Improv Everywhere's Invisible Dog Walk

Did you perhaps see any invisible dogs at Improv Everywhere's Invisible Dog Walk?

An organizer explains:

For those of you who were not there - we passed out over 2,000 "invisible dog" leashes and had everyone go for a nice Sunday walk in Brooklyn. If you were anywhere within a one mile radius of the Bergen St. stop in Cobble Hill today, you would have seen all types of folks very seriously walking their very silly dogs. The invisible dog toy was invented in the 1970s in the Brooklyn factory that served as our meeting point today.

Agent Lorna reports:

I miss my dog. My favorite was a lady explaining it to her child. She said…. "Yes hon, that is an invisible dog, a very rare breed." lol

Tried to buy a treat for my invisible dog at a pet store and the guy wouldn’t let us in. He was a pooper.

At the Barnes & Noble the lady guard asked me what "that" was. I said "My dog." She advised me in the kindest way that I had to leave the second floor because dogs were not allowed up there because of the café. lol

And

Another moment was in the Trader Joes. We were on line and a lady and her son were behind us. (we had 2 maltipoos, Jessica Simpson dog. Her dog was killed recently by a coyote) This boy just got so involved with the dogs. He would pet the dogs and just yell "…but I don’t feel anything!"

Cool thing was watching people step around our dogs when they went up to a shelf to get something...

This is the kind of silliness that I can get behind pretty much totally. It is art. It is play. It is fun. It doesn't threaten. It doesn't invade anyone's space. It provides people with an opportunity to be playful. To be pleasantly surprised. Or to ignore it, and the world, as much as they need to.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Improv Everywhere - Defenders of the Playful

If you've been watching any of the many well-documented, pervasive play antics of Improv Everywhere, you'll understand why they are being presented with the coveted title of Defender of the Playful. You may even, given such spectacular displays of in-your-face playfulness as in the Frozen Grand Central and Food Court Musical events, wonder why it took us so long to acknowledge their contribution to playfulness anywhere. Clearly, they are breaking boundaries, bringing play where no play has dared to go. And their MP3 Experiments are as least as fun and surprising and play-engendering for the participants as they are enticingly puzzling for their unsuspecting audiences.

But for me, it wasn't until their most recent mission, the Surprise Wedding Reception, that Improv Everywhere demonstrated the kind of playfulness that the award was created for. Take a look at one of their most celebrated, and closely related events, called "The Best Game Ever." This, too, was a surprise, and it most definitely led to the delight of everyone involved, players and performers. But unlike The Best Game Ever, the couple who served as the focus of the Surprise Wedding Reception were not so much surprised as they were invited to play. Though the host wasn't above the minor subterfuge of passing himself as a representative of the Mayor's Office, and describing the event as a "free wedding reception," this enlightened willingness to include everyone, the receivers as well as the givers of the performance, led to something that seemed to me much more inclusive, and, because of that, much more of an accomplishment for all playkind.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

One of the best collections of theater games online, now available for download

Yes, punkin, you can in fact download the entire Improv Encyclopedia, in full, graphic, PDF format, or in PDA-appropriate, just-the-text straightforwardness.

For anyone who works with groups - teachers, recreation specialists, therapists, team managers, business facilitators - this is a what you will soon find to be an invaluable resource. Take a look at a sample game, like this one about translating gibberish (a game concept I recently added to Junkyard Olympics). Contemplate how useful this game can become in how many situations, note how clearly written, how intelligently cross-categorized. And it's only one of hundreds, and its free.




from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith