We Cause Scenes Page #9

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It was exciting.

It was edgy again,

we got kicked out.

And then it did really well

online.

I mean, the photographs

of everybody

with their shirts off.

I remember being very happy

about that.

I'm thinking like, "Okay, I don't

have the pilot but I still go it. "

Someone who worked at YouTube

decided to feature

one of our videos.

I believe that that was the

first Improv Everywhere video

to get a million views.

Well, welcome everybody who's

here for the first time.

Obviously, this is no longer

a top secret...

covert, underground thing

that me and six of my

college friends are doing.

The snowball effect

of YouTube...

It was a tiny,

little snowball then,

but grew just a little bit

with that video.

I realized that

being on that front page

was huge real estate.

Things were going well,

but one of my big concerns

about the pilot not happening

was the fact that

no one would see it.

I sort of plead my case.

And I said "it's really

breaking my heart

that nobody is ever

gonna see this thing. "

And I know you guys are never

gonna do anything with it.

It's just gonna collect dust

on a shelf.

And the people from NBC said,

"Okay,"

which surprised me.

I uploaded it on

a Thursday night,

and that Friday afternoon,

I got on a plane

and I flew to some college

to do an Upright Citizens

Brigade Tour Company Show.

Hey this...

Hey this is Charlie Todd

with the UCB Theatre

Touring Company.

We're here in Columbus, Ohio

at Ohio State University.

O-H!

I-O!

That spells Ohio!

It was so stupid in retrospect.

I put up this amazing video

and then just left town,

and I wasn't manning the

control center to monitor it.

Oh, I've been caught!

No!

Maybe you should just

take your clothes off.

I think we're gonna fit in

at this party.

Just get naked, everybody...

I'm already gonna get laid.

We did the show and we went

to the business center

at this Holiday Inn.

I didn't have a laptop,

and I went to YouTube

to find it,

and the video was on

the front page of YouTube.

And we were on that front page

from Friday night

to almost Monday morning.

During this time period,

social media was really

starting to become

this huge thing

and people were sharing it

all over Facebook,

they were sharing it

all over Twitter.

It hit the ground running

and it went viral,

to the very definition

of going viral.

I didn't tell anybody

that it was a year old,

'cause I know like,

on the internet,

people like to talk about

what's brand new.

Usually I would say like,

"Last Saturday, we did this

new prank, check it out. "

For Frozen Grand Central,

I said

"On a cold Saturday

in New York City... "

Because everybody thought

that it was brand new,

there was-

it became news worthy.

On a cold Saturday,

the world's largest

train station

came to a sudden halt.

And what's going on here,

freeze frame!

200 people suddenly freeze.

They stay there for

a matter of minutes.

Very strange, you might think.

The weirdest thing was

"The Today Show," emailing me

and saying "we love this video, can

we show it on 'The Today Show?'"

And what brought you to-

to stage, I mean,

this started many years ago

and-and-and you kind of

started your own movement here.

I-I-I guess so, yeah.

I remember just

loving that irony,

that this is something

that I had made for NBC

with NBC's money

and they had said "no,"

and to have them contact me

and say

"we want you to come

on our show

and talk about

this great video of yours"

It was, you know,

it was really exciting

and it felt really great.

The mainstream media

covering it

just gave more exposure

to the video,

and got the video

more and more views.

But then,

something strange happened

where it kept going

and it kept reaching

different audiences.

Charlie, you're a big hit

on the internet.

When you're going to get

your own TV show?

This video was going viral

in a completely global way.

Um... it was causing people

to go out

and imitate the video

all around the world.

Within the first three months,

it was copied in

over a 100 cities,

in over a dozen countries.

I remember freaking out

a little bit, like

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

I'm the guy with

the great video,

and somebody just copied it

and now that video

is gonna get

all this exposure. "

I made a decision that

I would be okay with it.

If people liked this idea,

and they're inspired enough

by this idea to

organize their own,

then great, go for it.

It sure would be nice

if you could mention

Improv Everywhere when you

put your video online,

and maybe about

half of them did.

That momentum in

the Spring of 2008

took us to an entirely

different level.

Because of this viral success

on YouTube,

I was invited to join

a YouTube partner program,

and what that meant was that

YouTube would put advertising

next to our videos and share

the revenues for us.

So now,

for the first time ever,

it's possible for me

to actually make a little bit

of money

on the videos on YouTube.

Mp3. Hi Guys.

The creative team at Yahoo

approached me.

They were interested in doing

something with Improv Everywhere.

And I pitched them

our Mp3 Experiment.

The best thing about the

Yahoo sponsorship was,

we would actually have capital

to make our ideas a reality.

As long as they weren't

telling me that I had to

do this or I had to do that

or I had to

have their product in it,

I was okay.

I was able to do things

I'd never done,

like rent helicopters

and film the thing

from the sky.

We were able to bring it

to four cities that year.

This opened up the door to-

to the world, essentially.

And then I started

getting invitations.

Would you like to come to

my conference in Manchester?

Would you like to come to

my festival in Germany,

and get people to

freeze in place?

I knew that there was

a certain danger

in me becoming "the Freeze Man"

but I kind of realized,

well, you know what,

maybe I should be

the "Freeze Man"

for a little bit

because the "Freeze Man"

gets to go to Europe for free

and go to festivals.

I would always tell

whatever festival

that we need to bring

at least two of us,

and I would always bring Cody.

Sometimes I was a producer

or photographer,

or videogra-

I don't know what I was doing,

I was just basically looking

for an excuse for him

to bring his girlfriend.

We've been to England,

France, Spain, Australia.

You really do learn a lot

about somebody when

you're stuck in a hotel room

with them for a week.

It was really exciting

to see the world,

and spread the ideas

of Improv Everywhere,

and organize local versions

of our projects.

Basically the idea is

we're going to be creating

two very long lines

behind two strangers

who are not gonna be aware

that they're-

each have, ah,

they won't be aware

that they each have

a hundred people behind them.

By the end of 2008,

I was doing enough touring

and I was doing

enough speaking,

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