They’re Making a Scene: Improv Everywhere Documentary

By Angela McCormack / December 23rd, 2011 in Talks / New York / 710 views

Making pranks feel less Jim & Dwight and more like happy coincidences, serial-mischief maker Charlie Todd has been running amuck since 2001 by injecting welcome doses of the unexpected into an otherwise mudane urban malaise. As Improv Everywhere nicely puts their ethic: “We’re out to prove that a prank doesn’t have to involve humiliation or embarrassment; it can simply be about making someone laugh, smile, or stop to notice the world around them.”

For the past few years the notoriously feel-good pranksters at Improv Everywhere have been working to make their stunts (or, ‘missions’, as they like to call them) more than one-hit-wonder YouTube gags or—worse—to be passed off as just a ‘flash mob’. In the works from director Matt Adams is one of the most promising and engaging documentaries we’ve ever anticipated, exploring the inspiring work of Charlie Todd and highlighting missions that have brightened countless subway-goers’ and pedestrians’ days for years.

Support and love and encouragement (but mostly money) is needed to get Improv Everywhere’s doco finished and off the ground, so go ahead and funnel some holiday cheer over at Kickstarter. If their missions alone don’t convince you, we’re sure the astounding eloquence of Aubrey Plaza will render you speechless:

“It’s like everything is going like this, and then when an improve everywhere prank happens it’s like, euhh, and then you’re like, ‘oh’.”