(Editor’s note: Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood were scheduled to perform at the Plaza Theatre Palm Springs on Jan. 23, but the show was postponed after Mochrie suffered a dethatched retina. Watch the Independent for updates regarding rescheduling.)
For most people, the thought of stepping onstage in front a big crowd with no script or plan is terrifying. For Colin Mochrie, doing so has made him a living improv-comedy legend.
Mochrie and Brad Sherwood became popular thanks to the long-running TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, where they joined other cast members in comedic improv games. After multiple runs of the show, both in the United Kingdom and United States, Mochrie and Sherwood have been on tour, taking with them those same improv games, mixing hilarity and audience participation into a mini-version of Whose Line.
During a recent phone interview, Mochrie said that being able to travel the globe thanks to a silly theatrical artform is “shocking.”
“I’m just constantly reminded how lucky I am that this British show came out of nowhere and showcased the one thing that could make me money, and gave me a career,” Mochrie said. “I’m very grateful that Whose Line has allowed us to tour. We’ve gone around the world doing this, so it’s been great.”
I chatted with Mochrie in May 2024, before he and Sherwood last visited the desert. During the interview, he said he felt the need to keep attempting things outside of his comfort zone, stating, “I think to get comfortable in improv can be very dangerous.” When Mochrie isn’t touring with Sherwood, he’s involved with Hyprov, where he leads improv games with a group of freshly hypnotized audience members.
“Working with people who I don’t know took me back to basics,” he said. “I can’t make any assumptions here. I truly have to listen to everything that’s going on and live in the moment and work with whatever they give me. I think it’s actually made me a better listener, and made my improv a little sharper, too. At the age where everything else is getting a little duller, the mind is getting slightly sharper.”
Mochrie is frequently on the road with Sherwood or with Hyprov, but said that at the age of 68, he’s now trying to slow down a bit.
“I am getting older, weirdly,” he joked. “Travel is becoming a thing. I’ve had a little bit of physical things with arthritis, so I’m trying to pull back. I don’t think I could ever fully retire, because I still enjoy doing both shows. I still enjoy all the people involved in the shows I do, so it’s just, for me, (a need) to take a little more care of myself and make it less grueling.”
The forced downtime during the COVID-19 pandemic caused Mochrie to rethink his busy schedule.
“I enjoy being home, and I love my wife, and she still enjoys me for whatever reason,” Mochrie joked. “During COVID—which, of course, was a horrible time—I really enjoyed it, because I was home for two years straight, just hanging out and puttering and reconnecting with my wife. That’s where I started to think about making sure there’s more of a balance. At that point, it was crazy. I was doing two tours, and I was also shooting a movie in Utah and shooting a TV show, and it was just too much. I don’t think it’s good for my work to overextend like that, so I’m trying to be more aware of that.”
Mochrie is also filling his time with various TV appearances.
“I’m a semi-regular in a show called Murdoch Mysteries, which is a big show here in Canada,” he said. “Little guest spots on TV shows come up, and there are other improv groups that I work with, just to sort of keep me on my toes. … I really don’t know from one moment to the next what’s going on, but I’m enjoying it.”
Whose Line Is It Anyway? created a series of hilarious moments across its multiple-decade run. Clips of these moments circulate on social media, attaching a “forever” quality to a spontaneous artform.
“The beauty and the curse of improv is, once it’s gone, it’s gone—except for Whose Line, because it was filmed,” Mochrie said. “There have been times where I’ll be switching channels, and I’ll see a Whose Line, and I’ll watch, and I go, ‘Oh, that was a great joke,’ and I have no recollection of it whatsoever. There have been a couple of things where I thought, ‘Oh, that was really good. That actually could have been written and could have showed up in any standups.’”
In terms of a favorite moment from the show, Mochrie said his mind is filled with “warm feelings and blurry memories,” but he did recall one special episode.
“The only scene I sort of remember full-on is the one with Richard Simmons, because people keep sending it to me, like I’m sitting in the dark watching my glory days,” Mochrie joked. “I love that scene, in that Richard was just so committed to it. I truly believe it is one of the funniest things that’s ever been on television, and it’s all due to Richard Simmons and his commitment.”
Mochrie talked about some of his favorite special guests.
“We had Robin Williams on the show, and we had Sid Caesar do a part of a show; he was one of the guys I really looked up to. To have him on the show was amazing,” he said. “There was a guy, (Brett Dier), a lovely, lovely guy, and he was great, incredibly committed, and very funny. Sometimes the show suffered a little when we had guest stars on, but he rose to the occasion and did great.”
Mochrie is the king of memorable goofy lines from the show, like “Tapioca!”; “Meow!”; “an arctic tern”; and “nice pants!”
“I didn’t realize I had so many catchphrases,” he said. “People were yelling (these phrases) at me and I go, ‘I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ It’s just weird, and it’s usually one word, like, ‘Tapioca!’ I’ve heard it enough so I know what it is, but there are others that people yell out and I go, ‘Are you sure that was me?’”
Catchphrases aside, the Whose Line crew quickly realized the impact the show was having on audiences. The large fanbase of the show helped revive Whose Line after getting cancelled in 2003. In 2013, the show began producing new episodes thanks to an online surge, and the most recent season ended in late 2024.
“When Brad and I were a good 10 years into our tour, we saw our audience was getting younger, and it’s because people were catching up with the show on YouTube,” Mochrie said. “These people who weren’t born when we were doing the show with Drew (Carey, host of the original U.S. run) were watching it and getting on board with it, and it was because of that, that they brought it back on The CW. I’m hoping, in another 10 years, the next generation will see us—and keep it going for a little while longer.”