The shared experience of absurdity Charlie Todd

I started Improv Everywhere about ten

years ago when I moved to New York City

with an interest in acting and comedy

because I was new to the city I didn’t

have access to a stage so I decided to

create my own in public places so the

first project we’re gonna take a look at

is the very first No Pants subway ride

now this took place in January of 2002

and this woman is the star of the video

she doesn’t know she’s being filmed

she’s being filmed with a hidden camera

this is on the 6:00 train in New York

City and this is the first stop along

the line these are two Danish guys who

come in and sit down next to the hidden

camera and that’s me right there in a

brown coat it’s about 30 degrees outside

I’m wearing a hat I’m wearing a scarf

and the girl’s going to notice me right

here

and as you’ll see now I’m not wearing

pants

so

at this point

at this point she’s noticed me but in

New York there’s weirdos and Annie given

train-car one person’s not that unusual

she goes back to reading your book which

is unfortunately titled rape not sure

so she’s noticed the unusual thing but

she’s gone back to her normal life now

in the meantime I have six friends who

are waiting at the next six consecutive

stops in their underwear as well they’re

gonna be entering this car one by one

will act as though we don’t know each

other and we’ll act as if it’s just an

unfortunate mistake we’ve made for

getting our pants on this cold January

day

so at this point she decides to put the

rape book away she decides to be a

little bit more aware of her

surroundings now in the meantime the two

Danish guys to the left of the camera

they’re cracking up they think this is

the funniest thing they’ve ever seen

before watch her make eye contact with

them I love that moment in this video

because before she had before became a

shared experience it was something that

was gonna be a little bit scary or

something that was at least confusing to

her and then once it became a shared

experience it was funny and something

that she could laugh at so the train is

now pulling into the third stop along

the sixth line

so the video won’t show everything this

goes on for another four stops a total

of seven guys enter anonymously in their

underwear at the 8th stop a girl came in

with a giant duffel bag and now she had

pants for sale for a dollar like you

might sell batteries or candy on the

train we all very matter-of-factly

bought a pair of pants put them on and

said thank you that’s exactly what I

needed today exited without revealing

what had happened and went in all

different directions so that’s a still

from the video there and I love that

girl’s reaction so much and watching

that videotape later that day inspired

me to keep doing what I do and really

the the one of the points of Improv

Everywhere is to cause a scene in a

public place that is a positive

experience for other people it’s a prank

but it’s a prank that gives somebody a

great story to tell and her reaction

inspired me to do a second annual No

Pants subway ride and we continue to do

it every year this past January we did

the tenth annual No Pants subway ride

where a diverse group of 3,500 people

rode the train in their underwear in New

York almost every single train line in

the city and also in 50 other cities

around the world people participated

as I started taking improv class at The

Upright Citizens Brigade theater and

meeting other creative people and other

performers and comedians I started

amassing a mailing list of people who

wanted to do these types of project so I

could do more large-scale projects well

one day I was walking through Union

Square and I saw this building which had

just been built in 2005 and there was a

girl in one of the windows and she was

dancing and it was very peculiar because

it was dark out but she was backlit with

florescent lighting she was very much

onstage and I couldn’t figure out why

she was doing it after about 15 seconds

her friend appeared she had been hiding

behind a display and they laughed and

hugged each other and ran away so it

seemed like maybe she had been dared to

do this so I got inspired by that

looking at the entire facade there were

70 total windows and I knew what I had

to do so this project is called look up

more we had 70 actors dressed in black

this was completely unauthorized we

didn’t let the stores know we were

coming and I stood in the park getting

signals the first signal was for

everybody to hold up these four-foot

tall letters that spelled out look up

more the name of the project the second

signal was for everybody to do jumping

jacks together you’ll see that start

right here

and then we had dancing we had everyone

dance and then we had dance solos were

only one person would dance and

everybody would point at him

so then I gave a new hand signal which

signaled the next soloist down below and

forever 21 and he danced there were

several other activities we had people

jumping up and down people dropping to

the ground and I was standing just

anonymously in a sweatshirt putting my

hand on and off of a trash can to signal

the advancement and because he was in

Union Square Park right by a subway

station there were hundreds of people by

the end who stopped and looked up and

watched what we were doing there’s a

better photo of it so that particular

event was inspired by a moment that I

happened to stumble upon the next

project I want to show was given to me

an email from a stranger a high school

kid in Texas wrote me in 2006 and said

you should get as many people as

possible to put on blue polo shirts and

khaki pants and go into a Best Buy and

stand around

I wrote this high school kid back

immediately and he said yes you were

correct I think I’ll try to do that this

weekend thank you so here’s the video so

again this is 2005 this is the best buy

in New York City we had about 80 people

show up to participate entering one by

one we had there’s an 8 year old girl a

10 year old girl there was also a 65

year old man who participated so a very

diverse group of people and I told

people don’t work don’t actually do work

but also don’t shop just stand around

and don’t face products now you can see

the regular employees by the ones that

have the yellow tags on their shirt

everybody else is one of our actors the

lower-level employees thought it was

very funny and in fact a lot several of

them went to go get their camera from

the break room and took photos with us a

lot of them made jokes about trying to

get us to go to the back to get heavy

television sets for customers the

managers and the security guards on the

other hand did not find it particularly

funny you can see them in this footage

they’re wearing either a yellow shirt or

a black shirt and we were there for

probably about 10 minutes before the

manager decided to dial 911

so they started running around telling

everybody that the cops were coming

watch out the cops are coming and you

can see the cops in this footage right

here that’s a cop wearing black right

there being filmed with a hidden camera

ultimately the police had to inform best

by management that it was not in fact

illegal to wear a blue polo shirt

check

we had been there for twenty minutes we

were happy to exit the store one thing

that managers were trying to do was to

track down our cameras and they caught a

couple of my guys who had hidden cameras

and duffle bags but the one camera guy

they never caught was the guy that went

in just with the blank tape and went

over to the Best Buy camera department

and just put his tape in one of their

cameras pretended to shot

so I like that concept of using their

own technology against them I think our

best projects are ones that are

site-specific and happen at a particular

place for a reason and one morning I was

riding the subway I had to make a

transfer the 53rd Street stop whether

it’s these two giant escalators and it’s

a very depressing place to be in the

morning so crowded so I decided to try

to stage something that could make it as

happy as possible for one morning so

this was in the winter of 2009 8:30 in

the morning it’s morning rush hour it’s

very cold outside people are coming in

from Queens transferring from the e

train to the 6:00 train and they’re

going up these giant escalators on their

way to their jobs

so there’s a photograph illustrates it a

little bit better he gave two thousand

high-fives that day and he washed his

hands before and afterward did not get

sick and that was done also without

permission although no one seemed to

care so I’d say over the years one of

the most common criticisms I see of

Improv Everywhere left anonymously and

YouTube comments is these people have

too much time on their hands and you

know not everybody’s gonna like

everything you do and I certainly have

developed a thick skin thanks to

Internet comments but that one’s always

bothered me because we don’t have too

much time on our hands they’re

participants in Improv Everywhere events

have just as much leisure time as any

other New Yorkers they just occasionally

choose to spend it in an unusual way you

know every Saturday and Sunday hundreds

of thousands of people each fall gather

in football stadiums to watch games and

I’ve never seen anybody comment looking

at a football game saying all those

people in stance they have too much time

on their hands and of course they don’t

it’s a perfectly wonderful way to spend

the weekend afternoon watching a

football game in a stadium but I think

it’s also a perfectly valid way to spend

an afternoon freezing in place with 200

people in the Grand Central Terminal or

dressing up like a Ghostbuster and

running through the New York Public

Library

or listening to the same mp3 as 3,000

other people and dancing silently in a

park or bursting into song in a grocery

store as part of a spontaneous musical

or diving into the ocean and Coney

Island wearing formal attire you know as

kids were taught to play and we’re never

given a reason why we should play it’s

just acceptable that play is a good

thing and I think it’s sort of the point

of Improv Everywhere

is it’s that there is no point that

there doesn’t have to be a point we

don’t need a reason as long as it’s fun

and it seems like it’s gonna be a funny

idea and it seems like the people who

witness it will also have a fun time

then that’s enough for us and I think as

adults we need to learn that there’s no

right for a wrong way to play thank you

very much

you