When a clip of the first Improv Everywhere freezing event in Grand Central Station was posted on you Tube, it caused an instant buzz. The sight of more than 200 people freezing in their tracks in the middle of otherwise frenetic Grand Central Station for a full five minutes was remarkable, and struck a chord with more than 9 million people worldwide who watched the video. Even more interesting were the reactions of the poor commuters who couldn’t understand why there were people standing frozen at various points across the station.
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Since the New York event, more than 42 cities worldwide from Paris and Los Angeles, to Constanta in Romania and Utrecht in the Netherlands, have had their own version of the five minute freeze.
According to Improve Elsewhere’s website, their purpose is to bring excitement to otherwise unexciting places, and to show that pranks can be good and clean fun, and don’t have to be humiliating.