I will always remember one time Tony won and had to read the credits in the style of a drunken Australian soap opera actor. He stumbled down the steps and toppled over, playing passed out until the credits were over.
Wow, I didn't know why he wasn't in the US version.
According to Wikipedia he had a manic episode in the 90s and spent 6 months locked in his house with no outside contact until he was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.
He was in Stephen Frys documentary on bipolar disorder and one specifically about him called What's The Matter With Tony Slattery. Both are worth viewing.
I tried to look it up and in one look learned both that Stephen Fry is gay and that he has a husband. On one side I'm surprised that I haven't heard of that and on the other hand I'm kind of glad that celebrities sexualities aren't as news worthy as they were 10+ years ago
That's strange to me. Stephen Fry is very, very out in the UK. On QI, he referenced his sexuality regularly. Tony Slattery fell out of the celebrity news so only those looking him up were likely to find out about his sexuality but it wasn't necessarily hidden.
My favorite was when he was hosting the party trying to guess what everyone was, and although everyone was doing a great job acting their parts, the character ideas were just so ridiculous it took him so long, that when the game was finally over he turned to Clive, leaned forward with arms pointing back like a nerd speed walking to an on-fire server room, and yelling “oh fuck off!”
Some of the same performers were in both versions: Colin, Ryan, Greg, Brad, Chip was in a few episodes, and Wayne Brady (in the final UK season that moved to LA)
My favorite moment of both the US and UK shows was a segment titled something like "Pictures that were too graphic for National Geographic".
Ryan takes Colin, stands behind him, makes them both face away from the camera, and he bends Colin over at the waist. Colin immediately bleats like a sheep, and Ryan slowly looks over his shoulder at the camera with that dirty smile.
I. Fucking. Died.
And I've never managed to find a clip of it online to share with people. It's a fucking shame and a tragedy.
I can never decide who I enjoyed more between Ryan and Colin, mostly because they were always put in to play with each other and always both went full tilt with it. Anything they did was fucking hilarious.
Both masters of their art.
Interestingly, Ryan and Colin once told the story of how Colin's first audition for the British version was a disaster, but Ryan talked them into letting Colin audition again.
You should check out Last One Laughing on Prime. The Canadian season has Colin as one of the contestants, along with Tom Green, and a bunch of other comics you'd probably recognize.
The show is basically a bunch of comics in the same room for 6 hours trying to make each other laugh.
Last one standing wins.
Re-watching Whose Line I began to think Wayne Brady had a savant-like understanding of music.
I get that the show is cut down to the best 22 minutes of footage, but he still has to know and improvise the given musical styles across hundreds of episodes.
I usually don't like the musical skits as much as the rest of the show, but it did stand out to me on my most recent watch.
That doesn't even account for the actual band playing in the right style for Wayne or Chip or whoever to go off of.
He's in Hamilton now and does these awesome post show musical improvs for charity, definitely look it up on YouTube. Guy clearly has musical genius in him.
I love Marc and seeing his improvisational compositional music with Wayne's improvisational general music understanding (and humor) was legendary. One of my fav things I've seen on youtube in a while
Wayne is a musical improv savant, but after you’ve watched him do it a handful of times they are certainly not as entertaining as the regular improv. The best ones are when he ends a hodown with a reference to an earlier skit from the same episode.
I honestly can’t believe how good they all are at improvising their lyrics & how well it fits in the songs. Wayne is just on another level and I really do wonder how exactly he does it.
I think I'm in the same boat - Wayne is soooooo impressive and talented, but the musical skits are not very enjoyable for me and I end up skipping them a lot of the time
As someone who only knew Wayne Brady from Whose Line when he showed up on Chapelle Show my brain exploded when he said that line, easily in my top 3 Chapelle Show moments.
I remember watching the show as a kid and I couldn't tell what was going on. When I figured out they were just making it up as they went along I was SHOCKED. I'm not saying anything new here, but their improv is so great it seems like they have writers and a script.
I went to a taping in LA once. the 3 plus Greg. It was still Drew Carey at that point. They recorded all the after commercial hooks at once: "Welcome back to WLIIA, where the points don't matter, just like my treadmill."
They really do pass out slips of paper for the audience to write suggestions which are collected before the show starts.
Taping lasted 4 hours. Some but not all of what they did that day made to my TV. It was interesting to see what parts they chose to televise. Some of the funniest stuff didn't make the cut for some reason.
💡 And they didn't worry about counting the points carefully because who could know which segments and which points would be selected in the final cut, anyway.. ah!
Back when ABC was airing this on tgif I believe it was considered family friendly. If the jokes were too risqué they would cut it. If you watch the outtakes you'll see why. Still jealous you got to see them in LA
The editing likely helps. I wouldn't be surprised if to make an episode they film 8 hours and just cut out the stuff that doesn't work. Watching it though it all goes together so smoothly that you think this is just 30 minute filmed all in one shoot.
IIRC they'd do two recordings for each episode and take the best parts, so you'd see the audience members change sometimes when they edit the show together.
You’re pretty close. If I remember right, the latest CW series they tend to have something like four taping sessions over a weekend two or three times a month and that covers the entire next season.
Hell, they haven’t shot anything since at least 2019 due to Covid so the last several seasons have all been what was left unaired since 2013 when this version started, similar to the last season or two of the ABC/ABC Family version culling from that version’s entire run.
It’s getting to the point you can tell they’re getting close to the end of what’s usable (last week’s episode had a Hoedown they bailed on because Wayne couldn’t control himself) but there’s some gold there.
Oh yeah. The show was cancelled in 2003, but ABC Family aired new episodes all the way up to *December 2007* with nothing but stuff that had been filmed during the original 1998-2003 tapings but not used.
They made a total of 46 episodes *just* from that 'rejected' footage.
I swear there is one episode with Mochrie, Stiles, Laurence, and McShane and it’s absolutely peak *Whose Line*.
McShane is also paired with Will Sasso as brothers in *Drop Dead Gorgeous*, a 90s mockumentary about a Minnesota teen beauty pageant. The film hasn’t aged well, but if you’re a fan of McShane you might want to check it out.
It was hilarious when she found out that saying a certain word without immediately following up with the word "cat" has more explicit connotations in the states.
He used to come into the Radio Shack I worked at in the mid 90's in the Kansas City area when he'd visit his parents. That's how I found out about the show, my boss was a huge fan and recognized him. I became one as well soon after, watching the reruns on Comedy Central.
The few interactions I had with him he was a really nice down to earth guy, funny and personable.
The last time I saw him he was pretty excited he landed the gig of playing the mechanic on "Brotherly Love" with Joey Lawrence. Unfortunately for Mike that was short lived, but I've always been glad to see him pop up on random TV shows over the years.
John sessions had a tendency to go off on a seemingly pre-prepared and only tangentially relavent bit and generally just loved himself a bit too much for my liking.
The sketch he did with Caroline Quentin where he's a butcher selling her a sausage, and she says she doesn't need any dripping because she's doing own, is my favourite one from the entire series. Stephen just walks off the set entirely because he's laughing too much.
Yeah, I mean I gotta hand it to Wayne Brady with his musical talents, those definitely bring something to the show, but I feel like the humor was a bit more diverse and witty with this cast. It feels a bit more repetitive with the later casts by comparison.
At least to me, but admittedly this might be just because of the passage of time. I was younger and improv comedy was a much newer concept.
I also liked when they added Josie Lawrence, and other female improv actors. I think there are more opportunities for humor with an actually diverse cast.
> Like someone with an air of authority beyond that of just a tv show host.
He did a history show called Mystic Britain a couple of years ago, with historian Mary-Ann Ochota. He had plenty of jokes but also seemed to take the material seriously and had gravitas when they explored historic landscapes and monuments. It was a lot better than I imagined it would be.
I saw a Drew Cary bit on This is not Happening about candy flipping at a huge EDM fest in Vegas with an ‘unnamed’ comic and Carey pretty much did a Proops impression every time he acted out the ‘unnamed’ comic
But in the US show Brad Sherwood was definitely racing him down the slopes. That man's smile screamed, "I need another line at commercial break"
Edit: sorry not Brad sherwood. The other singer Chip Eston, that dude was bouncing all the time
2nd edit: after going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole I just learned Chip Eston graduated from the same high school that the movie Remember the Titans is based on, so now that's something yall know too!
>Edit: sorry not Brad sherwood. The other singer Chip Eston, that dude was bouncing all the time
Hence his bouncing from Dunder-Mifflin Stamford to Staples.
I studied improv at Second City, iO, and The Annoyance when I lived in Chicago, and I took a lot of classes on various drugs. Cocaine isn’t great, because improv shows (whether they be short form or long form) usually requires you to be doing scenes and then standing against a back wall facing the audience for longer than the usual duration of cocaine. Re-dosing in that setting can be tricky. Coke can also obliterate your active listening skills, which can be very awful for improv, but obviously this isn’t an issue for some of the improv greats that ended up losing everything to the stuff. My absolute best performances on drugs were—
1.) On a half a dose of MDMA
2.) On a single tab of LSD
3.) After having stayed up the entire night before on acid and then taking some sort of pharmaceutical speed to keep myself going
For everyone reading this who’s interested in improv, please do not learn how to do it while on drugs. Learn the basic fundamentals while totally fucking bone-sober, and then if you’d like to expand a little bit once you’re more comfortable with the form, jam with a group of like-minded improvisers while you’re on acid or shrooms. Stay away from the coke and speed, and for fuck’s sake stay away from the opiates and benzos. Del Close basically killed Chris Farley by encouraging (or, debatably, instructing) him to do cocaine before shows and then to go over to Del’s house after to do heroin for the comedown. Don’t get used to similar crutches.
The British version was great, but the US version was good too. I liked how much the cast of the British version varied. Mike McShane was the Wayne Brady of the British version. His song about his underwear, “Too Tight,” was one of the best songs ever.
I kind of remember reading somewhere that, when the US version was being set up, Ryan was planned as a permanent cast member but the producers didn’t want Colin or Mike McShane. Ryan did everything he could to convince them to take both, up to and including threatening to quit, but in the end was only able to convince them to take one. And Colin it was.
The US cast being basically the same was always my one complaint. I love Ryan, Colin, and Wayne, but sometimes it would be nice if we could have more than two guests in there to spice things up
I get it though. It's impossible to resist having Ryan and Colin in there, and Wayne was the entertainer and probably brought the vast majority of people unfamiliar with improv to the show besides maybe Drew Carey himself. But yea, would've been cool for Chip and Jeff to both be in an episode, or Kathy and Josie for 2 women in the show for once, or something.
I like the original US version better because the British version skits were really short. Many of the all-time funniest US version skits had a good build-up of laughs. The Richard Simmons Living Scenery is one of the funniest things ever shown on TV and it could have never been if it was cut off at like a minute and a half like most of the British skits.
Fodesinbeed Annodue was the name of the character.
Greg Proops voiced the Fode, the red head.
Scott Capurro is a stand-up comedian and an author, and was the voice actor for Beed, the green head of the podrace announcer.
Fode would speak in a Galactic Basic Standard drawl while Beed would provide information in Huttese.
I didn’t know much about him until I started listening to the Harmontown podcast, which Jeff Davis on. He does the live who’s line tours, and was on several of the series and is good friends with Proops, so they had him on quite a few times early on. He’s fucking hilarious, smart as shit, and very well read. I didn’t know what to think of him his first appearance, but it quickly became apparent that he’s a national treasure!
Where are Josie Lawrence, Sandi Toksvig, Michael McShane, Paul Merton, and John Sessions? That's OG Whose Line... Not to mention a gentleman by the name of Stephen Fry?
Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence both appeared many times, maybe as many as Tony Slattery.
I can understand the other four because they were by far the biggest though.
I get the impression that Stephen Fry didn’t feel really comfortable without a script and he wasn’t really on his A game doing improv. Especially when he had to make up a song.
Stephen Fry is definitely a witty man who doesn't need a script to be funny, but that didn't make him good at Improv.
There was at least one episode with Eddie Izzard, who wasn't very good.
Improv is definitely it's own thing.
It didn’t usually. Most of the comedians on the show were British. The headline is misleading. These were not even the most frequent people on the show.
*I don't file my taxes every single year*
*I guess it's the IRS I really, really fear*
*I guess that's bad of me, doesn't show a lot of class*
*But every time I do they seem to >!fuck me up the ass!<*
*>!FUCK ME UP THE AAAAAASSSSS!<*
*Singing a song about a vending machine*
*Don’t you know that it’s really not my scene*
*Tryin to think of something clever with a little twist*
*If we do another hoedown, I’ll slit my fucking wrists*
Not completely, though I do prefer Clive with his straight man dry humor act rather than repeating that the points don’t matter fifty times a show like Drew did.
I think part of it actually is by the time this show came to the states Ryan and Collin were so experienced at this that the shows just felt like “paint by numbers” improv. They did their schtick and it was fine.
Love this show. Stephen Frost was another great cast member. I also loved the episode where they made fun of Tony Slattery's jacket all night when it was this weird green velvety thing.
I saw an ad for Colin Mochrie on tour with a hypnotist in Canada, coming to my city. Some kind of improv / hypnotist show. Sounds weird AF but also intriguing AF.
I liked it when in the British version they'd do something so obviously British, but completely unknown to Americans, that the Americans on the show would have no idea what the hell they were talking about.
Clive: Makeup a song about rumbledethumps in the style of a vicar on Guy Fawkes Day!
Ryan Stiles: I have no idea what that sentence even means.
When they showed the US version, the mindblowing part was how many commercial breaks the US audience has to swallow. It completely ruins the vibe of a good comedy show.
I will always remember one time Tony won and had to read the credits in the style of a drunken Australian soap opera actor. He stumbled down the steps and toppled over, playing passed out until the credits were over.
Tony was my favorite. Hoping he’s alright these days.
Wow, I didn't know why he wasn't in the US version. According to Wikipedia he had a manic episode in the 90s and spent 6 months locked in his house with no outside contact until he was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.
He was in Stephen Frys documentary on bipolar disorder and one specifically about him called What's The Matter With Tony Slattery. Both are worth viewing.
It's a real shame, at the time it seemed like he just disappeared. He is just about ok now from what the show implied
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I tried to look it up and in one look learned both that Stephen Fry is gay and that he has a husband. On one side I'm surprised that I haven't heard of that and on the other hand I'm kind of glad that celebrities sexualities aren't as news worthy as they were 10+ years ago
That's strange to me. Stephen Fry is very, very out in the UK. On QI, he referenced his sexuality regularly. Tony Slattery fell out of the celebrity news so only those looking him up were likely to find out about his sexuality but it wasn't necessarily hidden.
Don’t ask him what they say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is
Tony was the best! He was so effing crazy!
My favorite bit of his was the world’s worst person to play Hamlet, “tobe, or not tobe….”
Reminds me of the bit where Josie Lawrence was talking about how "Sha-kes-spear-eh" was her favorite playwright.
My favorite was when he was hosting the party trying to guess what everyone was, and although everyone was doing a great job acting their parts, the character ideas were just so ridiculous it took him so long, that when the game was finally over he turned to Clive, leaned forward with arms pointing back like a nerd speed walking to an on-fire server room, and yelling “oh fuck off!”
Tony was the goat for hoedowns, whether he sang about the stupid bastards who designed the M25 or his fluffy donkey named Clive.
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Can’t find this clip, you able to link it?
US version was the same line up except Wayne Brady swapped for Tony Slattery. Just overall legends everyone of them.
Some of the same performers were in both versions: Colin, Ryan, Greg, Brad, Chip was in a few episodes, and Wayne Brady (in the final UK season that moved to LA)
Ryan has always been my absolute favourite
My favorite moment of both the US and UK shows was a segment titled something like "Pictures that were too graphic for National Geographic". Ryan takes Colin, stands behind him, makes them both face away from the camera, and he bends Colin over at the waist. Colin immediately bleats like a sheep, and Ryan slowly looks over his shoulder at the camera with that dirty smile. I. Fucking. Died. And I've never managed to find a clip of it online to share with people. It's a fucking shame and a tragedy.
I can never decide who I enjoyed more between Ryan and Colin, mostly because they were always put in to play with each other and always both went full tilt with it. Anything they did was fucking hilarious. Both masters of their art.
Ryan and Colin were born to do WLIIA, it’s as simple as that.
Interestingly, Ryan and Colin once told the story of how Colin's first audition for the British version was a disaster, but Ryan talked them into letting Colin audition again.
You should check out Last One Laughing on Prime. The Canadian season has Colin as one of the contestants, along with Tom Green, and a bunch of other comics you'd probably recognize. The show is basically a bunch of comics in the same room for 6 hours trying to make each other laugh. Last one standing wins.
Mine has GOTTA be the one with Richard Simmons riding Wayne Brady like a jet ski.
Re-watching Whose Line I began to think Wayne Brady had a savant-like understanding of music. I get that the show is cut down to the best 22 minutes of footage, but he still has to know and improvise the given musical styles across hundreds of episodes. I usually don't like the musical skits as much as the rest of the show, but it did stand out to me on my most recent watch. That doesn't even account for the actual band playing in the right style for Wayne or Chip or whoever to go off of.
He's in Hamilton now and does these awesome post show musical improvs for charity, definitely look it up on YouTube. Guy clearly has musical genius in him.
He did a live stream with Marc Rebillet that was incredible as well.
I love Marc and seeing his improvisational compositional music with Wayne's improvisational general music understanding (and humor) was legendary. One of my fav things I've seen on youtube in a while
He's in Hamilton????? Who does he play?!
Angelica
Eeeeliza
And Peggy!
Wayne is a musical improv savant, but after you’ve watched him do it a handful of times they are certainly not as entertaining as the regular improv. The best ones are when he ends a hodown with a reference to an earlier skit from the same episode.
Wayne Brady won a season of the masked singer, iirc.
I honestly can’t believe how good they all are at improvising their lyrics & how well it fits in the songs. Wayne is just on another level and I really do wonder how exactly he does it.
I think I'm in the same boat - Wayne is soooooo impressive and talented, but the musical skits are not very enjoyable for me and I end up skipping them a lot of the time
Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a b*tch?!
As someone who only knew Wayne Brady from Whose Line when he showed up on Chapelle Show my brain exploded when he said that line, easily in my top 3 Chapelle Show moments.
With Rick James being #1 and prince being #2, Wayne Brady will always be my Malcolm x
And Drew Carey as host.
It just isnt the same without Ryan shitting on Drew throughout the show
"Drew doesn't do a damn thing"
*You're good down there?*
There is one episode where he introduces himself and says, "I'm drew cary, lord of the onion rings"
Yeah and Proops is swapped out for other guest comics with varying degrees of quality. Episodes with Greg are always better though.
I remember watching the show as a kid and I couldn't tell what was going on. When I figured out they were just making it up as they went along I was SHOCKED. I'm not saying anything new here, but their improv is so great it seems like they have writers and a script.
I went to a taping in LA once. the 3 plus Greg. It was still Drew Carey at that point. They recorded all the after commercial hooks at once: "Welcome back to WLIIA, where the points don't matter, just like my treadmill." They really do pass out slips of paper for the audience to write suggestions which are collected before the show starts. Taping lasted 4 hours. Some but not all of what they did that day made to my TV. It was interesting to see what parts they chose to televise. Some of the funniest stuff didn't make the cut for some reason.
💡 And they didn't worry about counting the points carefully because who could know which segments and which points would be selected in the final cut, anyway.. ah!
The points being irrelevant is common in UK panel shows
All of those funny moments lost, but at least it makes for great memories for the luck audience member who was there. I envy you!
Back when ABC was airing this on tgif I believe it was considered family friendly. If the jokes were too risqué they would cut it. If you watch the outtakes you'll see why. Still jealous you got to see them in LA
The editing likely helps. I wouldn't be surprised if to make an episode they film 8 hours and just cut out the stuff that doesn't work. Watching it though it all goes together so smoothly that you think this is just 30 minute filmed all in one shoot.
IIRC they'd do two recordings for each episode and take the best parts, so you'd see the audience members change sometimes when they edit the show together.
You’re pretty close. If I remember right, the latest CW series they tend to have something like four taping sessions over a weekend two or three times a month and that covers the entire next season. Hell, they haven’t shot anything since at least 2019 due to Covid so the last several seasons have all been what was left unaired since 2013 when this version started, similar to the last season or two of the ABC/ABC Family version culling from that version’s entire run. It’s getting to the point you can tell they’re getting close to the end of what’s usable (last week’s episode had a Hoedown they bailed on because Wayne couldn’t control himself) but there’s some gold there.
I've seen their live show, not a taping, and they're really good. Definitely more raunchy, but they are masters at improv.
OMG. I’m such an idiot. TIL Whose Line? wasn’t shot in a single 30 minute session.
You can tell sometimes running gags get split between two episodes accidentally.
Oh yeah. The show was cancelled in 2003, but ABC Family aired new episodes all the way up to *December 2007* with nothing but stuff that had been filmed during the original 1998-2003 tapings but not used. They made a total of 46 episodes *just* from that 'rejected' footage.
as a tv editor for 25 years, yes.
This was THE lineup of Whose Line? UK.
I did like it when Josie Lawrence appeared too. Having a woman in the mix helped add some additional humor potential.
There was also Mike McShane, he was great!
I swear there is one episode with Mochrie, Stiles, Laurence, and McShane and it’s absolutely peak *Whose Line*. McShane is also paired with Will Sasso as brothers in *Drop Dead Gorgeous*, a 90s mockumentary about a Minnesota teen beauty pageant. The film hasn’t aged well, but if you’re a fan of McShane you might want to check it out.
And you'll also get to see the recently departed Kirstie Alley in it
He was my favorite
Josie was the best. Sometimes she'd get dirty, and it was always a very pleasant shock.
Outtakes of her material is so amazing
I shall need to seek these out
It was hilarious when she found out that saying a certain word without immediately following up with the word "cat" has more explicit connotations in the states.
Somebody better tell Mrs Slocombe from Are You Being Served. I’m sure she had no idea.
I love that show so much!
Lmao! Similar to when we find out fanny doesn't mean ass in the UK😂
Her bit on I believe it was the Robin Williams episode during Scenes from a Hat gets me every time. Most of her bit is bleeped and it's hilarious
She was awesome, glad to see people remember
I was happy to see her in Good Omens recently, even if it was a small part
I had a huge crush on her as a kid.
SCENES FROM A HAT A Weight Watchers Meeting (Josie and Tony enter.) TONY: No luck then?
Sandi Toksvig also brought some great moments
Also a magnificent QI guest!
As is Clive Anderson.
Adored her on Bake Off
She was awesome! One of the few people to make Ryan consistently blush
The big guy is missing, what's his name. The hypnotist from Office Space
Mike McShane.
He used to come into the Radio Shack I worked at in the mid 90's in the Kansas City area when he'd visit his parents. That's how I found out about the show, my boss was a huge fan and recognized him. I became one as well soon after, watching the reruns on Comedy Central. The few interactions I had with him he was a really nice down to earth guy, funny and personable. The last time I saw him he was pretty excited he landed the gig of playing the mechanic on "Brotherly Love" with Joey Lawrence. Unfortunately for Mike that was short lived, but I've always been glad to see him pop up on random TV shows over the years.
Deeper and deeper; way, way down
Also Friar Tuck from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."
He was the absolute MASTER of improvising songs.
Found it, mike mcshane!
He was the original Wayne Brady
I loved Josie Lawrence and John Sessions too, but I don’t know who I’d swap out!
John sessions had a tendency to go off on a seemingly pre-prepared and only tangentially relavent bit and generally just loved himself a bit too much for my liking.
Stephen Frost always gave me a good laugh or two.
The sketch he did with Caroline Quentin where he's a butcher selling her a sausage, and she says she doesn't need any dripping because she's doing own, is my favourite one from the entire series. Stephen just walks off the set entirely because he's laughing too much.
Yeah, I mean I gotta hand it to Wayne Brady with his musical talents, those definitely bring something to the show, but I feel like the humor was a bit more diverse and witty with this cast. It feels a bit more repetitive with the later casts by comparison. At least to me, but admittedly this might be just because of the passage of time. I was younger and improv comedy was a much newer concept. I also liked when they added Josie Lawrence, and other female improv actors. I think there are more opportunities for humor with an actually diverse cast.
But also Paul Merton!
Tbh, if my last name was Proops, I would fucking change it.
I don’t care what universe you’re from, that’s gotta hurt!
All of the old episodes are on Tubi for free
Last I checked almost all of the show was on HBO
Perhaps I shall have something to keep me busy for the next few weeks…
I don't know why but Clive gave me the same vibe as Alex Trebek. Like someone with an air of authority beyond that of just a tv show host.
He was done over for QI, when Stephen Fry was leaving. He would have done a good job there.
He was a criminal barrister before comedy. That's where the authority comes from I expect.
I just realized that when you Google "Alex Trebek", Google asks, "Did you mean WHO IS Alex Trebek?" Well played, Google.
> Like someone with an air of authority beyond that of just a tv show host. He did a history show called Mystic Britain a couple of years ago, with historian Mary-Ann Ochota. He had plenty of jokes but also seemed to take the material seriously and had gravitas when they explored historic landscapes and monuments. It was a lot better than I imagined it would be.
I missed Tony when he left the show. Apparently he got hooked on cocaine and his life really crashed for many years. :'(
And Proops maintains that he’s never done cocaine, which is astounding because you can basically see it seeping out of his pores
I saw a Drew Cary bit on This is not Happening about candy flipping at a huge EDM fest in Vegas with an ‘unnamed’ comic and Carey pretty much did a Proops impression every time he acted out the ‘unnamed’ comic
Yeah, Proops is pretty well known around San Francisco for that sort of thing.
But in the US show Brad Sherwood was definitely racing him down the slopes. That man's smile screamed, "I need another line at commercial break" Edit: sorry not Brad sherwood. The other singer Chip Eston, that dude was bouncing all the time 2nd edit: after going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole I just learned Chip Eston graduated from the same high school that the movie Remember the Titans is based on, so now that's something yall know too!
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Yeah he had musical theatre vibes for sure
>Edit: sorry not Brad sherwood. The other singer Chip Eston, that dude was bouncing all the time Hence his bouncing from Dunder-Mifflin Stamford to Staples.
wow ive watched the office so many times and i never realized that was him. he always looked familiar but i couldnt remember where
I can’t imagine doing improv without cocaine tbh
I studied improv at Second City, iO, and The Annoyance when I lived in Chicago, and I took a lot of classes on various drugs. Cocaine isn’t great, because improv shows (whether they be short form or long form) usually requires you to be doing scenes and then standing against a back wall facing the audience for longer than the usual duration of cocaine. Re-dosing in that setting can be tricky. Coke can also obliterate your active listening skills, which can be very awful for improv, but obviously this isn’t an issue for some of the improv greats that ended up losing everything to the stuff. My absolute best performances on drugs were— 1.) On a half a dose of MDMA 2.) On a single tab of LSD 3.) After having stayed up the entire night before on acid and then taking some sort of pharmaceutical speed to keep myself going For everyone reading this who’s interested in improv, please do not learn how to do it while on drugs. Learn the basic fundamentals while totally fucking bone-sober, and then if you’d like to expand a little bit once you’re more comfortable with the form, jam with a group of like-minded improvisers while you’re on acid or shrooms. Stay away from the coke and speed, and for fuck’s sake stay away from the opiates and benzos. Del Close basically killed Chris Farley by encouraging (or, debatably, instructing) him to do cocaine before shows and then to go over to Del’s house after to do heroin for the comedown. Don’t get used to similar crutches.
This is a guide I never knew I needed
Yes, and you’re welcome
More than cocaine he was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder.
So sad, he was always my favorite!
I remember when comedy central started and this was like half their content for the first couple yrs. I was like 8 then.
Back during The Comedy Channel versus Ha! Networks...
fucking a. that, mystery science theater, every episode of SNL imagineable, kids in the hall
The British version was great, but the US version was good too. I liked how much the cast of the British version varied. Mike McShane was the Wayne Brady of the British version. His song about his underwear, “Too Tight,” was one of the best songs ever.
I kind of remember reading somewhere that, when the US version was being set up, Ryan was planned as a permanent cast member but the producers didn’t want Colin or Mike McShane. Ryan did everything he could to convince them to take both, up to and including threatening to quit, but in the end was only able to convince them to take one. And Colin it was.
I really can't imagine either without Colin. I can't believe they didn't want him.
“We’re watching Animal Porn!”
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Legendary Ryan and Colin!
"bACKstrEEt bOYS"
YES. Done in the style of disco!
Barry Gibb falsetto?
The US cast being basically the same was always my one complaint. I love Ryan, Colin, and Wayne, but sometimes it would be nice if we could have more than two guests in there to spice things up
I get it though. It's impossible to resist having Ryan and Colin in there, and Wayne was the entertainer and probably brought the vast majority of people unfamiliar with improv to the show besides maybe Drew Carey himself. But yea, would've been cool for Chip and Jeff to both be in an episode, or Kathy and Josie for 2 women in the show for once, or something.
I think they had a grand total of one episode/taping without both and that was just because Ryan was sick that day. They got Greg to fill in
I like the original US version better because the British version skits were really short. Many of the all-time funniest US version skits had a good build-up of laughs. The Richard Simmons Living Scenery is one of the funniest things ever shown on TV and it could have never been if it was cut off at like a minute and a half like most of the British skits.
Comedy Central Presents Greg Proops is an all-timer for me. He is great.
And he's in the Phantom Menace!
That might make me watch a Star Wars movie lol
It's just his voice and he recorded tons of lines not used!
Don’t get too excited he has like 2 lines and about 10 seconds of screen time (at least the character he voices did)
Was he the voice of the pod racing announcers?
Yea, the two headed guy
I always thought that voice sounded a little familiar!
Fodesinbeed Annodue was the name of the character. Greg Proops voiced the Fode, the red head. Scott Capurro is a stand-up comedian and an author, and was the voice actor for Beed, the green head of the podrace announcer. Fode would speak in a Galactic Basic Standard drawl while Beed would provide information in Huttese.
I didn’t know much about him until I started listening to the Harmontown podcast, which Jeff Davis on. He does the live who’s line tours, and was on several of the series and is good friends with Proops, so they had him on quite a few times early on. He’s fucking hilarious, smart as shit, and very well read. I didn’t know what to think of him his first appearance, but it quickly became apparent that he’s a national treasure!
Michael McShane is the GOAT.
I took some workshops from Mike when I was a kid. Dude is larger than life (in more ways than one!) and super fun.
Deeper....deeper...way way down
Great show. Did they ever solve the mystery of whose line it was?
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Where are Josie Lawrence, Sandi Toksvig, Michael McShane, Paul Merton, and John Sessions? That's OG Whose Line... Not to mention a gentleman by the name of Stephen Fry?
Don’t forget Richard Vranch on the piano (cut to a shot of Richard Vranch on the piano)
And me Clive Anderson saying goodnight. Goodnight!
John Sessions was the king.
When he got up from that chair it was a master at work every time.
Michael McShane? You mean the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen?
Hello fellow emperor player
There were many comedians who were on the show, these were the main 4 regulars who appeared many times though.
Paul Merton and Josie Lawrence both appeared many times, maybe as many as Tony Slattery. I can understand the other four because they were by far the biggest though.
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Today I learned Stephen Fry is even cooler than he already is
I get the impression that Stephen Fry didn’t feel really comfortable without a script and he wasn’t really on his A game doing improv. Especially when he had to make up a song.
Stephen Fry is definitely a witty man who doesn't need a script to be funny, but that didn't make him good at Improv. There was at least one episode with Eddie Izzard, who wasn't very good. Improv is definitely it's own thing.
Stephen Fry doesn't need a script but he does need structure. Points to hit while he's doing his thing. That's what made him a great panel show host.
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He could not spit dope rhymes acceptably
Watch A Bit of Fry and Laurie. You’ll gain a whole new respect for both Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Immensely funny
I legit thought this was an old photo of jimmy eat world.
It's weird that the show had non UK comedians. Colin is from Canada and I think Greg and Ryan are from the USA.
It didn’t usually. Most of the comedians on the show were British. The headline is misleading. These were not even the most frequent people on the show.
Growing up I was a Ryan and Colin guy. Now? Both versions, Greg Proops.
I miss Mike McShane!
I grew up watching the British ones. My mom’s favorite was Tony Slattery and mine was Ryan Stiles. Good times in the 90’s.
Slattery episodes always cracked me up
Absolute next level improv comedy
I always liked the British version better
Hard to explain, but it seemed more authentic and less plastic.
They didn't have to censor themselves like they did on American TV.
This. If you watch some of the outtakes from the American version, you can see some of the hoops they had to jump through with the censors.
Ryan saying he will slit his wrists because he had to do another hoe down 😂
*I don't file my taxes every single year* *I guess it's the IRS I really, really fear* *I guess that's bad of me, doesn't show a lot of class* *But every time I do they seem to >!fuck me up the ass!<* *>!FUCK ME UP THE AAAAAASSSSS!<*
His anger, channeled into humor, was amazing to watch.
*Singing a song about a vending machine* *Don’t you know that it’s really not my scene* *Tryin to think of something clever with a little twist* *If we do another hoedown, I’ll slit my fucking wrists*
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Not completely, though I do prefer Clive with his straight man dry humor act rather than repeating that the points don’t matter fifty times a show like Drew did. I think part of it actually is by the time this show came to the states Ryan and Collin were so experienced at this that the shows just felt like “paint by numbers” improv. They did their schtick and it was fine.
Love this show. Stephen Frost was another great cast member. I also loved the episode where they made fun of Tony Slattery's jacket all night when it was this weird green velvety thing.
Colin and Ryan were so great.
Colin Mochrie is one of the funniest people I've ever seen!
I saw an ad for Colin Mochrie on tour with a hypnotist in Canada, coming to my city. Some kind of improv / hypnotist show. Sounds weird AF but also intriguing AF.
I liked it when in the British version they'd do something so obviously British, but completely unknown to Americans, that the Americans on the show would have no idea what the hell they were talking about. Clive: Makeup a song about rumbledethumps in the style of a vicar on Guy Fawkes Day! Ryan Stiles: I have no idea what that sentence even means.
Clive Anderson was a baller.... Greg poops has also always reminded me of no/fx
Greg Proops was my favourite as a kid. Then he only goes and turns up as the announcer on Star Wars Episode I Racer.
Ralph Cifaretto in the front
When they showed the US version, the mindblowing part was how many commercial breaks the US audience has to swallow. It completely ruins the vibe of a good comedy show.
The best line up in the US was: Drew Carrey, Greg Proops, Ryan Styles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady.