I don’t know why we went to all the trouble to synchronize our watches when we did the original. It’s so much easier to just have Mo Rocca stand on a stepladder and yell, “No sheep!” If you watch this video closely, you’ll notice they actually replicated several shots from our video: the woman eating yogurt, the guy tying his shoe, a man pre-freeze who is holding a train schedule exactly like Rob! is in our video.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video we found on YouTube:

To reiterate, we had no idea this was happening and the show never contacted us. I guess it’s flattering to see our work fictionalized, even if we’re portrayed as murderers who yell, “Sheep!” at everyone. Too funny!

(still from the episode)

There was footage of the group staging a freeze in Grand Central Terminal, which I guess makes it a fictionalized account of our Frozen Grand Central with a dose of murder tossed in somehow. The group also organized a public pillow fight (organized in non-fiction New York by our friends at newmindspace.)

For the record, we had no idea about any of this, and the show didn’t get in touch with us about it. Last year the Idiotarod was fictionalized (also with a murder!) by CSI:NY, so I guess crime drama writers are really plugged into the public spectacle scene in NYC.

If you saw it, let us know how it was in the comments. And if you have a link to video of it, post that too.

There has been lots of activity on our Improv Everywhere Global site the past few weeks. The Mexico City group Desordinarios staged a mission called “Train Rain.” Around twenty agents rode Mexico City’s metro wearing rain gear and holding umbrellas.

Other recent missions:

**Boston SOS held a protest to protest protesting.

**Plan B in Minnesota staged their version of our old Ted’s Birthday mission.

**Suddenly Midwest in Kansas City staged their version of The Moebius.

**Scene Diego put a giant button in a park labeled “Do Not Push.” The planted agents began to dance whenever the button was pushed.

**The DC Defenestrators have been busy down in our nation’s capital. They staged a concert on the mall using rock band instruments and created a fake celebrity for a day.

**Improv Jakarta had their first mission over in Indonesia, causing random folks to look up into the sky.

**A couple of Improv Everywhere agents from New York are traveling to Manchester, England next week to assist with an Improv Manchester mission at the Futuresonic conference. The event will be at 9 AM on Thursday, May 1. Here is the facebook invite.

The “freeze” craze started by our Frozen Grand Central mission has now reached 70 cities in 34 countries and 6 continents (come on Antarctica, get with the program!) Agent Piskvor from Prague made a very cool map showing the locations of all the freeze missions. It’s a Google Map, so you can interact with it and click through to see the video for each city.

A couple of recent freezes of note include the first freeze in the Middle East:

Beirut, Lebanon

…and a freeze in Hong Kong where legislators and councilors from the local government participated.

Frozen Hong Kong, Councilors Version

The IE Global group based in Prague turned a subway car into a living room this past weekend. Here’s their report and video:

- Mission: Travel first class … on the subway!
- When: April 4th, 2008, from 5pm onwards
- Where: Prague subway system (eastbound yellow line)
- Agents: 12

On Friday, April 4th, the commuters on one of the trains were rather surprised when a girl has boarded a train, carrying a rug, and spread it out on the floor. Imagine their shock at the next station, where two guys brought in a large armchair, on the following stations accompanied by a coatrack, table, antique telephone, slippers, and a flower in a vase.

This was just the set-up. At Jinonice, some six stations from the start, a dressed-up man came in, put his coat and umbrella at the rack, sat down in the armchair and made himself comfortable: he loosened his tie, removed his shoes and put on the slippers, picked up a magazine and started reading.

Get involved in your local area at Improv Everywhere Global

DCist has the story:

In the [first video] you can watch the group as they quietly danced around the memorial (which, to be clear, is open to the public 24 hours a day, according to its web site). A U.S. Park Police officer can then be seen approaching the dancers and telling them to leave.

The second video, posted below, shows the dancers arguing with Park Police officers about why they’re being asked to leave. They say they were quietly dancing with headphones on to celebrate Jefferson’s birthday, and that they weren’t breaking any laws (which, as far as we can tell, they indeed were not). Toward the end of the video, you can see Oberwetter, 28, being handcuffed and taken into custody.

For our latest mission, we turned a little league baseball game in Hermosa Beach, California into a major league event. Enjoy the video below and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.

(also available on YouTube)
song by Kevin MacLeod

Featuring: Agents Todd, Appel, Blumenthal, Newell, Sessler, Minton, Fair, Mercer, Cicci, Dippold, Park, DBlumenthal, Lewis, Thorn, Parker + more.
Digital Video: Agent Carbone

In order to pull this mission off we worked with the commissioner of the Hermosa Beach Little League. The commissioner provided us with the names, numbers, and batting order of all of the players for both teams. He told us the 2 PM game between the Mudcats and the Lugnuts would be ideal for our mission, and allowed us to arrive early to set up all of our equipment. He was the only person involved with the league who knew what was going to happen. The players, coaches, and parents were kept completely in the dark.

The league’s games are six innings, and we planned our mission to unfold slowly, heightening with each passing inning. As the game started, the only unusual thing anyone could notice was a large truck parked just pass the outfield wall (housing our jumbotron to be revealed later.) All of the cameras remained hidden away.

Agent Fair screams for her favorite lugnut

In the bottom of the first inning, our agents started to arrive. We told everyone to wear either red or black, the team colors for the Mudcats and Lugnuts. The commissioner gave us baseball caps for both teams, which we passed out to our agents. In a typical game, the stands are completely empty as the player’s parents sit in lawn chairs right next to the field. By the end of the first inning all of our agents were in the stands cheering like crazy for the teams.

Agents Sessler, Newell, and Blumenthal

Three agents played the role of crazy shirtless dudes, painting “Mudcats” across their bare chests. These fans were particularly vocal in getting chants together. The players started looking back at the crowd with puzzled expressions. A few in the dugout peered around the corner to see what was going on. The game was in progress, so they had no choice but to keep playing and decide to figure it out later.

Agent Mercer vends peanuts

At the top of the 2nd inning, vendors started appearing in the crowd, “selling” peanuts and popcorn to the fans and parents. (They were free.)

Agent Cicci gives out programs

The commissioner also got us “baseball card” photos of each of the players. Using these photos we were able to put together a full color program of the day’s game. Agent Cicci walked through the audience handing out the programs. Excited parents kept asking him who he was and how he had put the program together, but he just shrugged and said, “I just work for the field. It’s a big game today.”

At the top of the 3rd inning, things really started to change as we revealed that NBC Sports was covering the game live, with the unveiling of our huge jumbotron in the outfield.

The jumbotron rose mechanically from the truck

The Mudcat dugout reacts to the jumbotron

We collaborated with NBC Sports on this mission, and they took care of renting the jumbotron and hiring legendary sportscaster Jim Gray to call the game. Jim ran the play-by-play and I served as his color man. The two of us sat in a booth at the back of the stands, and we were able to make announcements on the field’s PA system. It was tons of fun watching the players react as the jumbotron rose in the outfield. The game had to momentarily stop as everyone settled down.

“It’s a beautiful day for baseball!”

The jumbotron broadcast live footage from the game, including instant replays, and we projected photos of each player as he came up to bat.

In the next inning, mascots for both teams arrived. We weren’t able to find “mudcat” or “lugnut” costumes, so we just went with random animals that fit the teams colors.

The “Nutty” Chicken

The “Muddy” Bear

The younger brothers and sisters of the players on the field had a great time interacting with our mascots, although some Lugnut fans got a little violent with the Mudcat bear, chasing and hitting him repeatedly.

For our final touch, we worked with NBC Sports to get the Goodyear blimp to fly over the game and film the action from above. As it turned out, the blimp’s home base was just a few miles from Hermosa Beach, and they were able to fly over us on their way to another game. It was an unusually foggy afternoon, and we were terrified that the blimp wouldn’t be seen. They ended up flying in extra low to avoid the fog.

The blimp has an LED screen on the bottom of it, and we had them project, “Go Mudcats! Go Lugnuts! Welcome to the big league!”

The crowd cheered for the blimp and parents started walking around asking our fake fans what was going on. Our agents insisted the game was being broadcast live on NBC and that they were just big fans of the Mudcats and Lugnuts. The parents couldn’t get an answer as to why it was happening, so they just sat back and enjoyed the fun. A few parents mentioned they wished they were home so they could see it live on TV.

When the game was over, our fans sought out autographs from the players.

The day ended with a press conference with both teams. Agents Thorn and Dippold played journalists and grilled the players. Here’s a short video clip of the conference:

A few days later, I got an email from a parent (who must have found Improv Everywhere via Google search):

I believe you guys are behind the “Hermosa Beach Little League” taping that took place Saturday, March 10th, 2007. The parents will be talking about this for a long time… the kids even longer. My son was a pitcher on the Lugnuts. We had a long/tough season last year. Saturday made up for everything. I want to sincerely thank you for making Saturday so unbelievable. It was like a birthday, Christmas, and New Years Eve captured in a few amazing hours. Thanks a million for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Mission Accomplished

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photos hosted on flickr

Digg this mission

Roundup on the latest activity at IE Global:

**The Boston Society of Spontaneity created a line of “human dominoes” at South Station.

**Mission:Singapore had an artist pretend to paint on a plain white canvas.

**GuerilLA had folks who seemed like strangers spontaneously come together for a game of Follow The Leader at the Getty Center

**The Global Freeze Phenomenon continues. We have a list of all 52 global freezes (in 27 different countries.) The latest freezes in Brussels and Beijing were covered by CNN.

Get involved in your local area at Improv Everywhere Global.