On Sunday, January 8th, 2012 tens of thousands of people took off their pants on subways in 59 cities in 27 countries around the world. In New York, our 11th Annual No Pants Subway Ride had nearly 4,000 participants, spread out over six meeting points and ten subway lines. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.

Digital Video: Matt Adams (DP), Karen Blumberg, Myo Campbell, Keith Haskel, Kristopher Knight, Adam Nawrot, Corey Richardson, Nathan Russell, Chloe Smolkin, John Michael Scholl, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Charlie Todd
Digital Photography: See our official photographers’ flickr sets here.

If you’re unfamiliar with this event, you might want to first read our history of The No Pants Subway Ride. Since this is the 11th year we’ve done this, there’s not too much to report other than it was another awesome time. Below are a small selection of photos that jumped out to me as being fun and new, compared to previous editions. Enjoy!

This guy won the award for “oldest participant” at last year’s ride when he was 76. You would have thought he would have won again at 77, but nope, a 78-year-old beat him out. You can see the 78-year-old in the video in the red hat and very tight underwear.

On the other end of the age spectrum, there were many babies this year.

The NYPD guys at the downtown meeting point were especially friendly this year. I had a fun time talking to them before we got started. Although The No Pants Subway Ride is still completely unauthorized, I think it’s great that the NYPD comes out to escort us as if we were an official parade.

I wound up in the same subway car as the guy above. Even though I started downtown and he started in Astoria, we ended up together after I transferred. One of the things I love about the scope of the No Pants Subway Ride these days is that we really take over the whole system. At 59th and Lex, three trains of pantless people arrived at the same time. Two groups were switching lines and one was just passing through. Anyway, the guy in the photo above wins the badass award.

Pretty awesome the US Military was represented.

Probably the sharpest father and son team in all of NYC.

Once again the No Pants Subway Ride happened around the world, with many cities making their debut this year. You can find links to photos and articles in the comments on this page: Regional Agent Reports. The above photo comes from Istanbul. This was the first Turkish city to participate. The police got involved, detaining participants and deleting photos from their cameras (though obviously they didn’t delete them all!) The leader of the event wrote a great write up about their day that’s worth a read. Other cities that reported trouble from police or security: Chicago, Madrid, and Milan. I don’t believe anyone was arrested or fined, just detained or asked to stop.

I gotta give props to the Miami ride, as it only had ONE participant. Pretty awesome and brave to still go through with it. She’s pictured above.

Bangalore became the first city in India to participate. The all-male participant group reported no trouble from authorities, but many shocked passengers.

We announce the date of the No Pants Subway Ride every year in early December. If you’re interested in participating in 2013 in New York or anywhere else in the world, sign up for our mailing list, follow us on twitter, and like us on Facebook so you’ll be the first to hear about it.

Get the official 2012 No Pants Subway Ride t-shirt:

Mission Accomplished.

- To see links to full flickr sets of photos from all of our official photographers and to read comments from participants, check out this page: NYC Agent Reports

- Check out the comments in this post for reports and links to photos from the regional events: Regional Agent Reports

- Also check out our complete history of The No Pants Subway Ride.

- See our new video telling the story of the first No Pants Subway Ride:

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
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-We have merch for sale!

For our latest mission, a musical breaks out at a shopping mall in New Jersey. A man is suddenly compelled to express his desire to sit on Santa’s lap via song. This is the fifth in our series of Spontaneous Musical projects. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.

Also of note: we have a new DVD and t-shirt for sale! Put them both on Santa’s list when you sit in his lap.

Produced by: Charlie Todd
Song by: Scott Brown and Anthony King
Director of Photography: TV Boy
Still Photos: Katie Sokoler – Flickr Set – (photo credit for all photos on this page.)
Starring: (in order of appearance) Michael Kayne, Megan Maes, Lauren Adams, Amy Heidt, Sebastian Thomas, Jim Santangeli, Evan Gregory, Michael Gregory, Don Fanelli, Rich Klimaski

Agent Brown working with the cast at our first rehearsal

Most of our cast had performed in previous Improv Everywhere projects, but we also added some new performers who we had not worked with. I was thrilled when I learned Evan and Michael Gregory of The Gregory Brothers fame were available for the mission. Not only are they hilarious YouTube stars, they’re super nice and cool dudes. Agent Sebastian Thomas was cast to play the young kid. He’s nine years old, making him our youngest musical performer! Agent Rich Klimaski was brought in to play Santa Claus, a role he plays quite frequently this time of year. It was sad doing a Santa Claus-themed mission and not having our dear friend John Ward there to be a part of it. John of course played Santa for us in the very first Mp3 Experiment.

Here’s a video I shot at our rehearsal of the cast running through the song:

Agent Thomas makes a Styrofoam angel at dress rehearsal

We had a dress rehearsal in the mall the night before the mission. Although many Improv Everywhere projects are unauthorized, the production values needed to pull off one of our musicals requires permission. We worked with production company Generate and hidden camera experts TV Boy to install hidden cameras and microphones at the mall.

Agent Amy Heidt gets mic’d up

Our hidden camera angles in our secret control room

Working with the mall enabled us to take over their Santa set up. They had a Santa working that day, and we staged the mission during his breaks, swapping out their Santa for our Santa each time.

We staged the mission a few times throughout the day, waiting for the crowds to change between them. Hilariously, Agent Michael Gregory hid inside the giant Christmas present for a good ten minutes before each take, ensuring no one there saw him get in.

The Christmas present in action

Agent Evan Gregory as “the delivery man”

Agent Soltys had the tedious task of putting the peanuts back in the box after each take

The area we staged the musical in had a really great balcony above it. For each take we had a full crowd of people watching from above in addition to those on the ground level.

During one take, a little girl loved it so much that she walked right up to the performers mid-song.

Since this is our fifth musical, we wanted to make sure there were some surprises in to set it apart from the previous ones. We developed a fake ending concept, where it seemed like the musical was over and that a guy working the Santa photos in an elf costume actually wanted our actors to leave the area. Of course he, along with Santa, turned out to be in on it.

Agent Don Fanelli as the Elf

We actually cut a section of the song out of the video, which you can see in the photo above. The Elf joined in the song for a few lines as everyone sang the chorus one last time. What we found out staging the musical was that our fake ending was actually too good. Everyone applauded and many folks started walking away. So a certain percentage of the audience left the area without realizing Santa and the Elf were in on it. It felt a little anti-climactic in the video, so we cut it out. You can see the original full song in the rehearsal video above.

Santa sings!

Photographer Agent Katie Sokoler decided to hide in the box and surprise people, long after the mission was over.

Mission Accomplished

- Many more photos in higher resolution: Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set

- Our first musical: Food Court Musical
- Our second musical: Grocery Story Musical
- Our third musical: I Love Lunch! The Musical
- Our fourth musical: Gotta Share! The Musical
- Buy the original cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.

- Gregory Brothers’ vlog from the day:

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
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-We have merch for sale!

80 people enter a Manhattan Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants. Chaos ensues.

This 2006 mission is the first in a series of remastered videos we are producing from our archives to commemorate our 10th anniversary. We are going through our original tapes and updating old classics with higher quality video and audio, as well as adding additional never-before-seen footage. Due to file size restrictions in the early days of YouTube, many of these videos have only been seen in extremely low 240p quality. The remastered Best Buy video adds some interactions with employees that we didn’t even realize we had on tape! The original, lengthy Best Buy mission report is still online for your reading pleasure.

Look for more remastered videos in the future including some that have never been posted to YouTube, and stay tuned for a brand new mission coming out in just a few weeks.

We’re also excited to launch our new logo today, designed by Will Schneider of Busted Tees. You can get it on a t-shirt!

Photo by Chad Nicholson

Last weekend I married my longtime girlfriend and fellow Improv Everywhere member, Cody Lindquist. Our wedding ceremony featured a surprise stunt where we were interrupted by a professional wrestler. Besides the bride and groom, only the officiant and groomsmen were in on the prank. Watch the video above first, and then check out the behind-the-scenes photos and report below.

Shot and edited by: Matt Adams
Photography: Katie Sokoler (wedding photographer), Chad Nicholson, Brian Fountain

Rehearsal

Ever since Cody and I got engaged everyone we know has asked us, “Is there going to be a prank at the wedding?” The pressure was on to do something fun and out of the ordinary.

Planning the stunt

Years ago, I created a parody professional wrestling league at the UCB Theatre called The UCBW that still regularly performs. One of the original wrestlers from the league was a character called “Pu Kang Kang,” played by Eugene Cordero. I asked Eugene if he would be up for reprising his character at my wedding, and he immediately agreed.

Agent Cordero plans his enterance

Deadly choke hold the “Pu Kanger-Snore”

After everyone else had left the rehearsal on Friday night, we choreographed the stunt with my best man (my dad) and groomsmen.

Obviously Cody and I had a million things on our mind over the weekend, but it was fun knowing we had a little trick up our sleeves.

The ceremony

Our wedding photographer (and Improv Everywhere Senior Agent) Katie Sokoler got some beautiful shots of the ceremony.

The stunt took place at the very end of the wedding, after we had exchanged vows and rings. Officiant Brent Stansell asked, “If anyone has any reason why these two should not be married…” and Agent Cordero, who had slipped away from the back row to change into costume, yelled, “I got a problem with it!”

Pu Kang Kang made his way down the aisle as our friends and family laughed. Even the bridesmaids and our immediate families were not told about the prank, so it was a fun surprise for everyone.

My groomsman Ben Rodgers plays an announcer called “The Captain” in the UCBW, so we had him throw on his captain’s hat and announce. You may remember Agent Rodgers from his announcing work in Carousel Horse Race. He informed the crowd that this crazy man walking down the aisle was “Cody’s ex-boyfriend, former professional wrestler Pu Kang Kang,” who most definitely did not RSVP.

Pu Kang Kang blocked my first punch and then got a few good hits on me, leaving me dazed as he went to take out the groomsmen.

Locking in the Pu Kanger-Snore

Groomsmen Anthony King, Chuck Todd, and Chris Kula take out Pu Kang Kang

Groomsman Ken Keech hands me a chair

Chair shot!

Steel wedding chair!

Pu Kang Kang left the ceremony in shame as I taunted him with the chair.

Agent Cordero never broke character, limping all the way to the reception a few hundred feet away.

Making sure Cody is OK

Our officiant joked, “If there are no MORE objections…” and everyone laughed as things went back to normal for the end of the ceremony.

First kiss as husband and wife!

We had a wonderful wedding weekend with family and friends, and it was icing on the cake to be able to add a little dose of Improv Everywhere fun to our big day.

Mission Accomplished

- See our other wedding related mission, Surprise Wedding Reception.
- See Cody as Princess Leia in Star Wars Subway Car.

Other recent videos:

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have a book for sale!

For the Second Annual Black Tie Beach, hundreds of participants spent a day at Rockaway Beach in black tie attire. We covered a half mile-long stretch with a diverse group of people of all ages laying out, playing games, and swimming in the ocean in formal wear. Agents were instructed to find cheap tuxedos and ball gowns at thrift stores for the occasion. The event also happened on the same day in five other cities around the world, including Sydney, Australia and Malmö, Sweden. Watch the video first, and then read the check out the photos and report below.

Shot by: Keith Haskel, Kristopher Knight, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Charlie Todd
Photography: Brian Fountain, Ari Scott, Katie Sokoler (full flickr sets for each photographer at the bottom of this post.)

We usually do not repeat missions, but Black Tie Beach was one of my favorite days of last year. I figured an event that much fun deserved to happen annually. Last year we were at Coney Island, but I wanted to stage it in a new location this year to surprise an entirely different crowd of beach goers. Although Rockaway Beach is easily accessible by subway, scouting for this mission was the first time I had ever visited it in my ten years in New York. It’s a great beach!

Since the instructions were pretty clear from last year’s mission (spend a normal day at the beach in black tie attire as if there’s nothing unusual about doing so) we did not have a meeting point. Participants arrived on their own during a set window of time in the afternoon. It’s tough to count how many agents there were without having a meeting point, but the crowd seemed about like last year, a few hundred.

White tux!

A family of agents

It was fun to watch all the interactions between our participants and the other folks at the beach. When asked why they were dressed up, agents mostly responded that they were doing it “for fun” or that they “just like dressing up for the beach.” Of course, no one would admit to knowing the other dressed up folks. These responses frustrated some inquisitive locals, but most seemed to get the joke just fine.

We had a really great range of ages participate.

The woman on the right is 90!

Sometimes it was tough to figure if we were the unusual ones on the beach

Our agents came up with a wonderful variety of activities to do during their day at the beach.

The planking fad infiltrates Improv Everywhere!

Almost everyone decided to take a dip in the water. Swimming in a tuxedo is more fun than you would think it would be. I recommend it!

Since I didn’t plan on repeating the mission, I threw my cheap, sandy tuxedo away in a trash can at Coney Island last year. This year I found a complete tuxedo with tails at a thrift store for $40. I took it home in a plastic bag after the mission, and I got it dry cleaned for less than $20. It’s like new and hanging in my closet for next year!

Agent Lindquist rides a wave

I think this guy wins “best dressed.”

I brought a waterproof flip camera with me and got some action shots in the waves.

There were many chicken fights

Agent Jack Cheng drew lots of attention with his snorkeling accessories.

This year we invited other cities to participate as well, and five others joined the fun.

Malmö, Sweden

Newport, Rhode Island

Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California

Bloomington, Indiana (Black Tie Lake!)

Sydney, Australia (best photo I can find. Someone send me a better one!)

It was exciting to see it spread across the globe. Hopefully we can eventually have it spread to every beach in the world.

Mission Accomplished

- Agent Brian Fountain’s Set
- Agent Ari Scott’s Set
- Agent Katie Sokoler’s Set

Read the agent reports from hundreds of participants in the comments here.

Last year’s video:

If this is your first time here:
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For our latest mission we constructed a custom wooden lectern with a megaphone holster and an attached sign that read, “Say Something Nice.” The lectern was placed in public spaces around New York and then left alone. We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to “say something nice.”

Say Something Nice was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc. This is our second collaboration in the series, the first being The Mute Button.

Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.

Lectern designed by: Jason Eppink and Alex Young
Lectern fabricated by: Alex Young
Shot by: Matt Adams, Jason Eppink, Keith Haskel, Charlie Todd
Photography: Ari Scott (Flickr Set) [Photo credit for all photos on this page]
Production Assistants: Andrew Flynn Soltys, Nicoletta Crisponi
Lectern mover guys: Jason Eppink, Keith Haskel

Agent Alex Young building the lectern

Improv Everywhere is most well known for our missions involving hundreds or even thousands of people. I was excited about this mission, because apart from the two guys who moved the lectern into place, there were zero actors. The stars of this mission would be random members of the public who chose to say yes to our simple request.

Agents Jason Eppink and Keith Haskel played the “movers.” Wearing orange vests to give them an air of legitimacy, they placed the lectern at the southern tip of Union Square and then vanished.

The lectern was in a very high-traffic area, and people immediately started to take notice, stopping to read the sign.

The megaphone was attached by a cable, allowing people to take it out of its holster but not allowing them to walk away with it. Within a few minutes people starting using the megaphone. There is always a crowd of people at this part of Union Square, so there was a built-in audience of people sitting on the steps.

“I love my friend here in the red shirt!”

The reactions to the lectern varied. Some folks ignored it. Some stopped, but decided to take a picture rather than following the instruction. Of the people who chose to speak, there were many recurring themes with “I love you,” “I love New York,” and “Have a great day” being the most common responses.

The guy in the photo above was surpisingly the only one all day to make the joke of just saying “something nice” into the megaphone.

The megaphone was about five-feet tall. We probably should have included a step, as some of the younger people who encountered it couldn’t quite reach.

These ladies decided to say something nice via song.

Not everyone followed directions. The guy above called out his friend (standing embarrassed next to him) for backing out on moving into his apartment. One woman used the megaphone as a way to promote an event she was working on. Someone else thought the megaphone was a good opportunity to give a lengthy monologue about Christianity. So while a few were opportunistic, we were pleased that the vast majority of the people who encountered the lectern got the spirit of what we were going for.

After about a half hour, the moving guys in the orange vests appeared again and transported the lectern to a few other places in the area. We stopped at the north end of Union Square and then finished up in the public plaza across the street from the Flatiron building (and just a stone’s throw from The Tourist Lane!)

It was fun seeing such a wide range of people using the megaphone, young and old.

“To infinity and beyond!”

These guys stopped to play a little song before saying something nice.

Crew photo

It was exciting to stage a mission that we had so little control over. Unlike our more performance-based projects, the results of this one were entirely in the hands of random people who happened upon the lectern. It was tons of fun setting it up and watching the results.

Now, I have to figure out what to do with this thing, because it barely fits in my tiny office!

Mission Accomplished

- Many more photos in higher resolution:
- Agent Scott’s Flickr Set

Other recent videos:

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have a book for sale!

For our latest mission, over 3,500 people downloaded an MP3 file and pressed play simultaneously. The event began at sunset in two starting points by the Hudson River. The masses converged on Nelson Rockefeller Park as twilight ended and participated in a series of synchronized activities involving flashlights, camera flashes, glow sticks, and masks. This was the 8th installment in our Mp3 Experiment series.

Enjoy the video above first, and then go behind the scenes with our photos below. We’d like to thank the River to River Festival for hosting the event.

Created by: Charlie Todd & Tyler Walker
All music by: Tyler Walker
Brainstorm Committee: Jason Eppink, Charlie Todd, Tyler Walker
Shot by: Gabriel Chai, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Cameron Frittz, Keith Haskel, Kristopher Knight, Ryan Nethery, Corey Richardson, Charlie Todd
Photography: David Bledsoe, Ilya Chigirev, Brian Fountain, Chad Nicholson, Arin Sang-urai, Ari Scott (full flickr sets for each photographer at the bottom of this post)

pre-mission documentation team meeting

This year’s experiment took place in the same part of town as The Mp3 Experiment Four. Participants were divided up into two groups ahead of time based on birthday and downloaded two distinct mp3 files. One group was told to wear white and meet on the newly constructed Pier 25. The other group was told to wear black and meet on the esplanade just north of the Yacht Harbor by the World Financial Center.

Pier 25

Black shirts at their meeting point further south

The start time was 4 minutes after sunset

Everyone pressed play at exactly 8:30 PM, their watches and phones synchronized to a clock on our site.

Preparing to press play

Both groups followed some simple instructions first.

Synchronized jumping

The premise this year was that the groups were two separate tribes who lived near each other but had never met. Tonight’s experiment would be “first contact.” Participants were taught the customs of the other group, including a bow, handshake, and dance. They would need to respect these customs when the groups came together. In reality, both groups learned the same customs, thinking they were the *other* group’s traditions.

Handshake

Bow

Dance

Both groups were then instructed to walk to the “Neutral Zone,” the park located in the middle of the two locations. Along the way they were told to interact with strangers.

“See how many strangers you can high five.”

A woman snaps a photo of the group walking away

We intended the black shirt group to walk along the river, but for some reason quite a few of them decided to talk a short cut on the road. A few drivers got some high fives.

The black shirts arrived to the park first, as the white shirt route had a couple of bottlenecks in it. Participants were told to form arm tunnels with each other upon arriving.

The arm tunnels looked pretty awesome from up above.

There were lots of people in and around the park watching the sunset and hanging out. We surprised quite a few people when the masses arrived.

Both groups were instructed to take out their flashlights and walk slowly towards each other for the “first contact” ritual.

There are many more black shirts in the above photo because the majority of the white shirts were still walking over.

The groups were then told to mix together.

Handshakes

Slow dancing

It was now time for the various activities of the “Celebration of Lights Festival,” conveniently celebrated by both tribes.

Flashlight tag, where everyone named Mike and Sarah were “it”

1996 Rave with Glow Sticks

Some decided, unprompted, to throw their glow sticks in the air

Glow sticks flying through the air

In addition to a flashlight and a glow stick, participants were asked to bring something else that lights up bright.

“Hold your bright object up to the sky”

Participants then took out their cameras and we did several activities with camera flashes. We attempted synchronized flashes and a wave of flashes from one side of the field to the other, not unlike our old mission The Camera Flash Experiment.

For the final activity, participants were told to put on the mask they brought with them.

Wearing masks, we had a final dance party where half the group made a strobe lighting effect with their flashlights. Then for the finale everyone was encouraged to use all of their props at the same time– camera flashes, flashlights, LED objects, and glow sticks all together.

Pretty cool that the Green Lantern showed up

After the final dance party the Mp3 Experiment came to a close. Participants stuck around to clean up glow sticks and any other trash, and as always we left the park looking like it did before we got there.

Agent Ann Kirschkins used one of the aerial photos to attempt to count the participants by circling their heads with a red pen. It was almost impossible to count every head since it was so dark out. I think 3,500 is probably a pretty accurate guess. We had 3,044 last year, and this group was definitely a bit bigger.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Mission Accomplished

PHOTOS
- Agent Chad Nicholson’s photos
- Agent Brian Fountain’s photos
- Agent Ari Scott’s photos
- Agent David Bledsoe’s photos
- Agent Arin Sang-urai’s photos (rooftop photos!)
- Agent Ilya Chigirev’s photos

AUDIO
You can download some of the songs from The Mp3 Experiment on Tyler Walker’s site.

HIRE US
We regularly tour The Mp3 Experiment around the world to places like Berlin, Germany and Adelaide, Australia and to college campuses in the US like UNC and Texas Tech. If you’re part of an organization (festival, university student activities board, arts group) that is interested in commissioning an Mp3 Experiment, get in touch via our contact form.

AGENT REPORTS
Check out first hand reports from participants in the comments section on this page.

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
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-We have a book for sale!

For our latest mission we turned a carousel into a horse race. A single jockey was joined by two announcers, a roaring crowd, and a trumpeter. The children on the carousel had no idea what was going on. The mission took place at Le Carrousel in New York’s Bryant Park.

Shot by: Matt Adams, Keith Haskel, Nathan Russell, Charlie Todd
Photography: Katie Sokoler (Flickr Set) [Photo credit for all photos on this page]
Production Coordinator: Cody Lindquist
Production Assistant: Bridget Greene
Special Thanks: Lindsey Boylan, Jennie Drygulski, Ethan Lercher, Martin Nembhard, Quentin Robbins, Paul Romero, Kati Solomon, Sarah Stutman, Nell Wright
Costume Rental: Whips International

Cast
Jockey: Matt Shafeek
Announcers: Ben Rodgers, Alex Scordelis
Trumpeter: John McGrew from Apollo Run
Bookie: Sean Hart
Winning Owner: Will Hines
Commissioner: Kirk Damato
Owner of Track: Neil Janowitz
Crowd: Perry Silver, Jonathan Fernandez, Patrick Cassels, Brandon Gulya, Doug Gordon, Todd Simmons, Rachael Mason, Jennifer Small, Trevor Williams, Jaime Skinner

I came up with this idea almost six years ago. It has always lingered on our list of potential upcoming missions, and this summer I decided it was time to make it happen. The original idea was to have a dozen jockeys take over a carousel. I sent out an email to our New York Agents List looking for people over 16, under 125 pounds, and under 5’6”. The response was great, and I had more than enough volunteers.

I ran into problems when it came time to find costumes. Most jockey outfits for sale online are crappy looking, overpriced Halloween costumes (and many are “sexy jockey.”) I knew I wanted to get real equipment, but buying or even renting the real thing would not be cheap for 12 jockeys.

Then I had an epiphany: the mission would actually work better if the focus was on the kids. Rather than it being one or two kids on a carousel reacting to our jockeys, why not just treat the kids like they are the jockeys and have one of them win the race? I decided to keep one actor jockey whose presence would spark the transformation.

Agent Shafeek was the most senior member of Improv Everywhere who fit the physical description of a jockey, and he agreed to play the part. We waited until the carousel had a nice crowd of children and then cued our jockey to enter.

After the jockey was strapped in to his horse, Agents Rodgers and Scordelis appeared as announcers. Their microphones were plugged into a small amplifier, and heads began to turn in the park as they began their commentary.

The patrons arrived next, a small crowd of well-dressed horse race fans. Agent Silver, above, probably had the best costume thanks to his fake mustache.

Agent Hart set up a betting table and the crowd excitedly got their bets in right before the race started. His mustache is real.

Agent John McGrew walked out in front of the carousel for the call to the post. His trumpet got the attention of everyone in the park, and a crowd started to form.

Agent Shafeek waves to the crowd

After the trumpet player finished, the bell rang, and the race began. Agent Rodgers called the race, making up names for all of the animals. One of the reasons I picked this carousel was due to its assortment of non-horse animals. The frog, bunny, cat, and deer provided lots of laughs.

Waving to his mom

The kids were a little shell-shocked at first, not knowing what to make of the crowd loudly cheering them on. It didn’t take long for them to get into it. By the end, everyone was smiling and playing along.

The girl riding “Kitty Kitty Bang Bang” was especially enthusiastic, hitting her animal and screaming for him to go faster.

The crowd of spectators got larger and larger as the race went on. Many in the crowd were parents of the children in the race, laughing and taking photos of their kids.

“And there goes the frog!”

The carousel ride lasts two and a half minutes, which is also about the length of a typical horse race. The announcers went crazy for the finale as the crowd cheered desperately for their animals.

Agent Cassels just lost three hundred dollars

In the end, it was the rabbit “Carrots on the Brain” who pulled out the victory. The kid riding him was thrilled. Agent Rodgers went in for a post-race interview.

The winning “jockey” was presented with a trophy from the commissioner of the league and flowers by the owner of the track. Also present in the winner’s circle was the owner of the rabbit.

Agent Rodgers interviews the disgraced veteran jockey

The champion

At the end of the race, we passed out little plastic trophies to all of the kids on the carousel. No one went away empty-handed.

The winning jockey gives his mom a high five…

…and a kiss.

Cast & Crew

Mission Accomplished

- Many more photos in higher resolution:
- Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have a book for sale!

For our latest mission 23 actors and 2 dogs infiltrated a public space and went on “mute” at coordinated intervals. The mission took place near the northern entrance to Prospect Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Mute Button was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc.

Shot by: Matt Adams, Cameron Frittz, Keith Haskel, Chad Nicholson, Chloe Smolkin, Charlie Todd
Photography: Katie Sokoler (Flickr Set), Chad Nicholson
Cast
Break dancers: Calin Fernandez, Stephen Lunger, David Joe Martinez, Puneet Prasad, John Swan
Sax: Stefan Zeniuk
Couple: Patrick Cassels, Cody Lindquist
Preacher: Birch Harms
Girl arguing with preacher: Lindsey Moore Sproul
Dog trainers: Wendy Desarno, Bennett Wilson
Dogs: Dexter, Lincoln
Mother/Daugher: Gwinevere von Ludwig, Clara Z
Cellphone Man: Rob Lathan
Break dance crowd: Bridget Fitzgerald, Pete Goldstein, Jeffrey Kornberg, Chris Polansky, Lauren Reeves, Todd Simmons, Amos Vernon, Jay Zalowitz

Getting organized at our meeting point

I’ve had the idea to do an IE mission with a “mute button” effect for several years. We’ve already experimented with other remote control buttons like “pause” (Frozen Grand Central) and “slow motion” (Slo-Mo Home Depot). I was always hesitant to attempt it, because a mob of people going on mute just didn’t seem particularly compelling. When brainstorming concepts for the Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition stillspotting nyc, I had an epiphany: the way to make it exciting is to use a specific cast of characters that would normally make elevated noise in a public space. In order to show the contrast between mute and un-mute, the loud portion would have to be more noticeable than a crowd of regular people just talking.

Dexter

I was really excited about the cast of characters we put together for this mission. Although we’ve staged a mission with fake dogs, we’ve never used dogs as actual Improv Everywhere Agents. For this mission we were lucky to find Dexter, a Pit Bull mix, and Lincoln, a Doberman Pinscher. Both dogs were trained well enough to bark on cue.

This mission also featured our youngest ever participant, Agent Clara Z, age 7. While younger kids have participated in our Mp3 Experiments and even No Pants Subway Rides, Clara is the youngest to have a specific part in one of our projects, barely beating out a 9-year-old who participated in Best Buy. Although if babies count, Agent Kaz wins for his cameo in Ted’s Birthday.

There were a few things we looked for when choosing a space. We wanted a location that was relatively quiet so the mute portions would stand out. The space also had to be crowded enough that it wouldn’t be strange for a man to play a saxophone or for a few break dancers to put on a show. We ended up choosing the public plaza on the northern end of Prospect Park. There is a great paved area that is empty on Sundays, and the sidewalk next to it has steady traffic of people coming in and out of the park. It’s adjacent to a traffic circle, so there is some traffic noise, but nothing too loud. When we first arrived at the location, a cop car was parked right in the middle of the space! (see photo above.) While our mission definitely wasn’t breaking any laws, I was worried they might hassle our street performers. We waited around five minutes and they drove away.

Agent Clara Z waits in a tree

Our group of agents walked over to the space separately and quietly blended in to the scene.

There were two methods for signalling the muting and un-muting. The primary method was the break dancers’ boombox. Agent Tyler Walker composed a hip hop track that contained built-in stretches of silence. It would play for 30 seconds, and then mute for 90 seconds, over and over again. All of the actors in earshot of the boombox would just have to mute themselves along with the track. As an added visual cue for the actors that were too far away from the boombox to hear it, I put my sunglasses on my head during the mute portions. Once everyone was in place, the break dancers pressed play on the boombox and the mission began.

Agent John Swan after a headstand.

Agent Stefan Zeniuk on the sax

Agents Pat Cassels and Cody Lindquist as the arguing couple

Agent Birch Harms as the street preacher

Agents Clara Z and Gwinevere von Ludwig as the whining kid and her mother

Agent Dexter and his trainer Agent Wendy Desarno

I also cast a group of agents to serve as a crowd for the break dancers. They clapped along and cheered for the dancers, and then clapped and cheered silently during the mute portions. For most of the mission they were joined by regular folks watching the show, many of whom started cheering silently themselves when they figured out what was going on.

My job during the mission was to wear a hidden microphone and try to get verbal reactions from folks. If I saw people reacting to the mission, I’d casually go up to them and ask what was going on. Since the location had such steady turnover, with new people constantly walking by, we had an incredible amount of great reactions from people throughout the mission. People of all types stopped to figure it out. It was so much fun watching people go from confusion to laughter as they realized what was going on and how many people around them were a part of it.

Two ladies can’t figure out why Agent Rob Lathan is speaking on the phone silently

After noticing the other performers around them, they crack up

Watching the couple argue silently

A child leans out of his stroller to get a closer look

Watching the muted break dancers

This guy loved it so much…

…that he stuck around almost the entire time

Reacting to the silent saxophone

Agent Lincoln and his owner Agent Bennett Wilson

The moments when the group transitioned in and out of the mutes were the most interesting. It was completely jarring to hear the area suddenly go quiet and then suddenly come to life again. During the mute portions, many of the onlookers whispered to each other, not wanting to ruin the effect.

A family laughing

The mp3 track playing on the boombox was exactly 20 minutes long. The original plan was to do it once, and then regroup at our meeting point and discuss improvements for a second run. It ended up going so well right away that we never left. I had the break dancers just press play again after the first 20 minutes were up. In total, the performance lasted 45 minutes. The agents gradually walked away in different directions at the end of the piece.

The break dancers take a final bow
(From Left: Agents Puneet Prasad, John Swan, Stephen Lunger, David Joe Martinez, Calin Fernandez)

Cast and crew photo

Mission Accomplished

- Many more photos in higher resolution:
- Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set

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-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
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For our latest mission, a musical breaks out at the GEL Conference in New York. A speaker is suddenly interrupted by a man who refuses to turn off his cell phone. This is the fourth in our series of Spontaneous Musical projects. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.

Shot by: Keith Haskel, Georgia Hilton, Kristopher Knight, Nathan Russell, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Charlie Todd, Angel Yau
Photography: Katie Sokoler (Flickr Set), Gene Driskell
Starring: (in order of appearance) Michael Kayne, Corey Johnson, Megan Maes, Kevin R. Free, Amy Heidt, Lauren Adams, John Flynn
Chorus: Ari Scott, Cody Lindquist, Winston Noel, Kerry McGuire, Ashley Harrell, Anthony King, Scott Brown, Mark Sam Rosenthal, Dimon Hunter, Will Storie, Seth Shelden, Kirk Damato, Justin Purnell, Venessa Diaz, Gerard Haitz, Steve Dressler, Jeremy Bent, Todd Simmons, Lindsey Sproul, Lauren Reeves, Milo Finch, Big Rich Armstead, Johnathan Fernandez, Jaime Linn, Evan Greenspoon, Lydia Hensler, Jaime Skinner, Natalie Neckyfarow, Cassandra Taylor

I’ve been involved with the Gel Conference since speaking there in 2005. Gel is an annual conference exploring good experience in all its forms – in art, business, technology, society, and life. There are always fabulous speakers, and it’s always a great time. This year, I asked founder Mark Hurst if he’d be open to Improv Everywhere staging a surprise musical at Gel. He immediately agreed.

Agent Brown working with the cast

The first step was to create the song, and as usual I turned to the wonderfully talented Scott Brown and Anthony King. We brainstormed over lunch and decided a song that parodied social media oversharing would be a great fit for the audience we’d have at the conference.

Rehearsing with the seven principle cast members at the UCB Theatre

Dress rehearsal the day before

We were lucky enough to have access to the venue, The Times Center, the day before the conference to do a dress rehearsal. Producing these musicals typically requires expensive audio and hidden camera equipment, but since this took place in a theatre, the audio equipment was already in place and the conference was already arranged to be filmed. We supplemented the conference cameras with a team of five discreet cameramen in the audience.

The stakes were high for this musical, as we only had one shot. For our past three musicals, we were able to stage them multiple times throughout the day with a new audience each time. We would only have one chance to surprise the conference audience. If an actor forgot a cue or a microphone failed to work, there would be no second chance to fix it.

Agent Free hams it up in rehearsal

We had one final rehearsal at a studio near the conference the day of the mission.

We had a 29-member chorus, and I encouraged them to make fun character choices. We had a priest, a doctor, a construction worker, a bike messenger, and a new mother, among others.

Finally, it was time to make it happen. Agent Hurst introduced Agent Kayne who began to do a fake presentation on a fake new social media service, twirlr.

Agent Johnson interrupts

Agent Maes

Agent Free

Agent Heidt

Audience members laughing
(yes that’s the Internet’s Matt Haughey and Anil Dash)

Agent Kayne acted like the musical outburst was as much a surprise to him as it was to anyone else, looking on in disbelief. Then he brought the house down when he started singing as well.

For the finale, the actors all joined Agent Kayne on stage as our 29-member chorus suddenly streamed down both of the aisles.

After the song ended, the entire cast filed out of the theatre matter-of-factly, checking their mobile devices.

Agent Fernandez and Agent Finch leaving the theatre

I was especially excited to have Agent Finch from Ghosts of Pasha in the cast. He hilariously dressed like a Best Buy employee with a fake yellow name tag.

After the cast left, Agent Kayne was alone on stage. He announced his time was up and got another round of applause as the audience realized “twirlr” was completely fake.

Mission Accomplished

- Many more photos in higher resolution: Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set
- Our first musical: Food Court Musical
- Our second musical: Grocery Story Musical
- Our third musical: I Love Lunch! The Musical
- Buy the original cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.

If this is your first time here:
-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have a book for sale!