A group of street improv artists made a New York City subway ride less miserable by reenacting a classic scene from Star Wars.
Street performance team Improv Everywhere is a group of thespians based in New York City devoted to “causing scenes” in public. Their seemingly-impromptu stunts are clever and entertaining, such as a particularly nifty re-enactment of Ghostbusters meant to raise awareness of a budget crisis at the NY Public Library.
The latest Improv Everywhere piece is a modern recreation of the iconic scene between Darth Vader and Princess Leia at the beginning of Star Wars, only this time it takes place on the New York City subway system instead of the Corellian Corvette Tantive IV. And Princess Leia is reading “Galactic Rebellion for Dummies” instead of feeding secret plans into R2-D2.
It’s still a great watch, and one can only imagine that it made the hot, uncomfortable NYC subway trip all the more pleasant for the people involved. “The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie,” reads the IE site, “[and] we thought it would be fun to see how people would react to a surprise appearance by the iconic characters. We spread out the actors along the train line, staging it so they would enter the right car at the right time.”
According to the in-depth report, the stormtrooper and Darth Vader costumes were on loan from College Humor, and – despite misjudging his helmet’s height and banging his head on the train the first time around – Darth Vader stole the show: “One thing we learned is that almost every human will immediately take out their camera when they see Darth Vader … [at] one point, a young guy came up to him and said, ‘Sith Lord, would it be OK if I took your photo?'” It’s a good thing he wasn’t Force-choked on the spot.
The skit was re-enacted “several times” over the course of a few hours – “[if] you’ve got all those awesome costumes together, you better do it more than once!” – and went over swimmingly with all the crowds involved. It’s a good thing, too, because this is absolutely hilarious. I don’t even know how I’d react if Darth Vader got on board my morning train. Er, if I rode a morning train, that is.
Great job, guys. Next time, do the destruction of Alderaan. I’m sure nobody will really miss Battery Park.
(Via Mashable)
