There’s a great improv group out of New York called Improv Everywhere who do clever public interventions. They are ususally elaborate and involve placing numerous people (or “agents”) in the crowd. They had a suicide jumper on the thin ledge of a building, but the ledge was only 3 feet off the ground. Or the time they gathered a large group of people (see photo below) in blue polo shirts and khakis and entered a Best Buy — the clothing they were wearing was almost identical to the store’s uniform. The “agents” did not claim to work at the store but were friendly and helpful if anyone had a question. Or when they posed as U2 and played a few songs on a rooftop in NYC and stopped traffic the day the real U2 was to play Madison Square Gardens. They have lots of good stunts. Are there any groups in Toronto doing something like this?
6 comments
i like this post! i am good friends with charlie todd and we were once featured in the same article – which happened to be the only negative press either of us ever received, haha.
we consider our work related and if people did want to emulate improv everywhere in toronto, the best one to do would definitely be “the mp3 experiment”, which is turning 3 this saturday in central park! i can’t wait!
i recommend anyone who attempt these stunts have a background in drama: this is street theatre at its best.
miss us? 😛
Haha! The Best Buy one is great. I was down in NYC for the U2 on the roof one, but knew right away it wasn’t them. Funny, though!
I would love to participate in something like this… if someone organizes let me know!
Finally, a place to direct all that drama geek energy.
Improv everywhere are my idols. I was thinking of starting something like this in Toronto (I don’t think a group like this exists) — I started constructing a website for it, but so many there are so many interesting things going on, I knew I wouldn’t be able to take it on. But I’m like Steve, if anyone starts a group like this in Toronto, I’d like to participant. I just can’t lead it. My favorite mission is The Moebius: http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=30Strip
When washroomquest.com is finally launched, I’m thinking of borrowing their Bathroom Attendant skit:
http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=46
Although not the quite the same thing, the closest I can think of in this city is “wade”, which is coming up again on the first weekend of July. There’s 14 some odd installations in wading pools around the city, some of which have a performance element to them, like this one:
9. HAZEL MEYER
“Deer Heads†is a participatory project where a herd of people wearing papier maché deer heads travel between wading pools in the city. The pools are symbolically transformed into watering holes: places of wildlife, community and congregation. The herd will act like a pied piper, walking through the city, drawing people from the main streets to other wading pool events.
The thing that fascinates me about this project though, is how the audience (whether visiting on purpose, or unsuspectingly stumbling upon an installation while playing in or passing through a park) becomes active– either as performers in the piece, or as artists, altering or creating the work in the wading pool.
More info:
http://www.wadetoronto.com/
http://www.spacing.ca/wade.htm