Our thanks to Twin Cities voice-over talent Jeff Gadbois for getting us hooked on Improv Everywhere. It’s a troupe of “agents” (their words, not ours) that perform spontaneous acts of live theater. Well, not purely spontaneous it turns out, as Charlie Todd, their ringmaster, explains – “Sure, our missions are not pure improv. We have a definite pre-planned agenda. We also have no idea what is going to happen”
In one skit they decided that members of an unknown band playing their first New York gig should think they were a smash hit. So they studied the band’s music and then crowded the performance, pretending to be hard-core fans. Public radio picked up on that particular story and it was recently featured on Ira Glass’, This American Life. Hilarious.
Another episode involved having people get on and off the N.Y. subway, without pants. You can download a Windows Media Player vid of that skit from my link here.
Can you imagine what would’ve happened if this went down on the Hiawatha Light Rail Line?
Good thing “Conceal and Carry” got repealed.