Improv Everywhere

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Acting teacher Charlie Todd founded Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere (abbreviation: IE ; English for improvisation everywhere ) is a performance group founded by Charlie Todd in 2001 in New York City . According to the motto “We Cause Scenes”, the group has carried out around 100 actions in public spaces since 2001, from rehearsed theater scenes with a few actors to flash mobs with several hundred participants. The actions are documented on the group's website and have also been published on their YouTube channel since mid-2005 , which has had around 340 million views to date.

Actions

Participants in the Mission No Pants Subway Ride in January 2010
Participants in the Mission No Pants Subway Ride in January 2010

IE's actions, internal mission , are carried out by different members of the group called agents. In some cases, calls for participation are distributed via social networks.

  • Since 2002, the No Pants Subway Ride campaign has been held in the New York City Subway on the 2nd Sunday in January . The participants ride on the trains in normal everyday clothing, but without pants - both men and women in underpants. The reactions of passers-by are hidden or openly filmed by third parties. The action found imitators in other American and European cities.
  • One of the most famous actions was Frozen Central Station . On February 24, 2008, a Saturday, more than 200 participants were in the main hall of Grand Central Station . At 2:30 p.m., they stopped moving for five minutes. The action found several imitators.
  • In October 2005, IE organized a rooftop concert in New York with actors performing as members of the U2 musical group . During the fourth song, the New York police stopped the concert because of the crowd in the street.

literature

  • Charlie Todd, Alex Scordelis: Causing a Scene, Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere . 2009. ISBN 978-0061703638

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Cadenbach: New York Street Comedy - Pants down, passers-by lively . In: Spiegel Online, February 23, 2008
  2. ↑ "Flashmob" action freezes Vienna . In: orf.at, December 14, 2008
  3. ^ Campbell Robertson: Where the Streets Have No Shame , New York Times, May 25, 2009.