Colin Mochrie, left, and Brad Sherwood accessorized in mousetraps.
By TOM CHESEK
There’s Standing, Sitting, Bending. Scenes from a Hat, always a favorite. There’s Helping Hands although you’ll need at least three participants for that one and, of course, the climactic Hoedown.
A bunch of back-of-the-book maneuvers from the Kama Sutra? Actually, they’re some of the more popular and enduring “games” from the improv-comedy TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, a franchise that spawned long-running editions in both the UK and the States at one point visible daily on networks ranging from ABC to BBC America and Comedy Central.
While you’re never too far from a rerun on ABC Family at any given time, these days the Whose Line legacy is being carried on largely through the efforts of two men, each of whom has played a major part in the history of the show and each of whom apparently has nothing better to do than, among other things, walk around barefoot and blindfolded on a stage full of mousetraps while performing the always compelling Alphabet Game.
Described as a “full time, part time gig” starring a couple of “gypsies and vagabonds,” An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood returns to Count Basie Theatre Friday night for a fifth visit to the Monmouth Street auditorium. In fact, only Milwaukee has hosted the touring show as many times as Red Bank and while the stars are at a loss to explain the phenomenon, there’s no denying that the low-budget, high-yield laff-fest has become an annual attraction for Hip City habitues; often selling out the house all the way back to the balcony nosebleed seats.
Checking in with redbankgreen by phone, Mochrie and Sherwood took a few moments to detail the things that make their interactive improvs click with audiences, acknowledging the challenges of working “without a net,” or, in this case, a network.
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