The Poo Choo Train
Jimmy shares his favorite Christmas song, while the boys jump onboard Mr. Hankey’s Poo Choo train and head to the North Pole.
DBTS – Bring your mother-in-law and watch her squirm!
Jimmy shares his favorite Christmas song, while the boys jump onboard Mr. Hankey’s Poo Choo train and head to the North Pole.
Jimmy shares his favorite Christmas song, while the boys jump onboard Mr. Hankey’s Poo Choo train and head to the North Pole.
(View it larger on YouTube)
Song by Anthony King and Scott Brown (Gutenberg! The Musical!)
For our latest mission, seven undercover agents staged a spontaneous musical during lunch at the Trump Tower atrium. The mission was filmed for a segment on The Today Show and includes a cameo from Ann Curry. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.
Still Photos: Katie Sokoler and Chad Nicholson.
Additional video work by: Matt Adams
The Today Show has featured Improv Everywhere a few times in the past, and this fall they asked if we could create a mission for them that Ann Curry could have a part in. Specifically, they were big fans of Food Court Musical and wanted to work with us to stage something similar. (In the time between the show approaching us and the segment airing, we had the opportunity to produce Grocery Store Musical as well.) The Today Show crew would produce the mission (providing hidden cameras, microphones, and a PA system), and we would be in charge of the creative side.
Once again longtime agents and Gutenberg! The Musical! authors Scott Brown & Anthony King served as our songwriting team. They also both appeared as actors in the musical, along with some senior IE Agents and comedians from The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. We had a rehearsal at a Manhattan studio where Agent Brown taught the song, and Agent King worked on the choreography.
The night before the mission, we were able to rehearse in our location. The Today Show was able to get permission from Trump Tower to stage the musical in the seating area of their atrium, a popular lunch spot for tourists and people who work in the building.
The Today Show pulled out all the stops, tech wise. The crew set up in a huge storage room just off the atrium. There were seven robotic HD cameras set up in the space, each controlled by a dedicated operator via joystick. An eighth camera filmed the control room for behind-the-scenes shots.
The cameras were extremely well hidden in the space either behind tinted glass or hidden among plants on the balcony above.
We also hid speakers in the plants all around the seating area, so that the song could be amplified live during the mission.
Ann Curry wasn’t able to make it to the rehearsals, so we met her for the first time the morning of the mission. We worked in the back room and taught her the choreography, and Agent Brown helped her learn her part. Ann is not a singer, so she was nervous about getting her line just right. She was super easy to work with and very quickly became one of the team.
We staged the mission a few times throughout the day to make sure we got the best possible take and camera coverage. The first take started around 12 Noon. We had to wait about a half hour between each take to make sure we had a new group of people dining around us.
I think Agent Santangeli’s performance as the cop fooled the guy above, because he was laughing pretty hard when he figured out he was in on it.
Agent Curry was awesome. She nailed her line and then removed her hat to join the finale (she wore a hat to try to stay incognito lest she be spotted by fans before her part.)
After the song ended our agents, including Agent Curry, sat back at their respective tables and continued eating lunch as if nothing had happened.
We had a blast working on this mission. It was an excellent opportunity to get to work with The Today Show and their fancy equipment, and it was nice to have our work reach their massive television audience. Hopefully along the way we were able to deliver a very important message: There ain’t no shame in loving lunch.
Mission Accomplished
- The Today Show’s segment on this mission:
- Many more photos in higher resolution:
- Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set
- Agent Nicholson’s Flickr Set
- Our other musicals: Food Court Musical & Grocery Store Musical
- Buy the cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.
If this is your first time here:
-our nearly 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-New Yorkers join our NY Agents list
-We have a book and a DVD for sale!
American alternative rock singer songwriter Edwin McCain’s most popular song “I’ll Be” was off his sophomore album “Misguided Roses” back in 1998. The song was dubbed a No. 1 wedding song by television talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw and…
American alternative rock singer songwriter Edwin McCain’s most popular song “I’ll Be” was off his sophomore album “Misguided Roses” back in 1998. The song was dubbed a No. 1 wedding song by television talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw and…
POCATELLO, Idaho – Miley Cyrus was on stage performing at Pocatello’s Mr. Potato Head Arena, when all of a sudden in the middle of her song “Ooh La La, I’m In La La Land” she reached down and grabbed her crotch.
Stunned audience members and even t…
(View it larger on YouTube)
Song by Anthony King and Scott Brown (Gutenberg! The Musical!)
For our latest mission, six undercover actors burst into song in a grocery store in Queens. Three minutes and lots of silly choreography later, they returned to their roles as shoppers and stock boys. The mission was filmed with hidden robotic, lipstick, and wearable cameras. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.
We had a couple of really excellent hidden camera reaction interviews that got cut from the final video. I put them together in an outtake video:
Produced by: Disposable Television
Director of Photography: TV Boy
Still Photos: Katie Sokoler
We’ve been wanting to stage a follow up to our Food Court Musical mission for quite some time. Unfortunately, we’re not able to produce a musical like that without some serious help in the budget department. (Food Court Musical was produced for a TV pilot.) Last month Trident Layers expressed interest in sponsoring an Improv Everywhere event (giving us creative control and using no product placement), and I knew this would be a great opportunity to create a new public musical.
I knew from the start that in order to make a worthy follow up to Food Court Musical, I would have to use the same songwriting team, Scott Brown & Anthony King. Not only are they longtime Improv Everywhere Agents, they’re also the authors of the hit Off-Broadway musical, Gutenberg! The Musical!. Their songs, both catchy and hilarious, have been stuck in my head for many a sleepless night.
The cast were all actors I knew from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. We had to cast people who could really sing well, given the “slow jam” nature of the song. We had a rehearsal at a Manhattan studio where Agent Brown taught them the song, and Agent King worked on the choreography.
The next night we had a rehearsal in the grocery store itself. The store was part of a small chain called “Best Yet” and was located in Astoria, Queens. We chose it for its enormous size, at least by New York standards.
Our rehearsal was late at night, right before the store closed. There were very few people shopping at that hour, so we wouldn’t get a real sense of how crowded the produce section would be until the actual mission the next day. We worked with the store and got permission, enabling us to set up hidden cameras. We used some incredible robotic cameras that were operated via joystick in the control room in the back.
We had planned to just use the store’s PA system to play the song. At the dress rehearsal we learned that grocery store speakers sound awful when the volume gets cranked up. The bass turned to fuzz. So we hid some additional speakers under the muffin table to give their system a boost.
In addition to the robotic cameras hidden on high ledges and in security domes, Agent Adams had a couple of camera rigs he could control out on the floor. We put a lipstick camera on the end of a cart and filled it with groceries. He was able to push it around the area while watching what he was filming on a little monitor.
Agent Adams also had a hidden camera in the strap of his bag, getting a great POV shot of anyone he talked to.
His main job was to get reactions from shoppers after the musical ended. He wore a hidden microphone and also wore an earpiece, enabling me to talk to him from the control room and say things like, “Try to get the woman you’re talking to to turn around; we’re only seeing the back of her head.”
We staged the mission a few times throughout the day to make sure we got the best possible take and camera coverage. The first take started around 1 PM.
The first few moments were always hilarious. As soon as Agent Kayne started in with his “No, no, no’s,” heads began to turn.
When we did Food Court Musical, we had a pretty good idea of where our audience would be– sitting at the tables. This was more unpredictable. We had all of this choreography planned, but we had no idea if people would make way for us. The area got increasingly crowded as the day went on, which made it all the more fun. Often people found themselves right in the middle of the show.
The woman above took her cart right through the center just as the chorus began. It was like she was a part of the choreography.
Agent Scott’s character was pregnant; she was not. We used a fake belly. She had shoppers coming up to her before and after the song asking when she was due, etc.
Agents Brown and Fernandez played the two stock boy characters. This meant they spent most of the day walking around the floor in the store’s uniform. Of course they were constantly being stopped by customers asking for help.
Our musical was staged very close to the front door, so lots of folks would walk in mid-song. It was fun to see their reactions as they entered and were immediately confronted by our ridiculousness. We got so many wonderful reactions from everyone in the store throughout the afternoon. Queens is the most diverse county in the entire world, and it was really wonderful seeing all of the different types of people laugh and smile.
The musical got even more absurd when Agent Brown carted Agent Fernandez down the aisle. Agent Fernandez delivered his passionate speech into a price gun, and the two starting spinning while the rest of the cast circled them, building up to the finale.
Before the shoppers could finish applauding, our actors were back to normal life. Those playing customers went back to shopping and those playing stock boys got back to work.
Mission Accomplished
- Many more photos in higher resolution: Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set
- Our first musical: Food Court Musical
- Buy the original cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.
If this is your first time here:
-our nearly 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-New Yorkers join our NY Agents list
-We have a book and a DVD for sale!
(View it larger on YouTube)
Song by Anthony King and Scott Brown (Gutenberg! The Musical!)
For our latest mission, six undercover actors burst into song in a grocery store in Queens. Three minutes and lots of silly choreography later, they returned to their roles as shoppers and stock boys. The mission was filmed with hidden robotic, lipstick, and wearable cameras. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below.
We had a couple of really excellent hidden camera reaction interviews that got cut from the final video. I put them together in an outtake video:
Produced by: Disposable Television
Director of Photography: TV Boy
Still Photos: Katie Sokoler
We’ve been wanting to stage a follow up to our Food Court Musical mission for quite some time. Unfortunately, we’re not able to produce a musical like that without some serious help in the budget department. (Food Court Musical was produced for a TV pilot.) Last month Trident Layers expressed interest in sponsoring an Improv Everywhere event (giving us creative control and using no product placement), and I knew this would be a great opportunity to create a new public musical.
I knew from the start that in order to make a worthy follow up to Food Court Musical, I would have to use the same songwriting team, Scott Brown & Anthony King. Not only are they longtime Improv Everywhere Agents, they’re also the authors of the hit Off-Broadway musical, Gutenberg! The Musical!. Their songs, both catchy and hilarious, have been stuck in my head for many a sleepless night.
The cast were all actors I knew from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. We had to cast people who could really sing well, given the “slow jam” nature of the song. We had a rehearsal at a Manhattan studio where Agent Brown taught them the song, and Agent King worked on the choreography.
The next night we had a rehearsal in the grocery store itself. The store was part of a small chain called “Best Yet” and was located in Astoria, Queens. We chose it for its enormous size, at least by New York standards.
Our rehearsal was late at night, right before the store closed. There were very few people shopping at that hour, so we wouldn’t get a real sense of how crowded the produce section would be until the actual mission the next day. We worked with the store and got permission, enabling us to set up hidden cameras. We used some incredible robotic cameras that were operated via joystick in the control room in the back.
We had planned to just use the store’s PA system to play the song. At the dress rehearsal we learned that grocery store speakers sound awful when the volume gets cranked up. The bass turned to fuzz. So we hid some additional speakers under the muffin table to give their system a boost.
In addition to the robotic cameras hidden on high ledges and in security domes, Agent Adams had a couple of camera rigs he could control out on the floor. We put a lipstick camera on the end of a cart and filled it with groceries. He was able to push it around the area while watching what he was filming on a little monitor.
Agent Adams also had a hidden camera in the strap of his bag, getting a great POV shot of anyone he talked to.
His main job was to get reactions from shoppers after the musical ended. He wore a hidden microphone and also wore an earpiece, enabling me to talk to him from the control room and say things like, “Try to get the woman you’re talking to to turn around; we’re only seeing the back of her head.”
We staged the mission a few times throughout the day to make sure we got the best possible take and camera coverage. The first take started around 1 PM.
The first few moments were always hilarious. As soon as Agent Kayne started in with his “No, no, no’s,” heads began to turn.
When we did Food Court Musical, we had a pretty good idea of where our audience would be– sitting at the tables. This was more unpredictable. We had all of this choreography planned, but we had no idea if people would make way for us. The area got increasingly crowded as the day went on, which made it all the more fun. Often people found themselves right in the middle of the show.
The woman above took her cart right through the center just as the chorus began. It was like she was a part of the choreography.
Agent Scott’s character was pregnant; she was not. We used a fake belly. She had shoppers coming up to her before and after the song asking when she was due, etc.
Agents Brown and Fernandez played the two stock boy characters. This meant they spent most of the day walking around the floor in the store’s uniform. Of course they were constantly being stopped by customers asking for help.
Our musical was staged very close to the front door, so lots of folks would walk in mid-song. It was fun to see their reactions as they entered and were immediately confronted by our ridiculousness. We got so many wonderful reactions from everyone in the store throughout the afternoon. Queens is the most diverse county in the entire world, and it was really wonderful seeing all of the different types of people laugh and smile.
The musical got even more absurd when Agent Brown carted Agent Fernandez down the aisle. Agent Fernandez delivered his passionate speech into a price gun, and the two starting spinning while the rest of the cast circled them, building up to the finale.
Before the shoppers could finish applauding, our actors were back to normal life. Those playing customers went back to shopping and those playing stock boys got back to work.
Mission Accomplished
- Many more photos in higher resolution: Agent Sokoler’s Flickr Set
- Our first musical: Food Court Musical
- Buy the original cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.
If this is your first time here:
-our nearly 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-New Yorkers join our NY Agents list
-We have a book and a DVD for sale!
