Man Intentionally Stops The Escalator And Thought It Would Be So Funny, But See How People Reacted

This guy performs his plan of having prank in a public escalator.  His goal is to stop the escalator by doing his tiny little technique that automatically make the escalator stop very suddenly.  Shocked, the passengers then wouldn't know what exactly happened and would just walk their way down.  I wonder if he has done it to the upward escalator, would people react the same way?