Free Hugs Debrief - Boulder Colorado Edition

SFShenanigans and Free Hugs History: In the fall of 2006 while living in Colorado, Agent TheBeast came across this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4) of the "Free Hugs" campaign lead by Juan Mann. The simple beauty of hugging strangers, just because you can, was an infectious and intriguing idea.

Agent TheBeast wanted someone to organize an event like this in his area, but the realization came that he himself could/should be that "someone". So he sent out some emails asking friends to embark upon this social experiment with him. This rag-tag group of huggers targeted the "Fall Festival" being held on Boulder's popular Pearl Street Mall.

The event was a smashing success, with up to 15 people giving out hugs, and hundreds of people receiving hugs. There was even a gaggle of 5th grade girls who put on some impromptu-marker'ed Free Hugs t-shirts to dole out the hugs.

When Agent TheBeast joined the SFShenanigans (after having moved to San Francisco) in the Spring of 2007, he convinced the SFShenanigans that while "Free Hugs" may not be a 'shenanigan' per se, it is a very good-natured, break-social-norms-in-public type of event. The SFShenanigans agreed, and since then the SFShenanigans blog has become the new face for a San Francisco based group of huggers.

Most Recent Incarnation: Unlike the last Free Hugs event (http://sfshenanigans.blogspot.com/2007/06/free-hugs-debrief.html) that took place in San Francisco, Agent TheBeast brought the Free Hugs campaign back to Boulder's Farmer's Market while on a short weekend trip back to that city.


Via an extended network of friends, Agent TheBeast was able to round up several fantastic huggers: Agent Del, Agent Bobalicious, Agent Michelle, Agent Robin, and Agent Katherine. We also had a couple of "ringers" in our midst, as Agent UncleDave brought along three of the most well received huggers: Agent Kaylee, Agent Shanley, and Agent Evie.

Whilst standing as a loose group of huggers, the young lady in charge of the Farmer's Market came by to speak to the group. Some feared for the worst, but not to worry! "I love you guys. I really want you guys to stay here all day, just please make sure to leave a path so people can get by." How's that for an "official sanction"?


Agent Del really upped the ante as far as competitive hugging is concerned. First, he shows up with an eminently huggable orange fuzzy coat. Then, he slashes his prices, adding "10% Off" to his sign. That's a great deal at twice the price! Luckily, there was such a high demand for hugs that day that none of the other huggers went under-employed!

Yes, many hugs were had that day. (Even doggie-hugs!) At the end of the day all the huggers left tired but smiling.

Wrap-Up: One of the best things about the Free Hugs campaign is how catchy it is. Agent UncleDave reports that his three Agents are feeling empowered and still enthusiastic, asking "When can we do it again?"

The answer: Anytime, girls. Anytime.

Free Hugs - Boulder Colorado Edition - October 20

It turns out that the next (non-)Shenanigan is going to be held in Boulder, CO!

Agent TheBeast is traveling back to Boulder for a social weekend, and seeing as that's where he executed his first "Free Hugs" event, he thought it would be appropriate to revive the tradition there!

Along with some remote SFShenanigans fans, the group will be "setting up shop" from 11AM to 2PM at the Boulder Farmer's Market located at "the 1700 block of 13th Street".

If you know any Boulderites (or Denverites) who would enjoy handing out hugs, let 'em know we're comin'!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artistmelissa

Christmas In August Debrief

Concept: Incite "spontaneous" singing amongst audience members.

Plan: Have a couple of the SFShenanigans team members start singing fairly well-known Christmas carols on the BART. Have a couple other SFShenanigans team members on the same train as "plants" to seemingly spontaneously start singing along.

Challenges: Running afoul of the law, and actually getting people to sing along.



Execution: Agent Wyrd and Agent Crook wore Santa hats and were obviously in the 'Holiday Spirit'. Agent Monster, Agent Hook, Agent Awesome, and Agent TheBeast all tried to maintain an air of indifference when boarding the same train car as Agent Wyrd and Agent Crook. The "plant" agents spaced themselves throughout the car to spread the joy. When Agent Wyrd and Agent Crook started singing, the other agents started singing along, in seemingly distracted or sheepish fashion. After one or two stops, the whole team left the car to start all over again on another train.

Mission Report from Agent TheBeast
Knowing that the BART police were probably looking for a mass of would-be carolers made the approach to the event an experience unto itself. For the first time ever, I felt like a fugitive. I scoped out the BART station entrance before walking in, I specifically skirted a couple of uniformed officers, and I was very conscious to avoid eye contact with the officers. However, all the build-up about police interference before the event turned out to be a non-issue, and we didn't once get spoken to by any official.

As the Agents assembled, we also had a member of the press join us. The SFWeekly reporter interviewed us for a while, and tagged along as an observer for several runs of caroling. (Interesting to note: most, but not all, of the SFShenanigan facts in the article were correct.)

Once we got started, it took us a couple of runs to get our system down. One stop on the BART was too short to get any crowd momentum, so we expanded to two or three stops for a given car. At the beginning we also had a tendency of clumping up on the platform to discuss the round, but this broke the illusion for anyone who was getting off the trains at the same time as us, so we worked ourselves into a practiced nonchalance...



The audience reactions are really some of the funniest things that happen. The cutest was a little girl who was hanging over her seat to watch the jolly dressed folks, and clapped her little heart out at the end of each song. And, she wasn't the only applause we got throughout the day...

Agent Monster was able to incite the following conversation during "The Twelve Days of Christmas":

Agent Monster: Do you remember these?
Tourist Wife: No, I can't get them...
Tourist Husband: [grinning] I remembered them when I was 12!

From the "bah, humbug" contingent we got these two gems: "All I can say is it's too soon for this..." and "I don't like Christmas enough for this..."

There were several people who were just happy to see the caroling happen, greeting us with "God bless you" or an appropriate "Merry Christmas".

One man tried to sum up our oddity: "Only in San Francisco..."

Christmas In August Pre-Debrief

Well, for all the build-up, the event went off without a hitch!

This is a short post, as several of us are going out of town. Upon return Agent Reports, photos, and an expanded debrief will be posted.

We had 6 fantastic agents show up! Thank you to Agent Wyrd for organizing, and to the following Agents for coming out to sing: Agent Hook, Agent Crook, Agent Monster, Agent Awesome, and Agent TheBeast.

More info and Mission Reports will be posted sometime next week!

Aug 26 - Christmas In August - Running Afoul of the Law

Whoa!

Agent Shannou had her peepers peeled, and found a mention of our next event on BoingBoing... They reference the write up that Scott Beale of Laughing Squid did on our next event. Specifically, there's a comment that surprises me:

I noticed that on Sunday, you’re encouraging folks to go to the Powell Street BART Station to take part in a Christmas in August event this Sunday at 2:30pm. Sounds fun!
There’s one problem though and that is you could face an embarrasing run-in with the BART Police. The reason is that you don’t have a Free Speech Permit, which my department issues. The good news is you can easily get one, and they’re free. The bad news is it’s too late to get one by August 26 because you need to submit your application no less than 7 days in advance. Here’s how you get an application: www.bart.gov/freespeech/.

D'oh!

Well, we'll see what happens... As of right now, the event is still on!

Agent TheBeast

(Image found on Google, and borrowed from: http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/tour.html)

Aug 26 - Christmas In August

Agent Wyrd has kindly accepted the challenge of hosting the next Shenanigan, and she's come up with a good one!

Well, we've done Halloween in July, and now it's time for Christmas in August. And what is more Christmas-y than carols? Singing carols makes the singer happy, and more importantly it makes the listener smile.

The plan is simple: We sing carols carols, in August, aboard BART trains. I'll provide the song sheet, you provide your voice, we all have fun.

When and where shall we meet?
Sunday, August 26
2:30pm
Powell BART Station, West end of the platform.

I'll be wearing a Santa hat for easy spotting!

Agent Wyrd

Treat Or Trick Debrief

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July 21 - Treat Or Trick!

(a.k.a. Reverse Trick-or-Treat)

Woo Hoo! The SFShenanigans crew is up to it yet again!

We are going to be dressing up in our best "classic" Halloween costumes, carryin' around and givin' out candy to riders on the BART trains.

You are invited to come Treat-or-Tricking with us at 6PM on Saturday July 21st!

We will be meeting on the BART platform at Civic Center station, on the end closest to the Embarcadero. Bring you, your friends, your costumes, and candy to give out to all the good little (or big) girls and boys on the BART trains!

We'll Treat-or-Trick until our candy supplies give out. After that, knowing us, we're gonna end up at a bar.

(PS. If you happen to find the mother-lode of cheap candy in the city, send us an email: MasterNaught@gmail.com)

Free Hugs Debrief

Another Fantastic Day with Folks from SFShenanigans!
The event started around 1PM with Agent TheBeast, Agent O.Range, Agent Luna, and Agent Me.Ow doling out the hugs on on the Powell Street side of Union Square. After getting "warmed up" for the first half hour, the group migrated down to the Union Square corner at Powell and Geary, right in front of the Heart installed there. (Apropos, huh?)

Agent Luna was a machine! She was the most insistent hugger out there, giving hugs everywhere she could, traffic be damned! It was a frequent occurrence to see Agent Luna half-way into a car hugging passengers through open windows. She even climbed into one of the trolley-looking tour busses to hug as many tourists as possible, all the while being encouraged by the tour driver on his PA system.

Agent Me.Ow was not to be outdone though, as she scaled the side of a fire engine to give the same half-in-half-out hugging treatment which Agent Luna is fond of, except Agent Me.Ow was doing this a full 10 feet off the ground!

As a 'guerrilla hugging group', you never know what kind of reception you're going to get from 'The Man'. Several of our Agents tensed up as Agent Luna went to give a window-hug to one of San Francisco's finest, and was told to "Wait There." The Police Sergeant turned the corner, drove up the block, and parked his cruiser. We kept on hugging the people that came in front of us, though we all kept a wary eye on the dark figure of the peace officer that was approaching...

It turns out that Sergeant K just wanted to give each and every one of us a hug as well. He stuck around for a while chit-chatting about SFShenanigans, brides, and Santas, and how he enjoys doing his part to support those types of events. At one point, while Sarge K was holding one of the Free Hugs signs, a little girl shyly approached him, wrapped her arms around his lower thigh, and gave him what is arguably the cutest hug of the day! (Please bear with us while we deal with the technical difficulties of finding and publishing that photo. We *really* want to get that up here.!)

Throughout the day, we had a raft of huggers filter in and out amongst our ranks. In addition to the initial four we had these other huggers 'represent': Agent Matt, Agent Katty, Agent Shannou, Agent Jeremy, Agent SecretV, and Agent Ms. P. We even newly minted an agent: Agent Becky, who was visiting town for the weekend, but might just be moving to San Francisco from the Midwest due in part to her fantastic Free Hugs experiences!

It was a great, fun, happy, and surprisingly emotional day. (Little known fact: giving out hundreds of hugs is an emotional exercise as well!) At the end of the day, Agent TheBeast was heard to be whining about "spraining his huggers". What better way to know that the Free Hugs crew did their jobs?

Learnings
For anyone else interested in giving out Free Hugs, here are a couple of the things we learned throughout the day.

1. Eye contact works! People don't realize they want a hug until they see the good-will in your eyes.
2. Have an arm subtly put out. People don't want to hamper your ability to hold your Free Hugs sign, but a free arm lets them know you are open for the hugging!
3. A mixed gender group is important. Only having one single gender represented somehow changes the groups' approachability as a whole.

UPDATE (2008-02-28): The photos of the police officer have been FOUND! Check them out!

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Success!!

Wow! The "Make Our Own Celebrity" event was a HUGE SUCCESS!! That was a great day, and I think everyone went home with a smile on their faces!

For you, dear reader, we implore you to be patient while we compile mission reports and photographs... We hope to have some of them posted within the next couple of days.

In the meantime, have you planned your "Free Hugs" memorabilia for next week? (I think I am going to be making a t-shirt or three from what I learned in this MAKE Magazine article.)

[Update] June 16 - Make Our Own Celebrity

Hello Shenanigan-erz!

Ms. Pia Haraldsen (a.k.a. Agent Shannou) has been hard at work hand-picking the appropriately chichi retail stores for us to visit. She's even thrown together a FANTASTIC map showing our route.

(Tangential to this, I also realized we could call this mission "Fake Our Own Celebrity"... I dunno why, but the rhymey pun amuses me...)

Lookin' forward to seeing all of you there!

June 16 - Make Our Own Celebrity

Hello Shenanigan-erz!

We would like to invite you to our next Shenanigan on June 16th, at approximately 1PM.

We are going to be playing "Make Our Own Celebrity". Here's how it is set up: Agent Shannou (pictured at left) is playing the part of a little known (in the U.S.) celebrity from Europe (more on that below). Agent TheBeast (pictured below) is playing the part of her security guy.

Starting at 1PM, Agent Shannou's character will be seen leaving the Westfield Mall and making her way to Sephora on Powell. YOU, a part of Team SFShenanigans will "happen upon" Agent Shannou, and want pictures and/or autographs. However, her security officer is a little tense, and will be restricting access to the beloved celebrity. You may stick around,
whispering "is it really her?", or "she seems shorter in real life", or whatever other star-struck statements you may come up with...

After a little bit, Ms. Celebrity will tire of that shopping locale and head to the next one near Union Square... And the next one... And the next one... (Think Disney Store, Jewelry Stores, Victoria's Secret, etc...) Eventually (after a 1/2 hour or so), we will end up at The Gold Dust on Powell, everyone will break character, and we can have a drink and reminisce, and possibly plot our next outing.

What you need: Yourself, a camera, your creativity.

What we will supply: More info and a back-story (below), the beginnings of our route (above), the object of your affection, and a security guard.

(If you would like to become a part of the planning, look us up in Google Groups under "sfshenanigans"...)

****

Here is the back story we've worked out:
Who is she? -
Pia Haraldsen, adopted daughter of the nephew of Queen Sonja of Norway (which could explain the security). Who dated Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg (as noted here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume%2C_Hereditary_Grand_Duke_of_Luxembourg)

Why would American's know her? - She was seen hanging out with Bono and/or The Edge (of U2) in France, and Entertainment Tonight said that you had recently met at a charity
event (though they implied something "naughty" might be going on...)

If you have any questions, email MasterNaught@gmail.com

[Non-Shenanigan] Free Hugs on June 23

OK... This isn't specifically a Shenanigan, but several of the SFShenanigan team members are gonna be throwing a Free Hugs event on June 23 at Union Square. Some of us have had great and positive experiences doing this in the past...

(We even had a gaggle of 8th Grade girls jump in to give hugs... (They come in "gaggles", right?))

We will be meeting at Geary and Powell around 1PM until 4PM, or whenever our huggers give out! Bring self-styled FREE HUGS hats, shirts, posters, buttons, or whatever.

Agent O. Range Mission Report from Elevator Antics

0800 . 051607. sunset - Report by Agent O. Range

The Elevator Shenanigan last Saturday was a good ice breaker for the
up and coming "S.F.Shenanigans".

I was in charge of camera. My fangled shopping bag/undercover camera
worked well but needs a few adjustments and some practice with the
aiming.

I stationed myself and my bag on Floor 4 of the Union Square Macy's
next to a $225 blouse. This made me a bit nervous with my half hour
of loitering and the threat of security cameras.

I was able to snap a few of Agent TheBeast and one okay shot of Agent Shannou and Agent Babes.com.

The trick was to push both the 'up' and the 'down' button for the
elevator and then as the elevator arrived, I acted as if I needed the opposite direction. And not smiling at the other agents was
tricky. :)

The shenanigan was exciting and I managed not to pee my britches in
excitement.

- Agent O.Range

Agent Report from Agent TheBeast

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Welcome to SFShenanigans!

Hello!

Welcome to the public face of the SFShenanigans. We are a new Improv Everywhere inspired group located in San Francisco!

We had a (dis-) organizational meeting recently, and we are in the process of planning our first official mission.

If you would like to throw your hat into the ring with the rest of us crazies, join our discussion group at http://groups.google.com/group/sfshenanigans.