Whose Live is it Anyway? - 5/17/13

Whose Line is it Anyway undoubtedly wins the title for my favorite show of all-time. There have been other shows that came close, but none ever required me to visit a psychiatrist because of my obsession.

I’m being absolutely serious, I was so obsessed with my love for the show that I started to incorporate it into my everyday life. It got to the point where I couldn’t differentiate it from my reality and when Mom decided it was time for me to see someone about other issues, this is a big part of what we discussed. I talked about it like it was my life’s philosophy, knowing every joke, every episode memorized, knew all the trivia tidbits about the performer’s lives. For example, did you know that a young Greg Proops did a nude scene for Equus on Broadway?

As the years went on, especially after graduation, my obsession began to wane. I’d started to lose interest; I didn’t watch the show as much. My love for it was still there, I’d never say it was a bad show, but I didn’t carry the same obsession for it that I previously did. I only got back into watching it recently when I saw my siblings had taken a heavy interest in the show, and I found myself sitting on the couch and going “Man, when did I ever give this up?”

I didn’t get a physical present for my birthday last year. By “physical present”, I mean I didn’t get something I could actually have in my hands and use right away. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t any less excited when Dad revealed that he had gotten us tickets to Whose Live is it Anyway at the Long Center here in Austin, Texas.

I’ve seen a few Whose Line shows before. I went to see Improv All-Stars in Las Vegas and I’ve seen the Colin and Brad Show here in Austin. Annie went to go see Improv-A-Ganza in Las Vegas a year or so ago, so naturally we were both excited to add this show to our experiences.

As the show came closer, I grew more and more excited for the event. It was a small lineup compared to what I’ve seen before, consisting of Greg Proops, Chip Esten, Jeff Davis, and Ryan Stiles, who I had never seen live before. (Spoiler alert: he really is that freakin’ tall. This was especially obvious when standing beside Greg.)

The day finally came, May 17^th, and our party was Mom, Dad, our friend Anne, and two of my siblings, Annie and David. We made our way to the Long Center, which I’d never been to before, and it was honestly a very nice venue. It had a very sleek design and an amazing patio area with a view of the city. Dad insisted on taking pictures there fifteen minutes prior to showtime, which sort of annoyed me since I tend to overreact about not being seated when a show starts. Thankfully it didn’t bite us in the ass.

The seats weren’t bad at all, we were in the upper mezzanine and had a very clear view of the stage, though unfortunately we were definitely too far for any chance to be included in the show, even for shouting out suggestions. Ah, well.

Bob Derkach opened the show, and he’s truly amazing at improvising all the music they do for this. Apparently he’s done all the music for Second City Toronto for the last 20-25 years! I didn’t really appreciate him much on TV, but he did a lot for the show here. He managed to think quickly for whatever the performers needed him to do, which is what Whose Line is all about, of course. Greg came out to do the opening monologue, bouncier than ever. I think I counted twelve jumps before he finally started to talk.

Greg explained what the show consisted of in case anybody had showed up without knowing what the show was (though I can’t imagine why they would, this is an interesting thing to just see out of the blue) and introduced the rest of the performers. Once Ryan appeared on stage, Annie gave an ear-piercing shriek that sort of made it hard to hear the rest of the show. Thanks, sis.

Freeze Tag

I think I’d enjoy this game more if it weren’t so overplayed. Chip and Jeff began and Greg asked for positions for them. The position called out for Chip was “doggy”. Not “doggy style”, not “all fours”, just “doggy.” RUNNING GAG COUNT: 1 – Chip playing a dog. The one given to Jeff was “meditation.” Chip proceeded to exclaim, “Oh, Jeff gets meditation and I get doggy? I see how it is!” Chip then began the game by getting on all fours and pissing on Jeff’s leg. (Also, one would think a “meditation” pose would involve the lotus position, correct? Wrong. Jeff remained standing with a hand to his chin, looking contemplative. Not what I would’ve expected.)

Not many more of the poses really stuck out, though it was a decent way to begin the show. Give people an example of what this sort of thing is like, pretty much.

Quick Change

Greg and Ryan began this game, with Jeff calling change. The setting? Ryan is a BMW salesperson trying to sell a car to Greg. Yes, the audience member was that specific. The yuppies have escaped their cages, people. Be very afraid.

Greg proceeded to enter the car lot in a very loopy fashion – literally, he pretended to zoom around the stage and making the motor noise everybody makes. Jeff called change and he then proceeded to act like he was driving an old country wagon, complete with theme music. He then used his remote clicker on his mule and entered the dealership.

Highlight of the game: Ryan complimenting Greg’s mule and him saying “Mules are like donkeys, just without the bullshit.” RUNNING GAG COUNT: 2 - that line made more appearances throughout the show.

Song Styles

Next game on the roster was for Chip and Jeff, where Ryan came out into the audience and found Amy, who worked in the math department at the University of Texas. She and her husband have been married 14 years, no kids (and I was impressed/grateful that Ryan didn’t ask why or make judgments or jokes about it) and the topic went to what her husband did for a living. His name is Tom, and he’s a taxidermist. RUNNING GAG COUNT: 3 - Tom himself. The style given was, in Ryan’s words, “sexy R&B.”

Highlight of the game: Lots of jokes about stuffing beavers. Also, props to Jeff for making a pick up line out of Hook ‘Em Horns. I had a feeling that would happen and you did not disappoint.

Moving Bodies

Now we get into the audience participation games, which are largely hit-or-miss for me. But this show actually kinda surprised me. First we had this game with Ryan and Jeff, which was…kind of boring, because the participants actually DID know what they were doing, and did it pretty well! It’s always comic fodder when one of the improvisers says “I’m going to look at you” or “I’m going to come over there” and the person moving them never gets the hint, but they got the hint every time. I even think it kinda threw them off since they weren’t sure what to do. I honestly forget what the scene was for this game, which certainly shows you how memorable it is!

Sound Effects

This went better for several reasons. This game was for Ryan and Chip, checking their equipment on a camping/hunting trip, and the woman doing the sound effects for Chip was amazing. It really stunned everybody, audience and actors included. She knew what to do, she did convincing effects (including a great gun cock/shoot and a damn good helicopter) and I was very impressed.

The girl given to Ryan? Not so much. She was one of those participators that sorta quietly squeaks out her effects while trying not to laugh, but that actually came in handy for this game since we had two sides to it, where one was really good and one wasn’t. It certainly made for better comedy than having both volunteers at the top of their game.

Highlight of the game: Ryan saying to Chip “All of your stuff is so much better than mine!” and saying that he had a “gay jetpack” since the woman made an “oooh” sound effect for some reason. Then when he tried to make the joke again, a different sound was made and he proceeded to say “It’s not gay anymore! Just when I really needed it to be gay!”

Celebrity Jeopardy

After that we had another game with all performers, where Ryan played host and pretended to be Alex Trebek, a masterful performance in which he constantly said “I’m Canadian!” If this is anybody but – ah, you all know what I’m gonna say to that.

The personas taken on by the actors were Tom the Taxidermist (Greg), Blue, a talking dog (Chip), and Keanu Reeves (Jeff, who else) I’m starting to become convinced that Jeff can only do Keanu Reeves when he plays this game. I would’ve honestly preferred he do his Jeff Goldblum. Sure, it’s another overdone impression but it’s at least a break from the norm.

Highlight of the game: Chip using a bark as his buzzer, then Ryan docking points later on because he tried to buzz in with a normal buzzing sound. And when Greg tried to have Chip stuffed.

Sentences

Ryan and Jeff did this game. Some poor guy in the audience didn’t get his sentence picked up since Jeff accidentally passed him by while collecting them. I didn’t forget you, random guy! I’m sure your sentence was fraught with hilarity. The scene was Ryan and Jeff doing a soap opera style scene in a laundry room. Jeff, the head of the household, was having an affair with Ryan, who also has Jeff’s child.

Highlight of the game: I can’t recall much of what the actual sentences were, but the parts I laughed the hardest at were Jeff continuously putting the baby in the dryer so they could talk and trying to add fabric softener, to which Ryan replies “No! He doesn’t need any Bounce! He’s hyper enough as it is!”

Greatest Hits

This was the final game before the encore. The audience suggestion caused some confusion, since the woman called out ‘solicitor’ and they took it to mean ‘door-to-door-salesman’ but she apparently meant a British solicitor, or lawyer, since apparently her brother was doing so abroad. Or at least that’s the gist of what I was able to catch from my seat. So they pretty much just combined the two.

Highlight of the game: Ryan and Greg were bringing the funny by pretending to be Gordon Lightfoot and Elvis Costello, respectively, with Ryan continuously breaking out into random singing. His gruff voice also sounded a lot like Tom Waits, so he could’ve gone with that too. Chip and Jeff actually managed to perform a great final song in the style of Bruce Springsteen and Neil Diamond; though Chip carried the song most of the way since Jeff had no idea how to sing like Neil Diamond. But it still sounded friggin’ awesome.

Storytelling

That was when the actors took their first bow and left the stage for a few brief minutes, before coming back out to play this game with none other than Tom the Taxidermist himself. The story was The Walrus and the Troll Princess. I was personally outraged that they missed the opportunity to say “goo goo g’joob.” I mean, c’mon, people!

Highlight of the game: Tom honestly didn’t do that bad. There were a lot of jokes about the Walrus stuffing the Troll Princess in every sense, but the story was otherwise mediocre by comedy standards.

After that the show ended for real and we left, since my parents never like to stay long enough for a meet-and-greet (something I really want to rectify one day). The final verdict? This was a very fun show with some good moments, but it wasn’t the funniest I’d seen. This show made me grin a lot, but the big laughs were far more sparse than what I’ve seen before. If they had managed to figure out some new games or deviated from their normal material (hint hint, Jeff) it might’ve turned out a bit better.

But it’s Whose Live, and I love these guys to death, so I still had an awesome time. I hope they come back to Austin again and I’m still eagerly anticipating the CW show. This performance didn’t quite bring back the full-on obsession – I doubt anything ever will, not that that’s a bad thing – but it reminded me of why I loved the show, and how it’s seemed to grow with me. This show is responsible for a lot of my sense of humor, my future aspirations, and is also responsible for me meeting a person who did a lot to wreck my life, and another person who saved it and who I want to spend the rest of my life with. It was a life-changing experience and one I’m glad I got to see now that I’ve matured. May the show never grow old.