Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
For decades, they’ve made audiences laugh on the improv comedy TV series “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
This Saturday, Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood are “Scared Scriptless” at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland — what Mochrie called a “totally improvised” performance.
“Everything starts with a suggestion from the audience,” Mochrie told WTOP. “We have many games where the audience is on stage with us, providing sound effects in a ‘Whose Line’ favorite, the ‘Sound Effects’ game.”
Mochrie added, “It’s basically Brad and I doing a version of ‘Whose Line’ without the dead weight, as we like to call [Ryan] Stiles and [Wayne] Brady. I don’t think they understand what dead weight means — they’re not the brightest.”
In all seriousness, he actually adores his TV co-stars and loves giving them a hard time.
“Wayne is basically just raw talent, he can do everything, he can sing, dance, impressions, he’s funny,” Mochrie said. “I grew up with Ryan, so I’ve known Ryan for almost 50 years now and he’s never at a loss, he always knows how to make the funniest line, he’s incredibly generous as an improviser.
Mochrie said Stiles “gets as much enjoyment out of setting you up for a joke and seeing you crush it as he does getting the punchline himself.”
As for his touring co-star Sherwood, what would the label read if he bottled up his energy?
“It would just say ‘Major Irritant,’ because that’s kind of what he is,” Mochrie said. “We have sort of a sibling relationship where he’s like the younger brother who’s constantly finding ways to irritate me and bug me.”
Mochrie on his co-star’s talent: “He’s an incredible wordsmith, he loves words and plays-on-words, so he’s a great verbal comedian and that’s really his strength.
What would Sherwood label Mochrie’s bottle? Mochrie thinks, “‘Meal Ticket,’ because, let’s face it, I’m giving him a career.”
Born in Scotland in 1957, Mochrie’s family moved to Montreal and Vancouver, so he mostly grew up in Canada. In 1987, he cut his comedy teeth in Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe, originally from Chicago.
“Ryan had just left to go to L.A., we were at Second City together, and the ‘Whose Line’ producers, Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, were doing a cross-North America audition tour,” Mochrie said. “They saw our show and loved it, then auditioned us at 8 a.m., which is a horrible time for comedians to audition for anything. We auditioned as a cast and did that thing that casts do, everybody was very supportive of each other, so nobody really stood out.”
He auditioned again the following year, this time with a bunch of people he didn’t know, and stood out enough to land a spot on the original British version of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” (1988-1999) hosted by Clive Anderson, who Mochrie said is “incredibly smart” and “the epitome of what you’d think a British person would be: uptight but still very funny.”
Mochrie said, “A few years ago, it was the 30th anniversary of the British ‘Whose Line’ and we did four live shows at Royal Albert Hall, so Clive was hosting … and it was like no time had changed. Everybody was still fun. Clive is the master of a sarcastic dig and does it so well and still hasn’t lost a beat.”
It was adapted into an American series with ABCs “Whose Line is it Anyway?” (1998-2007) as host Drew Carey reminded us that “everything is made up and the points don’t matter,” then cracked up with his buzzer at the desk.
“Drew was one of the biggest fans of the show,” Mochrie said. “I cannot say enough lovely things about him. Every year, he would take the cast and crew of not only ‘Whose Line’ but ‘The Drew Carey Show’ on a trip somewhere. He was very appreciative. … He realized how integral we were to his success and, of course, he was a big part of the success of ‘Whose Line.’ He was the audience’s representative. People loved watching him cry with laughter.”
Two of the most sidesplitting episodes came from guest performers Robin Williams and Richard Simmons.
“Robin was a dream for all of us,” Mochrie said. “When he joined us, he was an Oscar winner who was doing our little show and he was so in the spirit of improv, just one of the guys.”
Mochrie on Simmons: “God bless him, just so committed to it and was there to have fun. I think that scene was one of the funniest scenes ever on television … Whenever people come up and talk about how much they enjoy ‘Whose Line,’ it’s always that scene.”
Of all of the televised improvisation games — “Scenes from a Hat,” “Props,” “Party Quirks,” “Greatest Hist,” “Infomercials,” “Irish Drinking Song,” “Hoedown” — what was his personal favorite game to play?
“Let me just say: it will never be ‘Hoedown.’ ‘Hoedown’ was the most reviled [game] in the history of that show, nobody loved it,” Mochrie said. “For me, I think ‘Greatest Hits’ was consistently my favorite.”
He went on, “First of all, I got to sit down, which was always nice, then it was Ryan and I goofing around for a while then handing it off to these amazing singer improvisers, so it was perfect in that I got to be a participant, then I also got to be a viewer.”
Most recently, the show was revived with host Aisha Tyler on The CW network, starting in 2013.
“When I heard Aisha was hosting, I thought, ‘Oh great,’ because I knew her of course from all she’s done, but I thought, ‘How are we gonna make fun of this beautiful, strong, Black woman with a great sense of humor?’ — but luckily we found a way,” Mochrie said.
Mochrie on Tyler: “She just loves to get in there and mix it up, she’s great at the insults, which spurs us on, so she’s a great addition. I love that each host has stamped it with their own original style.”
Today, the show’s future remains uncertain due to the Writers’ and Actors’ Strikes. Last fall, there were rumors that the 20th season would be its last, but it was just renewed for its 21st season in May before the strikes.
“This is a show that’s given us all a career, so it’s hard to be bitter,” Mochrie said. “I don’t think anyone feels they’ve been compensated fairly because we come up with the content. There’s nothing in contracts that deal with improv. We are the ‘writers’ of the show. … We saw the show was being sold to stations in Britain, it was sold to HBO Max, then a new streaming service … and we don’t get a piece of that, so we feel there should be some compensation.”
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
