Monday, September 16, 2013

Colin and Brad: Two Man Group

Hello, loyal and not-so-loyal readers! At one point, the CW was considering airing a truncated version of this special last week, in New Whose Line's timeslot… and then they decided to shove that off for sometime in the fall. Anyway, we found out it was actually on Netflix, and New Whose Line was a repeat last week, so why not watch it now regardless, we thought! This review contains SPOILERS, so consider yourself warned.


Bodies Moving Bodies: Somewhere in Belgium, Colin and Brad set out to find a last-minute attic chicken for Poultry Day, only to find it crawling with gross icky spiders. Big Joe moves Colin and Considerably Smaller Amy moves Brad.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that Colin managed to make the game instructions entertaining! It didn’t feel like it was slowing the show down as it normally did, so I’m honestly not sure why we don’t just make Colin the host of Whose Line. It would be a good way to make up for his lack of Executive Producer credit! Poor Amy looks so lost as Brad goes off-stage, even when her husband nudges her and goes, “Uh, I think he’s waiting on you.” The couple does do pretty well at this game, especially Joe, who makes sure to show Colin’s relief after he no longer has to crush his testicles! Though I was wondering his intentions when he tried to actually “lift” Colin into the attic! Normally I don’t like this game, but Colin and Brad managed to make it go smoothly, and we managed to get some talented movers, so I was happy to see it here!

JESSICALIZATIONS: I’ve noticed that audience members seem much more comfortable playing this game in a theater venue than in a television studio. On Whose Line and its ilk, the audience members just stood around and giggled and clearly did not pay attention to the scene or even really understand how the game was supposed to work. Here, and in the Colin and Brad and Night of Improv shows I’ve seen live, it’s very much the opposite. Could it be that being surrounded by television cameras makes people nervous? The cameras they used to film this were probably smaller and crappier and not the least bit intimidating to all but the faintest of heart. Ahem. Anyway, Joe is good at this! I appreciate that he let Amy know she was supposed to move Brad’s head, thus preventing a Ryan-esque overlong “I want to look but I can’t” gag. Thank you SO MUCH for that, Joe. If only it had been in his power to stop the “touch him here if you want him to go home with you” routine as well!


Super Audience Sound Effects DX+: Colin and Brad try not to run afoul of bears and/or alcohol withdrawal on a thrilling whitewater rafting expedition. Rather husky Packers fan Jeff provides Colin’s sound effects, whereas Brad’s sound effects are provided by AN ENTIRE ROW OF PEOPLE HOLY SHIT.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: I also normally dislike this game heartily, but it was saved by Colin and Brad’s special touches. I’ve never seen the sound effects done in the audience like that before but it made things much more enjoyable! And the one Colin brought on stage was enthusiastic, which is always a plus. The duck rifle made me laugh a lot more than it should have, since I’ve been known to accidentally do a duck voice when practicing my gunshot sounds. (…I like to practice for this game just in case, SHUT UP.) I also have to give props to the guy who did the “Ahooga” noise, since if I were given something I wasn’t sure how to effect, I’d just go for something unexpected too. Biggest laugh in this game is when Colin gives the duck CPR and they both just sort of look like they have no idea how they got to this point. If all Sound Effects games were played like this I would have no problem with them.

JESSICALIZATIONS: A duck? That’s WACKY. Continuing the “differences between live improv and Whose Line” theme, I like that Colin goes out of his way to ask for someone who actually wants to do this and thinks that he or she is competent at it. It’s as though their show is actually trying to be enjoyable for audience participants, instead of deeply humiliating! And so, in that vein, there’s the microphone-passing thing, giving a lot more people a chance to play just a smidgen of Sound Effects. It’s been a whopping eight years since the Colin and Brad show I saw, so this gimmick is new to me… and I like it! The highlight was probably the ginger kid, whose duck-fired-out-of-a-rifle sound is pretty much the best thing ever, and my affection for it is only partly ironic, I assure you. The lady who giggles awkwardly and then makes us wait too long for a plainly enunciated “urp” is also pretty great, though burping contests in general are up there with megaphones on my list of Sound Effects Tropes that Need to DIE DIE DIE. Another colossal disappointment: despite the tantalizing mention of Colin wearing tap shoes, Brad doesn’t even try to goad Colin into dancing. :(


Wine-Stained Scene: Brad confronts his neighbor, Colin, whose dog has been pooping on his lawn, in the style of a kung-fu soap opera… for some reason.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: I think it’s safe to say that any game I don’t like should just be played by Colin and Brad, since they always manage to do it a million times better. The tacky 1970s wallpaper really makes this scene, and it proves just how much the styles just sort of make everything worse. Just the two they had going from the audience was perfect and it didn’t make the scene feel bogged down! The physical feats in this game are good, but it’s also not just that, there’s plenty of comedy to carry it. Another impressive feat is how Brad somehow managed to not kick over the wine bottle, which made me doubt that it was real and just a part of the wall until proven otherwise. And we all know that every good discussion ends with wine on the wall and all over each other. And the laughter born of pain from accidentally pulling a door on top of yourself. A very refreshing Sideways Scene after all the stanchion-possessed ones on the new series.

JESSICALIZATIONS: My sole Colin and Brad show was in 2005, before they introduced Sideways Scene to the game rotation, so this is actually the first time I’ve seen their version. I actually found it kinda funny! Then again, I found the Trust Us F&TS-lite version funny the first time, too. The second time I saw the Colin and Brad version of this game, I’d surely complain about the windowsill wine thing, which I gather they use every goddamn time, and of course the “kung-fu soap opera” business is just as transparent as any of the genres used in the other version… but for this moment in time, I’m actually a little happy that I got to watch a Sideways Scene. How rad is that? The way the window surrealistically floats halfway off the wall into the inky black void is just icing on the cake.


We Are the Love Doctor (Whoa!): One word at a time, Colin and Brad answer audience questions about relationships, love, sex, romance, or none of those things.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: I think I’ve seen this game played before, and I like it! It’s a good rapid-fire improv game with audience suggestions, and it helps that the dirtiness is really coming straight from the audience themselves for once. I thought that the first guy with the mullet surprisingly had the deepest question of them all, and he seemed satisfied with the answer! Much less satisfied than Colin was at Brad getting all the good spaces during the baldness question! Also, the lesbian couple who asked the question about third parties was really cute. If you’re reading this, ladies, don’t be a stranger. Rawr.

JESSICALIZATIONS: Finally, a game where Colin and Brad are actually at the mercy of audience suggestions (at least in theory)! I really like that! Granted, there are some questions that audiences will almost always ask. I bet they get the one about coming out of the closet a lot, because gay people are ridiculous, and the “how much wood could a woodchuck chuck” thing is probably one of the go-to questions for the requisite wiseass in the audience. And I guess it’s natural that Colin and Brad would eventually settle on their favorite answers to repeat questions. Unlike other repeat material from their show, though, I don’t really blame this. You want new answers, audience people? Then ask them new questions! As for this specific playing, well, I really appreciate The Love Doctor’s explicit endorsement of threesomes (and also, the simple factual observation that Three’s Company is NOT fun).


Jeopardubbing!: Colin hosts, because he is a Canadian person. Groovy-belted Jennifer (voiced by Brad) is contestant #1, part-time martial arts instructor/full-time exotic dancer Josepus Pescatore. Brad is contestant #2, average Russian citizen Grabsac Turnankoph. Shirt-tucker Mike (voiced by Colin) is contestant #3, “alphabet interpreter” Reginald van Dussenhoff.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: It’s amazing how much the lack of ‘celebrity’ in a title can benefit a game! Plus it actually managed to make me like dubbing, provided Brad can always be one of the ones playing. I choked on my room-temperature pink lemonade as soon as I heard Brad’s ‘cigarette hag’ voice for Jennifer, and she seemed to be rather tickled by it as well. The audience members were great sports and the jokes were quick and witty. However, despite the jokes being funny, I really don’t need you to tell me what the puns are referring to, Netflix subtitles. Why do you think I wouldn’t have made all of these myself?

JESSICALIZATIONS: The rules for the Colin and Brad version of Improv Jeopardy sound really confusing on paper, but it’s actually fairly intuitive once you get started. The most confusing thing is the use of cards with pre-established categories on them, which doesn’t seem strictly necessary for any particular reason! If they’re gonna do that, they should at least take the really obvious ones out of there, like the outer space one. Is there a chance of an American audience responding with anything other than “URANUS!!!”, all in unison? Of course not! Regardless, Colin and Brad put on a tight show here, and I’d argue that it works better than the Whose Live version, largely because Colin and Brad are just plain punnier. (This also trumps the Improv-a-Ganza version, which included Colin and Brad sometimes, by allowing Alex Trebek’s extremely filthy name to go COMPLETELY UNBLEEPED.) By the way, of all the Whose Line-related men who routinely play women, Brad is probably my favorite, because nobody goes for the voice nearly as hard as he does. His decision to voice Jennifer as Clamantha on semi-successful behavioral medications is truly a sight to behold!


Non-Alphabet Interpreter: Brad interviews Kevin, a mall law enforcement officer, with Colin providing a physical interpretation “for the hearing impaired”.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: It might just be me, but I’m starting to think these games were filmed out of order. Since didn’t they do a Victoria’s Secret underwear joke in one of the games before this? Or maybe this was him trying to call back to that after he realized the mall cop wasn’t going to give him much to work with. This is probably the only weak audience participation game we have so far, since he seems unsure of what to do now that they’ve called him up there, and seeing Colin do fake sign interpretations can only go so far in way of comedy. Though Colin is correct, most of us mall cops/security guards are indeed on drugs. That makes the segways even more fun!

JESSICALIZATIONS: Really, Tails? I actually like this game! In fact, I wonder if Colin and/or Brad bothered to pitch this for Trust Us, because if there’s any game that could incorporate a celebrity life story without it feeling horribly out of place, this would be it. And I’d argue that this playing actually benefited from having a relatively boring profession, in the same way that the rather similar old version of Sound Effects was often better when the scene started out mundane before spiraling into insanity. Actually, the thing that got on my nerves was Brad’s meddling in the interview to force it to be about sexy ladies’ sexy underwear! I love panties and bras as much as the next person, but not every job can directly involve them, okay? By the way, just so we’re clear, this game about sensitively providing an interpretation for the hearing impaired appears in the same show as Sound Effects. Think about that for a second.


The Mildly Unpleasant Game: Colin begs Brad to cover his shift at a coal mine so he can spend his anniversary with his wife. Emma from the audience instructs them to continue the scene in the styles of Questions Only, If You Know What I Mean, and Letter Substitution (replacing S with K).

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: This game wasn’t necessarily bad, but I would feel sort of cheated if I were picked for it. I don’t see why they couldn’t have had just some automated creepy voice off-stage telling them to switch games – actually, scratch that, maybe this way is better. But still, I wonder if the girl wishes she could've had more to do with her one chance to be in the show. At least she got a prime seat for the game! The games themselves were well done, with Letter Substitution even managing to hold up despite its length…if you know what I mean.

JESSICALIZATIONS: Silly Brad, this isn’t actually a game you played on Whose Line! It’s a list of other games you played on Whose Line! Everyone remembers the popular and beloved Whose Line game that was called Letter Substitution on Whose Line, right? Now, I’ve heard that they usually use five game-styles for The Torture Game, if one were to actually go see them live. If that’s true, I certainly hope they’re shorter than Five-Minute Letter Substitution is here! As for If You Know What I Mean, well, it sounds really robotic the way they actually say “if you know what I mean” after every sentence, doesn’t it? On Whose Line, they would at least mix things up occasionally with phrases like “if you catch my drift” or “if you understand the double-meaning of the sentence I just said, which is about fucking, just to be clear”. (Okay, they may not have used that last one.) On the whole, this was kinda fun to see, but I don’t understand the name “The Torture Game”. Colin, who historically has struggled at some of these games, does okay for himself, and Brad seems to enjoy all three of them far more than any human being should. Maybe they mean it’s torture for Emma, who was surely hoping for a better audience participation role. This one blows!


Mousetrapsweeper: Colin confronts Brad over the theft of his mail, in the style of opera, starting on Q.

TAILSVIEWPOINTS: This game we’ve all heard of, naturally. Something I’ve noticed in larger shows with more than these two is that it’s just them trying to maneuver their way around mousetraps and have it be a game where we cringe and laugh out of reflex because they’re hurting themselves for our amusement, but here they actually have styles and a specific game in mind while they’re doing this insanity. I really enjoyed this playing of the game for that reason, because the alphabetic opera was a good way to distract from the fact that they might lose appendages if they aren’t careful. And it’s nice to see them play dirty and try to circumcise each other too.

JESSICALIZATIONS: This seems to be Colin and Brad’s most famous game, because excitable audience folk start shouting out its name as soon as Brad makes the most basic of allusions to it! And yes, it’s very funny the first time you see it, maybe even the first two times. I saw this at my Colin and Brad show in 2005, and this was very familiar. Sure, the genre thing is new, but it doesn’t matter much when Colin can barely be bothered to pay attention to the dialogue in the first place. And there’s the oddly named Chamber of Doom, which is inconsequential at best as an addition to the actual game, but it sure makes for a great visual gag, doesn’t it? It’s nice that they’ve tried to spice things up, but the fact remains that my own live Mousetraps experience eight years prior also involved Colin making a Mochrie of the rules by removing his blindfold (I think they used less pants-shittingly terrifying ones back then) and throwing traps directly at Brad, who steadfastly pretends he can’t hear the entire audience telling him that Colin did this.


PENULTIMATE TAILSVIEWPOINTS: I thought this was a hilarious special with a lot of high points, and the low points aren’t even really low enough to mention. Colin and Brad play off each other remarkably well, and both of them are improv veterans in their own right. I found myself laughing hard and often, which is exactly what I expect from Whose Line and its performers. The only real negative impact of watching this special is it made me realize just how much the new Whose Line isn’t living up to my expectations, and how much I miss basic things like audience suggestions. The special itself is wonderful, and I highly recommend you check it out or go see Colin and Brad if they come to your town.

SWEEPING JESSICALIZATIONS: Would I recommend checking out this special? Yes, certainly, it’s at least worth a rental or a Netflicking if you liked Colin and/or Brad on Whose Line - and I think we could agree that they were among the more likable individuals to appear on that show. (Bear in mind, of course, that this is a bare-bones low-budget direct-to-DVD comedy special without special features, so it’s hard to recommend actually buying the thing unless you’re fairly hardcore in your Whose Line and Whose Line-related people fandom… which I am, despite my negativity, I swear!) Would I recommend catching An Evening with Colin and Brad live? Also yes, certainly! They seem to put on a consistently tight show, and even if they have a weaker than usual night in your city, the magic of live improv still makes it feel impressive at the time. Would I recommend doing both of those things? Only if you’re willing and able to accept the truth that An Evening with Colin and Brad is a semi-improvised stage show wherein audience suggestions are deftly interwoven with a somewhat smallish variety of fallback gags that they rely on to ensure a consistently entertaining experience for the average first-time attendee, since this is after all far more expensive than catching a local improv troupe! (Now, since Whose Line is completely free to us, they have much less of an excuse for repetition…)

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