Startups
Entertainment / Events / Lifestyle / Media / Philadelphia Neighborhoods

Improv Everywhere: Youtube prankster Charlie Todd speaks at Drexel [VIDEO]

The alumnus is here for Drexel University's Comedy Week. He celebrates the value of absurdity with large-scale public pranks.

Drexel University mp3 experiment led by Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd, a Drexel alumnus. (Photo Will Tanksley)
The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University's Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple's Department of Journalism.

Since 2002, Charlie Todd has been making a name for himself by starting flash mobs.

Charlie Todd


They’re meant to be the good kind of flash mobs, which Todd organizes as the creator of Improv Everywhere. The prank collective based in the 67th Ward performs large-scale stunts and publishes videos of said stunts on YouTube, where some of his handiwork has received tens of millions of views.
As part of Drexel University’s Comedy Week, Todd visited University City where he conducted an mp3 experiment where some 250 participants performed pre-recorded instructions from Todd as a flash mob-esque stunt. See video from the Inquirer of the prank below.
Todd was brought to the school by student group Urban Playground and its founder Ari Melman, a junior business student at Drexel. It was Todd’s and the group’s first time in Philadelphia, he added.
After the outdoor  Todd, gave a behind the scenes look at how Improv Everywhere got started, how it operates today, and he held a question and answer session with the audience.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
The idea for Improv Everywhere started in a New York bar when Todd was 22. Upon being told by a friend that he resembled the musician Ben Folds, he and the friend pretended he was the actual singer as they met strangers. The prank was a success — Todd never revealed that he wasn’t Folds — and Improv Everywhere was born. He developed the idea while trying to pursue acting opportunities in the city.
“From there, I got the idea of public pranks,” Todd said. “Rather than waiting for an opportunity, I went out and started performing on my own.”

And the scale of the pranks have grown. There was a fake U2 concert on a rooftop near a real rooftop, pantless subway rides and one of Improv Everywhere’s greatest hits was “Frozen Grand Central,” where a large group participants or “agents” as Todd refers to them, froze in place for two minutes in Grand Central Station before walking away randomly and leaving passengers both amazed and confused.
Todd ended the evening with a teaser into his next yet-to-be-released prank, which involves surprising couples in Central Park. Todd credits his success to being able to publish his own content on YouTube and that it is an excellent platform for performance art.
“You don’t need permission to put something online,” he said.

Companies: Drexel University / Improv Everywhere
Engagement

Join the conversation!

Find news, events, jobs and people who share your interests on Technical.ly's open community Slack

Trending

How venture capital is changing, and why it matters

Why the DOJ chose New Jersey for the Apple antitrust lawsuit

Philadelphia healthcare nonprofit wields AI to find new uses for old drugs

This Philly founder is making generational wealth building more accessible

Technically Media