Creative pranks are his art form

Charlie Todd has made it his destiny.

As the creator of Improv Everywhere, Todd befuddled Best Buy employees when he sent about 80 people wearing blue polo shirts and khakis like the employees' uniforms into one of the stores; conducted a synchronized swimming Olympic trial in a city fountain; and held a fake U2 concert on a New York rooftop.

Todd's new book, "Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places With Improv Everywhere" (HarperCollins, $20), illustrates his schemes and the preparation they involved.

Improv Everywhere's stunts are called missions; participants are called agents.

One mission involved 207 agents freezing in place at Grand Central Station for five minutes. There were people frozen in place tying their shoes, looking at a map, picking up dropped papers and just standing in place.

You can watch that mission and others online at improveverywhere.com, or search "improv everywhere" on youtube.com. To date, the group has done about 85 missions, or around 10 a year.

Improv Everywhere is most famous for its annual No Pants in the Subway event, which started in New York City in 2002 and takes place every January. About 1,200 "agents" in New York participated this year — the largest number to date.

Other cities worldwide now hold their own "No Pants" events, including Phoenix this year on its light rail system.

It all started when Todd was 22 and at a bar one evening in in New York's West Village. He decided to pretend to be rock star Ben Folds of Ben Folds Five.

"I knew enough about him to pretend to be him," said Todd, now 30. "We're both white and have brown hair."

The passing resemblance was enough. Photos were taken; items were autographed. Todd even scored a phone number. He called it five years later to the day; it had been disconnected.

Afterward, the drama graduate from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill realized what great stories it had created for all involved.

Todd and six friends took it several steps further, creating Improv Everywhere in the summer of 2001.

"I ended up doing my work in public rather than on a stage," said Todd, who teaches long-form improv classes at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City and is part of an improv team that performs Saturdays at Upright.

He recently spoke by phone about his destiny.

Describe your personality as a kid.

"I was a big fan of comedy; I used to tape 'Saturday Night Live' on my VCR every Saturday night starting about fifth grade. … I wasn't necessarily the class clown, but I was the one who was coming up with ideas behind the scenes. Underneath the exterior of an A student was someone quietly doing subversive things."

How many core agents do you have?

"Maybe around 30 people. I had this mailing list in New York with 25,000 people on it. I have to be careful — not every idea is well-suited to having 1,000 people."

Your agents all seem to stay in character. How does that happen?

"The core people for the smaller stuff are mostly actors or have taken improv classes."

What is your best skill?

"One of my best is the ability to keep a straight face and to stay in character at all costs."

What is your worst?

"I'm not very good at playing by the rules."

What does the average mission cost?

"Very little. The people who help out with video cameras do it themselves. And it doesn't cost anything to take your pants off."

What's been your favorite mission and why?

"The fake U2 concert we did. It was just a perfect scenario. I lived in an apartment building right across the street from Madison Square Garden. U2 was in town. It was a prank that wrote itself."

What's the craziest thing a spectator has done while you were doing a mission?

"I would say calling the cops. The Best Buy employees dialed 911."

You've generated a lot of splinter groups.

"Eleven hundred groups have been created on my network, but I don't know how many are active."

What's the ultimate mission you have yet to do?

"I really don't have that. When I come up with an idea, I do it.

"I came up with a pilot for NBC in 2007. We turned a Little League baseball game with 10-year-olds into a Major League Baseball game. We had a Jumbotron rise up out of the field, we had the Goodyear Blimp fly over the field.

"NBC did not pick it up, but it was a ton of fun."

Win the book Enter to win a copy of "Causing a Scene" at azstarnet.com/contests. The deadline is noon Tuesday.