Call him the Mr. Rogers of improv comedy.

That’s how Colin Mochrie, best known for his long-running appearance on TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway?, thinks of himself. 

“I love that so many people come up and go, ‘I grew up watching Whose Line, and it was the only show my family would watch as a group,’” Mochrie told The Blade. “So I’m very happy to be a part of the legacy. I feel like a comedic Mr. Rogers.”

Mochrie is currently on tour with his Whose Line co-star Brad Sherwood. The pair bring their Scared Scriptless Tour to the Valentine Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, promising a night of laughs and audience participation.

“It’s a lot of games that will be familiar to Whose Line audiences. We do sound effects, and then we’ve invented some games and adapted some games because there’s only the two of us,” Mochrie said. “It’s actually even more interactive than the TV show. Every scene starts with a suggestion from the audience.”

Mochrie has been working professionally as a comedian since the ‘80s, so he knows a thing or two about making people laugh and making a lasting impression. He started out at an improv theater in Vancouver, and launched his television career with the U.K. version of Whose Line is it Anyway? in the ‘90s.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky that there happened to come along a show that took advantage of the one thing I can do, which is improvise,” Mochrie said. “Before that, nobody really knew what improv was. Whose Line sort of put improv into the mainstream consciousness.”

Mochrie found domestic fame through the U.S. version of Whose Line?, hosted by Drew Carey beginning in 1998. Mochrie says he feels he found the favor of the public eye at the perfect time in his life.

“At that point I was 44, which was a good time for me to have success because you don’t take it for granted,” Mochrie said. “You don’t start treating people horribly; you just go, ‘OK, let’s see how fun this gets.’” 

Matt Lentz is the director of programming and marketing at the Valentine Theatre. He said he booked Scared Scriptless because of the popularity of its television counterpart, which he pointed out is heading into its final season.

The original run of Whose Line Is It Anyway? with Carey ended in 2007, followed by a revival hosted by Aisha Tyler beginning in 2013. 

Lentz said tickets have been selling well for Scared Scriptless. 

“We don’t do a lot of comedy at the Valentine, between Broadway and more variety things: dance or ballet, more instrumental things,” Lentz said. “But we just decided that it was time for it.” 

As they tour across the United States with Scared Scriptless,  Mochrie and Sherwood look forward to the variety of audiences they work with every show.

“What Brad and I both love about it is it’s different every night. It’s not like, you know, we’re a rock band where we have to play our greatest hits,” Mochrie said. “Every show we have a totally different show, a show that only that audience will ever see.” 

They took a short break for the holidays, and are now looking forward to coming to Toledo. The Scared Scriptless Tour wraps up in Massachusetts in October.

“Every place we go it’s lovely because the audience is made up of fans of the show who just want to have a good time, so we always have a good time doing the show,” Mochrie said. 

To stay on his toes with improvisation for every performance, Mochrie said it all comes down to taking the moment and running with it, whatever comes his way.

“You’re supposed to accept people’s ideas. You say yes to everything; you try to make them look good, and you have fun,” Mochrie said. “Whenever I teach workshops, trying to get people to say yes to someone else’s idea takes forever because people, their ego gets in the way a little bit.

“They say, ‘Well, no, my idea is better,’ and in improv, if your partner gets their idea first it doesn’t matter if you have the greatest idea in the world, you have to drop it immediately and totally support theirs.”

When Mochrie hits the stage, he said he has nothing planned. He just goes with the prompts he is provided by Sherwood and the audience.

“I never feel under any pressure. When I walk out on stage I truly have nothing in my head. I just know that the audience and Brad are going to give me plenty of material to work with,” Mochrie said. 

Mochrie and Sherwood enjoy their time spent together on the road. Mochrie relates Sherwood to a brother and credits him for the show running smoothly each night.

“We have sort of a sibling relationship where he’s always bugging me and I always insult him so it’s worked out for us,” Mochrie said, laughing. “We, I think, compliment each other very well on and off stage. He’s a very detailed guy; he’s a little OCD, so he notices things I would never notice and fixes them and makes the tour better.

“I’m basically there to make sure he doesn’t have a stroke.”

First Published January 4, 2023, 12:32 p.m.