Acting silly to a disembodied voice: A mass social game comes to Drexel

They stretched. They breathed deep. They played freeze tag and "human Twister." They collapsed, weirdly, for Nap Time, and rose refreshed, ready for an Epic Battle. Above all, they listened intently to "Steve."

"Steve" is the recorded voice of the MP3 Experiment, a mass social game that went down Wednesday at Race Field at Drexel University, to the great fun of those assembled. Alerted by e-mail, Facebook, and word of mouth, partakers had come from throughout the area. They downloaded the 45-minute instruction MP3, synchronized clocks, and, at the exact stroke of 5, hit play all together.

"Steve" warmed them up with silly directions ("Stand as hard as you possibly can"), thumb wars, square dancing, and pointing ("See if you can point to your home . . . Now let's point to Nicaragua. . . . Hmmm. . . . Some of you have clearly never heard of Nicaragua"). Eerie to watch: All was silent, except for giggles. All were linked by earphones to their own mobile devices, intent on Steve's instructions.

It was a looney look at what might be a new kind of fun - a genre of celebration,  a kind of gathering, that could not have happened before social media and the Web.

The group behind the Experiment is Improv Everywhere, a comic troupe brain-parented by social-media hero Charlie Todd. It's Improv's first time in Philly.

Born in 2001, Improv Everywhere (slogan: "We Cause Scenes") organizes "missions" in public places such as Starbucks, Grand Central Terminal, or public fountains (perfect for synchronized swimming!). This is done almost entirely via Web and social media. Some of the exploits are famous by title: The annual No Pants Subway Ride! The Best Funeral Ever! Improv videos its exploits, which become YouTube wildfires, and so word of mouth travels.

Participant Addie Weyrich, a second-year student at Masterman School, says, "I heard it through a Facebook event, but I've been watching their videos for a long time." Megan Marti, a senior in health science at Drexel, says, "I've wanted to be part of one since forever." She heard about it "from everywhere" and got a Facebook invite from a friend.

By e-mail beforehand, Todd wrote: "The MP3 Experiment could definitely not have happened in another era. . . . We staged the first one in 2004, which was right around the time iPods were really becoming ubiquitous in New York. We're able to use the Web to distribute the MP3, communicate the meeting point, and solicit participation. It would have been extremely difficult to stage a cassette-based portable experiment in the 1980s!"

Urban Playground, a student group dedicated to creating "fun, free social events in public spaces," brought Improv to Drexel, thanks to the sponsorship of several campus groups, as part of the Campus Activity Board's Comedy Week 2011.

Playground founder Ari Melman, a junior in business at Drexel, calls Improv a role model. "We were so attracted by Improv's way of creating secular, totally inclusive celebrations that don't exclude any groups," he says. "I really look at it as something that could not have happened before the Internet came, with its ability to connect disparate communities."

He says participants bring their own creative flair, doing things no one could have foreseen. "One guy came dressed as a unicorn."

No unicorns Wednesday at Drexel, but there were high fives, do-si-do's, and other happy foolishness. In an interview on-site, Todd called it "kind of a greatest hits from all our previous experiments. The idea is to have fun, do something out of the ordinary, and have a unique experience with strangers in a public place simultaneously."

Unique, surely: As he spoke, the crowd of more than 100, clad as directed in red, green, blue, or yellow shirts, pressed together, giggling, and disco-danced to music only they could hear, hands reaching for the sky. "The coolest thing," says Weyrich, "is that no one else knows what's going on, just us." Andrew Web, a research assistant at Drexel's Mobilities Research and Policy Center, says, sagely: "The recording turns into a hive mind for the crowd."

True, that. Since "Steve" is a recorded figment, the crowd is not really following anyone. It's on its joyous own, celebrating for celebration's sake. It's a goofy, self-organized community-for-an-hour hard to imagine before 2011.

Weyrich liked the freeze tag best. Marti liked the Epic Battle, a climactic clash of balloons and grandiose yawps.

Improv Everywhere will next strike at Fordham University in December. Says Marti, "I hope they come back."

For video of the Improv Everywhere "MP3 Experiment" at Drexel University, go to

www.philly.com/improvEndText