“You don't have to have any talent. You just have to come out. I design things that would work for someone who was a lawyer or a school teacher.” - Charlie Todd

In August 2001, Charlie Todd moved to New York City with an interest in acting and comedy. He didn’t have immediate access to a stage, so he started creating in public spaces by staging undercover performances. 

Charlie documented his first undercover performances on a blog he called Improv Everywhere. Over the past two decades, Charlie has staged hundreds of “missions” involving tens of thousands of undercover performers and shared them on YouTube, garnering millions of views. Highlights include making time stop at Grand Central Terminal, a mass no-pants subway ride, and letting random strangers conduct a world class orchestra in the middle of Manhattan. Do yourself a favor, check out their YouTube.

These pranks are not traditional improv. They require significant logistical work on Charlie’s end. He creates the "sandbox" for participants—first friends from his early comedy career in NYC and now thousands of people who have signed up for the Improv Everywhere mailing list—to play in, exercising their own creativity. 

We talked with Charlie about crowdsourcing the creativity of strangers to create in his words “a happy mob.” 

Highlights, inspiration, & key learnings:

• Commanding attention. In comedy, it’s easy to get a laugh out of negative material, pointing the finger at a victim. Charlie does the extraordinary to live out the golden rule, “anything you perform should be something you want people to do to you.”
• The “why” for participants. In it for the fun of it.
• Crowd control. Managing an email list of thousands and knowing how many people to tap at one time.
• Power of YouTube. How YouTube created global reach for Improv Everywhere connecting them with new performers and opportunities.
• The “why” of the leader. How Charlie’s motivations have shifted over the past 19 years.
• Space. Public space as the key element to the Improv Everywhere experience.

👋🏻Say hi to Charlie Todd and see the Improv Everywhere missions in action on YouTube.

📄See the full transcript 

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