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Shot by: Keith Haskel, Georgia Hilton, Kristopher Knight, Nathan Russell, Andrew Flynn Soltys, Charlie Todd, Angel Yau
Photography: Katie Sokoler (Flickr Set), Gene Driskell
Starring: (in order of appearance) Michael Kayne, Corey Johnson, Megan Maes, Kevin R. Free, Amy Heidt, Lauren Adams, John Flynn
Chorus: Ari Scott, Cody Lindquist, Winston Noel, Kerry McGuire, Ashley Harrell, Anthony King, Scott Brown, Mark Sam Rosenthal, Dimon Hunter, Will Storie, Seth Shelden, Kirk Damato, Justin Purnell, Venessa Diaz, Gerard Haitz, Steve Dressler, Jeremy Bent, Todd Simmons, Lindsey Sproul, Lauren Reeves, Milo Finch, Big Rich Armstead, Johnathan Fernandez, Jaime Linn, Evan Greenspoon, Lydia Hensler, Jaime Skinner, Natalie Neckyfarow, Cassandra Taylor
I've been involved with the Gel Conference since speaking there in 2005. Gel is an annual conference exploring good experience in all its forms - in art, business, technology, society, and life. There are always fabulous speakers, and it's always a great time. This year, I asked founder Mark Hurst if he'd be open to Improv Everywhere staging a surprise musical at Gel. He immediately agreed.
Agent Brown working with the cast
The first step was to create the song, and as usual I turned to the wonderfully talented Scott Brown and Anthony King. We brainstormed over lunch and decided a song that parodied social media oversharing would be a great fit for the audience we'd have at the conference.
Rehearsing with the seven principle cast members at the UCB Theatre
Dress rehearsal the day before
We were lucky enough to have access to the venue, The Times Center, the day before the conference to do a dress rehearsal. Producing these musicals typically requires expensive audio and hidden camera equipment, but since this took place in a theatre, the audio equipment was already in place and the conference was already arranged to be filmed. We supplemented the conference cameras with a team of five discreet cameramen in the audience.
The stakes were high for this musical, as we only had one shot. For our past three musicals, we were able to stage them multiple times throughout the day with a new audience each time. We would only have one chance to surprise the conference audience. If an actor forgot a cue or a microphone failed to work, there would be no second chance to fix it.
Agent Free hams it up in rehearsal
We had one final rehearsal at a studio near the conference the day of the mission.
We had a 29-member chorus, and I encouraged them to make fun character choices. We had a priest, a doctor, a construction worker, a bike messenger, and a new mother, among others.
Finally, it was time to make it happen. Agent Hurst introduced Agent Kayne who began to do a fake presentation on a fake new social media service, twirlr.
Agent Johnson interrupts
Agent Maes
Agent Free
Agent Heidt
Audience members laughing
(yes that's the internet's Matt Haughey and Anil Dash)
Agent Kayne acted like the musical outburst was as much a surprise to him as it was to anyone else, looking on in disbelief. Then he brought the house down when he started singing as well.
For the finale, the actors all joined Agent Kayne on stage as our 29-member chorus suddenly streamed down both of the aisles.
After the song ended, the entire cast filed out of the theatre matter-of-factly, checking their mobile devices.
Agent Fernandez and Agent Finch leaving the theatre
I was especially excited to have Agent Finch from Ghosts of Pasha in the cast. He hilariously dressed like a Best Buy employee with a fake yellow name tag.
After the cast left, Agent Kayne was alone on stage. He announced his time was up and got another round of applause as the audience realized "twirlr" was completely fake.
Mission AccomplishedOTHER RESOURCES:
- Many more photos in higher resolution: Agent Sokoler's Flickr Set
- Our first musical: Food Court Musical
- Our second musical: Grocery Story Musical
- Our third musical: I Love Lunch! The Musical
- Buy the original cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical, also by Brown & King.
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53 Responses to Gotta Share The MusicalNewer Comments →- Tommy says:
May 9, 2011 at 12:47 am
Great job! I liked these musicals a lot!
Twirlr xD.
- Matt Haughey says:
May 9, 2011 at 12:58 am
Nice one Charlie and the gang!
Being that I was in that room, it was pretty great and there was a good 30 seconds or so before I realized what was going on (and we didn't even find out it was a real IE prank until the end). The video feels like it naturally edits out a lot of the dead "what the hell?" time in the room but we were all kind of astonished (I rolled my eyes and said "ugh" when I saw the name Twirlr come up as it seemed really believable) and then all kind of amused by the song, then when the aisles filled with singers it was a total spectacle.
- Charlie says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:20 am
Thanks Matt! I love that we got a photo of you and Anil. I was bummed I didn't get to hang out with you more at GEL, but most of my GEL was sneaking around behind-the-scenes and rehearsing this.
- Charlie says:
- Jenn says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:05 am
Awesome! Your musical missions are definitely my favourite :)
- @LindseyNagy says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:08 am
Indeed, more IE awesomeness. Way to keep the creative juices flow'n, Charlie! - LSN
- Bruce Witzenburg says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:11 am
Wow - absolutely hilarious as always.
- Bruce Witzenburg says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:21 am
Of course I'm sharing this!
- Charlie says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:25 am
You gotta!
- Charlie says:
- Bruce Witzenburg says:
- Eli says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:12 am
As always, simply wonderful! I really didn't see Agent Kayne as being a part of it! The name "Twirlr" seems totally believable as another product starting with 'tw' entering the market. I really enjoyed the lyrics in the song as well- you made use of a ton of social media sites!
- Daniel says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:14 am
Hey guys, nice surprise musical :D Was the music playing in the theatre or was it added later in editing?
- Charlie says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:21 am
Playing live!
- Charlie says:
- jakudo says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:30 am
Your musicals are every time great but this one was probably the greatest:) I just love that song. You should make some CD of your songs:)
- Katie says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:44 am
Hilarious and oh-so-relevant to today's world. Fantastic!
- Adelaide Flashmob says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:55 am
So good. Love these spontaneous musicals. Well done to everyone involved, looks like you all had a fantastic time.
- Andrew Kennedy says:
May 9, 2011 at 3:17 am
That was excellent! I am very impressed by Agent Kayne's acting, he looked genuinely taken aback and at a loss at the interruption (I even felt embarrassed for him), making it that much better when he joined in. =) Very well executed. =D
- mysaviordied4u2 says:
May 9, 2011 at 5:10 am
Awesome! , but Twirlr?! :) LOL
- Kevin P says:
May 9, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I kind of wanted to hear more about Twirlr. Maybe it's a web site that generates songs by analyzing Twitter?
Someone get on that.
- Kevin P says:
- Nodoka says:
May 9, 2011 at 5:31 am
Great!! But it seems an apple advertisement… xD
- Wayne _ says:
May 9, 2011 at 7:26 am
Woke up at 635a today for work, and after a few bouts with my Monday morning usual routines I was very excited to see an email from you guys about a new mission! Especially a musical
mission - just what I needed today! You guys never fail to give me a lil lift…ty!!!!
- Agent Garrett says:
May 9, 2011 at 7:33 am
Loved it! Thank you!!!
- Mike says:
May 9, 2011 at 7:44 am
Kind of hurt I wasn't invited to this conference, being that I live in NY haha. Maybe next time!
- Matt Haughey says:
May 9, 2011 at 2:17 pm
The conference is open to the public, you just have to sign up and pay.
- Matt Haughey says:
- Red says:
May 9, 2011 at 8:07 am
I first I thought that it was really rude to interrupt a speaker. Then a few seconds into the video, I really thought twirlr was real and it was a tie-in of sorts. Last thing you know, I was almost in tears in laughter. Nice one!
Like most here, I really love your musical improvs! Try doing that at the TED next time :D
- Oscar says:
May 9, 2011 at 8:14 am
Encore!!! Encore!!!! I love these so much!!! XD
- BDB says:
May 9, 2011 at 8:26 am
Love IE's stuff, but I don't really see much going on that's either improv or spontaneous. Clearly, this whole thing was meticulously planned. I like the earlier poster's term of "surprise musical" better. Much more accurate.
- Fountain says:
May 9, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Check the FAQ.
- Fountain says:
- YK says:
May 9, 2011 at 9:24 am
Any chance the soundtrack of this one will be released?
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