Comments on: Frozen Grand Central Station

By: snarkout

snarkout — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:27:19 +0000

The Best Buy stunt is superb, but I think my all-time favorite of theirs was the fake U2 performance.

By: MoXmas

MoXmas — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:54:09 +0000

Isn’t it kind of an old bit? A guy named Matthew Wilson did a version in Daley Plaza in Chicago (“where that Picasso’s at”) a number of years ago. That one involved about 200 people, all dressed up in business suits. They all fell to the ground, stayed motionless for 15 minutes, then got up and walked away.

And hell, even SantaCon is a kissin’ cousin to the concept, except with costumes and alcohol.

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:29:01 +0000

Link about the stunt here. They had people wearing wireless mics for the audio (I had wondered).

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:58:58 +0000

I also like the one they did where the guy was going to jump off a three-foot ledge, and was “talked down” by his “wife”.

Oh, and the Best Buy one.

By: tom hurka

tom hurka — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:29:48 +0000

Sweet.

By: Matthew Kuzma

Matthew Kuzma — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:32:24 +0000

I’ve been a fan of the group that did this, Improv Everywhere, for some time, and this is one of their better ones. Also worth watching/reading about are the Shirtless in Abercrombie, the Cell Phone ‘Orchestra’, and the Ted’s Birthday (where they picked a stranger, decided that he was Ted, they were all his friends, and it was his birthday).

A lot of their ‘missions’ do draw some authoritarian responses in addition to amusement.

By: shteve

shteve — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:28:22 +0000

The smartest guy was the one who went down to tie his shoe laces – even I could hold that position for 5 minutes.

Very simple, very cool.

By: harry b

harry b — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:25:28 +0000

I don’t know, Chris, perhaps you should try it…. I’d add that it would probably be the passengers, not the police, that would go after you.

By: The Modesto Kid

The Modesto Kid — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:22:54 +0000

Oh: 5 minutes. Got it the second time around.

By: will u.

will u. — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:43:54 +0000

Awesome! Even better than the recent pantsless 2k8 on the Boston MBTA

By: novakant

novakant — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:21:44 +0000

This is great, I love it!

I think if you tried that at Liverpool Street during the rush-hour, though, people would just run you over, the pace at which they “walk” in London is sometimes rather scary.

By: djr

djr — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:17:21 +0000

Flash mobs at London stations seem to prefer dancing to standing still! Not sure that's due to the expected police response.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:42:32 +0000

Note to would-be British emulators: Heathrow T5 opens in a couple of months . . . now that would be cool (& almost certainly attract unwelcome attention from security . . . we live in a tragic & debased nation).

By: The Modesto Kid

The Modesto Kid — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:35:53 +0000

This is cool. I couldn’t tell from the video, how long they stayed frozen in place? Was it like 5 or 10 minutes, or longer?

By: Eszter

Eszter — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:32:21 +0000

When I first saw this my thought was: Finally, something that got even New Yorkers to stop and notice! But then I thought: perhaps it was only the tourists who noticed.:-)