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Improv Everywhere and Paul F. Tompkins

Posted Fri, 11/13/2009 - 15:34 by Jesse Thorn | 9 comments

A fascinating exchange between Improv Everywhere founder Charlie Todd and standup comedian Paul F. Tompkins.

I know Charlie much better than I know Paul, but I certainly know that Paul is a very smart guy, one of the funniest people in the world, and good friends with some good friends of mine. He's also always been kind to me and the show. As for Charlie, he's one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, and has worked very, very hard to keep Improv Everywhere a moral, positive organization. So you better believe that what he writes is very heartfelt.

I've participated in a couple of IE missions, and my experience was uniformly positive. A few people gave us bemused looks, a few ignored us, but most seemed to really enjoy what we were up to. I know that's what Charlie enjoys about doing this - making something fun and funny for people going through their everyday lives.

Nonetheless, I found Paul's thoughtful criticisms interesting, and they certainly gave me pause. Anyway, worth your time.

Comments

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I'm with PFT

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 11:09 — Someone

Charlie said "I personally think that if you choose to leave your home, you are risking something unusual, jarring, confusing, exciting, etc. happening to you." That's basically the definition of life in a society. We don't need an improv troupe to teach us that.

It would greatly impress upon Charlie the ego and poor intent behind IE if, at the moment he got 50 people to make human pyramids at a bus stop, the bus driver hit the gas instead of the brakes and jumped the curb.* Hey, man, you went outside, you risked something jarring and confusing happening. Just because it turns out harmless and ok 98-99% of the time is no excuse to pretend that there is no chance of it ever going wrong. Charlie's blithe ignorance of this truth about his audience -- and his implicit assumption that the whole world is his audience, even though the majority of people not only don't witness his art but don't even know about it -- really harm his credibility as a performer.

*Note: I don't drive a bus in LA or anywhere, nor do I know anyone who does. This statement is not a threat of any kind. It's an example.

I agree with both of them

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 10:58 — Someone

I actually tend to agree with both of them. I'm entirely with PFT about "prank" shows. I can't watch them, even if the concept is funny, because I just feel bad for the prankee. If everyone involved isn't enjoying it, then it isn't fun. But I also agree with Charlie that most of what IE does ISN'T that, and that the vast majority of people are having their day improved by seeing it, not worsened. It's true that not everyone is happy, and it's true that some of IE's projects have been more mean spirited than I'd like. But a musical breaking out in a public place strikes me as something that brings joy to far more people than it brings sadness. And I guess I feel that's worth the very small number of people who are bothered.

Also, it was really god damned nice to see two smart, funny, intelligent people who disagree have a civil discussion about to whole thing without the entire discussion turning into "So's your face!"

It's interesting that he came up with these criticisms-

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 00:40 — Someone

-at roughly the same time I decided to take on IE:

http://areyoutargeted.com/2009/11/15/army-of-losers/

My take on them is that while IE is *mostly* harmless, I also think their organization has been misused in the past for psychological warfare - harassment campaigns directed at a single individual. And most of the people involved would not know.

Wow

Sat, 11/14/2009 - 11:10 — Someone

I'm really shocked by PFT's take on the whole thing, but then again, I love chaos and confusion, and I'm always surprised that so many people have such a low tolerance for chaos.

I'm with Charlie

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 09:53 — Someone

While I can absolutely understand PFT's criticisms, ultimately I have to come down with Charlie on this.

I've participated in a few missions with a group that I found through the Urban Prankster network, but even before that, when I was a kid in grade school, I would make public scenes with my friends (staged fights, and the like) because it was fun, it got attention, and no one got hurt.

As Charlie said, leaving your house at all is an invitation to unexpected occurrences. To use PFT's example, having a friend or family member take their own life is indeed a great tragedy, but one could just as easily hear a joke about suicide at a comedy club as one could overhear a perfectly innocent conversation about suicide in the produce aisle at the supermarket, being carried out by two individuals who are not agents of any comedy group, but rather, just happen to be standing in the supermarket, discussing suicide. The unexpected can happen anywhere, completely unplanned, and it is certainly not the planning element that makes a mission potentially hurt a person.The planning element only gives a certain level of responsibility to the planners, and this is where I think PFT's point about malice comes in.

I do think that PFT's point about malice should be kept in mind. I've turned down participation in local missions before because I felt that they had ulterior motives, sometimes political (we ARE in Washington, DC) or sometimes simply "against" a certain group, which I simply feel is the wrong place to be coming at this from.

And I think that is the direction that this discussion, on a larger scale, really ought to focus in. Not "what" is being done, because if there weren't organized groups of folks doing these things, you'd still have disorganized groups of high schoolers doing them, but "why" they are being done.