The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
‘SCARED SCRIPTLESS’
Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood bring their two-man version of ‘Whose Line?’ to Cleveland
“I’m heading into this time of my life when I’m actually a part of people’s childhood.”
“Whose Line is it Anyway?” star and improv pro Colin Mochrie laughs that his fan demographic seems to be mostly 20-somethings who grew up watching his boisterous antics on ABC.
The American adaptation of the British improvisational comedy television show celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
Today, the 2013 revival of the show is hosted by actress and comedian Aisha Tyler, but many folks know it best as the 2000s show hosted by Cleveland native Drew Carey.
In advance of their show at Playhouse Square Oct. 7, “Scared Scriptless,” funny men Mochrie and Brad Sherwood dished in recent phone interviews on their decades of comedy and the delicate art of pleasing crowds without a script.
It turns out the two-man show wasn’t even the guys’ idea — it was their wives’ brainchild. But why not make it a four-man job like the original show?
Mochrie and Sherwood say the stripped-down version of the show leaves more room for longer sketches and more stage time for the comedians.
“Well, we had all been doing shows together in (Las) Vegas — the whole cast and (Carey). Sometimes he would book a tour where sometimes there would be, like, 10 of us on stage,” Sherwood says.
“You’d do a two-person game, and you’d sit on the stools for possibly two or three games. So everybody was in maybe three or four things in a two-hour show. You did a lot of sitting on the bench — kind of like a football player. We just kind of thought, ‘Hey, if we do a two-man show or at least a stripped-down show, then you get to be on stage the whole time,’” Sherwood says.
So how much like the TV show is the live two-person version?
Mochrie quips, “We like to say it’s like the live version of ‘Whose Line?’ without the tall guy and the black guy.”
The tall guy and the black guy, of course, being comedian Ryan Stiles (who also starred in “The Drew Carey Show”) and the actor, singer and comedian Wayne Brady, respectively.
Don’t expect a live version with that lineup any time soon, though.
“Ryan was a problem,” Mochrie says “in that he doesn’t fly, which makes touring a problem. He does tour with Greg Proops and Jeff Davis and Joel Murray, but they bus it. Which I can’t even imagine (laughs). Wayne is always off with Jonathan Mangum, but his schedule is just nuts — he’s doing Broadway shows. He’s had ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’ He’s always got something going. So it just worked out best for Brad and I.”
With longer sketches and new games, the guys have a ball on stage but need the audience to work just as hard as they do.
In fact, the whole show is driven by audience participation — the crowd yells out suggestions, and the guys do the rest.
There is, however, one ground rule.
“We start off the show by saying, ‘This is kind of a political-free zone. You all come here to laugh and to get away from all that stuff,” Sherwood says. “For an hour and a half or two hours, we’re not gonna sit here and sermonize or give our opinions.”
He and Mochrie noticed a shift in acceptable political commentary in their line of work a while ago.
“Gone are the days when an audience could all laugh at someone making fun of a president,” Sherwood says. “Like, Bill Clinton and the whole Monica Lewinsky thing was the last scandalous event that both Democrats and Republicans could laugh at. From there on out, everybody was so polarized in either hating or supporting someone that you couldn’t make a George Bush joke without someone (gasping).”
Mochrie remembers one particular incident as a turning point.
“We first noticed it when (George W.) Bush was president,” he says. “Brad made some fairly innocuous joke about Bush, and immediately our audience divided in half. We decided, you know, we’re not there doing sharp political commentary. That stuff you have to write and hone to make your point.”
Sherwood believes political jokes make the audience tense.
“Everyone has a kneejerk reaction,” he says. “(They’re like), ‘You’re either on my team or you’re against me, and if you’re against me I hate you.’ So, we don’t need to bubble that up.”
Their audiences seem receptive to the idea of sticking to the “silly-only” rule for a couple of hours.
“Our show is just goofy fun, so we just wanted to concentrate on that,” Mochrie says. “It seems that the audiences are really into that. Whenever we say we don’t want any political references, they always applaud. I think just for two hours, people just want to get away from all that and just not have to think about anything and that’s what we’re there for; to stop the thinking.”
The feel-good vibes seem to be working — and maybe it’s even healing.
“I think humor is therapy. It’s medicinal psychologically and physically,” Sherwood says. “A lot of people that we’ve talked to say they were really sick and recovering and going through a tough time and they used to watch ‘Whose Line?’ reruns, and it really helped. When we come to do our show, we want everybody to laugh.”