Ep 131. Becoming The Greatest Professional Prankster - Charlie Todd [Founder, Improv Everywhere]

Meet Charlie Todd - a professional prankster
& also the founder of Improv Everywhere (a New York
City-based prank collective with a twist!).


Rather than pranks that embarrass people, Improv Everywhere
organises large-scale pranks that create chaos & lots of joy
in public.


The kind of thing that’d make you go, “You’ll never believe what
just happened!”


E.g.


  A bunch of strangers ride the subway - without
pants! 


  200 people freezing in place for 5 minutes in NYC’s Grand
Central Terminal - with 37 million views on YouTube!


  A man going to work in his socially distanced office -
located in the middle of the East River in NYC!


  Thousands of people putting on headphones and following
the narrator’s every word: Walking backwards, freezing, slow
dancing, wrapping themselves in toilet paper etc. 


  Turning the NYC subway into a spa, complete with
complimentary water, sauna station, hot stone massage & a
steam room misting station...


You get the picture


The key to these “pranks” is that there is no official ending to
the performance. Once done, the performers just disappear.


And leave everyone else behind, baffled!


To date, these pranks have hit a collective view of 487+ million
times on YouTube.


So the obvious questions are:


How did Charlie turn pranks into a career?


How does he pull these crazy stunts off?


What does it take to go viral?


What's next?





Highlights:


3:20 Family of pranksters

5:26 Interest in theatre

7:09 Building a new life in New York City

8:59 Pretending to be a celebrity!

19:20 Straddling the legal/illegal grey area for their pranks

21:48 Pretending to be U2 the band & the police dropping
by!

29:03 Organising the MP3 Experiment for thousands of people

34:03 Measuring impact

37:54 The person behind the social media algorithms?!

40:43 Identity crisis

45:39 Tours + Monetising Pranks

48:18 When Charlie realised he was ready to quit to go
full-time in on Improv Everywhere

51:11 Disney+'s Pixar in Real Life - being its executive
producer & director

55:50 Socially distanced office on the river

57:27 The future?

59:19 Going viral over a fake meme?!






Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/131


YouTube: https://youtu.be/hv7v_qIio78 


 Weekly STIMY Newsletter that deconstructs how you build a
portfolio career to prepare yourself for the future of work:
https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062


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