An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood
Last night was a blast, a few different games from when I saw them last year, crazy crowd. My synopsis under the cut if you're bored or interested:
Alright, so Raleigh Memorial Auditorium is a decent sized place (2 balcony levels) and they had nearly sold it out.....always nice! My seat was in the pit in row 2 off to house left. For those of you who care, Brad was wearing darkish jeans, a black dress shirt with stripes, the same black shoes I've seen him in before, and a brown belt (didn't anyone tell him that black and brown don't mix??), and Colin was wearing lightish jeans, a black solid dress shirt, a black braided belt, and low top chuck taylors. They both appeared to be fighting colds as they both, Brad far worse, kept covering their mikes and coughing.
The games started with 'Moving People' with two audience volunteers (Penny and Scott). The theme was something about two lawn/hedge care guys in Belgium who had to take their submarine to get to the house to trim the hedges. The movers were, as always, the funniest part. Brad's mover managed to make mostly sensible moves, missing only a few cues, whereas Colin's mover sort of forgot that he had legs and barely made him move anywhere. The scene ended with Colin's head leaning on Brad's chest and some comment about him being awfully close to his nipple.
The second game was 'Change Emotion' which they traditionally play with children from the audience manning horns and mandating when they have to change. Well, they brought the houselights up and couldn't clearly see any little kids. One short looking woman stood up and they commented that they wanted kids, she kept walking up and started up the steps to the stage. They seemed kinda shocked and didn't quite know what to do when she looked up and asked, "Can I come up?". So they let her on stage. It turns out that she is 29, but was 'young at heart'. They found two other pre-teen to early teen looking girls and called them up too. After quickly explaining the game, they started. It was something random about gutter cleaning (every choice out of the yellow pages kept coming up with some kind of cleaning type service the whole night!). They proceeded to make fun of the 29 year old lady the entire scene.
Next came a game I hadn't seen before that they referred to as 'The Torture Game'. It is a combination of 'Questions Only', 'One Syllable Sentences', 'If You Know What I Mean', 'Change Letter', and 'Dr. Seuss'. It was done in the style of Shakespeare and was supposed to be about Colin trying to buy an island from Brad and the game would change when one of the performers yelled out 'Freeze'. Questions was fairly routine, until some audience member decided to yell 'Freeze', they both froze, laughing, and then Colin went 'Freeze' and stuck his tongue out in the general direction of the audience member. One Syllable was also fairly routine, but IYKWIM was absolutely hilarious as they basically started picking on the size of Brad's dick (um, dinghy) which apparently comfortably seats two. Change letter put the letter 'c' in for every letter 's'. They both stumbled over it for awhile, but got into the groove eventually until Colin was supposed to be getting mad at Brad and said, "Do you want a cock in your mouth?" It took everyone awhile to recover from that one. Brad told Colin to "Kicc my acc" several times and then decided it was far more fun to call him an "Acchole". Finally Dr. Seuss, which Brad's skill FAR exceeded Colin's, and he really stole the show. Eventually they ended up trying to rhyme to thing that ended in -uck. Everyone was pushing for Colin to say 'fuck' as it was technically his turn in the dialogue, and Brad kept talking, using up every word he could think of besides fuck that ended in -uck. Finally Colin just ran off stage and the game ended.
The next game was 'Mousetraps' which I really think I should hate since it obviously hurts, but oh do I love it. Especailly up close! It was 'Alphabet' in the style of an opera. Of course they hurt themselves like crazy and Colin managed to blindly fling a trap at Brad that hit him square in the crotch and left him doubled over unable to speak for over a minute. Towards the end Colin took his goggles off and just kept throwing traps at Brad.
***Intermission***
The first game back was 'Sentences'. I put in a few suggestions, none of which got picked, but it was all good none the less. The story was something about spys trying get beef from Egypt. One of the sentences was 'Go Wolfpack' which of course made the place explode (NC State's Sports are the Wolfpack). Another awesome suggestion was 'Snack Happy', which Brad got. He told Colin to remember that, which Colin was being smart and saying he wasn't sure he could. Brad made a comment about the 'older gay gentlemen in the pink tutu' which made Colin smirk and the crowd howl. Colin got a sentence telling Brad to suck it up and put on his big girl panties, which became a running joke of the night and somehow managed to get intermingled into jokes about the 29 year old who thinks she's a kid.
After sentences, Brad couldn't take it anymore and had to point out the guy who was sitting in the front row wearing an inflatable horse costume. The guy stood up so he could see it, Colin was speechless at that point, and finally Brad invited the guy up on stage so everyone could see it. The guy, Mel, was totally hamming it up to the crowd, and neither performer looked like they had a clue what to do with him after he was up there. Colin looked at Brad, shrugged, and said 'You invited him up here, you deal with him.' Finally Brad decided to break with the planned order of games and keep Mel onstage to do the rap routine. He invited two more guys up to be the back up dancers and began rapping. Mel, who incidentally works in Raleigh government, was a riot. And, I might add, Colin is not only a good rap dancer, but he does the noises quite well. He did not, however, attempt to create a rap himself. I have no idea what was up with the Mel guy and what possessed him to wear an inflatable horse to a show, but it did make for great comedy. Mel's wife basically denied knowing him, and he held up her costume which apparently she refused to wear. So very odd. Colin and Brad were just baffled and kept commenting on how distracting it was to have that in the front row. They also laughed that now if they are asked what the weirdest thing to ever happen at a show was, they will have an answer.
The next game was 'Sound Effects' with two audience volunteers who were pretty good. It was something about mold cleaning people (yes, the damn cleaning yellow pages again) who ended up rescuing a whole family from a well by dropping Mel's inflatable horse in for them to float on then filling the well with Colin's high pressure hose. Although the guy doing Colin's sound kept laughing uncontrollably, he did a pretty good job with keeping his cues.
The night ended with Brad and Colin serenading the audience to the tune of "I did it my way" (I think that's what its called) and summarizing the night but replacing the 'I did it my way' line with 'When we played Raleigh.' Brad has a really beautiful singing voice and Colin didn't sound too bad himself.
After the show my friend and I wandered around to the stage door to say hi. In Charlotte last year there was a semi-formal meet and greet afterwards, and I kind of expected the same, but it was more like the Improv Allstars when I went back stage last year. When we got around to the back, no one was there and as we approached the stage door, Colin and Brad both came out and lit up cigarettes. I was kinda surprised, as Colin supposedly quit and I didn't know that Brad smoked (sorry ladies, couldn't see the pack to tell you what brand). We ended up chatting with both of them for a few minutes, but it was raining and although they were under a small overhang, we were standing under a tree and getting clobbered by huge rain drops, so we thanked them for a fun show and headed home.
Strongly considering the drive to Charlotte in a few weeks to see them again......anyone wanna go???
Alright, so Raleigh Memorial Auditorium is a decent sized place (2 balcony levels) and they had nearly sold it out.....always nice! My seat was in the pit in row 2 off to house left. For those of you who care, Brad was wearing darkish jeans, a black dress shirt with stripes, the same black shoes I've seen him in before, and a brown belt (didn't anyone tell him that black and brown don't mix??), and Colin was wearing lightish jeans, a black solid dress shirt, a black braided belt, and low top chuck taylors. They both appeared to be fighting colds as they both, Brad far worse, kept covering their mikes and coughing.
The games started with 'Moving People' with two audience volunteers (Penny and Scott). The theme was something about two lawn/hedge care guys in Belgium who had to take their submarine to get to the house to trim the hedges. The movers were, as always, the funniest part. Brad's mover managed to make mostly sensible moves, missing only a few cues, whereas Colin's mover sort of forgot that he had legs and barely made him move anywhere. The scene ended with Colin's head leaning on Brad's chest and some comment about him being awfully close to his nipple.
The second game was 'Change Emotion' which they traditionally play with children from the audience manning horns and mandating when they have to change. Well, they brought the houselights up and couldn't clearly see any little kids. One short looking woman stood up and they commented that they wanted kids, she kept walking up and started up the steps to the stage. They seemed kinda shocked and didn't quite know what to do when she looked up and asked, "Can I come up?". So they let her on stage. It turns out that she is 29, but was 'young at heart'. They found two other pre-teen to early teen looking girls and called them up too. After quickly explaining the game, they started. It was something random about gutter cleaning (every choice out of the yellow pages kept coming up with some kind of cleaning type service the whole night!). They proceeded to make fun of the 29 year old lady the entire scene.
Next came a game I hadn't seen before that they referred to as 'The Torture Game'. It is a combination of 'Questions Only', 'One Syllable Sentences', 'If You Know What I Mean', 'Change Letter', and 'Dr. Seuss'. It was done in the style of Shakespeare and was supposed to be about Colin trying to buy an island from Brad and the game would change when one of the performers yelled out 'Freeze'. Questions was fairly routine, until some audience member decided to yell 'Freeze', they both froze, laughing, and then Colin went 'Freeze' and stuck his tongue out in the general direction of the audience member. One Syllable was also fairly routine, but IYKWIM was absolutely hilarious as they basically started picking on the size of Brad's dick (um, dinghy) which apparently comfortably seats two. Change letter put the letter 'c' in for every letter 's'. They both stumbled over it for awhile, but got into the groove eventually until Colin was supposed to be getting mad at Brad and said, "Do you want a cock in your mouth?" It took everyone awhile to recover from that one. Brad told Colin to "Kicc my acc" several times and then decided it was far more fun to call him an "Acchole". Finally Dr. Seuss, which Brad's skill FAR exceeded Colin's, and he really stole the show. Eventually they ended up trying to rhyme to thing that ended in -uck. Everyone was pushing for Colin to say 'fuck' as it was technically his turn in the dialogue, and Brad kept talking, using up every word he could think of besides fuck that ended in -uck. Finally Colin just ran off stage and the game ended.
The next game was 'Mousetraps' which I really think I should hate since it obviously hurts, but oh do I love it. Especailly up close! It was 'Alphabet' in the style of an opera. Of course they hurt themselves like crazy and Colin managed to blindly fling a trap at Brad that hit him square in the crotch and left him doubled over unable to speak for over a minute. Towards the end Colin took his goggles off and just kept throwing traps at Brad.
***Intermission***
The first game back was 'Sentences'. I put in a few suggestions, none of which got picked, but it was all good none the less. The story was something about spys trying get beef from Egypt. One of the sentences was 'Go Wolfpack' which of course made the place explode (NC State's Sports are the Wolfpack). Another awesome suggestion was 'Snack Happy', which Brad got. He told Colin to remember that, which Colin was being smart and saying he wasn't sure he could. Brad made a comment about the 'older gay gentlemen in the pink tutu' which made Colin smirk and the crowd howl. Colin got a sentence telling Brad to suck it up and put on his big girl panties, which became a running joke of the night and somehow managed to get intermingled into jokes about the 29 year old who thinks she's a kid.
After sentences, Brad couldn't take it anymore and had to point out the guy who was sitting in the front row wearing an inflatable horse costume. The guy stood up so he could see it, Colin was speechless at that point, and finally Brad invited the guy up on stage so everyone could see it. The guy, Mel, was totally hamming it up to the crowd, and neither performer looked like they had a clue what to do with him after he was up there. Colin looked at Brad, shrugged, and said 'You invited him up here, you deal with him.' Finally Brad decided to break with the planned order of games and keep Mel onstage to do the rap routine. He invited two more guys up to be the back up dancers and began rapping. Mel, who incidentally works in Raleigh government, was a riot. And, I might add, Colin is not only a good rap dancer, but he does the noises quite well. He did not, however, attempt to create a rap himself. I have no idea what was up with the Mel guy and what possessed him to wear an inflatable horse to a show, but it did make for great comedy. Mel's wife basically denied knowing him, and he held up her costume which apparently she refused to wear. So very odd. Colin and Brad were just baffled and kept commenting on how distracting it was to have that in the front row. They also laughed that now if they are asked what the weirdest thing to ever happen at a show was, they will have an answer.
The next game was 'Sound Effects' with two audience volunteers who were pretty good. It was something about mold cleaning people (yes, the damn cleaning yellow pages again) who ended up rescuing a whole family from a well by dropping Mel's inflatable horse in for them to float on then filling the well with Colin's high pressure hose. Although the guy doing Colin's sound kept laughing uncontrollably, he did a pretty good job with keeping his cues.
The night ended with Brad and Colin serenading the audience to the tune of "I did it my way" (I think that's what its called) and summarizing the night but replacing the 'I did it my way' line with 'When we played Raleigh.' Brad has a really beautiful singing voice and Colin didn't sound too bad himself.
After the show my friend and I wandered around to the stage door to say hi. In Charlotte last year there was a semi-formal meet and greet afterwards, and I kind of expected the same, but it was more like the Improv Allstars when I went back stage last year. When we got around to the back, no one was there and as we approached the stage door, Colin and Brad both came out and lit up cigarettes. I was kinda surprised, as Colin supposedly quit and I didn't know that Brad smoked (sorry ladies, couldn't see the pack to tell you what brand). We ended up chatting with both of them for a few minutes, but it was raining and although they were under a small overhang, we were standing under a tree and getting clobbered by huge rain drops, so we thanked them for a fun show and headed home.
Strongly considering the drive to Charlotte in a few weeks to see them again......anyone wanna go???