No Pants 2k8 Regional Reports

If you participated in one of the 9 regional No Pants Subway Rides today across the world, leave us an agent report in the comments letting us know how it went. We will use this page to compile the photos and video of all the events as stuff gets sent to us. More to come! For now, let us know how things went in your town. If you haven’t already, be sure to join the Improv Everywhere facebook group and sign up for our mailing list, as that’s how you’ll find out about future national events.

Also, check out The Today Show’s coverage of No Pants, including a national map with all the cities participating:

Comments

  1. Just got home from No Pants 2k8 Salt Lake City. It was amazing! We had about 75 people turn out. The media was everywhere, and so were the police, but everything went smoothly. The people that participated were awesome! I hope they stay in contact. Anyway, a complete mission report will be posted soon. Just wanted to touch bases and let everyone know that the event was a success! -Agent Ashley

  2. I had my bicycle with me. Bikes are not allowed on the Green Line, but the accompanying Transit Police Officer allowed me to get on anyway. When I was transferring trains at Kenmore, one of the MBTA employees stopped me and wouldn’t let me get on the train-because of my bike. She didn’t mention or seem to notice that I wasn’t wearing pants. She just kicked me off for my bike. Hrmmm….

  3. I did “No Pants” Chicago and it was sweet! VERY cold standing out on those platforms, but there were about 75- 100 of us, no cops, and as far as I know, no hassle from the CTA. There were a few reporters at our turnaround point, and a few at the end- everyone had a great time! Thanks so much to the organizers, and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

  4. Just got in from the “No Pants” Washington DC trip, and it was a blast- the most fun I have had in a while. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

    JoAnn
    the “rainbow ribbon vest” lady

  5. I did no pants Chicago, and would have to disagree with Emily’s “no cops” statement. We had three cars with about 15 people on each I believe, and on one of the cars there was an undercover cop sitting behind one of the people. Apparently he called something in, because a few stops from our turnaround point, two cops got onto my car with dogs. It was a little nervewracking, but we got off a few stops later and it turned out to not be a big deal.

    There was someone from Metra Mix (I think that’s the name) interviewing people beforehand on camera, and then the interviewer also participated while the cameraman filmed out of his (gigantic) dufflebag. We also had someone from the Tribune come along, though he didn’t participate. At our turnaround point there was also someone from WGN.

    Other than a minor mixup on which train we were getting on, everythign went smoothly. I was the group leader for team two, and we had a lot of people who hadn’t ever done anything like this before, but everyone executed perfectly. There were two people on our original car who were watching everyone depants, and when another two would, they’d excitedly whisper to each other “There’s another one!” I was one of the last ones to change trains, so I didn’t get many initial reactions, though when I got on I heard a few people saying “There’s still more!” and things like that. There were a few people who got on at stops after I switched trains who looked very confused about the 15 people who were sitting around without pants. Everyone kept a straight face for the most part and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it. There were even a few people who were on the turnaround train (when all 15 of us got back on at the same time) who said things like “I heard about this on the news!” and things like that too.

    It was an amazing experience, and I think we’ll be setting up a facebook group to run more IE activities in Chicago, if it works out. This was an awesome time, and a great story to tell my friends!

  6. It was fun… Met up at Dupont Circle at the fountain, and then proceeded in 2 different groups onto the red line. It was almost impossible to keep a straight face on the metro as half the people looked ridiculous with no pants on. I would gladly do it again next year.

    Unfortunately, it wasn’t as low-key as we wanted, cause someone leaked it to the media, and there were, i think 4 different news stations (FOX, ABC, NBC) a few radio stations, and a bunch of independent papers.

  7. I’d just like to make a minor point that in No Pants Chicago, we actually had about 30-40 people. We had no specific cop or CTA problems and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. A few people broke character, but most kept a good straight face. We definetely surprised a lot of people. The guy from Metromix seemed to really enjoy himself and would like to be our interviewer for other IE Chicago events, which we plan to hold.

    We have many pictures and many stories and great amounts of fun. I’m absolutely delighted that I participated.

  8. Boston 2k8

    Thom, I think you were the dude on the train I exited with at Kenmore.

    Our group did a great job of being pantsless, and had a lot of fun. There was one family, who sounded like they were Norwegian or some other Scandinavian group, with kids, who were obviously thoroughly confused. And somehow we got held up at Copley for several minutes.

    When I did get to Kenmore, I somehow lost my group (even though I was the team leader for my group…what happened?!), so went back inbound by myself, still pantsless.

    I do have to admit that it was almost more fun to ride pantsless by myself, as no one knew what the f*** was going on. When hundreds of people get on the subway in their underwear at once, it becomes quickly obvious it’s a “prank.” But when I returned to our original departure point, and was the only person with no pants, it got a lot of curious and amused stares.

    It was fun telling random people that I accidentally left my pants at home. Video shall come soon.

    I never thought I’d say this, but props to the MBTA for being so accommodating. The T police were very kind and friendly, and even seemed to be mildly amused at some points.

  9. Greetings from Boston! Today’s pantless ride in Boston was really fun. I think I was the youngest participant there. There was one clueless person that thought it was some sort of conspiracy. Of course, I held in my laughter. It became really awkward on the ride back to Alewife Station on the Red Line when I got separated from my group, and I was the only pantless rider on the train. The T police and personnel were great. Some of them were even amused. The best part of the day was when we crowded around this musician at Park Street Station and started dancing. Overall, today was a very fun day. See you guys and girls next year!

  10. Boston:

    I went solo on this mission, and met some great people when I arrived. Once we were split into groups (I was in group 2), we embarked on our magical journey. Despite the publicity, lots of people had no idea what was going on. Lots of laughter, dirty looks and questions ensued.

    I wasn’t questioned by anyone until the ride back. We had all gathered at Park Street to return back up the red line when some older guy (40s to 50s) started haggling the group as a whole. He said something along the lines of, “I thought you were supposed to be naked! You guys are lame!” The tone of his voice said he wasn’t just trying to be funny, he was purposefully being mean. I was standing next to him and asked him what the big deal was.

    He told me that “everyone should be naked and streaking through the station, not standing around in their underwear. People wear shorts in the winter all the time, its not a big deal. Most of the people are in boxers, if they were in briefs it would have been slightly better.”
    “Whats wrong with just wearing boxers? I’m sure people don’t want to be arrested.”
    “Well they’re supposed to pretend like they don’t even know they’re not wearing pants, but they’re not.”
    He still hadn’t noticed I wasn’t wearing pants when I replied, “Well, this is the first I’ve heard of this no pants thing, its all news to me. Personally, I think they all should put their pants back on, but hey, they can do what they want, I guess.”

    After this exchange, I one again told the guy that it was weird how so many people weren’t wearing pants, and then proceeded to say bye to him as the train pulled in.

    Nothing else super exciting happened to me, besides some poor girl who had become motion sick from all the train riding.

    Anyways, lots of people asked me about my book, or acknowledged me for reading and making it look like a normal train ride, sans pants. In the pictures, you can identify me as the guy with the Letter to a Christian Nation book and a Velvet Revolver hat.

    Good times, can’t wait ’til next year! Not wearing pants in public is so liberating!

  12. No Pants 28k was a big success. MANY more people than I think anyone expected showed up (50+) and despite a police escort and advance media notice, everything went smoothly. There was even an improptu pantsless procession across town.

    Pics are forthcoming.

  14. No Pants Toronto was a success! We had about 75 people and about six cops showed up – but it turns out they were only there to make sure we crossed the street safely (we met in a parking lot opposite the subway station). They held traffic for us while we all crossed the street. :) There were no comments or anything that I heard from normal riders on the subway, although there were plenty of stares! There was only one reporter that I was aware of, and a few people (with pants) taking pictures. We tried to get the reporter to go pantsless, but he wasn’t up for it. ;)

    After the subway ride was over, we left the subway en masse (still pantsless) and walked to a nearby pub (where they were certainly not expecting a sudden crowd of 75 people without pants – I’ve never seen so many simultaneous double-takes in my life).

    All in all, it was a lot of fun, went off without a hitch (as far as I’m aware), and I’m certainly up for doing it next year!

  16. Agent Barbosa

    As a newbie on Facebook..I had suspected the scheduled confirmed to arrive of 250 people. Instead a lovely group of 75 to 80 de-panters showed up. I will be posting more info later on – but briefly – the Toronto Police were very supportive and jay walked 75 eager de-panters, so we could head straight into the Dundas West Subway rather than walk from the lights – awesome. We had young and old alike in their undies listening to music, staring off into space and some readng books – one title was “A Brief History of Pants” – very funny. Some stayed in character, some simply just told the truth.

    Myself and agent Acevedo dared to seperate from the main group and head onto a train that had zero exposure to pantless riders untill 2 innocent looking girls stepped on – very awkward experience. I will share more later.

    I will be posting my pics and I also have video footage. For the ‘First Toronto No Pant Subway Ride’ it was an overall success!

    I already know how I will make next year even better!

  17. No Pants on Max in Portland went amazingly well. Despite some confusion of the post-pantless meet up spot, it went awesome. I guess my briefing was too brief because there was some confusion about how to act. But it was sooo AWESOME! One of my friends said that the MAX driver opened the door and asked one of them what was going on. They tried playing it off but then she said “No, what’s going on? We have a police escort and my train is full of pantsless people.” Then there was the guy at Rocco’s Pizza who couldn’t figure out why 20 pantsless people walked in. Half of the group got off at Pioneer Place due to confusion about where the end of fareless square was, it’s really about 5 more blocks west at Galleria/10th. But whatever. It couldn’t have been more awesome. A couple people even wore long, thermal underwear which was definitely my favorite. I was only questioned about it once, which then turned into the guy asking me out dancing. That was funny. When I told him I just forgot, he pointed out that the entire train was pantsless “I told him it was just one of those days, ya know.” My best estimation, I would guess about 50 to 60 people. And everyone I met were such awesome people! Thanks so much to everyone that showed up! See you next year!

  18. I was at the Boston no pants 2k8. It went pretty smoothly, but I think it would’ve been more fun with less pantsless people in each car, so that it’s believable for a minute that it’s some weird coincidence. It seems like no one broke character since, after I explained to a couple that all of my pants were in the wash, they remarked how absolutely no one was willing to tell them what was going on. We had a nice two-minute pantsless dance around a musician on the platform, which was very fun to watch. On the way back I had to explain to another student how all of my pants were in the wash, and after being surrounded by the pantsless he decided to “give in to peer pressure” and drop his pants with us. Thanks team leaders :) I hope there are more IE events in Boston soon (but with less media coverage)!

  19. No Pants in Chicago went very well! I was in the third group and we all got on the last car. After a few minutes, we started depantsing. A man asked me if “some sports thing was going on” and I told him I had no idea. Two middle-aged women giggled back and forth, especially when one of the girls started to apply lotion to her legs. Some people asked me why I wasn’t wearing any pants and I told them that I was in such a hurry and simply forgot to put on pants. They laughed and knew something was going on, since a whole carful of people couldn’t have been so absentminded. I stood across from this man by the door and he determinedly chose not to look at my pantless legs and acted as if everything was normal. Thanks for a great afternoon, everyone!

  20. Boston:

    Thank you thank you thank you Improv Everywhere! The mission in Boston was great. I met some interesting people as I read Einstein’s Dreams in my black Calvin Klein briefs.

    I was initially in Group 1, but there seemed to be more TV cameras than pants-less riders in that car, so I switched to the quite excellent Group 3 (where the signal to get off the train was someone shouting ‘Go Yankees’).

    A Boston Herald reporter requested my name several times during the mission, but I continued to ask him why a story about me forgeting my pants would be newsworthy. I told other askers that my pants had been chafing me…

    Can’t wait for the next mission in Boston!

  24. Hey all. I was one of the group leaders in DC. A great time was had by all, although it definitely would have been better if we had been able to play dumb and pretend that nobody knew what was going on. I’ve been checking out various media and there are some great pics out there. Check out the following from boston.com:

    http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/011208_nopants/

    The fifth pic is priceless! Today was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s good to see so many fun-loving, down-to-earth people out there.

  25. Today’s high temperatures from No Pants Ride participating cities from coldest to warmest, in Fahrenheit:

    Chicago – 39
    Salt Lake City – 39
    Toronto, Canada – 39
    Boston – 48
    Portland – 51
    Baltimore – 51
    New York – 51
    Washington DC – 54
    San Francisco – 54
    Adelaide, Australia – 78

  29. I’m one of two folk from DC who decided cowboy boots would be fitting for the occasion.

    I’ve never had so many random strangers approach me on the metro – this time to ask, “Ok, what’s the deal?”

    I gave varying degrees of vague answers, but we got looks everywhere, pictures taken, a few converts, and a lot of people citing their children as the reason they couldn’t join in.

    The only valid excuse that I heard, in my opinion, was “Sorry, I’m going commando.”

  30. The New York City No Pants Ride was divided between 3 different subway lines. On the 6 line our great leader, Agent Todd led the charge by dropping trough as soon as the train doors closed. This prompted a woman to turn her head in shock and block her daughter’s view. She looked at me after a few people repeated the disrobing ritual, as if to ask “why are these crazy people getting naked?” I simply shrugged and shook my head in disbelief. Which seemed to be enough for her, until I too stood up and removed the bottom half of my suit (she looked at me like I had betrayed some kind of silent pact between two normal people amidst a sea of lunatics).

    When it was my turn to exit the train (sans pants) the doors opened to the very busy, union square stop. While waiting for the next train to arrive, the platform became quite busy, with tourists and and New Yorkers snapping pictures of everyone’s legs. One tourist with some kind of European accent stopped me to ask for directions… but not about my lack of clothing.

    The highlight of this adventure were the people participating, and the after-ride events. The impromptu twister board in union square and the wonderful people who filled the Crocodile Bar made this truly memorable. After riding the trains quietly and seriously, it was great to cut loose. Every time another pantsless person came through the front door, the bar erupted into cheers. And every time someone came in wearing pants, the whole bar would chant “No Pants” until they gave up their jeans or ran back out the door in fear.

    Thanks to all, -Jason

  31. San Francisco was interesting. We had some confusion as to a meeting place (sorry, guys), so we ended up with several groups on different trains, which ended up being hilarious. The largest group had about 30-40 people, and I believe the smallest was 4. I need confirmation on that. Still, it’s pretty ballsy for only 4 people to take their pants off on public transit.
    Some people stared, some people shook their heads or rolled their eyes. No one asked about it where I was.
    One of the group of four reported that no one looked at them when they were actually on the train, but when they got off to wait at a station and turned around, the entire train car was staring out the windows at them.
    Pictures will be sent in as soon as they are all collected from the various groups.

  32. There was a slight bit of confusion at the Salt Lake City event, and at the designated start time, only a small handful of people had shown up. We waited around an extra five minutes and people seemed to gravitate out of nowhere. I’m estimating we had 30-40 people total who dropped trou for it.

    I was attending the symphony after the event, so I dressed in suit and tie, and I believe I was the only person dressed somewhat formally. This seemed to put people at ease with me – people asked if I had just gotten off work, etc.

    The first passenger interaction was a student from Klamath Falls, Oregon. He asked where my pants were, and after letting him know that “they were uncomfortable, and it was nice and sunny outside”, seemed satisfied with the answer. We chatted about music festivals until it was time to get off the train.

    I ran into several elderly couples, all of whom gave a very puzzled look as I walked by.

    At one stop where we had to get off to switch trains, we had barely missed the departing train which meant standing outside in the cold for 15 minutes. Luckily we were able to be entertained by the reactions of people driving by and seeing a bunch of pantsless people on the train platform.

    A lot of people seemed to only stick around for one ride or two. I hung around for two hours, and only noticed two other pantsless people by the time I got off the train for the last time. At least I was able to go out with a bang, as there were three girls laughing uncontrollably and taking cameraphone pictures as I got dressed in my slacks in the middle of the train.

  33. SF was amazing!

    There was some fragmentation indeed, but I was lucky to be party of a posse of 40 or so. We rode all the way out to Daly City and back again.

    Everyone ended up pounding beers afterward at some Irish pub in the financial district. Sans pants, of course.

    The evening descended into group make out sessions (no seriously) and copious mooning of passing vehicles.

    Killer.

  39. I’m not on Facebook, so perhaps there was a change in schedule for the Chicago event, but I missed nearly everyone. I arrived at the Granville Red Line station at 1:45 and it was deserted. I stayed until 2:30 awaiting my assignment, and met up with 2 other agents also awaiting assignments. At 2:30, we decided to go rogue. We each got on different cars of the same train and de-pantsed a couple stops later. By the time we got to the 35th St stop, we were all alone in our cars. We re-pantsed and switched to Northbound trains.

    I got several comments, tourists who politely informed me that I had forgotten my pants, giggles, and rolling of eyes. Not many were brave enough to talk to me though.

    So even though I missed the “official” event (what was the deal, anyway??), I still had a good time.

  40. My sis & I participated in No Pants San Francisco! I overheard one person comment to another, “Any idea why a bunch of people are running around in their underwear?” We got a number of stares but no one asked us about it directly. Apparently, nudity is legal in SF so some folks possibly shrugged it off. This was my first No Pants event and I quietly thought it was hysterically funny. There was one guy in our car who had cowboy boots, a suit jacket and briefcase – brilliant! Good times.

  42. DC No Pants was great! With the city’s stuffy reputation, some of us were concerned about metro police reaction, especially after they were tipped off by local news media days in advance. There were no arrested I’ve heard of and both the police and the pants-less were courteous, so hopefully this will pave the way for more events in our nation’s capitol. The metro was also packed most of the time, so the event definitely got maximum exposure.

    Looking forward to the next DC event!

  43. Reporting from Salt Lake City, UT.

    There was some minor initial confusion as to the meeting place. However, with this resolved, and fully fueled by burritos, I, along with Agents Troy and Shannon (my sons) boarded the Sandy line light rail (hereafter referred to as “Trax”) train. The amount of media was both disheartening (removing the element of surprise) and exhilarating (I’m going to be on TV – without pants!). The rest of the agents were mostly male and young, but there were a significant number of women and older gentlemen. Between the initial “Arena” stop and the following “Temple” stop, we prepared for depantification (loosened belts and shoes, etc).

    As soon as we left the “Temple” stop, we executed the primary mission, to wit, removal of pants. We were not the first to bare our undergarments, but certainly among the first. The media decended nearly immediately, pouncing upon Agent Troy’s bright yellow SpongeBob boxes like a pack of hyenas. We managed to convince one (print) reporter to remove his own pants.

    The rest of the time was fairly much as other agents have reported. There were, perhaps, a few too many moments when others broke cover, but we were generally nonchalant. My favorite question we were asked, and it was repeated multiple times, was “Why are you guys wearing underwear?” Our response was invariably a shocked, “You mean you’re NOT wearing underwear?”

    Reports of up to 75 agents can be independantly confirmed. By approximately 5pm, when the sun began to go down, we saw no pantless agents disembarking other trains, and decided that it was, on the whole, successful. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

    Videographic evidence can be found here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2478638

    Agent Matt, signing off.

  46. Toronto,

    One local news paper featured us on the front page with a full page inside.

    this event went really well, the train I was on maintained stone cold appearances despite a few uproars of laughter and questioning onlookers. I had a blast pretending nothing was wrong.

    check out http://www.torontosun.com and try and get a hard copy of the paper to see the inside scoop and more pictures.

    agent paul/micheal trussler

    (i gave them my real name…but they changed it for the front cover..? they got it correct on the inside.)

    PS thanks for all of the creativity

  47. update….Local toronto radio station mixfm99.9 have asked me to be on their show tomorrow morning to talk about the event…it will be at 6:00am with Mad dog and Billie.

    http://www.999mixfm.com/shows/500681

    supposedly they want to ask me why I did it and why it happened. Ill tell them our tale.

  48. Well that’s interesting… so apparently there’s two pictures of me in my orange sweatshirt and red boxers in the Chicago Sun Times article. And here I thought that dude on the platform was just a random guy taking pictures.

  50. Reporting in from Chicago-

    I drove down from Wisconsin for the event. I missed the initial meeting, but met up with five other late-comers, and we stayed it out until we met everyone else – thanks to the organizer posting his number on facebook, we were able to keep it together.

    The Sun Times article mentions briefcases – that was me. About three stops in, I took off my pants, shoved the in a briefcase, and was wearing a dress shirt and tie for the rest of the ride. I met some very friendly pantsless riders – a lot of fun.

    In terms of reactions, I heard one “it must be an independent film,” but my favorite were the guys who came through the car complimenting one group on their teenage mutant ninja turtle and power ranger underwear. Good choice.

    Thanks for giving me a great time and a fantastic story!

  51. I organized the event in chicago and we’ll be the leading story on The CLTV program Metromix on monday @ 7PM, 8PM, 9PM, and 12AM. I’ll post my Event Report as soon as I finish it.

  54. Boston No Pants Organizer:

    I feel like the Boston event was a huge success. We had around 200 people, more than I ever hoped for our first ride. The transit police rode with us (along with far too many media cameramen) and everyone was cooperative and friendly. Very few people seemed upset, and the vast majority were either amused, confused, or pretended to ignore us.
    If you do YouTube searches for “boston no pants” you should come up with most of our agent videos, and I think Charlie will be posting them up here shortly as well. Thanks again to everyone who was a part of this – you made it HUGE in our city and I’m really looking forward to next year!

  55. Belated report in from SF… I’ve been an IE fan since 2004 so I was completely stoked to get to participate in No Pants this year. With 40 or so of us on the train, exiting and re-entering new cars at each stop, it must have really created the effect of lots of people all over the city getting on the BART with no pants. (Although, at one point the conductor got on the PA to admonish us for not remaining on the train to change cars.) I especially appreciated the range of pantsless styles- guy in a suit with cowboy hat and boots, lady in a dressy jacket with pearls- hey, being without pants is for everyone! All the agents did a great job of behaving perfectly normal. Oh, and dude who was reading Naked Lunch, you cracked me up. Do I get to say mission accomplished? whee!

  57. I had the opportunity to help and participate in the Chicago event this past weekend while visiting a friend (I’m actually 30 miles from Boston). This was my second IE mission and as long as I keep living it wont be my last. I was the first on the scene w/ the group organizer and hence became team leader #1. CLTV showed up and were great sports; they hid their camera and also participated. I got to do the initial interview for them since our organizer is a little camera shy (but not shy about taking off his pants in public, thankfully!!!). I fear I might have said this was the 8th anniversary of No Pants instead of the 7th; I should have studied more. Anyhoo, I brought my friend Brad along with me. He didn’t know what it was till we arrived and I said he had to take off his pants. He was a great sport about it and enjoyed himself- keeping a normal look about him as he read “Civil Disobedience”.

    There were about 35 of us that met up in the Funeral Home parking lot across from the station, then about 5 more met us at the station last minute. Though over 100 people RSVP’d (including nation wide radio celebrity Karl Cassel) most of them (Karl for example) did not show up. I can’t say I was surprised. It take a lot more bravery to take off your pants in public than it does to click the “I’m Attending” button on the Facebook event page. 40 was about 20 more than I had anticipated so I was happy.

    We used 3 cars so we had about 13 people per car. My group had the last car. At each stop a couple people from each car would get out, wait on the station, and board the next train. In this way of course that next train would slowly gain more and more pantless riders every time it stopped till it was filled with riders. In the initial train people would depants right before their exit stop- one girl in our car was amused that more and more people were removing their pants and exiting at every stop into the freezing windy winter air. She had a big grin on her face and did her best not to stare. I got off at Addison which is an elevated outdoor platform. It was very cold and was filled with CTA staff. They noticed me briefly but did not pay any attention to me- a guy in his boxers in public outside in the middle of winter. *shrug*

    After waiting for what seemed like an eternity in the frigid windy air (I had to pee… this only made me more uncomfortable) the next train came and I boarded. No one seemed phased but by then there were already 10 other people in the car in their underwear. A few hoodlums in the back were harassing people, shouting, making snide remarks at the ladies, then took out some marijuana and started to roll. They were amused and confused, but honestly I think they are usually confused in general so this was probably nothing due to the stunt. One girl got up and left the train early, presumably sick of the harassment, and presumably ran to the next car to rejoin the group. An older guy boarded the train and sat down next to where I was standing. He leaned towards me, “Hey, hey man- what are you all on?”

    Me: “Excuse me?”
    Man: “Whatchu think you’re all doing? Are you on drugs or something?”
    Me: “What are you talking about?! I don’t do drugs! Never ever”
    Man: “Well where the heck are your pants? Is this some kind of cult?”
    Me: “Uh… no. I’m not even from around here. I’m from the Boston area- I was just heading to see a show but I forgot my pants in a rush not to miss the train. I didn’t want to be late- I didn’t think it would be a big deal…”
    Man: “Why are you dressed like everyone else then huh?!”
    Me: *looking at my clothes, then around the car, then back at the man with a confused look* “What do you mean?”
    Man: “You’re all dressed the same! You mean to tell me that ALL these people forgot to put their pants on today? Just what do you think you’re doing?”
    Me: “Like I said- I’m from Boston. We don’t think this kind of thing is a big deal. I don’t know any of these people- if you want to find out why some of them aren’t wearing their pants you’ll have to ask them yourself…”
    Man: “You’re all crazy…”

    At the Monroe stop all us crazies would get off the train and board the train in the opposite direction, repeating the process of exiting at various stops to re-enter the following train. We all got off at Monroe, the three machismo losers much to our pleasure stayed behind- literally and figuratively.

    To keep the logistics simple I assigned peeps in my group just one station for both directions. In this way those that were first off on the first round would be last off on the way back. This worked out well since it gave people a chance to see things differently. Since I was the last person off the first time I was also the last person to re-enter. I had no idea till coming back (when I was the first back on the train) just how funny it was to see people entering the trains from the platforms with no pants on. I was deadpan the entire time save for two smirks I had to hide by turning to a window. How the regular riders could not be cracking up was beyond me.

    When we entered the train on the way back I actually was able to see a legit positive reaction. Maybe because it was new to them since it was the first time in that car. Two middle aged ladies stared and giggled under their breath for quiet a while. On the opposite side of the car a lady with classic Bible-Belt style makeup and hair was clearly NOT amused. After a couple stops the woman couldn’t take it anymore and quietly exited the train. I was glad she was so polite about it at least- a kind of “if you cant say nothing nice don’t say anything at all” attitude apparently… or maybe she was scared speechless. Unfortunately for her she waited on the platform for the next train- the same train that we were all going to be on again in 15 minutes. I fear we created some kind of freakish personal hell for her in that way. “DEAR GOD WHY ARE THESE CRAZY PEOPLE IN THEIR UNDERWEAR STALKING ME- AND WHY DOESN’T ANYONE ELSE SEEM TO NOTICE THEIR EXISTENCE?!” I like to imagine she said to herself. I like to imagine that because I’m sick.

    Brad was sitting next to a psychology student and his friend- the friend was reportedly freaked out and the psychology student was trying to explain it out in rational terms why someone would do. I’ll try to get Brad to elaborate their amusing discussion. I believe they eventually settled on it being a stunt for candid camera and motioned to me standing by the door “And see- that guy looks like Steve Martin- I think that’s Steve Martin”. This is all the more amusing as they clearly had no idea who Steve Martin is as I have dark hair, a beard, and I’m probably less than half his age. I decided to call my fellow alumni, Susan who I was hoping to visit during this Chicago visit. I left her a message- “Hey Susan its James. I’m in Chicago- are we still planning on meeting tonight? I missed your call since I’m on the L and we were underground. I’m just heading back to a friend’s to pick up my pants since I forgot them- but feel free to give me a ring cause I’ll be around and I have service now. Talk to you soon!”
    Susan txt’d me back- “YOU FORGOT YOUR PANTS? THAT MUST HAVE BEEN ONE ROUGH NIGHT”. She wasn’t in on the joke yet.

    All in all it went pretty well- minor hiccups here and there but people improvised which was the whole point- its called Improv Everywhere after all. One participant seemed a bit stressed out and was taking it very seriously, but everyone else just brushed it off and had serious fun. I just hope I didn’t bring any bed bugs back to the Granite State.

    Looking forward to many more,
    Jim (Agent AliasesRstupid)

    -Wonders if the fact I wore camo boxers made it look like I had nothing on at all.

  58. Boston Video!

    Agent Tom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo11Io5vU8A
    Agent Nick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaudBRv7mVw
    Agent Jimmy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtCdWll57vU
    Agent MG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEYhL58tr2U
    Agent Linda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKphkQRtsCU
    Agent Interview, Tom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo11Io5vU8A

    The “no pants” dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbU7qDs4t0s

    Agent Adam trying to buy pants from a vendor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ7LELxPIJA

  60. I ended uo being the team leader for team 3 in chicago. Things went well. We did have 1 undercover officer in our car who was such a perv he was staring at one of the girls crotches the whole time.
    We met at Granville and Magnolia at 2pm about 40 to 50 people participated. The reason the number is unclear is due to people joining us on the train. It worked very well. The plan was that there were 3 groups. Each group had a different car and each person or couple people were assigned a stop. At the stop before yours you would stand up and lose your pants, stow them away in your bag, and then exit at your stop. Then you would wait for the next train and enter the same car you exited on the previous train. It was all to fun to watch the reactions as someone would get on the train and see the first no pants person. Then they would take a seat and notice the big picture and the look on their face would go from ok that was strange to what the hell! Once everyone was depantsed and aboard the second train it was pretty full of both bottomed and non bottomed people. When we arrived at Monroe everyone exited the train and flooded the platform with pants less individuals. Lots of media people met us there including WGN radio and metromix was along for the whole ride. Also along for the ride was the Chicago tribune reporter. On the way back north the reactions when everyone got on the train at the same time was priceless the lady who was sitting right next to me had no idea what just happened. She was floored. She then asked me why I have no pants on. I told her the whole “my roommate was yelling at me and I ran out of my apartment and COMPLETELY forgot my pants. She said “ok then what is everyone else’s story” I told her I have no Idea what their stories are and maybe she should ask them. She asked the girl sitting directly across from me. The girl looked right into her eyes and said… “Sorority initiation” and rolled her eyes. We then each got off at designated stops and did the same going back up to Granville. When we reached Granville we got off the train and went back over to our meeting spot and took a no pants picture in the parking lot. All in all very successful first no pants for Chicago! I learned everything can be more fun without pants!

  62. I was almost late i showed up around 3:30 and crossed the street to see a huge group of people emerge from the price chopper parking lot .
    Myself and my wife thought it would be a good idea to bring the kids as i was the only one participating if the pantless gag got to out of hand and grimy she could split off and meet at young st afterwards. That was not the case every single person i met was just as i thought , very friendly and as crazy as i am.
    So after we saw how calm everything was we decided to unleash my youngest son ( 4 months ) on the unsuspecting public and let him ride in only his diaper he had a blast
    laughing and smiling his way through the toronto underground and then after the ride was done we headed to the pub and played some pantless pool and had a photo session
    it was a great time had by all

  64. reporting from no pants 2k8 toronto:

    the whole event went off without a hitch, i am glad to say. the police escort across the street was much appreciated – their support of our mission was quite lovely, methinks. as soon as we got down to the platform my co-conspirator and i depanted and waited for our train. we headed to donlands with the rest of the group, switching cars as we saw fit, playing with a rubik’s cube and generally enjoying the ride. one woman and her daughter were whispering back and forth about myself and my friend and eventually worked up the nerve to ask me “what this was all about”. i played dumb and asked her if she meant my rubik’s cube, and without pausing for her to respond went into a detailed lecture about math and patterns. after switching cars again, i was approached by a guy with a notepad who asked me what was going on. again i played dumb, but he assured me that he was a reporter from the sun and knew what was going on so i cooperated. to my surprise i was quoted in the sunday paper – and so began my secondary mission: keeping my mother from reading about my pantless expedition.

    it was a lovely pantless day and i look forward to many, many more to come. to all who participated, thank you for collaborating in such an awesome event! it wouldn’t have been half as much fun without everyone else.

  67. Post- No Pants 2k8 Boston:

    Saturday, early evening, maybe about 6pm. On my way to join some friends and some crazy Packers fans at a bar, I parked my car on the other edge of Davis Square in Somerville.. As I passed the Davis T stop, I made eye contact with a girl coming out of the station. It was someone I didn’t know, but I couldn’t help but feel that I knew her, or at least who she was. She looked back, seemingly sorting out the same thoughts in her head, until her expression turned to a slightly sly smile just as we passed each other. It wasn’t until two or three steps later that it dawned on me as well.

    No more than 30 minutes beforehand, we had both seen each other in our underwear. Brilliant.

  68. I was one of about 40 people in San Francisco riding on BART with No Pants! We had a great time on BART, got chastised for changing cars (to expose our pantslessness to as many passengers as possible), but NOT for having no pants ;-) Then a freaky after party at The Irish Bank, where some no pantsers stopped traffic on Bush Street (no pun intended) with really no pants.

    Thanks so much for making this a national No Pants day… can’t wait for the next Improv Everywhere event.

    Here are my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37548001@N00/sets/72157603705194048

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