Okay, it seems that Rogue Improv Calgary has a serious issue with filming its events in action. So far, filming has either been entirely too obvious to observers (as in Stopped! In the Name of Love and in the aftermath of Snap Battle), or it has been nearly impossible to get good filming done at all. In the case of Organic Transit, we weren’t able to film at all. Now in the case of our newest mission, The Loop, I was able to conceal my camera, but was unable to get a satisfactory angle that would capture all the events while remaining inconspicuous.
In hindsight, I wish I had asked Agent Douglas (who showed up late and thus could not be part of the sequence of events) if he could have used his camera to capture other angles. Oh well. There’s always next time, I guess. And we at least got good videos before and after the Shift.
If you or anyone you know would be interested in contributing to the filming of upcoming RIC Reality Shifts, please volunteer at the discussion boards either on our Facebook group or our IE Global group.
That being said, RIC’s remake of The Moebius (originally executed by Improv Everywhere in 2003) was very much a success, especially when compared to our previous Shift.
As in the original Improv Everywhere video, this mission was to consist of a short sequence of actions repeated a set number of times in a small, modestly populated location where such odd repetition is more easily noticed. A coffee shop worked well enough for IE, thus we selected a coffee shop for our version as well. In our case, we chose the Kensington Second Cup, located across the street from the Safeway where we performed our freeze event.
On Sunday, June 15, our agents gathered in Riley Park to brainstorm ideas for possible actions and to put those actions together into a workable sequence. In total, we ended up with eleven agents and seven distinct pieces to the sequence. I apologize, but I cannot remember everyone’s names, so for those whose names I can’t remember, I will be using a code name instead. The sequence went as follows:
- 1) Agent Bethany sings a portion of the chorus from Hanson’s “MMMBop” to herself while listening to her iPod.
- 2) Agent Nichole gets up, walks across the shop to get a sugar packet, and walks back across to her seat while shaking the packet.
- 3) Agent Noah walks into the shop and stands there pondering the menu without lining up. Agent Graham gets up from his seat while reading a newspaper, headed to pick up a stir stick. On the way, he bumps into Agent Noah, dropping the paper and apologizing. He continues on to get the stir stick, then returns to his seat. After being bumped, Agent Noah checks his wallet, sighs loudly, and exits the shop.
- 4) Agent Sanford, playing a game of Scrabble with Agent Kristin and Agent Beardy Guy, gets up from his game to ask someone (usually Agent Bethany) “I’m sorry, but is this a word?”
- 5) Agent Capri gets up, asks three agents if she can borrow a cell phone, and is successful on the third try. She phones a friend, asks to borrow a pen for an exam the next day, hangs up, says thank you, and returns to her seat.
- 6) Agent Igpy calls Agent Elspeth on her cell, asking where she is. She talks for a few moments, then notices Elspeth walking by outside the window. Igpy waves, and Elspeth waves back. They meet in the entrance of the store, leave temporarily, and then Igpy returns to sit back down.
- 7) Agent Kristin accuses Agent Beardy Guy of cheating (at Scrabble). Beardy Guy responds “That’s what SHE said.” The board is then bumped accidentally, forcing the game to be restarted. The tiles go back in the Scrabble bag and are shaken up.
The sound of the tiles shuffling was the cue for Agent Bethany to start singing again, and so the loop repeated.
It took until about the third repetition, but we certainly were noticed. In particular, once they noticed that it kept on happening, the baristas would get highly excited every time Noah and Graham bumped into one another, among other things. It got to a point where they would say, “It’s happening again! It’s happening again!” and count down to when the collision would happen.
Early on, a female customer went up to the register to ask the baristas if they thought “something fishy” was going on. She and the employees were both weirded out and smiling as they talked and watched the goings-on.
At one point, a man watched Agent Capri repeatedly asking people for a cell phone, before eventually giving her a dirty look and moving to another part of the shop.
Two women sitting in the far back corner with a laptop were chattering constantly to themselves after a while, trying to figure out what was going on.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear or see much of what was going on near Sanford, Kristin and Beardy Guy’s table, but I’m sure they got their fair share of bemused looks as well.
I was surprised to find that Agent Nichole’s repeated back and forth crossings of the shop went largely unnoticed. But that made it all the more fun to tell the employees about later – they had seen her walking all that time and were happy to realize that more people were in on this than they had realized.
Speaking of which, after the Shift finished (it took about seven or eight repetitions; I lost count), Agent Douglas and I made our way back into the Second Cup to interview the baristas. This time, I didn’t try to be coy; I straight-up told them who we were, what we had been up to, and why we were doing it. It was a disappointment not getting any reaction shots from the few bystanders who saw our Snap Battle, and I didn’t want a repeat of that disappointment to happen here.
And what satisfying reactions we got! The girls absolutely loved what they saw, and the customers weren’t angered or put out, so they had no problem with what we had done. It was so good to know we had put smiles on a lot of people’s faces that day.
The following video contains both the employee and agent interviews for this mission:
Again, I apologize for the minimal footage taken for the main video. But even though the video turned out shoddily, I believe that this mission is tied with Organic Transit for our best Reality Shift yet. Well done, Rogue Calgarians!
