good deal of those techniques in their performances . And when your interview consists of unsuspicious commuter , tourists and metropolis folk music out for a stroll , you ’ve got to be ready for just about any sort of chemical reaction – and rather contain it seamlessly into the performance with comic results . That ’s improv .
Charlie Todd came up with the idea for Improv Everywhere after a Browning automatic rifle - hopping night out with friends in 2001 . That Nox , his friends mentioned he bore a slight resemblance to player Ben Folds , and Mr. Todd resolve to quiz the observation by pretend to be said musician . The issue was his first successful mission . He imbibe gratuitous all night , receive a twain of invitation from apparent Ben Folds ' groupies and got show into VIP way by bouncers who ultimately throw out Todd ’s friends when it became unmortgaged they ’d slip Ben Folds ' wallet . And thus , Improv Everywhere was bear : A stagecoach for the stageless ; a script for struggling actor who have yet to take Broadway by storm ; an seek to get New Yorkers to remove their earbuds – which is not as comfortable as it might seem . harmonize to Charlie Todd in a Columbia News Service floor , " It ’s amazing what you have to do to get people to stop and make up tending . "
ride the subway without drawers is a effective means to get people to pay tending . Improv Everywhere has also arranged a subway surprise political party , in which agents hang banners , passed out party chapeau to underpass riders and got everyone to crouch down and yell " surprisal ! " when the " natal day boy " agent board at the next stop . Everyone sang " Happy Birthday , " and the agents served cupcakes . The subway wedding proposal was similarly organise except agents had metro riders holding cards that spelled out " Will You Marry Me ? " and one of the agents propose to his " girlfriend " ( another broker ) when she room the train . This charge had some of the distaff subway passenger a chip watery-eyed . The subway is one of Improv Everywhere ’s favorite stages . But it ’s not the only microscope stage . Some of the group ’s hunky-dory missions take place above ground . There ’s the one where a tuxedoed broker set up a fancy comforts table in a McDonald ’s restroom and offered customer handwriting towels and cologne water when they were done at the urinal .
In another mission , agent staged a time grummet in a Starbucks , repeat the same , five , very obtrusive actions , in the same order , every five minutes for an minute :
And in a fountain in Washington Square Park , agent make up the New York City Synchronized Swimming team performed a routine to Styx ’s " Come Sail Away " in front of charmed onlookers and three , very serious - looking factor - judges . The squad needed a sum of 28 points to go to the Athens Olympics . They just made it .
In the next subdivision , we ’ll take a closer look at a few of Improv Everywhere ’s mission , including Best Buy , Cell Phone Symphony and Best Gig Ever .
The Missions
Best Buy
On April 23 , 2006 , Improv Everywhere invaded a Manhattan Best Buy . Eighty agents prune up as Best Buy employees , frisk Best Buy - blue shirts and khaki trouser , and positioned themselves at random about the store . In addition to the group ’s usualhidden television camera , Agent Todd came up with a genius back - up video beginning : They ’d practice Best Buy ’s own demonstration products . " All we would have to do is bring in blank tapes andmemory cardsto insert in their own picture and still cameras . " In addition to the very specific frock code ( down to the belt and black shoes wear by Best Buy employees ) , thee - mailinstructions for the mission include , " Do n’t shop , but do n’t crop either . If a client comes up to you and asks you a interrogative sentence , be polite and help them if you eff the answer . If anyone ask you if you mold there , say no . "
The uniformed agent far outnumbered the literal Best Buy proletarian . At one point , an agentive role catch a walkie - talkie communicating from a security guard say , " Thomas Crown Affair ! Thomas Crown Affair ! " When employees , security system guards or , eventually , police force officers asked what was going on , the broker ' answer was always along the assembly line of , " Oh , I ’m just waiting for my boyfriend . He ’s over there in the television section . "
The factor did not seek out client , but they whole looked like they crop there so customer often approach them . The agents usually did their good to point them in the good direction ( and often break ) , although the opportunity for improv was sometimes too much to resist . One factor recalls this commutation :
At that point in time , an genuine employee hurry up to the pair scream , " She does n’t work here ! "
The 80 employee look - alikes remained in the store for more than an hour . The store ’s managers were , as several agent put it , " freak out , " and some of the agents were see out before the missionary station was formally over . But the majority of agent managed to stay in the storage until Agent Todd give the signal to leave . Best Buy foreign mission accomplished .
Cell Phone Symphony
In a brilliantly choreograph performance in February 2006 , Improv Everywhere created a symphony ofcell - phoneringtonesin a bookstore called The Strand . The Strand is a Brobdingnagian place with about 120 cubbies in the bag - check subdivision of the storage , where mickle of people terminate up leaving their electric cell sound while they shop . Often , one or two of those earpiece start call up , and most people in the shop do n’t even see up from their browse . Improv Everywhere decided to find out what would pass if dozens of earphone in the grip balk started ringing simultaneously . But not only that – the headphone would be organise by ringtone to go off at different metre like the motion of a symphony . Here ’s how the delegation run down :
To create enough of a ruckus to get people in the storage to really bear attention , they ’d need a lot of phone . One - hundred and twenty agents showed up with their cellular phone telephone for this mission , so that signify 60 phones would go to the bag bank check and 60 would stay outside to call the 60 inside . The group of agents stood in the freezing cold ( it was 15 grade F that nighttime ) a few engine block from the stock and divided up by phone brand . Each stigma group incur a ringtone that was preloaded on all of the phones in the group . Half of those telephone set would go inside . The agents with inside phones programmed their telephone to use the appropriate ringtone and devote their number to someone with an outside phone . The agent with an inside phone headed to The Strand , where they would trickle in and each check a udder containing a phone . The agentive role with an outside headphone prepared to look in the cold for 45 minute .
With all of the phones in place at the bag hitch , the federal agent - conductor stand outside with his orchestra and get the symphony . All 60 agent dialed their fit number and , on the music director ’s clue , hit send . Inside the strand , 60 cell phones get ringing , and the great unwashed front over to the grip check , where the amused employee hear to figure out where the racket was initiate .
And then it stopped … but not for long . The conductor signaled the Samsung group , the Nokia chemical group , the Motorola group , the Treo group , and the LG group in succession , create a symphonic music of dissimilar " movements . " employee and customers inside witness the show with various reactions – some were irritate , some were disordered , but most were savor it . There were two employees at the bag bridle in the center of the action , and one of them had a vast smile on his face the intact time . A thesis developed that a exclusive phone was causing all the others to ring , either by fault or by design , and the bag - check employees searched for the " induction phone " to no avail . A nearby employee remarked " It ’s like a David Lynch movie in here . It does n’t make sense . "
outdoors , the music director was directing the concluding movement :
The symphony live a total of 20 minute , and it terminate just in time . A manager had just begun marking down the bag - check numbers of the ringing phones when suddenly all was silence . Agent Todd give the signal , and the privileged agents begin the process of leaving the fit . Cell Phone Symphony mission attain .
Best Gig Ever
For one the most famed and also controversial missions in the Improv Everywhere play script , some of the chemical group ’s essence agentive role had to really study up . The estimate behind the " Best Gig Ever " mission in October 2004 was to give some unknown stripe with a terrible time time slot the greatest lance of its animation . After combing the amusement papers for an out - of - Ithiel Town band with a unfit show sentence , Agent Todd get back on Ghosts of Pasha , a stria from Vermont , play at the Mercury Lounge on Sunday nighttime at 10:30 . Under normal luck , that show would probably be pretty quiet . The agents of Improv Everywhere altered the circumstance , to put it mildly .
First , each of the 35 core agent download the Ghosts of Pasha album and memorized the lyric poem to all of the dance orchestra ’s call . Next , they decorated themselves with " Ghosts of Pasha " fake tattoos and silk - screen T - shirt . Finally , the 35 agent showed up at the fishgig , which turn out to be Ghosts of Pasha ’s third public performance ever . When the isthmus started to play , the audience – made up of 35 Improv Everywhere agent and three other multitude – was really singing along with the birdsong and yelling out requests for their ghost of Pasha favorites . Some people had take their shirts off and were dance and moshing . The stripe members got into it , too , feeding off the energy from the crowd , and give the carrying into action of their lives . After the last birdsong , a sweaty , shirtless federal agent jump on stage and hugged the lead singer .
According to Ghosts of Pasha , when the gig was over nobody in the ring speak for a longsighted time . The first words out of anyone ’s sass were , " What the pit just happened ? " The drive back to Vermont that night was almost silent . The set found out several days by and by that its near fishgig yet had in fact been an Improv Everywhere performance .
Behind the Scenes
While Improv Everywhere does some pretty crazy stuff , it ’s really not an " anything go " situation . There are a few guidelines for deputation , admit :
That last road map does n’t always function out . spook of Pasha , for instance , was embarrassed by the " Best Gig Ever " foreign mission when the band found out several daytime by and by that the crowd was " fake . " The band members felt like they ’d been made the cigaret of a joke ( but they soon got over it when they were mentioned in Spin and Rolling Stone and after contacted by an A&R rep from arecord label ) . There was also some overplus when Improv Everywhere conducted a " recital with Anton Chekhov " at Barnes & Noble using some old guy with a Russian accent they deplume off the street . Some of the people who ’d asked for the Russian playwright ’s autograph felt moderately unintelligent when they found out afterward ( presumably from friends or a Google hunting ) that Anton Chekhov die out in 1904 .
Regardless of whether some people do terminate up embarrassed by the stunt , most tally that what Improv Everywhere does is good street comedy . In sociology , what the grouping does is call " norm violation . " The military mission often represent the ludicrous – they get people to notice ( and often laugh ) because they go against everything we ’ve come to ask in the course of daily sprightliness . It ’s funny because the histrion comport as if what ’s materialise is altogether normal . In San Francisco in the 1960s , comedians Jim Coyle and Mel Sharpe employed a similar technique when they interviewed people on the streets for aradioshow , asking questions like , " Are you fundamentally fight down to taking an animate being and trying to evoke music from it ? " They acted like the questions they were necessitate were whole legitimate , and they became pretty famed for it .
Of of course , average encroachment can occasionally resemble law assault , and Improv Everywhere does occasionally terminate up dealing with the police . During the " Best Buy " charge , the police showed up at the store manager ' request , although the most they could do was advise the managers to ignore the 80 hoi polloi dressed in blue . Police also break up Improv Everywhere ’s " impromptu " U2 concert on Charlie Todd ’s rooftop in May 2005 . In the 2006 " No Pants " missionary work , one federal agent was cited by police force ( Officer Panton , to be specific ) for being on the subway in her underclothing and " stimulate public alarm . " In a auditory sense at the New York Transit Adjudication Bureau on April 20 , 2006 , the cite federal agent explained that she was in fact wearing " her own underwear plus a pair of ' boy shorts ' and bagger shorts . " The judge dismissed the citation , put forward :
It ’s unclear who had to yield that agent ’s lawcourt price or if there were any . Most cost for missions are covered by Charlie Todd , but the missions usually do n’t cost much . Improv Everywhere does accept donations viaPayPalthrough its Web site , http://www.improveverywhere.com , in example you ’d like to support the madness . Agent Todd would be beatify to have a bigger budget for his missions , and to that end , he would n’t turn down aTVdeal if it fare his way of life . If you ’d like to check out more video footage of the missionary station , you could find out it on the World Wide Web site or wait for the Improv EverywhereDVDto be released , which should be pretty presently ( no definite day of the month yet ) .
For more information on Improv Everywhere and related topics , check out the links on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
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