What would it be like if all of a sudden everyone in a public space were “muted”? This is what the New York City based prank collective Improv Everywhere did on their recent mission set in Prospect Park in Brooklyn last month.
The group were invited to explore the themes of stillness, silence and noise in the urban environment as part of the exhibition ‘stillspotting nyc’ of Guggenhein Museum in New York.
For this latest mission, 23 actors and two dogs infiltrated the public space and went ‘mute’ at coordinated intervals. It resulted on some amazing reactions from passers-by.
The leader Charlie Tood orchestrated the whole group performance which journeyed through 30 seconds of loud behaviour and 90 seconds of silence during the 45 minutes of activity. It was great to see how people reacted to the collective group when the area suddenly went quiet and then came to life again.
We love stunts like this; it is something out of the ordinary, which causes surprising and amusing reactions from the audience. This is yet another inspirational example of pranks from the Improv Everywhere group, bringing amazing scenes of chaos and joy in public spaces.