Improv Everywhere is a group formed in 2001 and based out of New York City that “causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.” The idea is to interupt the boring daily routine and get people to stop and look at the world around them…and participate in it. The group posts missions on their website and gathers people within the city to participate. They have so far executed over 80 missions involving thousands of “undercover agents”. Here are a few good ones…

You may have heard of “No Pants Transit Day” that is held annually in January. It started in NYC with only 7 participants back in 2002 and has grown tremendously with participation in 21 other cities across the world (including Portland) and over 1,200 underware-clad people in NYC in 2009. You can check the video here and hey, if you missed out then you can always take your pants off next year! Check the video of the event in NYC:

One of my all time favorites is “Frozen Grand Central”. This one is flat out brilliant. It breaks the concentration of those just passing through the station, unaware of their surroundings and focused purely on their task at hand. But after awhile, people realize something funny is going on and they stop to wonder about this interesting phenomenon. I particularly love the guy with the truck that can’t get through because everyone is “stuck” in his way.

The next one is called “Look Up More” which gathers together a group of people to stand in the backlit windows of a multi-level department store building and follow a series of timed moves as the crowd on the street below gathers and watches in amazement:

The lastest mission is the Mp3 Experiment which is an annual event that has taken place in different places each year but this year, the Mp3 Experiment Six: The Legend of Roosevelt Island, it is on Roosevelt Island. The idea is that everyone wears one of a few colors of shirts (red, yellow, green blue) along with a white one underneath, syncronizes their clocks to the atomic clock on the website, downloads the mp3 (but doesn’t listen to it before hand!) and then shows up at the designated spot. People are supposed to space out and not be too close to anyone else they suspect might be participating. Then, all at the same time, they press play.

The greatest part is that it’s both amusing for those participating and those who are not. The participants have no idea what they will be asked to do on the mp3 and those who aren’t a part of the experiment are amused by a ton of people all seemingly doing the same weird things yet separately. The mp3 has both music and a voice who guides the participants through a series of ridiculous instructions, usually around 45 minutes long.

This year, on May 22, 2009, everyone was to gather on Roosevelt Island in the area indicated in blue and when their synchronized clocks drew near to 4:00pm, they were to find a place to sit. At exactly 4:00, they were all to press play.

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Spoiler alert!! I’m going to write about the music and events a bit so if you want to listen to it for yourself the first time and be surprised by what you hear, don’t read any further! You can download and listen to this years mp3 track here. There is no video available yet but I’ll post a link once there is.
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image via Improv Everywhere

The track starts out with some uplifting electronic music to get participants into the mood. Then “Steve” introduces himself as the guide and and says “Today we will be exploring the island together and meeting some of it’s inhabitants. Let’s prepar for our adventure by starting with some simple breathing”. He then advises on some breathing and stretching and asks the listener to look around and see if they see anyone else they think is participating. In order to find out, he tells everyone to jump up and throw their hands in the air the moment they hear popcorn sounds. According to the huge numbers of participants that day, 2.3 jabillion, I can only imagine that this was hilarious for unsuspecting people when tons of people around suddenly jump up in the air and then later start pointing in (hopefully) the same direction as Steve asked to point to things like Central Park, Battery Park and Governor’s Island. And then I bet it got pretty funny when he asked:

“Now point to Nicaragua. Good job. More people than I expected learned where Nicaragua was this year.”

image via Ilya Chigirev

Then it’s time to meet! Everyone was to wear a plain t-shirt of either red, green, yellow or blue. First, cross the color barrier and meet someone of a different color…then go do your secret handshake someone of your same color.

image via Mark Hambly

Then, to acknowledge all the strangers not participating, everyone is to suddenly start going around and giving thumbs up to the non-participants to show them that it’s all good, even inside stores and cafes. Then follow it up with high-fives. And then start following a stranger, copying their every move trying to get a big line going. Then just suddenly stop following and casually walk off in different directions.

image via Katie Sokoler

After walking around for a little bit casually, the participants are instructed to start square dancing for a couple minutes and switching partners around often to some super silly square dance music about a “big fat wife”. Then suddenly Steve says “drop to the ground, it’s nap time”. Boom, everyone drops for a 15 second power nap.

images via Katie Sokoler

Then everyone gets up and starts walking on the paths around the perimeter to the giant field at the southern tip of the island. The amusing story of “Peters and the Wolves” entertained participants along the way. Which then followed with a game of “Steve Says” which had people doing following silly directions. Like Steve says toput your finger on your nose, Steve says to pat your head and run your tummy, Steve says to wink at someone you find cute, go grab that persons rear end…oh wait, steve didn’t say to grope people!

image via Mark Hambly

Everyone should’ve made it to the field at this time and then it’s time for color-coded freeze tag frenzy. A color is chosen by Steve to go after people and freeze the ones with other colors. Then every color but blue is it and everyone has to attack the blues. Then, drop…it’s nap time again!

Then different colors are told to take headphones off while certain colors are told to dance in different ways in the upcoming dance party game. One group is told to dance like the 1920′s while another like the 2020′s. Then boom, everybody fall down…nap time again.

image via Mark Hambly

Then the final game…”Bats vs. Hammers”. Red and yellow shirts are directed to go one way….blue and green shirts go another way. Once everyone has gathered, the weapons are passed out. Then everyone is told to blow them up while listening to the directions and told that it’s a ‘family game’, so no mean stuff. Once blow up, everyone is told to taunt the other team by holding their weapons high in the air.

image via Mark Hambly

image via Brian Fountain

Then everyone is told to begin! Accompanied by battle music, they are to run and hit as many people of the other team. Then suddenly the music stops and Steve asks why everyone must fight against each, everyone is one team and the lone wolf from the story has now crept onto the island on the southern tip of the island. Everyone is told to take off their colored shirt and reveal their white shirt beneath and wave their colored shirt over their head like a battle flag…as one united, colorless team.

image via Mark Hambly

image via Katie Sokoler

Everyone is told to run towars the wolf and use the weapons to bring down the wolf and bring peace to Roosevelt Island once and for all. Then, Steve proclaims that the wolf is dead and asks everyone to celebrate by running around and high fiving everyone….in slow motion. Set to an electronicized song infused with a bit of the ol’ Charriots of Fire. Then the track ends by Steve asking everyone to look up at the sky, wave and yell…”Goodbye!!”

image via Brian Fountain

image via Katie Sokoler