November 20, 2007

12:01 a.m.

Improv Everywhere

I�ve been reading the website of this amazing, kamikaze improv troupe (oh God, I just typed �improve trout�) in NYC. I heard of them a couple of years ago on NPR. They stage happenings around the city in order to create �chaos and joy� in public places and to shake up the way we expect things to be. Like the annual No Pants day on the subway: dozens (this year, 160) of people methodically de-pants on alternate subway cars and systematically move up one car (as though they�d been waiting on the platform, pantsless) until maybe 30 people are on each car in their boxers or underwear. They might be wearing suit jackets on top, or parkas, hats, shoes, socks. Reading newspapers, listening to iPods. Their mission is to act normal and if anyone asks why they aren�t wearing pants, to say they forgot them. And to pretend they don�t know each other. Eventually someone (another �agent�) comes in the car selling pants for $1. The participants are really buying their own pants back. They get their pants, put �em on, and all get off at the end of the line.

Last year a cop freaked out and stopped the train and made everyone evacuate. Things escalated until 8 agents were arrested, though no one did anything illegal. It made the news; David Letterman talked about it, other talk shows picked it up, it was on AOL�s home page.

In �07, several policemen actually escorted the group so no one would hassle them. It went off hitch-free.

They also staged an event at a Starbucks, where a handful of agents created a time loop of several minutes -- movements, comments, sitting down and getting up -- which they repeated over and over again until people started noticing.

Eighty of them showed up at a Best Buy wearing khaki pants and royal blue shirts, just like the employees. They stood at the ends of aisles, not shopping, not working. People came up to ask where the DVDs were, which battery went with which camera. They helped as best they could. When real employees asked them what they were doing, they each said they were waiting for their friend/boyfriend/girlfriend who was shopping.

Oh, and they went to a Home Depot with synchronized watches, and spread out randomly throughout the store. At a certain time, they all shopped in slow motion for five minutes. Then they shopped normally for five minutes. Then they froze in place for five minutes. There were so many of them, they were just all over the store. Fifteen minutes later they were gone, and the employees were buzzing. �I saw them, man! They were frozen for like an hour!� �I saw one guy moving in slow motion for at least thirty minutes!�

What they find at these events is that ground level employees generally think it�s fun and amusing. Management generally freaks out and asks them to leave.

There are always a number of agents with hidden cameras filming the whole thing. On one mission, I kid you not, one of them actually had SPY CAM GLASSES.

It must take a lot of courage to pull these things off. But I so applaud Charlie Todd. We need shaking up in this benign, mischievous way.

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Incredibly tired. Went to see Dan in Real Life with Wes tonight. It was very cute. So�s Steve Carell.