[Music]
VOICE: "The mp3 experience will be over in 1, 2, 3."
CHARLIE TODD: Technology has certainly changed a lot of things for improv everywhere.
Y'know, we have been around for more than a decade obviously there's been lots of changes.
Y'know, most notably these days that everyone has a smart phone in their pocket that has
an HD video camera and a GPS and y'know there's all this technology that we have, but in terms
of organizing and getting the word out, things haven't changed a ton.
And part of that is because the majority of the things we do are secret.
Yes, I could use Twitter and Facebook to spread the word more rapidly about something that
we're doing, but if it's a surprise, if it's unauthorized, if it's something that—y'know
if we're doing something in a retail store that retail store might be happy about it…
I can't publicly talk about it ahead of time.
That's a big change too, I mean.
People don't really realize this, but you can't talk about a person or a brand on Twitter
and expect that to be private information.
We're publicly talking on Twitter about anyone no matter how famous they are, there's a chance
that they will see it.
But one thing that's been interesting about sort of the growth and the number of people
who are on our mailing list and follow us on Facebook and Twitter is that I'm able to
reach out and try to get more specific demographics.
A few years ago, I wanted to do a prank with identical twins and y'know I had 50 pairs
of twins respond in the first day or two and I had 15 pairs of identical twins sit on one
side of the subway and 15 sit directly across from them on the other side of the subway
and they dressed exactly alike and had the same accessories and everything and they mirrored
each other.
They copied what the person did 100%.
So for the people who stepped on that subway car and looked one way and then looked the
other way, they had the effect of seeing this live human mirror playing out in front of
them.
I'm lucky that I started Improv Everywhere in the 2000s and not the 1990s or a prior
decade because right when we started was around the same time that digital still cameras were
widely available and too expensive.
Digital videocameras using miniDV had become very affordable and Final Cut Pro was—enabled
people to edit video for cheap and the Internet, also the Internet enabled us to have a website
and be able to distribute our projects and then when YouTube came about and we joined
YouTube in early 2006 all of a sudden we had a way to distribute our videos around the
world.
There was a time on YouTube where we were the only ones going out in the real world
and doing unusual things and documenting them really well and putting them on YouTube.
Now, y'know, it's a whole genre.
It's such a powerful way for any creative person to put themselves out there and I think—I
think the most exciting thing about YouTube has removed the gatekeepers.
Six or seven years ago, before YouTube existed you y'know—the only entertainment you were
seeing was entertainment that was approved by someone who sits in a corner office and
is a development executive and then they got it approved by a network executive and then
it was put on television on this network that was owned by a corporation that had a giant
parent corporation that was paid for by sponsors.
That was pretty much how all of the y'know video entertainment you were watching was
delivered to you.
And now the fact that that's been burst open and democratized and absolutely anybody can
create and publish something that might come across your eyes on a blog or on Facebook
or Twitter or wherever I think is really exciting.
And I think that y'know smart comedians are realizing that they have to put stuff on the
web.
They have to create their own material and put it out there and that sort of y'know,
it's become the best route for success I think.
And it's a meritocracy, too.
The best stuff is generally what rises to the top.
And I think you can kind of look at our videos over the years and just y'know—we've gotten
a lot better.
We didn't know what we were doing.
I mean, the very first no pants subway ride video is great, but it's just lucky that this
crappy camera that was sitting in my friend's lap with a magazine on top of it y'know disguising
it just happened to be pointing at this girl that gave the most amazing reaction.
I mean, that was just really dumb luck.
Now, y'know, I'll shoot a no pants subway ride and have 10 different camera men on 10
different trains who have shot with us before and know what they're doing and know how to
zoom and discreetly get really great reactions from people.
I think that's really exciting and I'm at a point now where y'know enough people watch
our videos and that leads to enough opportunities where y'know I would love to do a television
show, but I don't have to.
It's not the only only route.
I'm able to reach a very large audience on my own, so I think that's what's really exciting
about YouTube and the web in general is that you don't have to have permission from anyone
else to create exactly what you want to create.
Y'know and I think doing something on television, doing something with somebody else's money
brings with it a lot of compromises.
That's really exciting just that direct avenue that we all have now from y'know creators
and y'know audience.
I'm Charlie Todd.
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