The Women Of Ill Repute with your hosts Wendy Mesley and Maureen Holloway.
I always thought I was an introvert and I would tell people that I was and they'd go how can you be an introvert you know you're a broadcaster, but they associate most people associate introversion with being shy or socially awkward, which I was as a kid, I'm not anymore but but I'm not an extrovert. John will tell you this because I find social situations more draining than not and so what I just discovered is I'm an ambivert
An ambivert, I don't even know what an ambivert what is an ambivert?
It's what I think we are it's an extroverted introvert. I need a lot of alone time, but I do enjoy other people, but only under certain cercum- I'm selectively social. So that's what that is.
Well, there's nothing wrong with being an introvert and an extrovert and well, well maybe,
All the verts are fine.
All the verts, yeah, except maybe pervert. But then, you know, who are we to judge?
Who are we to judge? Our guest this week might be able to shed some light on how we draw energy or inject energy into situations. Colin Mochrie is one of the greatest improvisers to never pick up a script. I know him from 'Whose Line Is It Anyway', both UK and American versions of the hit improv show go on. What else is he done?
Well, he has a very long history. I don't know how far back we want to go, but he was at Second City, which is I don't know if it means a lot to me. But he was there a couple of years after I left Toronto, but you've probably seen him in countless commercials, television shows. He's constantly working. He is without a doubt one of the busiest performers in this country. He's currently on tour with Brad Sherwood, another improv genius in the show called 'Scared Scriptless'. Get it?
Yeah i get it. That one actually did not go over my head. Oh, we're so glad to welcome Colin it to the show. What kind of vert are you Colin?
Pervert. No.
It is so odd that this is the second time in like three days I've heard the term ambivert.
Really?
Yes, was talking about it with some friends. So I think that's what I am. I don't really enjoy being with people. My wife Deb is more of the extrovert I tend to be she actually calls the guy on 'Whose line' the other, because it's nothing like me in real life.
Yeah, I used to have a work husband and then the real husband and then I kind of occasionally got them confused. But so so she's the extrovert, so at home like you're both like improv geniuses. So like, do you both go off in quiet corners? Or do you like is it a laugh-a-thon at home or?
We go we have a lot of laughs we really do enjoy each other. But we also when, you know, the dark times happened recently, we were it was the longest I've been home in 20 years. So there were some concerns about how that would work out and Deb said okay, here's the thing, we got to you know, the house is big enough that we can each go to a corner and do what we have to do. And that worked out for us we would when we got together. It was great,but we also gave each other space to be alone and do what we had to do.
I think space, the space that you had during the pandemic was crucial and I felt for people who are at a small my son and his fiancee at the time were in a small apartment with nowhere to go. Except here they were in our, remember the bubbles, remember, we had bubbles. My husband will tell you that I had a good pandemic because I didn't have to go anywhere. Didn't have to have an excuse and I kind of enjoyed it. I mean, not the scary part. Not the you know is everyone die part but the the lack of pressure, but as a funny person as a person who is funny. Do people expect you to be different? Like you said, like Deb says the guy on stage and and Colin are not necessarily the same people.
Yeah, there's there is an expectation. When we first move on to the street, people thought I was just, I guess a dick. Because I was you know, I wouldn't ignore people, I'd say hello and stuff, but I would never engage in conversation because and so Deb had to explain, no, he's lovely. He's just, he's very shy, he doesn't feel comfortable talking to people and now everyone sort of accepts it. And also, I mean, throughout the years, because of the six months of 'Whose Line' and the touring, I've had to find a way to become more fake and talk to people and enjoy it and I actually I do enjoy it more than I ever have. And I think it really can't be a muscle that you can exercise and sort of get past the initial awkwardness of it.
I watched you for so many years. I mean, it was such a family thing to watch you on 'Whose Line Was It Anyway', it was just to me, it's just the most brilliant show that's ever existed and I haven't seen your new ones yet. I'm gonna, but you tweeted something about how it was so great to be with Ryan Stiles who's been your buddy since probably longer than your wife. And and how great it was to do that show, but also that you never got residuals, which is like a huge issue now with a strike happening in Hollywood and blah, blah, blah. So you're not doing it anymore, but I like, can you actually, like how big a deal? You said you didn't want to sound bitter, but it is kind of bitter. I mean, you, why didn't you get the residuals?
Are you bitter Colin?
I am. I have a bitter compartment. Absolutely. I mean, it's very difficult for me, it really is an odd thing. Because any success I've ever had is all due to Who's Line. I mean, it gave us all careers, put us out into the national spotlight. And from that we got to do other things. But also there was that thing of, yes, someone's making money from this. And it's not the performers. And we are providing all the content. I mean, we're not writers in the sense of, you know, we're sitting down typing out things, but we are writing as we go along. But there was never any category for that in which we could get paid. So it was always a little disconcerting when you see oh, 'Whose Line' sold to this streaming service or sold overseas and blah, blah, blah. And you go, okay, we're, we're not getting a part of that. So I try not to be bitter, because it doesn't really help and it's not going to go anywhere. So in my mind, you know, I do kill certain people every day, talk about it and it actually makes me feel better.
I didn't even realize but of course, improv does not fall in, into any category. And yeah, you want what you're writing it as you go along, but that's that doesn't fall into the the union.
Yeah. And I don't know if that'll ever, ever happen. I mean, my first 'Whose Line', my daughter was two months old. She just turned 33. So it's been going on for a while, you would have figured it by this point, that would have found out some way to sort of give us money. But again, I can't complain because it's given me a career. You know, I'm touring all the time I'm I've gotten a lot of work because of 'Whose Line' so there.
So there, let's let's go back to partnership. So yes, you've been in joined at the hip with Ryan for so long with Ryan Stiles. And now you're with Brad Sherwood who was it sounds like you're dating, now you're with Brad. It's funny because Wendy and I this is the first time I've always worked with people, usually Man On Radio, Wendy's never had a partner before. Does it help if you're more similar or does it help if you're very different?
I don't think there's a difference. I'm trying to think I mean, Ryan and I are very similar in many ways and that worked out. Brad and I are a little more differen he's very verbal. he's very smart. Not that Ryan isn't smart, but I guess he isn't. He's a pervert too. But Brad is very, very quick, verbally, he brings a whole different skill set to our show.W ith Ryan and I, there's a guess, because it's almost like a twin situation where I pretty much know all the time where he's going to go in a scene. And even if I don't I know enough just to follow along and see what happens. So I think you can work either way. And with both of them pretty much from the first time we worked together it it worked. There was there's been only one time, Patrick McKenna from the Red Green show and many other wonderful shows, he and I were at Second City together and he's one of my best friends. And we just could not work together for the first couple of months. For onstage, we realized it was because we were being too polite. We were each kind of sitting back and letting the other person take and then once we realized, no, we have to be selfish and attack the scene. That's when we really start to click and started having more of a give and take and but sometimes it takes a little while to find that chemistry.
That's interesting that you were being polite. So you're, shut up, Wendy.
Oh, you've got it down. Okay, perfect.
Yeah, no, it is very strange having to work with a partner, especially a partner with a brain like this person over there, also named Maureen. But I'm I'm curious because we ran into you recently, at the celebration of life or whatever you want to call it for Gordon Pinsent. And you were there and you you said that you're doing this new thing was actually wasn't that knew at that point called Hiprov. So it's you said, yeah, I'm doing like improv with hypnosis. And I'm like, oh, yeah. okay. So like, I tried hypnosis. I wanted to try and quit smoking and everyone's like, oh, that's terrible. And I knew because it was my third time trying and it wasn't for me. So hypnosis to me is not serious, but then the more I read about you and Hiprov, it all kind of makes sense. And that sounds like some people really can benefit from or at least get future goals out of being hypnosis. Is that the right word?
Yeah. Tell me more. I don't I don't know as much about this as what is so what is it?
Here's what happens. I'm with a hypnotist, Asad Mecci. He gets 20 volunteers gets it down to the best four or five and then then I do an improv set. Yeah, that's basically it. I do remember the great ravine. Yeah, I guess so, I mean, it's very odd because of you know, a lot of people are skeptical not only of hypnotism, but improv too. So we put these two skeptical art forms together so people can just stay in one spot and be skeptical. But I learned I've learned throughout doing a show, I had a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis. When we have the final four, it looks like they're sleeping. But they're aware the entire time, I'll do a scene with someone and they'll reference a scene that happened three scenes before that they weren't in and it looked like they were sleeping for hypnotic shows like this, about 20% of the population can be hypnotized. The percentage is higher for clinical hypnosis, like quitting smoking or getting over flying. It's really been interesting that doing it working with people who I do not know, in a hypnotic state and they're just reacting to everything Assad, and I say, and it's been great. We're trying to show that everyone basically can improvise. Which as I think about it is a bad career choice for me, just to show how-
So do you not look like when he's hypnotizing people? Do you make sure that you're not-
To Wendy's point, have you been hypnotized?
Yes, he hypnotized me.
And?
And, and it was, it was good. Here's the thing. I constantly think I should write more and I hate writing. I'm lazy, that's why I improvise. I said, so I want you to hypnotize me to make me write something, or to find it within me to find a discipline to do that so he did and I ended up writing something. So for me, it worked. Of course, now I'm not going to write ever again. To go in again, but, but for that moment, it did help and one night we had, every night we find a superstar, an improv superstar. And there was one night this young woman was amazing and afterwards, I was talking to her about her experience. And she said, you know, I have crippling social anxiety. I still don't know why I went up there. But that was the best hour of my life. I've never felt so in control, I felt confident and then she was going to start looking for improv classes and an improv group. So it kind of shows what happens when you get rid of that part of the brain that tells you you can't do this. You're going to so you're not going to be funny.
So is that what it is? Because I remember when I had my wisdom teeth pulled out and they gave me laughing gas. It was I was I was like, so hilarious. You cannot believe how hilarious I was.
You were you were funny. Or you found everything funny because they're different. Oh, you were funny.
No, I was just yeah, I was very funny, stoned out of my mind was the laughing gas, but it was the it was the best time I ever had it.
Did other people find you funny?
Well, who knows? But I was just like killing myself. But But what it is that is there something about sort of letting go because I mean, a lot of people take drugs or do whatever to like to relax to let their brain to say yes and I suppose which is kind of like improv. What what is it?
There's a there's a doctor in San Francisco, Dr. Charles Lim, who was doing a study on what happens to the brain when you improvise. So Assad and I, we were doing a show in San Francisco, he contacted me and said, would you be willing to be a subject? So I improvised an MRI for an hour and a half, which is as horrible as it sounds. I did find out I'm not clustered so that was a positive. What he found out was what happens when you improvise the part of the brain that deals with self criticism, activity lowers and the creative part of your brain gets more involved. And the same thing happens when you are hypnotized. The self critical part of your brain activity goes away and you just become more creative. And people always say how can you improvise? It's the hardest thing in the world and it it isn't it just goes against every thing we do as humans, you have to listen, you have to accept ideas and you try to make your partner look good and that's it. Those are basically the three rules. So it's been fascinating going through this going through himhyprove and seeing how people once they're free, I mean, and let me get this, they they do become great improvisers and that they just react immediately. They don't work towards the end of the scene. That's why I'm there. Because they'll just throw things at me constantly, it's like, okay, I, okay, we have to make sense of this now. But it's actually I think, helped me as an improviser, because it's really helped me hone my listening skills more. And I've always been a really good listener, I've always loved part of my introvert self, I think is just I really do enjoy listening to people more than getting involved with them. There's nothing better than going to a pub or something.
That's what Maureen always says to me. Just, just listen it's yes and just agree with everything and I'm like, yeah, but.
You don't have to agree with everything, but you do have to listen. What as interviewers, one of our worst faults, and I just don't mean Wendy and me. I mean, just anybody who does this, is that you're always thinking of the next question. You're not necessarily listening to the answer of the question that you just posed. You think, okay, when they stop talking, I have to have something to say. And that's, that's the end of you know, that's the worst thing you can do because you're, you're-
I thought that was just at CBC.
It's across the board, and I've now linking the improv and Second City together, and I've, I've taken some of those corporate courses that they teach at at Second City where you bring in your whole team, fantastic team building, and, and teach you some improv exercises. And it always amazes me that it's often the most timid person or, I worked at a radio station, and it was the accountant who was who killed that day. And it makes me realize that improv is something that everyone should learn to do, or learn or learn to enjoy, not just performers.
Oh, yeah. I always say take, even if you don't go into it, and I wouldn't recommend going into it as a profession. It's a great life skill to have. You learn to be more relaxed around people, if you're, if you're in a job where you have to do presentations. It's a great skill to have and with relationships, to being able to listen and work together. To get past the little obstacles we often reach in life, it really is invaluable.
The Women Of Ill Repute.
You've been married to Deb and Deb was the director at Second City, a very, you're both extremely funny people. But you're very different funny people, aren't you?
Yes, I'll expound on that.
It wasn't so much a question, but go ahead.
It's almost stereotypical gender funny. I think I tend to be more one liners, and jokey, her stuff is a lot of, although she can also be a very funny with the one liners, her strength, I think, is doing character comedy. She's very good at coming up with different characters. She's very good at coming up with a structure to a joke and a structure to a scene. She's a great writer. So I think our styles match. I mean, at home, she tends to be the funnier one. You know, I let her get a couple of laughs and then I'll come in every once in a while. But she she pretty much keeps me going.
I want to pass on just on that note. So my younger child was at camp at Centaurian. His counselor was your daughter and he said that you and Deb came in and put on a show for the campers. This is at an arts camp called Centauri that's no longer sadly. And he said you absolutely killed. I don't think he well, I should hope so.
It can really go either way. Our daughters there, so we really have to pick it up a little.
Speaking about style, I just wonder like you, you've done so many shows over so many years. And now you're doing this Hiprove thing. And it's in LA, which you know, a lot la dee da, you're in LA, but before that you were in a bunch of Canadian cities. You perform a lot of both with Brad and with the Hiprov thing in the States. And is there a difference? Because there's so we're so glad you're in Canada. So many comedians have gone to the States but is there is there a difference? I wonder like do like are people I'm assuming the people that you hypnotize are the same, but are they different? Is the humor different? Like what's what's the difference or is there none?
There really there is I mean, during the show with Brad, we have to start off the show saying we're not doing any political things. We're not gonna take any political suggestions because the audience immediately splits in half. And our show isn't a political show, I believe anyway, to do an improvised political show would be tough. I think you really have to have a strong point of view and I think you have to have it written. Our stuff is just goofy, it's sort of universal and it doesn't ruffle feathers. That's we're just there to have fun. With Hiprov, it's interesting, because we don't know what's going to come out of people. And sometimes, we, we did this scene where I get two different animals, I combine them and we do a funeral for this animal. So I think it was like a half platypus half zebra, and the mourners are there and I said to one mourner, I know that now of course, you mourn this pet, but when the pet first came to your home, you were not enthralled with it, why? It was an abomination of nature. That's something I don't want to keep going. Okay, so there are that one, there are times I feel I'm walking a little more on eggshells, because I also don't want to come out as we sometimes switch improvisers. And there was one improviser Jonathan Mangum who works with Wayne Brady and there was just this one person who just kept calling him a racist, for no reason at all and it was like, okay, but the comedy.
So are there any standard questions that you ask like, what do you I don't really get the whole process so so you, you hypnotize people, you figure out the people who are susceptible or whatever, or who are funny and then what?
Yeah, Assad is looking, as he's hypnotizing, he's looking for changes in their breathing, their face becomes a little more mask light. It has like these 15, 20 things he's looking at, sort of like when a poker player is looking for tails in the other players. And then we get it down to the best five. And then we play usually five different games. And we have right now I guess, about 20 games we can play. So ranging from one is a scene where one of them has to propose to me we have that pet funeral one we have one for this one's probably the most difficult, the most complicated. It's a 1940s film noir radio show. One person does all the sound effects, one person plays all the different characters they meet in the solving of the murder. So yeah, it's and I sing a duet with one of them, which is always scary.
I heard you can't say.
I know. That's the beauty. Because through this show, I've realized what these people are doing things that come up here, not knowing what to expect and that's kind of brave of them so why can't I do something that's even more terrifying, so and it usually it works out. The audience is quite forgiving. Yeah, we have we have a large group of games we're playing. We're still finding games, we can play with them because they can't do anything to like, we couldn't say okay, in this game, every letter that has an S, the S is going to be substituted by the letter F. Those kinds of things don't work. They have to be simple. Like you're in love with Colin, you want to marry him. That's it. It has to be a one sentence thing. Yeah.
It's a tightrope act though because in regular improv your your, as you said earlier, it's so much it's based on trusting the other players. And in this case, it's a wildcard. You don't really know what you're gonna get.
Yeah, it's I mean, it's fascinating. I find myself really invested in them. So there's times I'm going, Oh, I don't have to do anything here. They just kind of got control. I'll just sit back and then there's okay they're starting to flounder trying to come in. So it's been very good for me.
Watching you all these years and I actually saw you my same son we went to camp with your daughter we saw you in London do ;Whose Line' which was kind of a weird thing because we knew you from the American one and then anyway, and of course here we are in London, let's go see a Canadian that we know and a show over there but it was hilarious. Have you ever broken or have you ever floundered I mean, I saw you live as opposed to the show, which is edited. And we we both came both Ronan and I came away going how on earth do they keep the plates in the air and never break? That we can tell are never flounder. I mean, there's there's what my question I guess if I have one is there's a difference between doing televised improv and live improv.
There's a difference in that the televised everything is faster and shorter. You know, we do two to four minute scenes. So it's not like I'm going to take time setting up a character, it's all going to be goofy. While we have a little more leeway in the live shows. A lot of it is just blind belief that it's all going to work out and you know I've felt incredibly lucky that I'm working with all some great improvisers. So if I'm not feeling on top of it, then I kind of sit back and support them until I kind of get my bearings. So there's never, there's only been one time. Brad, Ryan and I did a show in and it was before the American 'Whose Line', it was somewhere in LA, and the entire audience for other improvisers. We died so badly and it was one of those we had, I think we each had 15 minutes, but we kept thinking, no, we're going to get them and just kept going and digging deeper and deeper in about half an hour. It was just horrible. Where you left the stage, we got into our cars, and didn't talk to each other for two weeks. Because of, so horrendous.
Oh, my God. Oh, my. So it does happen. It does happen.
It does happen, yeah.
But it's so much like what you were talking about if you'd been hypnotized, and you just didn't give a damn that the room was full of like people that you actually cared about, you probably would have been fine.
Probably would have done better yeah. And just because there does become that tension of like that. Now what do I do now? Now what do I do? Yeah, and now it's certainly after 40 or 50 years however long I've been doing this it certainly is much more relaxed and and you also get to enjoy the times when you bomb it becomes a story and you know, you bomb in a scene. You know well I've got the next one? We'll, we'll get out of it. It'll be fine.
A while even going back to Carson, Carson, Johnny Carson, who now kids are like who I can't believe, he was funniest when he actually what his jokes bombed, because he was so adept it at sharing that that ruefulness with it with the audience. So yeah, there's a lesson to be learned from that as well.
Someone that we talked to who also does improv was saying that, because I guess what you do is even braver when you're with Brad, and you take suggestions from the audience, and one of the suggestions that they got, which was the worst, according to her was the yeah, was homicide. Haha, yeah. What do you do with that?
I think with genocide, it was genocide was it was genocide because you know, you can find the humour in shooting.
There's times for some reason we were doing off Broadway Hiprov and for the song that I do, I would ask a woman in the front row, what do you do for a living? And then I'd sing a love song to her about her job. I would say seven out of 10 times I would get a teacher of special needs children.
Oh, oh.
Which is lovely for them and then I would go, You know what? You're just going to be a teacher for this particular-
Yeah, yeah, there's still some black holes that you don't want to fall in.
There are certain things you just can't make fun of and you don't want to make fun.
Do you think there are more Colin? Do you think there are more holes to fall into now? I mean, Wendy, and I talk a lot when we talk to funny people is like, is it harder now to be funny? Because we're so sensitive and or we're supposed to be so sensitive?
Yeah. I think you know, supposed to be is important, because we get a lot of audience reactions where you go, okay, what was that about? Because I didn't say anything. You've just made up some sort of thing in your mind. We were doing a scene, Brad and I were doing a scene. And it was a spiciness. okay, getting a submarine and everyone went home. I was like, okay, I know, that was horrible with that the submarine disaster that had nothing to do with the scene. You've just made it now about the scene and everyone's thinking about it. I think back to, like, people I grew up with, like, you know, Jack, Benny and Bob Hope and all these people who were funny with the limitations of they couldn't swear, they couldn't really do sexual material. So I don't think we're limited. I think any limits we come up with in comedy are the ones we set on ourselves. I mean, I would never do cancer jokes, or H jokes or things like that, but I can find things to be funny about but people will still laugh at it doesn't have to be edgy. I mean, I'm just there to be funny and I can work within those limitations. No problem.
That's so interesting. I find we got to wrap up in a minute or two. But I find it really interesting because it's just a really nice way of framing things that it's just different. You know, like there's no rules. There's always new rules, but yeah.
I just want to say you can tell cancer jokes when you've had cancer, which Wendy and I had so you know, I have I thought it was hilarious.
I'm not willing to go that far.
Well, let me tell you, hid you hear the one about no? Anyway, so what are you? What are you doing now you're, you're still doing some of the Hiprov and you're doing some of the.
We're doing Hiprov in Vegas right now. So I just got back from that Brad and I are doing some shows this month, I think. And then I go back and forth with Hiprov.
Buy tickets now, buy tickets now.
Yeah and this was the year where I was supposed to pull back I was thinking, you know, during lockdown, I thought, oh, you know what, I could actually retire. I think, not completely, but at least pull back. So I thought, yeah, that's why I talked to my agenda, and you want to pull back a little bit. So after March 2024, what happens?
Yeah, well, I'm gonna say, if you can't get Taylor Swift tickets, go and see Colin and Brad in Scared Scriptless because it'll, you'll be surprised.
We're very similar in many ways. We do a lot of jokes about ex girlfriends.
And the outfits.
And the outfits. It's been such a pleasure talking to you and see you around, because we do we do from time to time.
Yeah. Thanks so much for doing this. Colin, we, we love you. We think you're funny, even when you're not you're funny so.
Thanks for having me. Always lovely to see you two.
I guess we're the only ones that think cancers funny. You know, it's one of those things where people are because if you haven't had it, and I didn't really think we were going to make this about cancer right now. But in terms of things that you can talk about, I mean, I actually there were, I mean, the fate wearing the prosthetic bra and the way wig and I told you that story once where I was wearing a long blonde wig, with a prosthetic bra while I was going through treatment and you know and getting catcalled out, I'm thinking I should whip off this wig and lift up my shirt, because if only you knew.
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. No, I tried to tell jokes, like cancer jokes when I just recovered and was going through treatment and everything, and a cancer fundraiser. And they were like, don't be funny, don't be funny. But it's true. I mean, only people who have had cancer and sort of understand and, and make jokes about it. But you know what I found most, well, a couple things I found interesting. One was his sort of interpretation of comedy now that there were these these old stupid rules that well, I think they're stupid anyway, that you couldn't swear and you couldn't talk about sex. and now you sort of can. But you can't talk about other things, so I found that really interesting. But the most interesting thing was and you kept leaning into it, which was great was about partnership, you know about how we're about how we're all different than how we try and find a way of being either an introvert or an extrovert at at particular moments and he's an ambivert.
An ambivert. I like that word because I think it describes more people than then then it doesn't. I guess you can't do improv by yourself. I guess it's that would be like comedy masturbation.
Oh I'm so funny.
I mean, maybe you can with your audience, but you still have to interact with somebody.
Yeah, no, I'm trying to think of an example and I can't I mean, it's all team work.
I think Robin Williams did I think Robin Williams improvised a lot. He would go on tangents
Yeah, but he was also hilarious. He could just it was just a series of one liners that were prompted by an amazing brain and and a few drugs at the time.
Let us forget that, but I think the takeaway is that we can all you learn to use improvisation to our benefit. No matter what you do.
You're amazing.
Unless your dental hygenist I don't think you can improv with your patient.
But what about genocide?
Oh, I can't even. Alright, see you later. okay.
Bye.
Women Of Ill Repute was written and produced by Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley. With the help from the team at the Sound Off Media Company and producer Jet Belgraver.
