Improv Everywhere, and why it's good to have your sense of humor with you at all times.

A personal friend of mine, whose name I won't publicize (though it rhymes with Cher Stoplight) was a part of this Improv Everywhere, uh, incident, entitled Black Tie Beach.  He sent the video to a few friends, and when I watched it, my first thought was, "wow, that's funny." 

My second thought was, "does somebody organize these where I live?" 

And my third thought was, "why have I never heard of this group before?  I book entertainment (and speakers) for a living?" 

Then, when I saw how long they've been doing this, and how much press they've gotten, my fourth thought was, "I must live under a rock, not to have heard of them before."

So there you have it, people.  I live under a rock, apparently, but at least I have a sense of humor.  Although you won't see any "no pants days" around the Keynote office any time soon.  Apparently my sense of humor is conflicting with my desire to avoid employment lawsuits.

And I officially love this group Improv Everywhere.  One of our very popular tech-and-culture speakers, writer David Pogue , seems to love them also.  He and his son participated in the MP3 Experiment, and he had this to say:

Most people consider me a gadget reviewer. But in my heart, I consider my specialty to be the intersection of technology and culture. The real fun always begins at the clash of online and offline.......Through all of this, you couldn’t stop laughing. Part of it was the weirdness of seeing 3,000 people acting in perfect unison, even though externally, there wasn’t a sound. Part of it was the cleverness of the script, and Steve’s complete irreverence. (“Did you know that the art of square dancing was invented right here on Roosevelt Island? It probably wasn’t, but we’re going to square dance anyway.”)

To read David's entire blog post on the subject, on the New York Times site, go here.

So thanks, uh, "Cher".  Hope I get to work with these guys at IE, both personally and professionally, real soon. 

By the way, "Cher", or rather "Paul" and his wife have their own blog, on visiting museums in New York, which is a good read, particularly if you live in the NY area.