After a two-year hibernation, ODCSF is BACK! Snowquester 2013 looks set to be our last chance for significant snow for this winter, and we want to make the most of it.

We hope you can join us for a little rumble in the Circle, starting at 4pm on Wednesday, March 6.

Couple of things:
• You can help us spread the word on Twitter with the hashtags #ODCSF and #Snowquester
• This will be a smaller affair than our epic Snowmaggedon battle of Feb. 6, 2010, given the fact that snow totals may only reach 8 inches. But that’s OK!
• There’s a chance the wet snow will be too slushy to throw around. We’ll make a call on that a few hours earlier and possibly call the whole thing off
• To spice things up, bring your craziest costumes! And if anyone has got a video camera, maybe we can even do a Harlem Shake routine. Any volunteers?
• This is meant to be fun! So here’s the disclaimer: we plan to wear our protective gear, play fair, and follow any instructions given by police.

Anyone who doesn’t (for example by pelting moving cars) is responsible for the consequences. Safety is important to us!

See you in the Circle!
- The ODCSF Crew.

Our Flickr page has been up for a while, so if you haven’t checked for photos, please do so! We hope everyone had an awesome time!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dcnopants2013/

- Photo by Flickr user poppyott

This year, we’re telling everyone the Metro boundaries ahead of time. We will be traveling between Metro Center, Chinatown, and L’Enfant Metro Stations. If you don’t know what those are, they are the three large, white circles in the middle of the metro maps.

Stay tuned for additional information as we get closer to the event! Feel free to comment with questions, OR, if you have Facebook, RSVP and invite your friends!

Footage from 2011

Unfortunately, official footage was lost for this event. We’d still like to put a video together even if it’s outrageously late, so if you have any footage you can contribute, please hit the “contact us” link above and we’ll let you know where to send it!

Everyone gathered on the national mall for the initial fight with their pillows hidden. The whole fight began when two people started a vocal tussle in the middle of the crowd. After yelling at each other, they determined there was only one way to settle their disagreement… WITH PILLOWS! Quickly everyone joined in and the fun began!

It was such a spectacle that at times we had hundreds of onlookers. We also had costumed visitors like Abraham Lincoln show up:

We also had quite a few people sporting unofficial team colors and names or even the occasional pink war paint.

As people were winding down on the national mall, it was time to clean up and head to DuPont Circle for pillow-based games! As is now tradition – we did a round of “capture the pillow case” followed by the 1 on 1 ultimate pillow fight championship and last, but not least, a game of pillow zombie tag! It was good to see people of all ages out there and I can’t wait for next year’s fun!

The day started with agents meeting in Hancock park for a missing briefing. The event boundaries this year were especially complex due to some untimely track work on several of the metro lines. Agents were given a general idea of where to go, what to expect and what to avoid. Our agents were also informed about higher traffic areas so tourists to DC could see some of the fun and about where and when the afterparty was happening this year.

Agents are briefed in the park by Bruce. Photo by schuminweb.

Agents were then released into the metro and upon entering the first train leaving L’Enfant Plaza, they were instructed to remove and conceal their pants and continue from there as if they had no idea something was amiss.

Agents removing their pants for the event. Photo by Fred Dunn.

After that, agents then spread out througout the metro in order to have maximum ‘exposure.’ Terrible pun intended.

Two agents wait for a train to go by. Photo by thisisbossi.

More agents letting their colors show. Photo by irogphotos.

Another agents passes the time by reading. Photo by lzuniga.

Track work did cause some major delays though and at times it was tough to get a train.

Long waits slowed progress down. Photo by thisisbossi.

But it never mattered whether we were on or off of a train. Wherever we went, there were always priceless reactions to follow.

Disbelief. Photo by Fred Dunn.

Not something you see everyday. Photo by schuminweb.

You forgot what?! Photo by Fred Dunn.

Am I missing something? Photo by thisisbossi.

After we had our fun in the metro, it was time to go have fun in the bar. Nellie’s was kind enough to host our afterparty this year which also was a great success. We were all having so much fun that we even enjoyed pointing out advertising slogans for local businesses along the way!

Wanna Get Jerked? Photo by asample24.

But after a long day of fun on the metro, it was time to top it off with some more fun with friends!

Afterpartiers enjoying their time at Nellie's Photo by thisisbossi.

I hope everyone had fun and I welcome everyone to share their favorite moments in the comments below!

All the photos from the event including the ones you see here can be found on our flickr group here. Also feel free to add any photos you may have from the event to improve our group pool.

Thanks to Washington Post, CNN, Fox 5, BYT, WTOP and others for their coverage this year!

I’d also like to thank AJ Delos Santos for making his own recap of this year’s No Pants Metro Ride by featuring it here:

DC No Pants Metro Ride 2012 from AJ Delos Santos on Vimeo.

The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual global event started by Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002.

#Raptureprank: On Saturday, take some of your unwanted clothes and shoes and leave sets of them arranged on sidewalks and lawns around town.

With that, Capitol Improv sprang into action. We put out a few tweets and FB updates and quickly had a small army of people ready to drop a pile of clothing on the national mall or film and photograph us. This is the result:

We didn’t want the day to go without doing some good for the community though and much of the clothing used for the event will donated to a local DC homeless shelter.

The crowd begins to gather at the start of Survive DC. Photo By thisisbossi

Very quickly, if you did not get a chance to donate and wanted to, please donate here. The park service permit put us way over our budget so every little bit helps. Survive DC is a community-funded event and only exists because of the contributions of people like yourself! It’s also the only place you can get a whole night’s worth of entertainment for just an optional donation!

The Awards:

Top Runners:
1st place – tied and both finishing at 9:50PM (1hr 50min)
George McArdle & Ben Stern
(Also taking the trophy for top team finish for Fat Heps Alumni)
2nd Place – finishing at 10:15PM (2hrs 15min)
David Shaffer
3rd Place – finishing at 10:24PM (2hrs 24min)
Judd Kennedy (Trophy yet to be awarded)

Top Chasers:
1st Place Clifton Vallance – 19 runners caught!
2nd Place Stuart Dean – 16 runners caught (Trophy yet to be awarded)
3rd Place Peter Matek – 16 runners caught (Trophy yet to be awarded)

Best Story – Neil Landers
Who managed to climb up a fire escape, jump between two buildings and slide down a construction waste chute to get to freedom.

Best Costume – Madison Geisler for her zombie batgirl.
(Honorable mention to spiderman btw!)

Anything marked in red denotes that we lack information needed to hand out or give proper credit for those awards. If you participated in SurviveDC, please share this link until we find everyone and give them the trophy they deserve. If you have information on someone listed above, please contact us with relevant information!

Important Links

Check out and add pictures to the Flickr group here

The Survive DC website and just as important, the Survive DC donation page!

To keep tabs on next year’s event – make sure to follow either Capitol Improv or Survive DC on Facebook or twitter. CI links are at the top right of the page and the SurviveDC page is here

The Recap:
This is a very incomplete recap as I was not able to be everywhere at once. Please leave your own stories in the comments below! More photos will also be added as the Flickr group fills up!

Participants began to gather for registration for the event rather early as a line was already forming by 6:00PM! Participants handed in their wavers and were given their runner (blue) ribbon and their chaser (orange) ribbon along with the manifest which listed all of the safe points, checkpoints and the finish line which is where the afterparty and awards ceremonies occurred.



Registration begins for Survive DC and participants show up in droves. Oscar Soto helps out by handing out ribbons and manifests to incoming participants. Photo By thisisbossi

Teams began to organize off into their own groups either just to hang out, or to carefully study every potential move.



Team Rocket gathering for a chance at surviving DC. Photo By thisisbossi



Other teams took time studying the manifest, thinking about potential routes and how to avoid chasers. Photo By thisisbossi

Because our event is starting to have a rather gigantic following, we decided it would be wise this year to get a legitimate permit from park services. While it didn’t come without downside, we were happy to have the full approval of everyone where we were participating.



Event organizer Thomas Lotze talks with police officers required by the permit for the event. Photo By thisisbossi

We had a lot of great costuming including Thomas Lotze (above) as a boy scout, batgirl, zombie batgirl (below) and spiderman. We also had some serious team comradery with many teams dressing up in team colors and shirts. More and more people are getting into the full spirit of the event every year!



Zombies at the start of the event. Photo By Kelvin 0001



Madison dressed up as zombie batgirl. Photo By Habohead59

After a quick announcement at the start of the race, it was time to release hundreds of people into DC to start the event.



Event Coordinator Nacim Bouchtia gives instructions at the start of the event. Photo By thisisbossi



Participants are released into the night. Photo By Kelvin 0001

Participants then went through a series of checkpoint over a 7 mile course – but of course, only the foolish take this course head-on. They had to avoid the ever-mounting presence of chasers while navigating from checkpoint to checkpoint. When caught, the only option left to earn any trophies was to chase and capture other runners a who still remained.

The checkpoints this year included a dance off checkpoint – where participants had to dance to earn their stamp, a speed dating checkpoint where participants had to “find true love” in order to continue, and many more odd twists.

Unfortunately, rain set in just about an hour into the event. While it came in two rounds and the first round was brief and somewhat cooling, the second round became rather drenching and many people took shelter at local bars or restaurants to wait out the rain. Unfortunately, some people also called it a night and went back home.

Despite the rain though, we still had several hundred people show up at the finish line to report a successful finish or to show a multitude of runners captured. People with impressive finishes by time completed or by number of players captured got to place their names on the big board. Along with awards for runner and chaser categories, we also gave out trophies for best costume and best story.



The big board of those who finished and those who captured many people. The uberchaser is also present and the rainy conditions we encounter in the event can be seen in the background out the window Photo By thisisbossi

To everyone that participated – a big thank you. This event wouldn’t be possible without participants and volunteers like you!

]]> http://capitolimprov.com/survive-dc-2011/feed/ 2 http://capitolimprov.com/pillow-fight-day-2011/ http://capitolimprov.com/pillow-fight-day-2011/#comments Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:37:05 +0000 Bruce http://capitolimprov.com/?p=616 This year’s Pillow Fight Day was definitely a success despite the looming threat of rain. At our largest point, we had around 200 participants that were undeterred by the rain to come out and swing some pillows.

Here’s the event video for everyone who has patiently awaited it’s arrival:



April 2nd started out the same way as any other day. It was a bit drizzly to begin the day but the cherry blossoms were in bloom so there were plenty of spectators for something… unusual.

Right at the stroke of 3PM, one of our agents called out “YOU” across a field where another agent responded back “YOU” and they rushed each other with pillows.



Agents start the battle with their fluffy weapons. Photo By thisisbossi

Shortly thereafter, the battle really got rolling with around 200 people joining in!



The pillows really started to fly! Photo by YakShaving



The action started to get pretty intense. Photo by YakShaving



Another action shot. Photo by YakShaving

The size of the battle was quite staggering and the pillows quite literally began to fly.



The crowd really started to build. Photo by gtiguy8



And the pillows really started to fly. Photo by gtiguy8

Fortunately, even though the battle was rough on some of our pillows, we had our pillow medic looking for any downed soldiers. She had extra stuffing, thread, duct tape and many other accessories to assure our pillows were in the best of shape!



We had our pillow medic on hand. Photo by thisisbossi

It didn’t seem to matter what gender, race, age or species you were… everyone was in on the battle!



All ages wanted to get in on the fight. Photo by M.V. Jantzen



Even other species wanted in. Photo by YakShaving

We even had some daring people begin a 2-man (or woman) joust coming at each other swinging pillows.



A couple of jousting matches broke out. Photo by M.V. Jantzen

Unfortunately we didn’t have a permit as we’ve been instructed in the past to not bother by park services themselves. While there were a few mixed messages at first, we decided to break up the fight and head to our other location.

The visit from Park Service Police was also followed by some heavy rain and even a bit of hail so people cleared out pretty quickly.



Police spoil the fun. Photo by M.V. Jantzen

The original intent was to head up to DuPont Circle and I wasn’t sure how many people would join given the circumstances. Upon arriving though I was surprised to find clear skies and around 100 people ready for some pillow fight events.



Events kick off in DuPont Circle. Photo by M.V. Jantzen

We kicked off the events with the 1 on 1 pillow fight challenge. It’s set up much like a march madness bracket. Below is one of the better costumed people celebrating a victory after one of his 1-on-1 faceoffs.



Pillowfighting is serious business! Photo by M.V. Jantzen

We also played a round of zombie tag and a game of capture the pillow case.

I’m still in disbelief that the skies cleared and the rain stopped exactly when we needed it to for the pillow fighting action. The threat of rain may have scared some people off, but everyone that came out still received quite a treat.

As always, I look forward to doing this event again – perhaps this time with a permit!

]]> http://capitolimprov.com/pillow-fight-day-2011/feed/ 4 http://capitolimprov.com/international-nopants-metro-ride-2011/ http://capitolimprov.com/international-nopants-metro-ride-2011/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:39:02 +0000 Lindsey http://capitolimprov.com/?p=580 This year’s No Pants Metro Ride video is finished, polished and uploaded for your enjoyment:

I had a great weekend, I don’t know about you guys. Hanging out with friends, a little shopping, and the funniest part? I forgot my pants!



This year, we had about 300 pantsless participants show up to ride the DC Metro. Photo by Andrew Bossi.





After some quick direction, it was off to the metro! Photo By Andrew Bossi



Riders then boarded the metro sans-pants and acted as if nothing was amiss. Photo by MV Jantzen



Fitting in Photo by Andrew Bossi



The Pantsless Viking. Photo by MV Jantzen.



Why aren't you wearing any pants? Photo by Andrew Bossi.



After the event, Cobalt and Level One in DC were nice enough to host our afterparty again this year. The party was complete with a free pants check. Photo by Andrew Bossi.



Even the bartenders got in on the pantsless action. Photo by Andrew Bossi

Have any great stories from the No Pants Metro Ride this year? Share them in the comments (and Like us!) over on our facebook page! (We got some great media mentions, like MSNBC, as well. Check them out on facebook too!)

www.facebook.com/capitolimprov

Thanks to all the great pantless riders who came up with crazy stories about their missing pants, WMATA for letting us bring no-panted sillyness to their metro system for another year, and to Cobalt for holding an awesome pantless afterparty!

If you haven’t done so already, please add all your photos to our Flickr group!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/dcnopants2011/

The No Pants Subway Ride is a global event started by Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002. You can check out more information about the ride at http://improveverywhere.com/

]]> http://capitolimprov.com/international-nopants-metro-ride-2011/feed/ 0 http://capitolimprov.com/cruel-to-be-kind-2010/ http://capitolimprov.com/cruel-to-be-kind-2010/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:50:12 +0000 Bruce http://capitolimprov.com/?p=576 Hey everyone! Cruel to be Kind is coming up this weekend on Saturday September 4th. Get your team together and make sure to subscribe to Capitol Improv’s twitter feed to get some necessary updates before and during the game.

Here’s a video describing how to play:


And these are the rules:
Cruel to be Kind is a game of benevolent assassination that combines both ninja-like reflexes and warm fuzzy feelings!


At least one player from each team MUST have a twitter account and must subscribe to Capitol Improv’s Twitter feed to receive game updates! Subscribe here: https://twitter.com/CapitolImprov These are important – they will tell you the game boundaries and the meeting location where we’ll be announcing the winners.

This is SF0′s explination of their game: http://current.com/groups/on-current-tv/76377802_cruel-2-b-kind.htm

Teams:
Players will form teams of 1-4 players each. All individual players will have one piece of “booty” to collect which will be described soon.
As a team:
* One member of your team must post your team name with the twitter hashtag (#C2BKDC) to check in when you arrive within the game boundaries. The message should read [teamname] checking in #C2BKDC
* You are not permitted to split up or work independently and must stay together at all times.
* When you attack a target, you must all deploy the same “weapon.”
* Your group is scored as a team. The teams with the highest point totals at the end of the game receive Top Assassin awards.
* If your team is eliminated, you become part of the group that eliminated you and fight for them.

Booty:
Each player must come to the game with a piece of “booty” It doesn’t need to be expensive – just representative of yourself, portable and concealable. Also remember you won’t get your booty back so make sure it’s something that you don’t mind giving away.

Examples of good booty are an origami piece, a toy, an original poem, a metro card with a few cents left, etc…
Bad booty would be things like your pacemaker, a 72′ plasma television, the statue of liberty, etc.

Gameplay:
The game is an outdoor game so do not enter any buildings while playing. If caught, you can be disqualified.

Weapons:
The game’s weapons are the High-five, the compliment, and the confession of love. You can deploy any of these weapons against someone you suspect is playing the game at any time. Remember:

A compliment is better than a high-five,
confession of love is better than a compliment,
and a high-five shuts down a confession of love.

-or-

High-five < Compliment < Confession of love < High-five

Targets:
At any time you can attempt to kill someone else playing the game… however, you will have no idea who else is playing and will be given no hints. The end result is (hopefully) that there are many innocent civilians caught in a flowery crossfire making them feel DC is a wonderful place with very nice people!

Attacking and Elimination:
In order to successfully attack, a team must determine and use a single weapon against a rival team. If multiple weapons are used the attack doesn’t count.

If you clearly deploy the weapon first and the people you attack are playing, they will hand over their booty and join your team.

If both teams deploy a weapon at the same time the strongest weapon deployed wins. If the same weapon is deployed, you have 30 seconds to get away from that team before they can attack you again. Watch out though – any other team can still attack you!

When eliminated, the losing team posts their team name, eliminated by, the opposing team name and the hashtag so we can keep track of the game progress. They also hand over their booty to the winning team and continue the game as a member of the team they lost to.

The game will conclude when the final groups collide and we have one team that is victorious! A SMS will be sent with the final meeting place for a game recap and winner announcements!

Important Links:
FB event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118128148237383
CI’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/capitolimprov

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