Improv Everywhere is an unorthodox comedy group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by one Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes," which the group lives up to by executing non-demeaning pranks in public places. The events ("missions") organized by the group are often considered flash mobs, but the group's website insists that they have nothing to do with flash mobbing and that IE was created years before flash mobbing gained popularity.

While some missions are executed by long-time members of IE, many missions are open to the public. IE has organized and carried out over 50 missions, from synchronized swimming in a park fountain to repeating a short sequence of events in a Starbucks café every five minutes for an hour to flooding a Best Buy store with members dressed exactly like the staff. All share a certain modus operandi: The missions are benevolent, aiming to give the observers ("civilians") a laugh and an experience. Members ("agents") play their roles entirely straight, not breaking character or betraying that they are acting. Civilians are not made the butts of the jokes intentionally, but there have been incidents of pranks going awry (e.g. "Best Gig Ever").

The group's most famous stunt is the annual No Pants event, which involves a large number of people riding a subway in the attire described, all claiming to have forgotten theirs by accident. The situation is solved by the lucky appearance of a pants vendor. This and several other missions have received national media attention. This event created controversy on January 22, 2006, when the New York City Police Department arrested eight members of the group while on the subway. According to the group, over 160 people participated in the city-wide event. The eight unlucky ones were riding the 6 train and were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct. After appearing in court, these charges were dismissed.

Another more complex mission, done on May 21, 2005, involved the IE team staging a fake U2 street concert on a rooftop in New York hours before the real U2 were scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden. The team was successful in that they were able to draw an enormous crowd, most of which thought that the people on the rooftop were actually U2. However, just like at the filming of the band's "Where the Streets Have No Name" video in 1987, the police eventually shut the performance down, but not before IE was able to exhaust their four-song repertoire and get most of the way through an encore repeat of "Vertigo". The mission ended on a high note, with the crowd (even those who had realized that this was a prank) shouting "one more song!," and then "let them play!" when the police officers had arrived.

Charlie Todd was interviewed on an episode of This American Life on NPR in 2005. While touching briefly on the "No Pants" and "The Moebius" stunts, the show focused on "Best Gig Ever" and "Ted's Birthday", and how they created unintended reactions- both good ("Best Gig Ever") and bad ("Ted's Birthday").

External links

• Main site of Improv Everywhere
• A NY Times article about a mission
• Audio Interview with creator Charlie Todd on The Sound of Young America: MP3 Link
• Additional audio interview with founder Charlie Todd on The Sound of Young America (June 2006)
• This American Life episode
• 8 Nabbed for No Pants Subway Ride in N.Y.

Derivative Art

• Improv-Abilities exports the IE spirit to the Midwest.

Theatre companies | American comedians