Looks like Improv Everywhere have struck again. This time, they got a bunch of people (“agents”) to dress up like Best Buy employees (blue polo, khakis) and quietly take over a store in NYC. Customers got confused, managers freaked out, and employees were delighted by the distraction.
This American Life did a story about IE a few years back, and if you go to the IE website you can read about some of the better shenanigans they’ve pulled. IE is a NY-based group of merrymakers who set up these charming little “missions” (well, sometimes they’re not so little – one time they put on a fake U2 concert). They get volunteer “agents,” probably through an email list or something; basically, anyone who sees news about an upcoming prank can volunteer to be involved, if volunteers are needed. The tricks are mostly quite benign and benevolent, often done simply to brighten the day of complete strangers.
My favorites are the ones that are pretty tiny, and performed by the small group of people who seem to be in charge of the whole operation. The moebius is simply brilliant, for example, and the romantic comedy cab is sweet.
Having the word Improv in their name is slightly misleading, I think, because some of their setups are rather elaborate and involved, if not actually ‘rehearsed.’ But the idea of using an entire city as both stage and audience, with random performance times and even players, is kinda neat, and sounds like a pretty fun way to pass the time.
Filed under: fun
