We Cause Scenes Page #8

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to pick up girls,

which is the funny part.

I pitched to him the idea of,

what if I came out

with two of my friends

and started the show

by pretending to play

your piano

while one of your songs

played on a CD.

So we got to

the Harriston Ballroom,

for the sound check,

I remember he was just

very friendly

and really excited

about playing this prank.

He was excited about

the whole thing.

Charlie was Ben Folds,

and I was the drummer,

and Flin Berryson

was the bassist.

That was just amazing,

that they wanted

some kind of cool prank

like this to happen.

He taught me how

to impersonate him.

He kind of leans forward

in a bizarre way

and stands up

a lot of the time.

Ben came up with the idea

of what if the CD

that I was pretending

to play along to

started skipping?

And then, that would

make the crowd think

that Ben Folds had been

caught lip syncing.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Ben Folds!

The moment that the three of us

walked out on stage,

it was an experience

like nothing

I've ever experienced

in my life.

Just to hear that eruption,

as we walked out on stage,

and also know that we were

about to prank them,

like, it was just, like,

the greatest feeling.

You guys are f***ed.

Kind of the attitude

in the crowd was like,

Ben Folds just got busted!

I can't believe this,

he's a phony!

Except for the people

right in the front row

who were like,

five feet from Charlie,

everyone bought it.

I was just back there going,

"Oh, God!

This is so uncomfortable. "

And at that point,

it was really kind of chaos,

and the real Ben Folds

came out.

You really felt

all of a sudden,

that he had hit this

different kind of level

where people were

looking for it,

it wasn't just like we were,

you know, doing it

to have fun and doing whatever.

Now, it became:
other people

are seeking this out.

Starting this whole project,

pretending to be Ben Folds

in a bar,

and five years later,

to portray Ben Folds

in cahoots with Ben Folds

himself,

it felt like, "This has been

our curtain call. "

And... we're not gonna do it

anymore because

NBC just bought this pilot

and now you know,

Improv Everywhere Phase One

is over.

It started and ended

with Ben Folds.

And then we sold this TV show

and now we're gonna

be TV stars and that'll

be the end of it.

And that's kind of

really how it felt.

This act begins with a-

kind of a simple question,

and that is,

can you actually mess

with somebody's

sense of reality

as a force for good?

"This American Life"

debuted on Showtime

and Improv Everywhere

was one of the major stories

in this first episode

of the show.

They focused in on the

Best Gig Ever prank

that had happened with

the band way back in 2004.

The story of Improv Everywhere

had been like, "Oh, this is a nice,

fun thing that you're doing. "

And "This American Life,"

sort of found two people

who thought otherwise,

and devoted a large portion

of their program

to talking to them

and not really giving me

a chance to respond.

It's the worse thing

I could possibly think of

ever happening to me

in my life.

'Cause I've been avoiding

confrontation my whole life

so I wouldn't get made fun of.

I was portrayed as

somewhat of a villain,

and as a consequence got

quite a bit of hate mail,

a lot of nasty comments

on the website.

It was certainly the first time

where I had to read things

on the internet

about people who did not

like what I did.

I was really

entrenched in teaching,

and I definitely didn't want

to screw that up,

and once you could see

these things on the internet,

and everybody could see it,

I didn't want that to be a

part of who I was publicly.

So I got married

and we have our first kid...

I felt like I had to

be responsible.

Ken moved to Syracuse.

You know, he was a very,

very close friend

and it was, um, tough to

see him leave the city.

I started seeing news

on the internet

about shows that had

been picked up.

You know, you go on

a couple of dates with a girl

and then she doesn't

call you back for a week,

you know, like, okay,

I guess this is over, so...

I sort of knew that

this was probably

not gonna be happening.

It was definitely a time

for some reflection,

a little bit of soul searching,

re-evaluation.

I didn't really know

exactly, you know,

where I was gonna

take things next.

I continued posting

old videos to YouTube

and that Spring

I posted the video

from the first

No-Pants Subway Ride.

Within a week, somebody left

a comment on my website.

A friend of a friend, emailed

me and was like,

is the girl on the video

on this website you?

I wrote her, and she wrote

back and said, "It's me!

You know, for years

I've wondered what that was. "

It was really exciting to

figure out what had happened

because when you live

in New York

and you go other places,

they always assume

you have some wacky story.

That's my go-to

funny New York story

to tell at cocktail parties

and such.

I was just so excited

to hear that.

That's exactly what we wanted.

I mean, I'd hoped that

she would've had

a positive experience

and had told that story

over and over and over again.

And it was just so cool

that five years went by

with me not knowing

who that random girl was

and her not knowing exactly

what had happened

or why it had happened,

and it all just came together.

And I love the fact that YouTube was

able to make all this possible.

I realized that I had

an opportunity to

continue doing

what I wanted to do

without anybody else's

permission.

People are subscribing

to my channel,

the views are growing,

it seems to be bringing

good things my way.

I think I'm gonna

keep doing it.

Right around that time, I moved

in with my girlfriend, Cody.

We met at the UCB Theatre uh, she

was a comedian there as well.

I don't have health insurance,

so they told me to come here

for vagina advice.

We were together

for almost three years

before we moved in together.

The longer we were together,

the more he would talk to me

about ideas and things.

She's started collaborating,

more hands-on with all of the

Improv Everywhere projects.

Now this is seeing

whatever I'm seeing.

I think that first mission

back was a little bit tough.

I had just gone from doing

these big budget productions

and now, we're back to two guys

with handheld cameras,

no microphones.

It's not illegal to

take your shirt off

in New York City in public.

It may be against

their store's policy.

It's not posted anywhere.

We'll find that out.

A stranger emailed me and said

"There's a shirtless male model

who stands in front of

Abercrombie & Fitch everyday.

You should get as many guys as possible

show up shirtless to Abercrombie. "

Abercrombie definitely invites it

on themselves a little bit, uh,

their entire product

is based on good-looking

shirtless men.

I was really happy with how

that project turned out.

It was a ton of fun.

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