I don’t think it’s crazy to call someone a year later and ask if they want to have another party with free drinks and hundreds of dollars in gift cards. If “Ted” had returned my call and accepted the offer, it would have become an annual Improv Everywhere event. Each September 19 we would have thrown a birthday party for this one random guy. Judging by the growth of our membership, it’s fair to say he would have received about ten thousand dollars in gift cards this past year. (We now average 2,000 people at our open call events and each person would have brought a five dollar gift card.)

So you might think there’s something wrong with calling someone one time and offering him a party (and respecting his desire to never be contacted again once it was made clear), but personally I think it was a fine thing to do. Had I known the guy thought we were “grotesque” and was haunted by the experience (something I learned on TAL two and half years after the event), then I wouldn’t have bothered to call him.

It’s probably because you, a complete stranger, held onto someone’s number FOR A YEAR , and called him again a year later. I have feeling you fail to see what is wrong with that.

Thanks for sharing this mission with us. What a good sport “Chris” was — and fast on his feet with the comebacks.

you can tell who is wearing a lapel because the audio’s a little more muffled – since the mics are hidden in clothing etc.

The IE folks maintain that they’re there for a guy named “Ted”. They stick to that story. They never break character. (Charlie even expresses regret at being obliged to let the guy in on the joke.)

In the face of multiple people sticking to that same viewpoint with such determination, how could it be “obvious” that Ted doesn’t exist?