(Improv Everywhere clip from the first 40 Greatest Pranks)
Tonight at 9 PM VH1 is debuting 40 Greatest Pranks 2. We’re not sure if that means these pranks have replaced the previous list of the 40 greatest, or if they should be considered the 41st through 80th greatest pranks. Either way, Improv Everywhere’s No Shirts prank is #9. Set your DVR!
UPDATE: Here is the video from 40 Greatest Pranks 2
(Today Show Coverage from last year’s No Pants Ride)
Improv Everywhere is encouraging people to organize their own No Pants Subway Rides in cities around the world on January 10, the same day as the annual event in New York. There are already a dozen cities on board. Check out the official site to find your city or start your own ride: Global No Pants Subway Ride
Improv Everywhere has posted a save-the-date for their 8th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride in New York City. The event will take place on Saturday, January 10. Urban Prankster organizations in cities around the world are encouraged to stage their own rides as well.
For their latest mission, 20 Improv Everywhere agents personally welcomed home total strangers at JFK airport. Grabbing first and last names from car driver signs, they greeted strangers with personalized posters, flowers, balloons, and a 10-foot wide banner reading, “Welcome Back.”
Dave Hoffer, a creative director at Frog Design, recently coined the term “Disruptive Realism” to describe much of what we post about on this blog. He introduces the term in the video above and then elaborates:
Disruptive Realism is an expression presented in an everyday context that disrupts peoples perceptions about different things. Expression can mean many things and it a way it’s art but it’s also much more expansive a term than just art.
Banksy’s graffiti looks real enough that you might do a double take looking at it. It draws you into the content which is disruptive…like a little girl flying a refrigerator kite in New Orleans.
The other two examples are even more non-conventional than the word Art implies. Most people hear the word art and they think of a painting in a museum. Because Bruno Taylor’s work is an experience that involves physical designs like the swing set in the bus stop, the viewer is no longer viewing, they’re interacting and the videos he takes of people enjoying the installations are, in fact, part of the art. So this example is difficult to define, but definitely real and definitely disruptive.
Improv Everywhere is one part performance art and one part massive, crowdsourced goof. People get together (often strangers) to collaborate on a kind of a joke on the unsuspecting and unknowing non-participants. In a way, it’s almost an anti-terrorism…Humorism? But again, very real and very disruptive.
The term made it’s way to Wikipedia, though the entry is in danger of being deleted it seems.
There will be an Mp3 Experiment in Berlin tomorrow! Improv Everywhere is traveling to Berlin to take part in the InterFilm festival. They’ll be screening videos tonight and then tomorrow hosting an Mp3 Experiment.
Full details on The Mp3 Experiment Berlin.
A group called NPC Crew in Trieste, Italy recently staged their own version of Improv Everywhere’s Human Mirror, calling it the “first human mirror in Europe.” Rather than sit on the subway, the twins walked around town and then sat in chairs facing each other in a public square. Pretty impressive to wrangle that many twins in a city of only 200,000 people. Cool!
Here’s Improv Everywhere’s Human Mirror:
It looks like “fashion tissue paper” company Renova, based in Portugal, decided to make a Portuguese version of Improv Everywhere’s Food Court Musical to market their colorful napkins. They copied the lyrics (translated), choreography, characters, and music. They didn’t bother to give credit to Improv Everywhere or the writers of the song Scott Brown and Anthony King. Thanks to Manuel for sending this in.
UPDATE: It looks like they made the video “private” so no one can see it. Anyone know how to track down a cached copy? Here is the original link, and here is the account that uploaded it.
UPDATE 2: I found it on another video site. Watch it here.
The original Food Court Musical:
(also available on YouTube)
song by Scott Brown and Anthony King
arranged by Jamie Laboz
Previously: Airport Musical
Details are starting to come together for Improv Everywhere’s upcoming Mp3 Experiment Tour. The tour has now expanded to include Toronto. Note the new date for Chicago.
Tour dates:
The Mp3 Experiment 5: New York City
Saturday, September 27 at 3:15 PM at Governor’s Island [directions]
The Mp3 Experiment Toronto
Sunday, September 28 at 2:00 PM at Riverdale Park
The Mp3 Experiment San Francisco
Saturday, October 4 (time and location TBA)
The Mp3 Experiment Chicago
Sunday, October 5 (time and location TBA)
Complete instructions for each city will be online next week.