Thanks to the hundreds of people who participated today! We hope you had as much fun as we did! We’ll be combing through the photos and video over the next few days and hope to have a mission report filed by the end of the week. In the meantime, if you were there today you can file your own report by leaving a comment on this post. Let us know how your individual experience was. If you upload your photos to flickr, tag them “mp3experimentfour” and “improveverywhere.” Feel free to post links to your photos here as well. Don’t miss Agent Nicholson and Agent Fountain‘s sets.
And if you want to continue worshiping Steve, why not pick up our new “Praise Steve” tee over at Neighborhoodies? It’s available in all sorts of colors, styles, and sizes.
Here’s mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44507633@N00/sets/72157594547236777/
I really do wish it could have been longer, 36 minutes went by way too quickly!
Interacting with people not involved with the experiment was definitely my favorite part. Even just seeing their reactions to the group.
Just because the mp3 experiment only happens once/year, we should still praise Steve everyday for all that he has given us. Today’s sermon was jam packed with fun!! The experiment brings piles of smiles for miles and miles. It feels so good to see people of all different primary colors come together under one dartboard.
The mp3 experiment is one of my favorite things about NYC. I always leave with such a good feeling. I’ll never miss it. I love the mp3 experiment and everything it stands for. I would love to see it turned into a book, a feature film, a breakfast cereal and a church. Praise Steve!!!!
This was a fantastic introduction to the high weirdness that can go on in this town. You’ve definitely influenced my decision to potentially move here.
Thanks guys! My twin friends were with me and we had a great time. That was so clever.
I was wondering about the German tourist after it ended. I tried searching for him- but he probably took off his German outifit when we were “relaxing”. Did he ever find where he was looking for?
Skipping after the German tourist was envigorating. I looked around and in every direction I saw multi-colored shirts. I heard many people who were saying “I know something is about to happen– what is this?” and of course, the shirtless guys drinking in the park reacted to the throng of people by screaming, “Party!”.
Some people were very creative with their shirt choices. I was expecting plain t-shirts, but– it seems I underestimated New York City. The people who showed up were real New Yorkers (or super-cool tourists). I was also surprised at how many children there were.
What surprised me most was that some people didn’t seem to notice 500 people pretending to walk dogs. There were people throwing footballs back and forth… they looked unaware.
All things considered, my first mission was the highlight of my summer. The day couldn’t have been more beautiful– When’s the next mission?
My first mission, and I had a blast! I thought thirty-six minutes was going to drag forever, but it went by in an instant! I excitedly look forward to the next event!
My first mission ever… it was wonderful! Definitely worth the $20 worth of train tickets and an hour of getting lost in the downtown subway system. Still, we were there an hour early and it was fun sorting out our fellow geeks from the average New Yorkers that happened to be clad in technicolor t-shirts. The best part by far was watching the reactions of all the bystanders. Especially when it came to high-fiving and giving thumbs up to all the strangers.
There was something beautiful about it all. I can’t put it all into words. But I was walking on air for the rest of the day. I’m stoked for the next one.
didn’t Steve remind anyone of the dude from Saw?
I was just waiting for the mp3 to say something like “I want to play a game. In the pancreas of one of the red-shirted individuals is an antidote to a poison you all have been exposed to by visiting the website. Each of you have been given a drinking straw. Let the game begin.”
An amazing time! I only took a few photos, but here they are. Enjoy. This was so fun. I can’t wait for the next one.
MP3 Experiment 4!
TRUE STORY: While we were supposed to be taking pictures of various whatnot, this guy comes up to me with his camera phone and asks if I will be in a picture with him. Not wanting to interrupt the spirit of the experiment, I smiled and he holds up his phone and snaps a shot. As he takes it, I realize that a) I’m wearing a yellow shirt and there was nothing in the instructions about taking pictures with someone with a yellow shirt or anything like that b) he wasn’t wearing earbuds and wasn’t even a participant in the experiment. Just as I realize this, he grabs me and kisses me and wanders off, I can only guess, to do it all over again to someone else. The end.
Awesome time, as always!
Here’s my paltry photo set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubixcube/sets/72157601534764026/
Got a couple of “The Man.”
Was that german tourist really not part of the experiment?
How fantastic a time did everybody have? This was my first time and I know I was five kinds of giddy when we had to skip in a massive throng that reminded me of a scene from “300″, but significantly more colorful.
I agree that the entire experience was absolutely beautiful; the setting, the concept, the weather. It was a perfect day for something like this. Felt so.. communal. Like Woodstock.
The only bad part of my day was when I got up from my Twister position and snapped the cord of my earphones. I’d been twisting so bad that I didn’t see it was coiled around my leg something fierce. Oh noes.. Luckily, I came with my friends and I half-headed it with one of them.
I can’t wait till the next one!! Steve rules QUITE hard. Had me laughing the entire time. Kinda reminded me of the King of all Cosmos from Katamari Damacy..
Thanks to everyone for making it feel so free and fun– All hail Steve!
Wow, what a beautiful day for such a great event!
Here is my youtube video of the photo session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vouw37cmga4
I had a great time with all of you – this just keeps getting better and better. Congrats improveverywhere!
Blog entry with some photos (been up for 2 days so probably full of spelling/grammar errors): http://www.mysilentscreams.com/2007/08/everybody-improvise.php
I came down from NH- took about 5 hours each way. My two friends that were supposed to join flaked out yesterday so it was just me. Was 10 hours of lonely transport worth a 36 minute IE experience????
HELL YEAH! That was the most fun I’ve had all year- probably the top 3 in my life. It was my first but if you keep doing these (and any others) I’ll be sure to participate. In the future I hope for a longer one with more strange stranger interaction and perhaps smaller, more manageable groups (like how MP3 III started out).
I met Christen and her friends and good friend’s daughter- you were all really cool and I hope we all run into each other again (literally) in future missions!
-Jim
Great fun.
It was cool to see Charlie Todd walking around just as casually as everyone else before the event. Also I kept running into him during the event which was cool.
Can’t wait for the the full report.
BTW. anyone else walk back down to ground zero? I headed back down there after the mission. It was right when the Deustche Bank building caught fire, which ended up growing to be a 7 alarm fire, with 2 casualties. It’ll be front page on tomorrow’s newsday.
here are my photos. awesome fun!
My daughter and I had a blast playing in our first improv experiment. The twister game was amazing, especially for Madcat, who was one of the winners. She just moved to NYC last month, so it was extra special to have her see (and help) New Yorkers having fun and making people laugh and smile. She’s also having a lot of fun trying to find herself in everybody else’s posted pics.
The relaxation bit reminded us of the Mugatu brainwashing of Derek Zoolander in Zoolander.
We had a family photographer taking shots from afar. Pics from all three of our cameras are at the link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58223401@N00/sets/72157601541700729/
We can’t wait to play again.
My first mission, and a fabulous first time out! I got to the plaza around 3, and I was standing around waiting for a friend to meet up with me. I noticed the plaza begin to fill up with lots of people that looked like they could possibly be part of the mission. About a half hour after I got there, someone in a yellow shirt approached me and we started talking – without ever mentioning we were both taking part in the experiment, we both just knew. 10 minutes later I saw a friend from grad school, along with her boyfriend, who are the ones who introduced me to improv everywhere. And 5 minutes before it started, my friend that I was waiting for arrived. At that point the plaza was filled with people!
Highlights for me:
- Guys on bikes riding through the plaza, one says “Last time I was here there was NOBODY here! It’s so crowded today!”
- High fives!
- The confused and amused looks on the faces of those we walked by.
- After the event was over, walking back to the subway, the group of people I was walking with ended up passing another group of people from the mission, we all knew by how we were dressed. High fives there too!
I can’t wait to see the finished mission report on this. And I can’t wait to participate in another mission!
*magical*- that’s the only way I can describe what it was like. Am I alone on that? It was like a natural high the entire time.
Hey Agent BlueLeopard! That was me in yellow! I need an agent alias now- how about “Agent LameAlias”?
My friends at I were really, really late because we ended up waiting for a friend to meet up with us in Queens forever. We started listening on the train at 4 o’clock regardless, and went along with the mp3 as well as we could. Once we got to Chambers, we ran our asses off and had missed the Twister part and had to run and ask people which direction the group had headed. Bystanders were eager to help us along with our quest, which was cute. We finally caught up with everyone right as you were reaching the field. After that, all was gravy. This was a really fun mission and it was hilarious to sit down afterwards and observe the pissed off and perplexed park rangers, especially when they were talking to Agent Todd (who of course was pretending not to have any clue what was going on, haha!).