We Cause Scenes Page #4

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media all over the globe.

It was getting so much attention

that it wasn't gonna last forever

and eventually, there might be a back-lash

or it might be considered a fad.

And then, what I was doing might

be wrapped up with that fad.

So, it was important for me to

never use the term "flash mob"

to describe what we did.

I always imagined that

the MOB Project

would be kind of like

a flash mob, right?

Like it would happen

and it would be really,

really intense and then it

would just disappear.

They all made an announcement

this is the last MOB Project,

it's over after this.

When I heard that,

I was like "Okay, good.

He stopped.

Good.

Cool.

I'm the only game in town

again. Great. "

By the Spring of 2003,

my mailing list was pretty big,

and I was able to go out and start doing

things that were larger in scale.

Now the Virgin Megastore doesn't

exist anymore in New York

but it was a giant media store,

and they had these forty

listening stations all in a row,

where you could listen to the

CD before purchasing it.

I came up with the idea

to have forty people

take over this listening

stations one by one

and then face the wrong way.

It was my challenge

to find forty people

that would be willing

to do this,

which was a lot of work for

me in that time.

20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,

26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Ken Keech had choreographed

this very simple...

You know, it was almost like a

country line dance type of thing.

Once you're finished,

just take your headphones off

and put them out.

And just peel off. Yeah.

Kind of like you're...

I remember Charlie and I

talking about, like, not wanting

the stories that people told

to be believed.

One-by-one, we went in

to the Virgin Megastore.

So over the course

of about five minutes,

we commandeered all forty

of these listening stations.

I gave the signal for everyone

to start a synchronized dance.

That was one of those cool moments

when the people doing it,

far outnumbered the people

that were experiencing it.

I thought

that was really beautiful.

It's like this whole thing

was established just for you.

Just for you,

for this one second.

And like people might not

believe it,

that it ever happened because there's

so few people that saw that.

I was able to walk around

and talk to employees

and ask them what was going on.

Really one of the first times when

I was behind-the-scenes of a prank

and not being

the active participant.

The dance stopped one-by-one.

And what I loved about it was that as soon

as everybody left the listening station,

they looked like everybody

else in the store.

If they had tried to catch

us, they couldn't.

We were in total camouflage

with their location.

I guess the most hilarious thing to me is

that the um, police were called in the end.

Uh... this is

the first time that uh...

I think the closest we ever come to having

the police interfere with our work.

Uh, which is a shame,

we never go for that.

To me, a retail store

is just another stage.

It's just another place

to perform.

But I think as soon as I started

doing things in retail stores,

word started spreading

really quickly.

A couple of big sites

like Metafilter. com,

linked to

our Virgin Megastore prank.

Blogging was becoming a thing.

Everybody had a blog.

They were big blogs.

And I had content.

We decided that we would have

Anton Chekov give a reading

exactly one hundred years

after he died.

Under communism,

translators are crap.

Charlie made a conscious effort

to put this stuff

on the internet

in a time when people weren't putting

stuff like this on the internet.

People responded well

to our projects

because they were unauthorized.

They were mischievous.

Pasha!

We found a band from Vermont who

was on their first tour ever

and we got about thirty

people to show up to the gig

and give them the best

possible concert we could.

We started spending more time

developing this projects

and we started having more

participants

and they started to becoming

a little bit more detailed.

If the New York City synchronized

swimming team beats a score of 27 points,

They will go to the Olympics

in Athens, Greece.

In New York, making people

laugh and I never thought

it'd ever go any-

anything further than that.

Celebrity trash.

Hi, we're selling

celebrity trash.

It's trash from actual

celebrity trashcans.

I don't know if you heard

on the news,

Justin Timberlake's toast went for

like, five thousand dollars on eBay.

Um, so much funny reactions

I'm getting,

I can't wait to type this up

and put them on the internet.

Come and explore, the terrifying

mysteries of the haunted subway.

Something about everyone being

trapped on a train together

and how boring that is,

people are really like:

Oh, yeah. I'll get on board with this.

What else am I gonna to do?

People were writing about us

and doing stories about various

things that we had done.

Media is always big about what are

the kids doing these days and...

Right now, it looks like kids are

taking their pants off on the subway.

There was a... reporter

from "Time Out New York"

who came and rode the train

with us.

That Spring, he ended up writing

an article on Improv Everywhere.

A writer from "The New

York Times," approached me

and said he'd like to do

a feature on us.

It was a really great,

positive piece

and it sort of implied that

this should probably be on TV.

Not long after

I moved to New York City,

a friend recommended

that I go see a show

at the Upright Citizens

Brigade Theatre.

So I did, and it was really

just mind-blowing.

What the hell?

I wish I lived

in the Dallas Silver Days.

All of the comedy there

was completely improvised.

No script, no plans.

And it really spoke to me, like, this is

the kind of comedy that I want to do.

I used to genuinely like

Peter Gabriel, just like you.

Well, look how fat

and bald he is.

In 2004, I was doing

something UCB-related.

You know, probably six out of

seven night a week.

Right around the same time, the iPod had

taken over. Almost everyone had an iPod.

- Set it!

- iPods?

Yeah, Apple makes it.

- Really?

- It's amazing!

That got me to thinking,

what if everybody was

listing to the same thing?

Well, do you have

the same device?

I do have the same device.

It currently is set to play

the Mp3 Experiment by the Mp3

Experiment on the album Mp3 Experiment.

Mp3 Experiment was a

collaboration with Tyler Walker.

I moved-in next door to Ken

and Anthony and Charlie.

Uh... and Ken and I become

buddies immediately.

Charlie had never

really talked to this guy

but I've been like, over there a bunch

of times because he's a really cool guy.

And uh, I said he writes

music and.

He's got recording equipment,

He can definitely do this!

and I think that was a pretty

much match made in heaven

as far as that goes.

The idea was so good that I

couldn't not be a part of it.

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