Improv Everywhere

I came across a site at plasticbugs.com that I really enjoyed. The site is the homepage for the exploits of a group called improv everywhere. They're a fairly large group of people who get together and do improvisational things in public places. They take pictures at these events, and write up the stories on their web page later. They're really entertaining to read. Here are a few of the situations I enjoyed.

The idea was that the group would buy a big group of gift certificates for about $10 apiece. They would pick out a complete stranger in a bar somewhere and have every member of the improv group go and tell him "happy birthday, thanks for the invite to the party". They would all pick out relationships they shared with this stranger, such as having gone to college with him at UNC Chapel Hill or having dated his sister. They created a fake biography for him, a name of course, and then would have a birthday party for him in the bar.

They organized a group of 25 people who each bought a gift certificate, and made the gift out to an imaginary person "Ted". One of the members then went into a bar and picked a person out, identified him to the rest of the group and announced that this was to be "Ted". So, throughout the course of the night, the rest of the members of improv everywhere would go up to "Ted" and tell him happy birthday, thanks for the invitation to the party, here's your gift... much to the astonishment of this stranger. You can read the full story and see the pictures here.

In another situation, the improv group researched an unknown band that would be at a local bar in the near future. The general idea was to make this band think they just had the best gig ever. They downloaded their mp3's, became familiar with their songs, and some even made shirts with the bands logo on the front. 35 people showed up to see the band, cheering the band on, requesting songs, and acting as if they were the best band on the face of the planet. Again, the story and details can be found on their website... and this story can be found here.

A few other situations worth mentioning... they had a famous Russian author Anton Checkov, appear at a book reading at barnes and noble. The hitch, that it wasn't Anton Checkov, and that Anton Checkov has been dead for over 100 years.

The other situation that I wanted to mention, which is my favorite so far, is called "The Amazing Hypnotist". One of the improv members pretends to be a hypnotist performing in Washington Street Park. He has a large group of other improv members (called "agents") planted in the audience. They would act as volunteers to be hypnotized. He pretends to hypnotize them all, making them do foolish things, and then he darts out of the park with his assistant without "unhypnotizing" the volunteers. The crowd's reaction is priceless. Check it out for yourself.

You can find a big list of their "conquests" on their site at http://www.improveverywhere.com/conquests.html