IMPROV EVERYWHERE DOCUMENTARY

If you have been reading the O.I. for a while now, you know that I love everything related to Improv Everywhere. Love! Well hold onto your socks people because Improv Everywhere is hitting the big screen! The founders of the group, Matt and Andrew, have been working on a documentary for years now and need some help raising the funds to get the project finished.


Head over to their Kickstarter page to help them out and learn more about Improv Everywhere here.


p.s. I have a total girl crush on Aubrey Plaza; adding her to the trailer was genius!

ROB IS LOST

The latest Improv Everywhere mission actually makes me want to go to a Knicks game (despite my allegiance to the Celtics). Agent Latham, aka "Rob", got up during half time to get some refreshments and then pretended to get lost on the way back. Despite various yelling and hand-waving he could not manage to spot his friends and return to his seats. Cut to the next quarter and Rob's entire section--including scores of complete strangers--are chanting his name to help him find his way back. When he finally returned to his seat countless people come up to take a photo with him and tell him how worried they were.

Really, if you were in doubt, Improv Everywhere constantly proves that people can be pretty awesome (and funny! I love their cheers!). Check out more Improv Everywhere shenanigans at their website here.

LIFE IN THE TOURIST LANE

As a fast-walking New Yorker, I love this new "mission" by Improv Everywhere. Awesome. Now if we could only get a 'dog peeing' section of the sidewalk I would be in heaven.

Check out more Improv Everywhere awesomeness here (and read my past write-ups here).

YEARBOOK SUBWAY SHOOT

Color Me Kate has just posted about her latest Improv Everywhere project: a yearbook photo booth set up on the NYC subway! Love it! Check more photos and a video about this fabulous idea here.

p.s. If you are not on the Improv Everywhere mailing list get yourself signed up!

NEW YORK CITY ON MUTE

I love this new Improv Everywhere sketch: feigning a mute button for a noisy NYC park! Too bad this doesn't actually exist!

Check out more on their website here (see my past Improv Everywhere posts here).


(Hope you all had a great long weekend! I know I did!)

THE MINI GOLF OPEN

I love Improv Everywhere missions—where groups of strangers gather together to put on a funny, improvised event to delight unwitting onlookers—but this one takes the cake for adorableness. Much like the Carousel Horse Race, it elevates an everyday activity (i.e. mini golf) to the excitement and professionalism of a big, televised tournament. Complete with scoreboards, clapping crowds, sportscasters and even the real Claret Jug from the British Open! How cool!

Watch the video and check out more of my favorite Improv Everywhere stunts here.

IMPROV EVERYWHERE: THE PIRATES OF CENTRAL PARK

I haven't posted an Improv Everywhere stunt in a while, but went I saw this latest mission I thought 'arrrrrr-ight' (this poor pun brought to you by Puns R Us! Puns R Us, we'll make you laugh whether you like it or not!). I love the idea of marauders in an ersatz row boat in the middle of Central Park, though I think the addition of a canon ball fight with other boats, perhaps foam canon balls?, would have put it over the top!

The video is lots of fun anyway. Check out the details of the mission here and lots more funny projects here (details on my favorite past project here, past close second and third here and here).

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ART INTERVENTION

For the next three weeks I am off on an adventure—the best adventure possible! I am getting hitched, an amazing event and process that has inspired my ongoing series of posts called The Wedding Files. While I am on my honeymoon I will be featuring some of my favorite posts from past years (including this street-side number from September 2010) to tide you over until I return. Hope you enjoy them!

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I have been bookmarking a lot of videos about super cool street art recently. Here are three of my favorites I thought I would share with you. Enjoy!

Some background on the project:

"In 2007, the New York City Transit Authority began installing LED signs on subway platforms that display estimated wait times for arriving trains. Unfortunately the information is little more than trivia: except for a few stations, it is only visible to travelers after they’ve paid their fare, so the data has little bearing on commuter decision-making.
Their primary effect, then, is to erode faith in the system, to create expectations that can’t always be met, to raise false hopes, and to erase the mystery and magic of the wondrous system that transports more than five million riders a day.
These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge with the hope of glimpsing headlights from an approaching train.
The Spoiler Alert signs warn waiting riders of this potentially unwanted information – allowing them to avert their eyes so they may preserve their spirit of adventure – while still leaving visible the data for travelers who wish to ruin the surprise for themselves.

Learn more about Jason Eppink (a major player in my favorite group: Improv Everywhere) and his other projects here. Found via the awesome Subway Art Blog.

Some background on the project:

"This summer mural painter Matt W. Moore created a series of live painting performances on walls in MARSEILLE, LYON, and PARIS. Directors Le Groupuscule captured the evolution of each mural, gathering over 700,000 pictures, that were edited as a stop-motion animation to an unreleased track by Monsieur Monsieur to create this music video. This collaboration of 3 artistic disciplines to make walls dance is part of the global initiative : Let's Colour Project."

Learn more about the collaborating artists here (in French) or here. Found via Wooster Collective.

 

Some background on the project:

"Multipraktik is a multi-disciplinary platform motivated by the pursuit of new practices at the crossover between design, photography, video production, music, events and art. We operate as an evergrowing collective of designers, artists, musicians, producers and programers. We create teams based on projects and with each project we try to challenge conventional approaches. This project was organized cross-slovenian street TapeArt actions with different artists (in particular Fejzo & Luka Ursic) as part of the new campaign for Orto (Simobil)."

Get more information on Multipraktik and the artists here and here (website under construction). Found via Wooster Collective.

ART INTERVENTION

I have been bookmarking a lot of videos about super cool street art recently. Here are three of my favorites I thought I would share with you. Enjoy!

Some background on the project:

"In 2007, the New York City Transit Authority began installing LED signs on subway platforms that display estimated wait times for arriving trains. Unfortunately the information is little more than trivia: except for a few stations, it is only visible to travelers after they’ve paid their fare, so the data has little bearing on commuter decision-making.
Their primary effect, then, is to erode faith in the system, to create expectations that can’t always be met, to raise false hopes, and to erase the mystery and magic of the wondrous system that transports more than five million riders a day.
These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge with the hope of glimpsing headlights from an approaching train.
The Spoiler Alert signs warn waiting riders of this potentially unwanted information – allowing them to avert their eyes so they may preserve their spirit of adventure – while still leaving visible the data for travelers who wish to ruin the surprise for themselves.

Learn more about Jason Eppink (a major player in my favorite group: Improv Everywhere) and his other projects here. Found via the awesome Subway Art Blog.

Some background on the project:

"This summer mural painter Matt W. Moore created a series of live painting performances on walls in MARSEILLE, LYON, and PARIS. Directors Le Groupuscule captured the evolution of each mural, gathering over 700,000 pictures, that were edited as a stop-motion animation to an unreleased track by Monsieur Monsieur to create this music video. This collaboration of 3 artistic disciplines to make walls dance is part of the global initiative : Let's Colour Project."

Learn more about the collaborating artists here (in French) or here. Found via Wooster Collective.

Some background on the project:

"Multipraktik is a multi-disciplinary platform motivated by the pursuit of new practices at the crossover between design, photography, video production, music, events and art. We operate as an evergrowing collective of designers, artists, musicians, producers and programers. We create teams based on projects and with each project we try to challenge conventional approaches. This project was organized cross-slovenian street TapeArt actions with different artists (in particular Fejzo & Luka Ursic) as part of the new campaign for Orto (Simobil)."

Get more information on Multipraktik and the artists here and here (website under construction). Found via Wooster Collective.

GROCERY STORE MUSICAL

I love Improv Everywhere! A hilarious group that organizes fun public events--surprise wedding receptions for people getting married at city hall, no pants rides on the subway, invisible dog walking parties--they always manage to come up with something funny and surprising to make people's day. Their latest endeavor was the grocery store musical: six people, including store clerks, randomly break into song about "squishing fruit together" in a store in Queens. Love it! Turns out they are all professional Broadway actors and the song is hilarious.

Check out more at their fabulous, and informative, website here. (I highly recommend you join their mailing list here).

VIDEO PLAYLIST

So sweet and dear, even if it is advertising fast food. May or may not have made me cry and want to hold my hubby-to-be and never let go. May or may not even be making me tear up just writing about it. Found here.

Street art and technology come together to make something amazing! Found here.

And now for something completely different: includes profanity, but dang, if the concept isn't hilarious. Found here.

If, somehow, those managed to fail to make you smile, this new video from Improv Everywhere—the Bryant Park Stakes—will surely change that. Found here.