Making a Mochrie of Needing a Script 

Colin Mochrie has been doing improv professionally for more than 40 years, the last 35 or so as a cast member of Whose Line is it Anyway?, the popular TV series that features actors performing short-form improvisation games based on formats and audience suggestions.  WLiiA started in Britain in the 1980s, moved to ABC in the ‘90s, and continues on the CW, where the current version just launched season 21. Mochrie has also been touring the country doing a live version of the show featuring extended games with a variety of partners over the years. 

The improv vet returns to town on October 12, appearing at the Marjorie Luke Theatre where he’ll perform with his most frequent partner, recurring Whose Line guest Brad Sherwood. 

“We complement each other really well,” he said. “Brad is very verbal, and in my younger days I was very physical, but now I’m getting wily and doing more sitting. But we bring different things to the show and it just sort of melds together. There’s also that trust between us that if you have no idea where they’re going to go, you just follow along because it’s probably going to work out.” 

Asking for Trouble is the new title for the current tour, but Mochrie said it’s barely different from the last one, Scared Scriptless. 

“Coming up with a new name is the most work we ever do,” he said. “We actually sit down for a good five to 10 minutes to figure it out.” 

Trouble has a couple of new games, as well as a musical tribute to the town they’re playing, with all the suggestions, as always, coming from the audience. 

“We ask about the town’s history, events that have happened there, what people love about their city, the short Wikipedia versio, and then we turn it into the Broadway musical,” Mochrie said. “But only one of us can really sing ..” (hint, it’s not Mochrie) “..so that’s always fun.” 

Old favorites drawn from the Whose Line canon are also a part of the show, including “Sound Effects,” where volunteers from the audience provide all the non-dialogue noises, and “Moving Bodies,” where the actors can’t move without assistance from their assigned volunteer. There are also variations on the TV show’s title game, which involves the cast members randomly reading aloud lines provided in advance by the audience and then reacting in real time to whatever comes up. 

In fact, up to 80% of the games involve at least one volunteer on stage. Meaning there’s a very good probability that some of them will have no idea how to perform their task or offer sensible suggestions. 

That’s perfect, Mochrie said.

“They often don’t know what they’re doing, which is a win-win for us either way,” Mochrie explained. “If they do everything we want ‘em to do, it’s great. And if they don’t, sometimes it’s even better because it gives us a lot to play with. Everything that we get from the audience is a nugget that we can explore and maybe make it a big part of the scene.” 

If the volunteers are nervous, Mochrie and Sherwood are surprisingly at ease. In fact, the actor said he’s never more relaxed than when he’s on-stage doing improv. 

“It’s a world of my own choosing. I’m with someone I trust. I know what I’m doing. It’s a very safe environment. Which is why I have the optimistic feeling that it’s all going to work out – unlike anything in real life.”

As for another season of Whose Line on The CW, it’s anybody’s guess, Mochrie said of the long-running weekly show – which films over two long weekends, two taping sessions a day, from which three to five shows are cobbled together. 

“The last couple of years they’ve been ‘Well, this is the last one,’ but then it just comes back again,” he said. “We actually filmed the current season (launched last month) for the last one, but they had extra episodes, so they managed to get a new season out of it. Now I’m trying to figure out more ways for them to do shows without me having to do any more work.”