http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-PjDciw9-o

Backstage at the EBay Daily Deals Event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iST-4oKOtIQ

Me and Mario hanging backstage at the EBay event.

http://www.howcast.com/videos/186262-How-To-Speed-...

How To Speed Up Your Metabolism

http://www.howcast.com/videos/186179-How-To-Curb-Y...

How To Curb Your Appetite Naturally

http://www.howcast.com/videos/186264-How-To-Boost-...

How To Boost Energy Naturally

Another one of my howcast.com videos

http://www.howcast.com/videos/181516-How-To-Practi...

How To Practice Proper Etiquette on a BlackBerry, Smartphone, or Other PDA

howcast.com

http://www.howcast.com/videos/183206-How-To-Practi...

How To Practice Proper Cell Phone Etiquette

One of my Howcast.com videos

Gone in a Flash
by: Anne McCarthy
12-16-08

It was a Sunday morning, cold and snowy. People were walking to work, doing some post-holiday shopping or just enjoying a day with the family when suddenly a horn blew and hundreds of snowballs began flying through the air. Sounds like fun, huh?
Matt Nissenbaum hopes that hundreds of users of the Facebook social networking website agree. On Wednesday, January 14th at 5:00 p.m., a giant snowball fight is set to occur at the Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago. Nissenbaum, a college senior at Indiana University, sent out thousands of Facebook invitations on Facebook for the “Flurry Fury,” attracting people young and old to participate in what is known as a flash mob. A recent tally shows 3868 confirmed guests for the fight.
Flash mobs, originated in 2003 by Bill Wasik, are defined as large groups of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time and then quickly disperse. The snowball fight, a perfect example of a flash mob, is an attempt to set a record for the largest snowball fight ever, a record currently held by Michigan Tech University with 2745 people.
Wasik wasn’t the only one to think of such an idea.
Charlie Todd, performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in New York City, formed a group in 2001 named “Improv Everywhere”. With fellow members from the UCB Theatre, the group began carrying out non-threatening pranks known as “missions”. With their slogan “we cause scenes”, Improv Everywhere has attracted many people who have both witnessed and taken part in these missions.
Lauren Reeves, an actress and model from New York City, met Charlie Todd while taking one of his improv classes at the UCB Theatre.
“We became friends and I signed up to become an agent on the website www.improveverywhere.com,” Reeves said. “Eventually, Charlie asked if I would be involved in a few pranks as an undercover agent, secretly videotaping missions.”
Missions are open to anyone with access to the Internet and an email account. When a mission rolls around, everyone who has signed up to become an agent receives an email with general information that does not ultimately give away the intent of the mission.
Things, however, are a bit different for agents like Reeves.
“I usually know in advance what the upcoming missions are before they are revealed to everyone on the agent list,” she said. “Todd is really good at letting me and the other agents know about missions a few weeks in advance so we can clear our schedules for that day.”
Reeves said her favorite part of the missions is secretly videotaping the missions and catching people’s reactions to the pranks on camera.
These videos can be found all over the Internet, from Improv Everywhere’s website to Youtube.
For musician Tyler Walker, the video aspect of Improv Everywhere has allowed him to compose most of the soundtracks on the videos.
“I made a theme song for Charlie Todd’s troupe Gigawatt, and ever since then I have been involved with the musical side of Improv Everywhere,” Walker said.
Walker says his biggest triumph was the MP3 experiment that he worked on alongside Todd. “In the mission, I assembled the tracks for a download of an MP3 which was then sent out to the agents,” Walker said. “The agents were then asked to download it, but were informed not to listen to it until the day of the prank. When the prank began, everyone pressed ‘play’ and the track began, giving the agents different crazy directions to follow such as a giant game of twister. From the outside, it was quite a sight seeing so many people with their iPods doing the exact same thing.”

Most Famous Mission

Improv Everywhere has had over 30 missions to date, some better known then others. Reeves named the most popular mission “Frozen in Grand Central Station” as one of her top three favorites.
In the Frozen in Grand Central Station mission, over 200 agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse at Grand Central Station.
Comedic writer Rob Lathan agrees with Reeves.
“I would have to say my favorite mission was Frozen Grand Central,”
Lathan said. “It has definitely gotten the largest response, and it was so simple to carry out. It really confused people passing by. I heard such comments as, ‘is this some kind of protest?’ to ‘maybe it’s an acting exercise or something.’”
For Lathan, his favorite aspect is that Improv Everywhere isn’t mean spirited.
“We aren’t trying to prank anyone, or make an innocent bystander look like an idiot,” Lathan said. “A lot of times it actually serves to brighten random people’s days. And it is certainly a refreshing break from the mundane aspects of everyday life.”

At the University of Illinois

Here at the University of Illinois, Sophomore Jori Pulver was watching Youtube videos when she stumbled upon a series of flash mob and Improv Everywhere videos.
“A friend and I just started talking about how fun it would be to do one at U of I and we started plotting,” Pulver said.
In the spring semester of 2008, Pulver created a Facebook group and invited all her friends to join. By that fall, the group had around 800 members. Their first mission was a large-scale pillow fight.
“The pillow fight was definitely really fun. It was super hot out and there were so many people and we're having a pillow fight in the middle of the quad? Too awesome,” Pulver said.
When asked if the group had any upcoming missions, Pulver responded, “Maybe, maybe not. Isn’t that the point of a flash mob; to be unexpected?”

What is it all about?

In the words of Tyler Walker, “Improv Everywhere is like an injection of positive energy into the world. Life is hard, and Improv Everywhere makes it better.”

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/11/17/welcome-bac...

Here is one of the best missions I've done with the incredible group Improv Everywhere and I hope you enjoy the video!

http://macenstein.com/default/archives/1561

Here is my new article on the amazing website macenstein.com. xoxo Lauren Reeves