A NIGHT OF IMPROV - With Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten and Jeff Davis.
June 5, 2004 - Mount Baker Theater - 7p show
Bellingham, WA

Written by M and loaned to colinmochrie.com with permission. Please do not remove from this site.

Note: I was fortunate enough to be able to attend 5 shows over the course of a couple of days in June 2004. The Allstars were on a Pacific Northwest Tour that took them from various stops in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. I managed to hit the shows in Portland (2 shows), Olympia (2 shows) and in Ryan’s hometown of Bellingham (1 show.) These reports are from that weekend. Occasionally, I will refer to another show, saying, “like last night in Portland” . . . but otherwise, I think the reports stand pretty well on their own.

These are just reports from my personal daily journal . . . I am able to scribble notes during the show and I transcribe the rest that night at the hotel. So, yep. A pretty good representation of the night. But there are also probably a few mistakes. Again, just my recollections. *G*

As always, heads up! The guys use adult language at these shows. Read at your own risk. *G*

(And please know that all the spelling mistakes here are mine. CMWeb is much too smart to let stuff like that slip by. Then again, she’s Canadian, and spells things funny anyways. *G*)

Enjoy! M

Bellingham? I can see why Ryan loves it so . . . .the drive there from Olympia was just amazing. Beautiful drives for my whole weekend, actually. Mountains, lakes, trees . . . wonderful! I would love to go back and hit some of the back roads cuz I imagine that there are some wonderful side trips to had in that area. Bellingham is a gorgeous little community with super friendly folks. It was a nice, easy, lazy rainy day driving in . . .and we had no problems at all. Arrived downtown with plenty of time to just cruise the little town for fun. It had been raining that day and was threatening to start up again, so we stayed close to the Theatre in case we had to dash for cover. Most of Downtown Bellingham had closed up by that time, but still a great place to just cruise, checking out the little shops.

The theatre itself was super nice, kind of had an old movie palace feel to it. (But the balcony was waaaaay in the back. Sheesh! Thank goodness I had a great floor seat.) There was an excited crowd but the joint was not sold out. It was 90% full . . . but definitely not sold out.

As with all the shows so far, the Allstars Manager, Rich was spotted passing out slips of paper to folks in the front couple of rows for the game SENTENCES, explaining that an improviser would collect them once the show began.

The show started off, with more of the great Bob Derkach on piano. When he was introduced by Rich, he walked out to the cheering crowd and he gave a little peace sign at the audience before he sat and started playing. Cute. I had been fortunate enough to chat with him post show in Portland and he is such a nice, soft-spoken, humble man. Not to mention an amazing addition to the tour.

Rich introduced Greg with a booming, “Straight from San Francisco and from WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? -- Greg Proops!” Greg ran on, grinning and waving. Looking marvelous in his black and black outfit, same one as in Portland. He started off with, “Bellingham!!!” (tons of shouts and cheering) “I’m so glad that we arrived in time for the Moisture Festival and the Mildew Olympics!” (Yep, Greg, I agree - it WAS a bit humid that day. Kind of like wading through soup.)

The audience was really piped up and ready to go. Not gonna go through all the jokes, but he pretty much did the same monologues as from the Portland and Olympia shows, with new local references thrown in.

One fun thing . . .When Greg started to explain that he and the other improvisers would be asking them for suggestions throughout the evening, some eager folks just started shouting suggestions right then. Random things, including shouting out the names of games. Just out of the blue. Greg shot them a glace (the back rows of the theatre) and with a laugh said, “Timing is the essence of comedy. Your time WILL come, and when it does . . . don’t fuck it up.”

Misc fun note re: Greg and how he introduces the guys. He does these long intros, right? Well, while doing so, he walks the entire stage in one big circle, but always getting back to the far side of the stage and facing downstage by time he got to announcing their names. Nice little timing bit he does. And by doing so, he gives total focus to the other performer while they run onstage from the other side, i.e. Greg is out of the way. *G* It’s fun to watch his little spiel, and when he crosses by the side of the stage, mid introduction, that the guys enter from, he can usually be seen catching someone’s eye offstage and giggling himself. *G* Fun, fun, fun.

And cuz folks like to know -- da wardrobe . . .
Jeff – black jeans, black t-shirt with white design, black velvety dinner jacket
Chip – long sleeve blue shirt with white t-shirt underneath, black jeans
Brad – the yellow-checkered shirt he always wears, blue jeans
Colin – short sleeve tan shirt, black slacks
Ryan – short sleeve green shirt, tan slacks

There were super energetic cheers for everyone as they came onstage! Man . . . Bellingham was pumped! As with the shows in Portland and Olympia, when Chip, Jeff, and Brad had been introduced and Greg was reeling off Colin’s intro, the three of them would do this little dance. King of like back up singers of the 60s, a la The Pips for Gladys Knight. Super fun, and it just kept the energy level going at full blast. And they looked great doing it!!

The crowd went nutso for Colin upon entering, giving him an immediate standing ovation. Colin waved and bowed . . . and then stepped into line to allow Greg to continue on with intros, but the crowd wanted to keep cheering for Colin, so the others keep pushing that along. Brad even stood to the side and kept nudging the audience, mock whispering and pointing excitedly, “Colin! It’s Colin!”

Ryan got the same amazing response. When Ryan came on, (Ryan got the intro, “Bellingham’s very own, Ryan Stiles!”) the crowd, still standing from Colin’s intro, went nuts again. The other cast members knelt on their knees, mock bowing to Ryan as he entered. He shook hands with everyone and joined the gang.

Waves, smiles from all . . . and then on with the show. *G*

Fun bit before they even got started . . . Greg uses a hand mic for his monologues, so when he stepped forward to introduce the first game, he had left the hand mic on the piano and was relying on his body mic like all the other players. When he spoke, it was immediately discovered that his body mic was not on. He stopped, realized that there was a problem and asked the audience, “Can you hear me?” and fiddled with the pack in his back pocket. He kept asking, checking with the audience as he fiddled with the pack. Finally, Brad stepped forward to help him out. And chatting between the two of them, it was discovered that Brad’s mic wasn’t on either! So Jeff stepped up and started to fiddle with Brad’s pack. Slowly, one by one, each cast member lined up behind each other, joining in the line, and started to fiddle with the pack of the person in front of him. Cute . . . now, I kind of doubt that ALL of their mics were turned off, but it was a good bit for a gag. And once the mic situation was worked out, Greg introduced the first game.

FREEZE:
Ryan and Colin were both brought down by Greg to start the game and the audience was super hyped to see them start the night off. Greg asked for “a position, preferably non-sexual, that Colin can do on his own.” Someone shouted the very sexual, “Missionary position!” The audience laughed, and Greg said, “AGAIN. A position that he can do. On. His. Own.” But Colin had already accepted “missionary” and completed it by kneeling down, hands folded in front of him, praying. (Smart Colin.) Moving on, Greg asked for a non-sexual position for Ryan and of course, a wise ass shouted, “Doggie position!” Greg said, “I can already see what kind of night we have ahead of us.” Ryan mimed being a peeing dog, with his leg raised.

Cuz Colin was in a kneeling position, there were lots of the standard height-related jokes that they have done in the past, including Mr. Roarke and Tattoo, Simon and Garfunkel, and a new one for me . . . Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. (Jeff stepped up, to a standing Brad and a kneeling Colin, “Mr. Cruise, Miss Kidman . . . your table is ready.” Funny!)

Fun long bit . . . Chip had tagged in and was now on his knees, facing the audience. So, Ryan stepped in, grabbed Chip turned him sideways, and announced, “Tonight’s show has been brought to you by the Letter L!” Now . . . remember the “Letter H” that Ryan formed with Colin on an episode of WHOSE LINE and the H was backwards? Well, Ryan must have an “improv dyslexia” of some sort, cuz this Letter L with Chip was also backwards!! Brad ran forward, spun Chip around 90 degrees, and announced, “Again! The Letter L!” The audience howled at all of this, at Ryan shrugging off the fact that he had the letter backwards AND the fact that Chip kind of whimpered while getting spun on his knees (and it DID look like it would hurt on that hard stage floor.)

Chip stayed in the “Letter L” position while the others studied him. Suddenly Brad ran BACK in and grabbed Chip around the waist (telling him to “stay tight”) and flipped him upside down and held him, announcing, “Tonight’s show is brought to you by the Number 7!” He struggled to hold Chip firm upside down . . . and Ryan immediately shouted, “Freeze!” When Brad heard the call from Ryan, he grunted and shot an evil glance at Ryan. The audience was laughing pretty hard at Brad (and Chip’s!) discomfort. And Ryan just sloooowly strolled forward, studying the scene. Ryan was just making the other two hold their position for an extra long time. Brad was really struggling, and by now Chip had started to giggle, so they started to collapse into each other. But Ryan managed to get in a quick, “Tonight’s show, brought to you by the Letter X!” (Cuz well, they sort of did look like an X, legs and arms all over the place.)

Later on, Greg was in the position of face down on the ground. Jeff joined him for one teeny gag, lying next to him, “Let me show you how we welcome new inmates around here . . .” Eventually, they rolled over with Jeff facing up and Greg back on his stomach.

So, the position for Greg and Jeff was . . . Greg face down, Jeff face up, lying immediately side-by-side of each other. Colin tagged in at this point and approached the guys on the ground. He stepped up, and carefully slid his right foot way into Greg’s crotch. (A surprised Greg, “Oh, my!”) After snugly getting his foot settled, Colin then slowly slid is left foot into Jeff’s crotch. And then . . . ready for this? . . . Colin MIMED SKIING with Jeff and Greg being the skis! Lord, if the entire house just didn’t about fall over themselves cheering and laughing!! And I thought Chip would hurt himself, laughing so hard that he was completely doubled over. Colin kept up the skiing bit, and when he mimed making a jump, a la a slalom ski jump off a ramp, Brad called Freeze. Colin froze, “mid jump” and his whole body was bent way forward, teetering forward over Greg and Jeff. But, god bless him, he held it . . . and it just looked so funny! The crowd cheered at Colin’s ability to keep his balance, leaning way forward as such (and it DID look rather difficult!) and KEPT cheering, cuz Colin was holding the position for so long. Fun, fun, fun.

Later on . . . but while Colin still had his feet in the crotches of Jeff and Greg, Brad tagged in and assumed the role of his doctor, telling Colin how he could get rid of his “ass foot” condition.

Overall, the game was a lot of fun, with the highlight being the whole skiing bit that Colin did.

STYLES:
Colin interviewed Molly from the audience. Molly said that she worked for a “scientific company.” He asked her what they did there and she kind of shrugged. He asked her what she did there and she replied, “I’m in Sales.” Colin and the audience laughed, “You are in Sales for a company and you have no idea what the company does?”

Colin asked, “Are you married?” Molly replied, “Yes.” Colin squinted, looking out in the audience, “And is that your husband?” And she said, “No. That’s my sister.” Well, the ENTIRE house just lost it, the cast too, just falling over themselves, laughing. The cast ran forward and joined Colin and Molly at the edge of the stage, looking out at the sister seated in the front. (Molly’s sister actually stood up and waved at the audience, showing everyone that indeed she was a woman.) Everyone was teasing Colin for the mistake and Greg even took off his glasses, put them on Colin’s face so that he (Colin) could see that Molly’s sister was indeed a woman. Colin looked out into the front row again and said that he was actually referring to the man seated on the OTHER side of her empty seat, and turned to the sister and apologized. Pretty dang funny, especially the bit when Greg shared his glasses with Colin. And then, just when it started to quiet down, Chip quipped, “Your husband has a nice rack!” Which started everyone off again with laughs.

(Later on in the interview, the sister stood at the edge of the stage and took a couple of pictures of Colin interviewing Molly. Ryan and Brad saw her lining up the shot, caught her eye and nodded their approval. Nice souvenir, eh?)

Back to the interview. Colin: “Any hobbies?” Long pause while she thought, finally coming out with, “Gardening.” Colin asked, “Anything else?” Another long pause. “I like to read.” Colin tried to move it along with, “Any favorite authors?” And yet, another long pause til she responded with, “All kinds . . . Nora Roberts.” “And what does she write?” Looooong pause, again! “Mystery thriller romances.” (These long pauses were taking up so much time and the interview was really dragging on . . .so Chip yawned, stretched out on the floor and started to take a nap. Greg watched Chip for a moment and then ran up and crowed like a rooster in his ear, waking Chip back up.) Colin was still plugging away at the interview asking her finally what her dream was if money was no object. She said she always wanted to go back to school, beauty school, to do beauty and hair. (Jeff piped up, “Tough luck, Colin.” *G*)

Finally, Colin handed the game over to Brad and Chip, telling Molly that they were gonna sing a song to her, celebrating her life, in the style of a Broadway musical. I can’t remember much of the song itself, other than Brad and Chip made references to the husband/sister confusion that had happened earlier during the interview.

SENTENCES:
Greg took the basket (the same little prissy one they had been using all weekend) and collected the sentences from the folks in the audience. And I missed it, but there was some sort of commotion in the aisle when Greg came out. I don’t know, some fan molested him or something, LOL. But yeah, he had some interaction with a fan in the audience. Teasing good fun, I’m sure, but she grabbed him or something, pulled him towards her . . .something goofy like that. Greg played around with her a bit and then ran back onstage. (Chip actually had to tell Greg to stop goofing with the audience members and to come back to the stage.)

Colin and Ryan played and Chip set the game up by asking for a lyric from a song to base the scene on. He accepted: “I believe in a thing called love.”

The setting was a bar. Ryan walked in upset that his car had broken down again and he was looking for some whiskey to ease the pain. Colin played the bartender and joined Ryan in complaining about Ryan’s car. They ended up toasting Ryan’s misfortune, “Here’s to walking again.”

The first sentence pulled, by Ryan, was, “I’m pregnant with your alien love child.” They both took the story line of Ryan being pregnant with Colin’s baby, completely dropping the bar scenario, and turning it into a family drama dealing with this wild pregnancy.

Other sentences pulled:
“ I’m glad I’m at the improv show tonight but I would rather be at home in Hawaii surfing with chicks.”

“I shall call you my Squeeshy.”

Later in the scene, Ryan, himself suddenly an alien, shouted, “my liquid has burst” and started to give birth . . . to . . . Jeff!! Jeff had crawled between Ryan’s legs and was in the process of becoming an alien baby for the scene! Jeff was then followed by . . . Brad . . .and then Chip . . . and then finally Greg. Lots of squealing little alien babies just rolling around on the ground!!!

One by one, the alien babies got hungry and started to nurse on Ryan’s nipples. Poor Greg couldn’t find any room so he lunged after a horrified Colin and tried to nurse on Colin’s nipple. Colin, completely amazed by all of his alien babies, just stood in shock and frantically tried to wave Greg away from his nipple. Greg finally found a spot on Ryan’s chest to nurse (and let me say that Ryan with four men sucking on his chest was pretty dang funny *G*.) After awhile, all of the alien babies collapsed on the floor, completely satiated by their feeding.

The audience had just gone completely nuts through all birthing and feeding frenzy, and Ryan and Colin kept waiting for the crowd to quiet down to keep the scene going. But Greg took initiative and slowly crawled over to the basket and pulled a sentence to which Ryan said, “Look! Our babies have something they wanna say!” Greg tried to get all of them on the floor to speak the line together but Brad was the only one to read – “I am not a ferret!”

Yay! Such a super silly round with the real laughs coming from the guys all being birthed out of Ryan. Fun, fun, fun.

SOUND EFFECTS;
Ross and Jamie got pulled to do sound effects for Jeff and Greg. Interestingly, Ryan did absolutely no introduction for this game, other than, “This is a game we played on WHOSE LINE called Sound Effects.” LOL, nothing else. He didn’t do any practice sound effects with the volunteers or even assign Ross and Jamie to an improviser. He just asked the audience for an Odd Profession, accepted “Dominatrix,” and started the game.

(When Jeff and Greg started the scene, Chip ran forward and told the volunteer Jamie that she was gonna do sound effects for Jeff. Ross had just started to do sound effects on his own for Greg. And luckily they both were quick studies or had seen the show before and knew what to do, cuz they caught on pretty quickly.)

The scene involved Jeff, a dominatrix, who had fallen in love with one of his customers Greg. Greg had arrived for his “session” and was first told to jump on the wheel. Greg took that to mean a giant hamster wheel and he proceeded to run on a big exercise wheel. (LOL -- Not that I’m into that kind of thing *shifts eyes nervously around the room,* but due to what he mimed, I think Jeff was going for a big wheel that Greg would be TIED to . . . *shrug*). But Greg took it to mean, he was a hamster on a big exercise wheel. Greg mimed running on a wheel and Jeff followed up with, “Ah, yes, run my little hamster. RUN!”

In order to try and set the mood for some serious love making, Greg put on some music, saying it was Christina Aguilera. The poor sound effects person, Ross, just started laughing, dreading what was coming up as Greg slowly put the needle to the record. And Ross tried but he did a horrible Christina imitation, so Greg mimed taking the record off quickly, apologizing to Jeff for his poor taste in music.

Jeff said that he had some romantic albums too and told Greg that had he decided to put on a Celine Dion album. His effects person, Jamie also did a pretty poor imitation of the singer. So Greg said, “Screw it. Let’s listen to my album of the humpback whales.” Greg put on a new album, and Ross did a GREAT sound of humpback whales! And Greg and Jeff were finally able to slow dance together.

The game ended to great cheers for Ross and Jamie for doing such a great job.

JEOPARDY:
Colin was Alex Trebek. “I know more than you . . . and don’t you forget it.”

Ryan was Colin Mochrie, Canadian Actor. The audience howled at this choice and at Ryan who just smugly stared at Colin/Alex. Colin/Alex scrunched up his face and stared warily back at Ryan. After a pause, he asked, “What are you working on now?” Ryan/Colin replied, “Well, I’m looking for work wherever I can get it.” Colin/Alex nodded sympathetically, but his smirk was NOT hidden. After the laughter died down, Ryan/Colin looked at Colin/Alex: “I’m not going to win, am I?” Colin/Alex shook his head no.

Before Colin moved on to meet the other contestants, the others, led by Chip, turned to Ryan and said, “Do a hoedown, Colin . . . come on, do a hoedown.” Well, Ryan’s eyes nearly burst! The audience started to cheer and the others kept begging Ryan to do a hoedown. It was so funny cuz Ryan had this look of “Oh-My-God-What-Have-I-Gotten-Myself-Into?” It was hysterical to watch Ryan squirm for a moment and to see Colin just standing there, grinning ear to ear. Finally, Ryan as Colin, said, “Well, maybe later.” Of course they never got around to singing a hoedown, but man, it was so much fun to watch Ryan squirm.

And just when we thought the Colin bits were done with, Chip introduced himself as Sir Chucky, the President of the Colin Mochrie Fan Club. He also liked to make wine in his own bathtub part time. At this point, it looked like everyone was gonna do “Colin-related” characters, but the digs stopped there. *G*

I missed who Brad was. He had a long gobbly gook name, and spoke in a gobbly gook language . . . and he had a job that sounded like it was gobbly gook. *G*

Jeff was Keanu Reeves. Colin/Alex asked, “What do you do for a living?” Jeff/Keanu replied, “I’m a famous actor.” Ryan/Colin piped up with, “He and I are up for a lot of the same parts.” The audience laughed hard at this and Ryan kept shooting Colin these dirty looks, and vice versa. Fun, fun, fun little interactions throughout the game between the two of them with Ryan just taking potshots at Colin.

Greg was ???, a professional hypnotist who hypnotized salmon and was also a part time meth dealer from Mount Vernon.

The game began --

Heavy Metal Bands – Metallica
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with, “What was the other half of the sci-fi TV show that began with “Battlestar?” The joke here was obviously “Battlestar Gallatica” but when Colin/Alex tried to say the name of the TV show, he stumbled and screwed up the joke, saying, “Battlestar Maticca.” Now it was obvious that the audience got the joke without Colin’s help, but nevertheless he froze, smacked his lips and repeated it (“Battlestar Metallica!”), correctly this time. Ryan just laughed at his mistake, rolling his eyes, and finally mimed pouring a drink and handed it off to Colin who gulped it down.

Diseases That Begin With The Letter D – Diarrhea
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with “What precedes ‘ . . .Anne Frank?’” Colin/Alex accepted this, noting that it was also banned for two years.

Historical Figures – Anne Boylen
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with, “What is walking slowly?”
And Colin/Alex said, “Ambling!” and ambled across the stage a bit.

French Painters – Monet
Chip/Sir Chucky buzzed in with, “What do Canadian woman say when they have an orgasm?’ The crowd howled at this . . . mostly cuz of Ryan/Colin’s reaction. He emphatically nodded, saying, “It’s true. It’s true.” (Colin/Alex turned to the audience and also nodded.)

Funny Sounding Words – Tofu
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with, “What is the martial art form that is just for your toes?”

Another Type of Martial Art – Judo
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with, “What do they use to make bread in a Jewish Deli?”
(Now THIS caused the entire cast and audience to just lose it!!!! It took quite a while to calm everyone down . . .)

Words That Begin With The Letter L – Liver
Ryan/Colin buzzed in, slowly, with . . . “What comes before ‘or let die?’” Colin/Alex accepted but Greg piped up and said that actually it was just, “What comes before ‘let die?’” pointing out that what Ryan/Colin had said was “Liver or let die.” With too many syllables in the middle. LOTS of back and forth between Ryan/Colin and Greg with Ryan/Colin finally saying, “Well, that’s how it’s said . . .in Canada.” The audience cheered at this and Ryan/Colin triumphantly took the lead. So, for the rest of the playing, Ryan/Colin’s answers were all punched up with “that’s how it’s said (or done) . . . in Canada.”

Fuzzy Things – Bunnies
Brad/Gobbly Gook buzzed in with, “What helps out with painful hemorrhoids?” (Going for ‘Bun Ease.’ *groan*) Colin/Alex accepted it and said, “Yes, and we would also accepted ‘ascot.’”
Now Colin’s mention of “ascot” made Greg just loose it! He completely broke from the line, turning upstage and kept laughing, repeating, “Ass Cot?” over and over again. That wonderful snort laugh of his? Yeah, he was doing that. *G*

Odd Vegetables – Rutabaga
Jeff/Keanu buzzed in with, “What is the opposite of a nice a baga?”

During the next round, Chip’s answer fell flat. Big time. So he piped up with, “Well, it’s funny . . . . in Canada.” using Ryan’s escape line from a previous round. So, for the rest of the night, “ . . . in Canada” became an “out” for any joke that was not funny. Greg used it a lot . . . then again, Greg also used references to “ascot” too, which just continued to amuse him.

Somebody won . . . not sure who.

NEW CHOICE:
Chip and Colin played while Brad (“It’s my turn to torture them!”) called New Choice. Brad asked for something that a disaster film could be based on, and the Easter Bunny was finally chosen.

Not many notes . . .
Chip began the scene by calling Colin “Bryan.” Later in the game, Colin referred to Chip as “Brian” and when Chip corrected him, Colin said, “Your name is Brian too . . . I’m Bryan with a Y.” So, Colin and Chip were both named Brian. “Brian” and “Bryan With a Y.” (Which was pretty dang funny to see Chip running around with Colin, calling him, “Bryan with a Y! Bryan with a Y!”)

They were out to track down the Evil Easter Bunny, who had been leaving a trail of eggs all over the place. Not many notes, but at one point, Colin referred to a job held by Chip. Chip said, “I made $60.” (new choice) “I made $80 Canadian.”

Chip had a number of maps that showed how they would track down and kill the Easter Bunny -- on a scroll (new choice) posted on the fridge -- and it was finally decided that Chip had the plans tattooed on his belly. So they both took off after the Easter Bunny following the map on Chip’s belly.

Later it was discovered that Colin actually WAS the Easter Bunny and the game ended when Colin ripped off his mask and started to chase (hop) after Chip and killed him too.

MOVING PEOPLE:
A very excited couple of volunteers, Kim and Shannon, were brought up to move Ryan and Brad. Greg, in introducing the game, called forth “Colin Mochrie” and tugged on Ryan’s arm. Ryan nudged Greg, saying, “Nah, man. JEOPARDY is over. I’m Ryan again.”

Greg asked for a “How To” topic, one for a “How To” program on late night TV. It was decided to do, “How To Have Fun On Your Honeymoon.”

Nothing much stands out . . . Ryan and Brad mostly held one another, and attempted to dance together at one point. I think Ryan tried to kiss Brad, but the mover didn’t let it happen.

GREATEST HITS:
The CDs being sold were Songs of the Oral Surgeon. Again, the salesmen were Greg, Colin and Ryan . . . while Jeff, Brad and Chip sold the songs. Over the weekend, Greg, Colin and Ryan had taken personas of aged rockers and assuming the same personalities at each of the shows. (Greg as the Leader, Ryan as the Stoned Band Member and Colin as the Lived Through It All Band Member.) They didn’t really do that in Bellingham -- not that they have to --the guys pretty much just chatted with the audience as themselves.

Colin started off, introducing themselves as members of the band known as “The Infected Lode.” Greg followed up with, “And who can forget our hot single, entitled, ‘“Monkey Fuck!”’

Greg introduced the first song, the Vaudeville song entitled, “Hey, Doc! Pull It Out!”
(On piano, Bob Derkach plays a different ‘vaudeville’ than I have seen/heard Laura Hall play at these shows. His vaudeville is more like a barbershop quartet song. Great fun.)

Trucker Song – “Rinse and Spit” – And as always, the Trucker style has long been one of my faves, and they did not disappoint in this round. Probably my fave song of the whole night.

Bruce Springsteen – “Fill The Cavity Of My Heart.” Jeff, Chip and Brad each resorted to doing Bruce imitations, including Bruce’s famous “Born in the USA” dance. Chip even stripped down to his t-shirt!

The guys waved at the cheering crowd who had leapt to their feet. It was such a great show and they got an amazing response from the audience. They ran off (Ryan jumped piggy back on Jeff, for some reason!) and returned quickly for:

ENCORE GAME – CONDUCTED STORY: Ryan asked for a made up fairy tale and accepted “The Big Fat Wolf.” I can’t remember much about it, but there were many appearances and references to Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, 3 Little Pigs and Little Jack Horner.

And just for good measure, Greg threw in references to “ascot” a number of times. *G*

Again, lots of cheers for the guys as they ran off.

Yay for Bellingham!!

Return to Main Transcripts Page

A NIGHT OF IMPROV - With Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten and Jeff Davis.
June 4, 2004 - WASHINGTON CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS – 9:30p Show, Olympia, WA

All text in normal font in the actual report is written by M and loaned to colinmochrie.com with permission. All text in italics in the actual report is written by bbwash and loaned to colinmochrie.com with permission. Please do not remove from this site.

M's introduction: Note: I was fortunate enough to be able to attend 5 shows over the course of a couple of days in June 2004. The Allstars were on a Pacific Northwest Tour that took them from various stops in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. I managed to hit the shows in Portland (2 shows), Olympia (2 shows) and in Ryan’s hometown of Bellingham (1 show.) These reports are from that weekend. Occasionally, I will refer to another show, saying, “like last night in Portland” . . . but otherwise, I think the reports stand pretty well on their own.

These are just reports from my personal daily journal . . . I am able to scribble notes during the show and I transcribe the rest that night at the hotel. So, yep. A pretty good representation of the night. But there are also probably a few mistakes. Again, just my recollections. *G*

As always, heads up! The guys use adult language at these shows. Read at your own risk. *G*

(And please know that all the spelling mistakes here are mine. CMWeb is much too smart to let stuff like that slip by. Then again, she’s Canadian, and spells things funny anyways. *G*)

Enjoy! M

Now on with the actual reports! Remember M's notes are in normal font, and bbwash's are in italics.

As with the other shows in Portland the night before, we were asked to leave the auditorium between shows, which is fine anyways cuz I wanted to stretch my legs. I walked around the block and back into the theatre. When I got there AllStars Manager Rich had already started to pass out slips of paper for the game SENTENCES to folks in the front row. Explaining the game, etc. Like he had for the past couple of shows.

Now, the one thing I noticed when I entered was the large number of kids there. I was seated in the second row again and man, there were kids all over the freakin’ place. I sat next to a family of 5 with kids and the front row was full of what looked like a class of kids, or a team of some sort. Definitely a group there together. (Which was also fine by me, cuz then I didn’t have a big head in front of me. *G*) Directly behind me, there was another large family with kids. And another large group over on the House Left side. So, yeah . . . lots of kids.

What I found most interesting was to listen to Rich give the following kind of warning to the parents. He told them that this show was an adult show and that the parents should know that there was adult language and adult situations. That it was not like the TV show. Nicely put . . . a straightforward, honest heads-up to them. Now, what was funny to me, was the way the parents, guardians, whatever responded to Rich. Pretty much all of the ones I could hear responded the same way: “It’s okay, they have seen the TV show and love it.”

Now, Rich followed up with, “Yes, but this is NOT like the TV show. They use harsh adult language and you should be aware of that.” And the parents were like, “Yes, we have seen the TV show and we know what its like.” Rich was like, “Uh . . . okay, well, its NOT like the TV show.” Back and forth like that. Poor Rich. He just gave up and told the adults that after the show to make sure to take the kids to the backstage door and that the guys would be happy to sign autographs and take pictures with the kids. The parents and the kids were all especially happy to hear about that.

Anyhoo . . . whatever, right? I mean, Rich did what he could and tried to talk to the parents. And I thought, “Well, the guys sometimes will see kids in the show and kind of ‘take down’ the bad language.” Well, in Olympia . . . they did not!! Man, it was hysterical, cuz they were up there just dropping four letter words like there was no tomorrow. And it was not just language within the scenes, where occasional bad words are warranted. But the regular chat amongst themselves was laced pretty heavily with profanity. Which struck me as odd, cuz the guys have been known to “pull back” after spotting the kids. (And they *did* spot them, cuz they waved at them early on within the show.) But man, there was no pulling back tonight. *G* And they swore far more in Olympia than in either Portland or Bellingham. Now, all that doesn’t bother me a bit . . . I just found it terribly interesting. Dat’s all.

One cool kid was seated in front of me. About 13 years old, I’d guess. He was there with his mom and this show was his birthday present. He was a tremendous fan of the show. When Rich talked to her about the language in the show, she said that she and her son was okay with it. (“Yeah, it’s just words, ya know.”) And he just totally had a blast. TOTALLY enjoyed it and he “got” practically everything, all the jokes. (And after the show, I saw that he had a chance to say to hi to the guys at the backstage door, first time meeting them. And that’s all he wanted too . . . to just say hi and to shake their hands. Which I thought was pretty damn cool.)

Before the show, I had asked the little boy of the family I was seated next to (he was maybe 11) who his favorite was and he told me that Ryan was. Another one loved Colin and the parents were fans of Wayne, who they knew would not be there. They were all very excited to be there and even got slips of paper for SENTENCES and spent the better part of the pre-show devising sentences. Cute kids. But once the show started? I honestly think they, the kids, were a bit disappointed. Mostly cuz the humor went way over their heads. Poor guys . . .and they were really super fidgety by time JEOPARDY rolled around. They did like the more physical games, like FREEZE or MOVING PEOPLE. But they completely missed out on JEOPARDY. So . . . yeah, just interesting to me.

Rich did the intro for Greg and he came out . . . looking marvelous. *G* Greg re-introduced Bob Derkach again. (Cute moment each night too when he introduced Bob . . . Greg would say his name, and Bob would rise from his seat, bow with hands folded in front of him towards Greg. Greg would do the same bow back at Bob and then Bob would sit down again and listen to the rest of Greg’s monologue.)

Did the same monologue as he had earlier and in Portland. He did ask the audience if “there were enough bars on Fourth?” (LOL, well, there ARE a lot of bars on that street.) Explained like he did each night, that the games are based on their suggestions so if “the show sucks, then it’s your fault. And if it’s not funny, then it’s Art.”

Greg spotted the kids in the front row, stepped forward so the lights weren’t directly in his eyes, and then saw how many kids total were there, seated especially so close. He told the kids and parents, sorry, this is an adult show. That is “was not like the TV show,” that they “were mostly middle-aged men who said “fuck” a lot.” That when the show was over that the kids “would be able to conjugate the word “fuck.”

Greg introduced the others – long flowing intros and I wish to god one day I could get Greg to slow the heck down so I could scribble them all down at least once! But yeah, the same brilliant wonderful “Greg Intros” that he always does for the gang. Last out to the stage was Ryan and as he entered, he pretended to be overcome with emotion, waving off the audiences’ cheers and applause. All the others bowed down to Ryan and Brad eventually ran over and put a towel around Ryan’s shoulders a la prize fighter who has just won the big fight. As always, Colin and Ryan really received the majority of the whistles and cheers. Olympia loves them. *G*

Greg came out & did sort of a stand up routine. I think Ryan must have briefed him a little (Ryan lives near here) because he did a few “inside” jokes about the area. He then explained the basic idea of the show & then introduced the cast. He talked so fast during the intros it was hard to understand some of what he said. I don’t know how detailed you want this so if you don’t care about the small details skip to next paragraph. Greg wore a black shirt & pants (nice to not see him in a suit), he introduced them: Jeff Davis (black t-shirt with white writing, black coat, jeans), Chip Esten (brown shirt, jeans), Brad Sherwood (blue & white striped shirt, jeans?), Colin Mochrie (light blue shirt, black pants), & Ryan Stiles (brown shirt & pants). The first three guys got loud great applause & cheering, but when Colin came out everyone yelled, screamed, & applauded like crazy; even Ryan didn’t get as much. Greg said “We brought them all except the rich guy & the black guy.”

FREEZE:
Can’t remember much . . .

Three improvisers ended up on the ground, legs wrapped around each other, a la a luge competition. Most of those gags were ones they have done before, including Colin, who tagged in and mimed opening the door to a private office and exclaiming, “Mr. Bush! Mr. Blair! Mr. Powell!!” (As often as I have seen this joke, I still get a chuckle each time.) Also – two players were lined up on the floor, and Brad joined in and screamed at the other two, “Stop making love and steer the LUGE!!”

Got to witness a wonderful moment of Ryan and Colin being able to read each other’s minds. *G* At one point, Ryan tagged in and looked at Colin who was just standing there. Colin looked back. No words were spoken. And then suddenly, both men shouted, “MILK!!!” and they started a milking contest, miming milking cows. (Chip eventually joined the scene and told them to stop milking the bulls.) It was freaky, I tell ya. They both yelled, “Milk!” at the same time.

Towards the end of the game, Colin approached Ryan, thanking Chip for his new “jet pack,” and then took Ryan’s arms and put him on his back ala a backpack. He then slowly picked him and carried Ryan half way across the stage, miming testing out his new toy.

Jeff called Freeze, tagged Chip out and slowly approached Colin, with a warning whisper, “Colin? Don’t. Look. Behind. You.” Colin, with Ryan still firmly in place on his back, got a panicky look on his face and whispered back, “What? What is it?” Jeff replied, “You have a Ryan Stiles on your back!” Colin tried to swat Ryan off, shaking him around in the air, but Ryan held tight.

Later, in the same position, (Colin carried Ryan around piggyback for a while), Greg tagged in with a, “This is the LAMEST Cirque du Soleil show I have ever seen.” Colin then leaned (very gingerly) over as far as he could and let go of Ryan who teetered on Colin’s back, and Ryan let go of his grip as well. In that position, they attempted some pretty lame Cirque choreography.

Fun, fun way to end the game and the audience loved it. Great physical stuff throughout, ending with the great Cirque moment from Colin and Ryan. (And again, as with the previous night in Portland with the Pyramid in FREEZE, Ryan and Colin could both be heard asking each other if they were okay as they disentangled themselves from each other.)

They all lined up across the back of the stage & two guys started a scene. Whenever they wanted a guy in back yelled freeze, he came forward & tapped a guy out & took his place in the scene. It was fairly quick. I remember, at one point Ryan & someone milking cows & Jeff coming in changing it to how they were doing the hand jive all wrong. It ended with Jeff (it might have been Chip) sitting on the floor with Greg sitting behind him with his legs along him. Greg was holding Jeffs body & suddenly Brad slid in behind both of them & yelled "Will you quit making love & steer the luge!" to great laughs.

STYLES:
Kirstie was pulled from the audience and interviewed by Colin. She did NOT want to be up there. AT ALL. And was very reluctant to take Colin’s hand. But she got up there. And then spent most of the interview shooting glances at her friends and husband in the front row, who were laughing hysterically at her discomfort and embarrassment. It was funny, cuz Colin was trying to talk to her and all she did was talk to her friends, “I am SO not forgiving you for bringing me here tonight.” And “Just you wait, I’ll get you back.” Colin had to actually tell her to listen to him and to stop talking to them.

She reluctantly said that she worked for IBM as an IT Specialist. (Colin, “So . . . you do ‘it?’”) When he asked her what exactly an IT Specialist did, she just looked at him like he was an idiot, like EVERYONE knows what an IT Specialist does. He tried to get her to say what she did on a day to day basis and again, Kirstie kept shooting dirty looks at her friends and ignoring Colin.

Her hubby Adam was in the audience. Colin: “What does Adam do?” Kirstie said that he was an IT Architect, which just amused the heck out of everyone onstage. She had been so secret about her OWN job that I’m sure they were hoping for a more interesting profession from her hubby that they could sing about, and then it turns out he had the same non-descript job as she did. Colin: “So, you and Adam do ‘it’ together?”

Colin asked if she had any hobbies and she said no. Colin asked if she had any kids and she replied, “Yes, 4 kids.” (Chip piped up and said, “Well, we now know what her hobbies are.”)

Colin asked her what her dream was, to do anything in the world, and she replied, “To get off this stage right now.” Colin handed the feeble clues over to Brad and Chip, who were going to sing to her in the style of Opera. Once Brad and Chip started singing, Kirstie AGAIN kept shooting dirty looks and whispering comments to her friends in the front row. It got so obvious that she was ignoring Chip and Brad all together, that Brad actually sang to her, full operatic voice, “KIRSTIE! LISTEN TO ME!!!” The song was great (lots of rhymes of Kirstie, thirsty, and bursty, etc), and after a while, Kirstie looked like she might have actually had a teeny bit of fun up there. Fun, fun round.

I believe the first game was a song about a girl from the audience – Kirstie. Colin had a heck of a time getting info out of her. She worked for IBM in IT (information technology), she was married to Adam an IT architect, & that’s about all he could get for awhile. Colin kept asking her what she did specifically at work, but mostly she kept looking away & giggling. He finally got her to say she liked running. When he asked her if she had any other hobbies she said, “Well I have four kids.” So someone, I think Chip, cracked well now we know what her hobby is. Jeff & Brad sang her a cute song – Brad was “for her love thirsty” & Jeff “knew he wasn’t her firstie”.

MOVING PEOPLE:
Guy (the father of the kids seated next to me) and a woman named Poo (Yep. That’s right. “Poo.” Brad thought it hysterical.) got pulled onstage to move Colin and Chip in MOVING PEOPLE. Brad explained the game, demonstrating on Colin, including the standard, “If ya want Colin to follow you home, touch him here”(indicating Colin’s nether region . . .) He added, “It hasn’t ever happened yet for Colin, but we keep hoping for him.”

He asked for a topic for a “How To” type show and Skinning Alligators was chosen. And I honestly can’t remember much about the game. Colin had a skinning knife that he kept waving around and Chip would duck out of his way. There was, of course, the task of actually catching an alligator first. Chip and Colin got put into some pretty amazing positions, including Chip who managed to grab the alligator by the snout and hold him tight, while Colin tried to skin him. (“We are gonna skin him ALIVE?”) Colin had his arm, with the knife, down between Chip’s legs which made Chip very nervous. Both Guy and Poo did very well, and actually managed to let the guys keep a certain degree of dignity throughout the game *G* Yep, a fun playing.

And bless poor Poo, but the guys used her name as a running joke for the rest of the night. (Then again, the woman’s name is “Poo.” What do you expect them to do? Ignore it? Hardly. *G*)

Then Colin & Chip played moving people. The scene was a how to show – how to skin an alligator. Some where in there Chip made a crack about Colin’s hair. Colin said “Ha ha ha aren’t you funny in some alternative reality.” That was the only Colin hair joke the whole show. Chip ended up squatting over the alligator holding the snout & starting to skin it; with Colin reaching over his shoulder & down between his legs grabbing it to pull it inside out. It ended with Chip yelling, “That’s not the alligator!!” (that Colin was pulling on).

NEW CHOICE:
Jeff called “new choice” for Ryan and Greg. Jeff asked the second balcony for a line of dialogue that they could base the scene around. Someone shouted down, “I’m Just A Girl Who Can’t Say No.” Jeff stopped in his tracks and just stared at her for a short moment, and then ran to the edge of the stage and leapt into the audience and started to head excitedly to the balcony. Chip followed him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to the stage, and when Jeff was clear, it was Chip who started to run to the balcony. Ryan ended up pulling both of them back to the stage.

The scene started and Ryan and Greg had JUST got going when a cell phone went off in the second row. While the audience member frantically scrambled to turn it off, Ryan told Greg, “Hold on a moment, let me answer my cell phone.” He then mimed taking out a cell phone and answering, “Yes? No. I can’t talk right now. I’m at a live show and I forgot to turn off my cell phone. CUZ I’M AN IDIOT!” The crowd cheered, Ryan “hung up” (and so had the audience member *G*) and the game continued.

Not many bits that I remember. Greg did have a fun moment with, “I know this for a fact: I’m just a girl who can’t say no.” (New choice) “I know this for a fact: Quito is the capital of Ecuador.” Jeff laughed at this, and Greg shot him a glace, “No, really it is.”

JEOPARDY:
Greg was Alex Trebek, the host. “I just pretend to know the answers.”

Brad was Vladimir, a vampire and part-time stay at home mom. Full cheesy Bela Lugosi vampire accent, super campy. Tons of fun. (At one point in the round, an audience member hissed at an answer Brad had given. So, he shouted, “Fuck you, Hissy Boy!” And Brad and Hissy Boy had a lot of back and forth going on throughout the game.)

Colin was Long John Finneman, a Jewish pirate. Hysterical and the rest of the cast loved it! And the accent? Oh my god, hysterical.

Chip was Dimitris, Protector of the Chalice of Doom. Ryan immediately snatched the Chalice of Doom from Chip’s hands and Chip threw a little hizzy fit til Ryan handed it back. Throughout the game, others also kept taking the Chalice from him, til Chip finally got fed up and handed the Chalice to a kid in the front row to hold on to for him where he could retrieve it whenever he wanted it. (And whenever Chip had a really sucky answer he would hand the Chalice back to the kid.)

And for the life of me . . . I cannot remember who Jeff and Ryan were at all. I think Jeff was Christopher Walken, but I’m not totally sure on that. And yeah, Ryan. A total and complete blank on him.

Foreign Countries – Scotland
Colin/Long John buzzed in with, “Where do Scottish people live?” Greg/Alex accepted with a nod, adding we would have also accepted, “Canada.”

Items on a Deli Menu – Noodles
Another answer that Greg used to rag the city of Olympia, making fun of their delis. Later on, there was also a topic of ‘Items on Indian menu,’ to which someone shouted, “Dog!” and Greg took even more delight in harassing the folks of Olympia and their culinary tastes. “Remind me to stay the fuck out of your delis and restaurants here, okay?” (“Dog” also had been the three-syllable word that Olympia had come up with in the first show.)

Exotic Animal – Zebra (Which Greg FINALLY accepted from the kids I was seated next too . . . poor things had been suggesting things ALL evening and none of the guys accepted their suggestions. So, thank you Greg!! I thought they were gonna BURST if one of you guys had NOT accepted at least one bit from them.)
Ryan buzzed in with, “What does a Zee use to hold her breasts?”

Famous Authors – Longfellow
Colin/Long John buzzed in with, “Who was a really famous pirate?” (Which really just got everyone laughing hard. It was all in the delivery. Can’t do it justice here, but it was pretty dang funny.)

Exotic Cars – Moped. Which REALLY cracked Greg and he quipped, “The style and class of Olympia is showcased by yet another truly stupid answer.”
Colin/Long John buzzed in with, “What do you call a one legged homosexual?”

Another topic, that I only got a bit from, involved something that ended with the sound, “poo.” So Greg said, “We would have also accepted, “What comes after “enormous” and after “painful?” This began a string of jokes at Poo’s (the MOVING PEOPLE volunteer) expense.

Hmmm . . . yeah, my mind has sort of blocked out the rest of this game. Sorry.

Next was Jeopardy with Greg as host and the guys as: Ryan as Gary, Chip as Dimitrious with the chalice of the damned (he “held” it until one of his jokes fell flat, then he gave it to a guy in the audience. When another joke fell he took it back & when yet a third fell he gave it back to the guy in the audience) Jeff as Christopher Walken, Brad as Vladimir (full time vampire, part time stay at home mom), & Colin as Long John the pirate. When one answered correctly they got to pick the next category & the audience would call out the answer & some one would make up a question to it. It went pretty quick; the one I remember most (don’t ask me why ) the answer was Longfellow & Colin’s question was “Who is the most popular pirate?”

SENTENCES:
Ryan asked for a period in time that they could do a scene based on and someone shouted, “Renaissance!” Ryan said, no, that they had just done that and asked for another time period. Someone then shouted, “1980’s!!!” and Ryan, with a bemused shrug to Greg and Jeff, accepted it.

Greg and Jeff mimed changing their clothing styles, including pushing the coat sleeves up the arm (Jeff) and flipping up their collars (both). Greg started the scene off with a reference to putting on some Loverboy. When no one responded . . . and I mean, no one . . . Greg turned and quipped at the audience, “A famous band of the 80s? The 1980s? The fucking style that YOU wanted to see?” He kept going on, ragging the audience about how it was their stupid choice of scene, that they had been giving stupid answers all evening, and that they needed to start laughing or else . . . and then Ryan (I think) ran downstage, tagged Greg on the arm and said, “Greg man, . . . you're doing a scene.” Greg went, “Oh . . .” and jumped quickly back to the scene with Jeff. Can’t remember much else . . . tons of references to Don Johnson, Miami Vice and snorting cocaine. It was fun, but mostly it was such an odd time period for them to do. The game got tons of laughs.

I only remember one sentence. And I think it was the final one to end the game, “I shit my pants.”

The scene was the 1980's. They were basically two roommates having "chicks" over & arguing over who got the "major" one & who got the "grody" one. At one point Greg referenced Loverboy (the band) which no one really reacted to & he did a little Greg rant about what a great 80's reference it was; Chip talked him down & back into the scene. All the sentences were clean & fairly tame except the last one - Jeff "I s*** my pants" while Brad pulled up the back of his shirt, looking at his butt.

Cute Ryan moment . . .When the game ended and the audience was clapping and cheering and while Chip was grabbing folks for the next game, SOUND EFFECTS, Ryan suddenly grabbed two stools and started to set up downstage right for GREATEST HITS. From upstage, Colin just watched him, head cocked to the side and a very bemused look on his face. When Ryan returned upstage to grab a third stool, Colin nodded him over to him and whispered, “No, not yet.” Ryan looked down at the set sheet and sheepishly shrugged, embarrassed and very slowly crossed back down stage right, grabbed the two stools, all casual like, and returned them to their upstage positions. And then sat down, and smoothly grabbed a bottle of water, like, “Yeah, I meant to do that.” Colin was chuckling at him the entire time. Very cute.

SOUND EFFECTS:
Chip had pulled two volunteers for the game, Heather (to move Ryan) and Brad (to move Brad.) When Chip heard the second volunteer’s name, he teased him, “So, now Brad if will take this mic and stand next to Brad and Brad if you will stand next to Brad and Brad move to Brad’s right side – no, Brad, like this -- and Brad move to Brad’s left side, Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad, Brad.”

(Quick note . . . the name “Brad” looks funny if you type it out a lot, like I just did. Brad Brad Brad bradbradbradbradbrad. *shrug* Okay . . . back to the report.)

The scene chosen was Truck Drivers. A very funny round, due mostly to Ryan’s sound effects person, Heather. Early on, Ryan and Brad decided that they had two trucks full of ping-pong balls that needed to be delivered. Before heading out, they tried to play a round of ping pong and Brad kept winning cuz Ryan kept missing with each swing and would have to chase after his ball.

Next, they decide to load up their trucks and when no sounds came from Heather for Ryan’s truck, they decided to take Brad’s truck instead. So, Brad went to go get into his truck and Heather (and not the other volunteer) made the sound for Brad starting the engine. Brad yelled at Ryan, “Why are *you* starting my truck???” Ryan apologized (“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” all the while shooting a mock frustrated glance at Heather) and ran back to his own truck.

Ryan started to climb into his own truck and when he slammed the truck door, Heather just said the word, “Slam!” The audience howled at this and Ryan played it up as much as he could. For the rest of the game, anytime Heather couldn’t do a sound for him, he would run back to his truck on Stage Right and just slam the door, just so that she could say the word, “Slam!” Ryan, after a while, just resorted to standing there and slamming his truck door, usually with great flourish and putting his whole body into it. And then it got that Heather couldn’t even do THAT sound, cuz she was laughing so hard. So Ryan of course, kept trying to slam the door and the door became more and more weaker and feebler with each “Slam.” TONS of fun and Ryan even got caught up in it, giggling as well. The game ended to tons of cheers. And Ryan gave Heather a big hug.

Then Ryan & Brad played sound effects. They were truck drivers transporting ping-pong balls. A girl from the audience did Ryan’s (I can’t remember her name) & a guy, named Brad did Brad’s. So Chip, who introduced the scene, did a whole Brad will do this while Brad does that, Brad will stand here while Brad will stand over here where Brad was, etc., you get the idea. The girl was pretty quiet in her sound effects, but the guy was pretty good except he kept doing Ryan’s too. Ryan kept slamming his truck door shut, but she would just say slam pretty quietly no matter how hard he slammed.

While Heather and Brad were leaving the stage, Ryan looked upstage at Colin and Colin, nodded and said, “Yes. NOW.” And so Ryan grabbed the stools for GREATEST HITS. Cute moment, with Colin smirking as they set up the stools for the next game.

GREATEST HITS:
While Chip was gathering suggestions for the topic of the song, there was a lot of chat amongst Greg, Colin and Ryan over at the stools. Not about who would sit where, but yeah, about something. It was odd cuz it was SO intense. Very serious. I mean, they looked like it was a funeral or something. They just kept talking, hands covering body mics. Odd. And very serious.

Chip turned over the suggestion to the guys . . . Songs of the Rodeo Clown.

Like the other playings, Greg was seated center, Ryan in his traditional Stage Right position and Colin was in traditional Stage Left position. Greg also sort of “took lead” in the intros, with Ryan doing his “permanently stoned” rocker who is having major acid flashbacks and Colin doing the “lived through it all” philosophical rocker.

Regular little bits of banter to get the game started, including Colin who informed the viewers that he was “the sensitive one” of the group. Colin also continued with, “Songs of the Rodeo Clown have been around from the early days to the days of now. Meaning, the Present.”

They tried out their three-part harmony . . . and it was of course, terribly off key.

Colin began, “Just the other day, I was eating noodles at the Deli . . .” Greg laughed hard at this and interrupted with, “Was ‘dog’ on the menu?” Again, ragging on Olympia and the choices they had given all through the evening.

Greg finally introduced the 1950s hit, “Horn Up My Butt.”

After the song, Greg tried to introduce Country, and asked Colin whom he thought of when he heard of the music style Country. Colin said, “Ah, yes, Ozzy Osbourne!” Greg shouted, “No!” at Colin and moved on with “Who was the greatest Country singer of them all? Hank Williams, of course. Senior. Not Junior . . . Hank Williams, Sr.”

(Colin interrupted with, “Yes, the last guy to hit .400.” and Greg corrected him. In my report for Portland the night before, I said that this banter happened there, I was wrong . . . it was in Olympia. *G*)

Greg introduced the Country hit – “I’m In The Barrel And She Got The Beer.” (When Bob started up the music, Chip, Jeff and Brad asked Greg to repeat the song title over again, about three times, as they had missed it the first time.)

This song was great . . . fun, fun. And AMAZING three-part harmony. I just love the way they do the style of Country.

When they came back from the song, Ryan suddenly announced, “Oh, I’m erect.”

Next up . . . the Rock Opera. Ryan started the intro by saying that his two favorite kinds of music were Rock and Opera. He bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t a style that combined the best of both styles. Colin looked at him and dryly said, “Like Rock Opera?”

The Rock Opera song was titled -- “I Can’t Get Off!”

This song, by far, was truly the most amazing playing I have ever seen the guys do. They performed a full little opera! Complete with a full story line, complex too . . . WONDERFUL. Lots of times, the Rock Operas get shouted at the audience. Not this one, wonderful, amazing . . . and uh, WOW!

The story . . . Chip was a rodeo rider, who’s foot got caught in the stirrup (well, his stool *G*) and he fell off, and was being dragged to his death. He sang of his upcoming death and all the regrets he had in life, including the girl back home. Meanwhile, Brad provided a sort of running commentary, sort of the Greek Chorus for the story line, keeping it moving forward.

Jeff played a rodeo clown, who saw that Chip was very close to being killed. He did a lament at the plight of all rodeo clowns, who often found themselves in this position and swore that as his duty as a Rodeo Clown that he would get into the fray and help to rescue Chip. In doing so, he was of course trampled to death, dying heroically but Chip was saved.

Chip and Brad both sang to the lifeless body of Jeff onstage and midway through the song, Jeff’s spirit, his angel rose out of Jeff’s dead body and floated over the stage and joined in the song. Greg and Ryan ran up and joined the scene, grabbing Jeff and lifted him high as he started to fly away. They took the singing Jeff offstage to end the rock opera, leaving Brad and Chip to sing final lament about the Rodeo Clown.

MAN . . . it was amazing! The crowd went nuts and I can honestly say that it was probably the best ever performance of a song I have ever seen the three of them do. It was really wonderful, mostly cuz it was like a little story, sort of like ‘The Who’s TOMMY’ . . . just full and wonderfully complex and very rich. Yay!!!

Then they did greatest hits with Ryan, Colin, & Greg as the pitchmen & Brad, Jeff, & Chip singing. It was songs of the rodeo clown. First was 50’s rock I’ve got a horn up my butt.It was Greg who liked 50's rock & came up with I've got a horn up my butt. For the life of me I can’t remember the second one. The last one, suggested by Ryan, was a rock opera. Ryan was saying how he only liked two styles of music rock and (pause) opera how could he get anything out of that. Then Colin with that little innocent look we all know said "you mean a rock opera?" I wish there was some way you could have seen it because it was really great!! Its so hard to try to describe improv!

It was really terrific!! It was some of the best I’ve ever seen – it must have been almost ten minutes long. I wish I could describe it for you, but words really wouldn’t do it justice. At the end Ryan, Colin, & Greg were standing & applauding the other three, as was most of the audience.

That was their last scene, but they did come back & do a curtain call. Ryan sat in front of the others & they had to tell a story. Each had to pick up where the other had left off as Ryan pointed to them. The suggestion was either David the gnome or David & his gnome, plastic surgery got in there somehow. Greg I guess wasn’t paying attention cause he asked if it was David & his nose so of course there were nose jokes thrown in the scene. It was cute, but kind of anticlimactic after the rodeo clown rock opera.

The cast came back onstage and took a series of bows, with Greg reeling off everyone’s names again. VERY enthusiastic cheers and applause complete with standing ovation, which had begun back at the end of the Rock Opera. Everyone ran off, waving and smiling.

Encore . . . After a few moments, the gang ran back onstage. Ryan managed to quiet everyone down. And man, the cast was really taken with the overwhelming response they had gotten. Ryan, who appeared genuinely touched, said, “Thank you Olympia . . . we are definitely coming back next year. You guys are great.” This set the audience back on cheers and the cast ended up clapping for them. (Yeah, it WAS a great show. *G*)

Ryan told them that they would do one more game, called CONDUCTED STORY and set out to get the name of a made up fairy tale. Someone shouted something that was already a real fairy tale and Ryan repeated, no, not a real one but rather a made up one. And the guy responded by booing. Ryan turned and suddenly shot out, “Fuck you, mister! We are NOT coming back next year!!!” He grabbed his crotch, and smacked at his own chest, miming that he wanted to start a fight with the guy in the audience. The audience loved this . . . and Ryan told them, “You can blame that guy!! We are NOT gonna come back next year. In fact, we are NEVER gonna come back . . . and its THAT guys fault!” Of course, the audience ended up booing the guy. VERY funny. And Ryan continued on his quest for a made up fairy tale . . . he ended up with the fairy tale of “David the Gnome.” Cute story . . . but man, I can’t remember much about it.

After the story . . . the cast again waved and smiled and ran offstage!

Yay for Olympia!

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A NIGHT OF IMPROV - With Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten and Jeff Davis.
June 4, 2004 - WASHINGTON CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS – 7p Show, Olympia, WA

Written by M and loaned to colinmochrie.com with permission. Please do not remove from this site.

Note: I was fortunate enough to be able to attend 5 shows over the course of a couple of days in June 2004. The Allstars were on a Pacific Northwest Tour that took them from various stops in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. I managed to hit the shows in Portland (2 shows), Olympia (2 shows) and in Ryan’s hometown of Bellingham (1 show.) These reports are from that weekend. Occasionally, I will refer to another show, saying, “like last night in Portland” . . . but otherwise, I think the reports stand pretty well on their own.

These are just reports from my personal daily journal . . . I am able to scribble notes during the show and I transcribe the rest that night at the hotel. So, yep. A pretty good representation of the night. But there are also probably a few mistakes. Again, just my recollections. *G*

As always, heads up! The guys use adult language at these shows. Read at your own risk. *G*

(And please know that all the spelling mistakes here are mine. CMWeb is much too smart to let stuff like that slip by. Then again, she’s Canadian, and spells things funny anyways. *G*)

Enjoy! M

First of all, Olympia is a nice little town! Much different than Portland. *G* I’m a city gal, but I was quite taken with all the little mom-and-pop owned antique shops that Olympia had. Lots of used bookstores, which I really loved. Spent a lot of time (and money) in the bookstores. Very quiet little town where things shut down early, ya can tell. There is one sort of ‘main’ street, called Fourth Street, tons of little bars and one dance club called The Vault. (Found out later that Jeff went there after the shows.) But yeah, Olympia is a neat little town. Would visit it again.

We were let into the Theatre around 6:30p and as in Portland the night before, before the show, the AllStars Manager Rich passed out slips of paper for SENTENCES to the audience, explaining the game and that one of the improvisers would come collect them mid way through the show. Asking them to submit a sentence or phrase that would/could be used for the game.

Bob Derkach on piano, with more snazzy music to warm up the crowd. And Rich did his same sort of announcement for Greg, “From San Francisco and from WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY -- Greg Proops!”

A grinning Greg (black shirt, tucked in black jeans) came running on and did his same monologue from Portland, including more local references. “There is an excitement in the air, a beating of the heart that can’t be explained, a quickening of the bloodstream. It must be the realization that we are THIS close to Tumwater.” Pointing at the stage lights, he warned the people of Lacie, “Don’t be afraid, but this is electricity.” Now, I know nothing of either Tumwater or Lacie, and have probably even managed to spell them incorrectly, but yep, the locals LOVED that joke.

Midway through his monologue, there were latecomers who came in and Greg approached them at the edge of the stage, “What the hell ELSE is there to do in Olympia on Friday night at 7p?”

He explained how he and the others would collect clues from the audience throughout the night. He said, for instance, “What is something that you find on the streets of Olympia?” After listening to a TON of replies, he responded to the audience with a curious, “Genital Irritation? In OLYMPIA???”

Introduced the cast with wonderful intros as always! (Would love to be able to really transcribe them word for word, cuz they are always super fun . . .)

For those who track these things . . . what I remember of da wardrobe!
Jeff – black jacket, black tee with white-checkered design, black jeans
Chip – blue shirt with black pants (he changed for the second show, into a black shirt)
Brad – grey/blue-striped shirt, same shirt as in Portland
Colin – light blue, short-sleeved shirt, the one with the star design? He’s worn it at a ton of these shows. Black slacks.
Ryan – short sleeved light green shirt. (In fact, I think my brother has the same exact shirt. *G*)

Everyone came running on to immense cheers, especially for Colin and later Ryan. The boys onstage really hyped up the crowd by cheering Colin on, bowing to him, etc. And did the same with Ryan. When Ryan entered, strolled on casually, smiled waved, etc. and solemnly shook hands with everyone onstage . . .til he got to Colin, who he pulled close, slid his hands up slowly and seductively to both sides of Colin’s face and pulled him close for a kiss . . . and stopped, one inch away from his mouth. (VERY cute and the audience loved it.) When a smirking Ryan let go, Colin just stood there and shook his head at him sadly.

FREEZE:
Starting players were Ryan and Colin. Colin was immediately put into a “doggie” position. It was suggested that Ryan be put into a position of “spooning.” Ryan cocked his head innocently and mimed spooning food into his mouth, in question to the audience member who shouted it. But, it was obvious that Ryan knew the person meant the kind of “spooning” ya do with someone in bed. The audience member clearly wanted Ryan to spoon with Colin and Ryan got out of it nicely.

Misc bits . . .

Colin as Noah, accused Chip of dressing up like a monkey in order to get on the ark. “I know that’s you, Jerry. I KNOW it.”

Colin got stuck on his knees for a long time. So, there were tons of height related bits. Mr. Roarke and Tattoo . . . Simon and Garfunkel . . . Sonny and Cher. (BTW, Greg does a pretty funny Cher.)

Jeff tagged in and mimed pointing across the stage, told Colin, who was still on his knees, “Ya see it now? Ya see it? It says CAREFUL -- QUICKSAND.” Colin then continued to sink in the quicksand. Cute, cuz he didn’t have that much further he could sink.

Ryan somehow ended being a gay moose at one point.

Towards the end of the game, Colin was prancing around the stage in a kind of lopsided strut of some sort, so Ryan called him Quasimodo. And Colin responded by running at Ryan (“Esmeralda!”) and embracing him. Colin then slowly slid down Ryan’s leg and started to hump his leg. HYSTERICAL . . . and Ryan was not ready for it at all.

Final bit . . . Ryan and Brad. Brad pointed at Ryan and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen . . . BARRY!” And Ryan shrugged, as a bored male dancer and started to do a pole dance, which evolved into a seductive kind of lap dance. He then lay down on the ground and put his legs up in the air. And waited. Completely still. Everyone was just staring. Finally, he whispered desperately into his mic, “Spin me. Somebody spin me.” And Jeff and Chip ran forward and spun him around, as if he were break dancing. The crowd cheered at Ryan getting spun and as Jeff and Chip pulled him to his feet at the end of the game, we could here Ryan saying into his body mic, “I was like, is ANYONE gonna spin me?” And Chip was apologizing, laughing, “Well, we didn’t know . . .” Super funny, cuz no one up there had any idea what the heck Ryan was setting up. They just stood there watching him frozen with his legs in the air and waited for him to speak. So yeah, silly fun moment.

STYLES:
Colin interviewed Terry from the audience. The fun thing about Terry was the she was very droll in all her answers. Kind of a bored delivery, almost put-upon, and just flat out straightforward. She was great!! And it was super fun to watch Colin interview her. She was a nurse, who worked in the Labor and Delivery area of a local hospital. He asked her what the worst part of her job was and she, without missing a beat, said, “All those screaming women.” The audience howled at this, and Colin agreed that screaming women were indeed bad.

She was married to Frank. She looked perplexed at first when Colin asked what Frank did for a living, looking out at Frank in the audience as if he could tell her the answer. She finally said, “He’s an excavator.” And mimed driving a big backhoe like those at a construction sites. Colin wryly quipped, “So, you and he are in the same line of work, eh?”

She said that she did like to collect and make stained glass. She also liked camping. And in response to Colin’s question of “Where do you like to camp?” gave the funniest answer ever: “In the woods.” The ENTIRE cast just lost it, including Colin, who agreed that the woods were probably the best place to camp.

She always wanted to travel. When Colin asked her where she would like to travel she replied dryly, “Anyplace but here.” (Yeah, Olympia is a sleepy little town. *G*) Jeff and Chip sang to her in the style of a Broadway Musical. Again, I suck at taking notes on the lyrics of the songs themselves -- the only thing I quickly jotted down was a lyric of Jeff’s: “Paint my stained glass . . . and I will spank your ass.”

MOVING PEOPLE:
Lori and Pat were pulled onstage to move Greg and Ryan. Colin introduced that game and asked for a “how to” topic for a late night TV show to be about. The topic given was “How To Build Outhouses.” Lori was paired with Ryan and Pat was paired up with Greg.

As with a lot of playings of the game, the movers did an amazingly awkward job of moving the guys around. At a lot of the shows, folks just move the guys’ arms and don’t try and get them to walk that much. (Especially when they see how hard it is to get them to move.) But Lori and Pat REALLY wanted Greg and Ryan to walk . . . so there were some pretty hysterical moments with Greg and Ryan just having their legs and torsos moved in the most awkward positions. Ryan was trying to walk to one side of the stage and ended up doing an almost complete split as Lori kept only tapping one leg. (He told Greg: “This is gonna take a while . . . I’ll be over there in about an hour.”)

Early on . . . Greg and Ryan also ended up flipping each other off, using the American version, the European version and finally the Italian version of the hand gesture. Greg tried to pick up some lumber at one point and ended up with his ass pointed at the audience, so Pat, his mover, just left him like that. Pat then grabbed Greg’s ass and shook it. Greg quipped, “Pat is a kinky SOB.” The audience ate that up, whopping and hollering, so Pat kept shaking Greg’s butt.

Later in the game, Greg picked up a nail gun and accidentally shot Ryan with it. Ryan commented that getting shot with a nail gun wasn’t that bad, cuz he didn’t even flinch. So, Lori grabbed Ryan’s shoulders, shook them and made him flinch.

NEW CHOICE:
Brad and Colin played while Ryan called. In introducing the game, Ryan admitted that he loved calling this game cuz it was his chance to “fuck around with the guys.” Ryan asked for a time period in history and Renaissance was chosen.

Brad started the scene, miming being a painter. Colin entered and asked what he was doing. Brad: “I’m painting a portrait of the river out there.” Colin pointed out that you actually didn’t paint portraits of rivers, that they were called “landscapes.” Little bit of back and forth, bickering between the two of them on the appropriate term. Colin announced that the King had sent for him. Brad said, “Oh, he probably wants me to paint a PORTRAIT (with an evil glance at Colin) of his dog.” (New Choice) “He probably wants me to paint his bathroom.”

Colin warned Brad to be careful, that the Queen had designs on him. Brad admitted to “having dalliances with the lady” (New Choice) to “having done the nasty with her.”

For some reason, it was decided that Brad must kill the king so that he can take his place in the kingdom and continue to see the Queen. So, Colin suggested that Brad should sneak into the bedchamber and kill the King. Although Colin got tangled in his words and said, “sleep” instead of “sneak.” So, Brad kept saying he was gonna “sleep-sneak” into the bedchamber, like he was sleepwalking, but sleep-sneaking instead.

Colin suggested that he “poison him [the king] with this vial of poison” (New Choice) “stab him with this . . . this . . . really . . . sharp thing” (I love it when Colin gets flustered in this game.) and then finally (New Choice) “to make him listen to Michael Bolton CDs.” They both agreed that killing him with Michael Bolton was probably best and Brad said that for good measure, he would also make him listen to John Tesh CDs.

Later on, Colin commented that he had “splinters on the windmills of my mind” (New Choice) “a rash on his reason.”

Colin struggled in this playing (which is rare!), usually only coming up with a couple of bits before he completely petered out, unable to come up with a new choice. Brad was able to take the new choice calls much longer than Colin. And Ryan was merciless with both of the guys, he just kept “new choicing” them (yes, I just made that into a verb *G*), With Brad, especially. Towards the end, Ryan called New Choice on him about 7 or 8 times and Brad finally just ran out of words. It was cute, and the audience roared for Brad in the end. To end the game, Chip ran to him with a bottle of water and started rubbing him down like a prizefighter post a big fight.

JEOPARDY:
Colin was the Jeopardy host, Alex Trebek, “and I’m better than you.”

The contestants were:
Ryan was the tallest freestanding structure in Olympia. (Something like that . . . whatever he was, he was TALL!) He pretended to shout down to Colin and to the others. He tested his buzzer a couple of times, including testing it on Colin’s right nipple. Colin looked down disdainfully as Ryan kept zapping his nipple. He looked at Ryan, shook his head and declared earnestly, “You are NOT going to win.”

Brad was Corky, a former dancer with the Riverdance Company who had just lost his job cuz he had lost his legs in an accident.

Chip was Pappy, a gold-digger from the 1880s Gold Rush. (Complete with corny accent and goofy goldminer dance, Pappy also looked to be around 90 years old.) When he introduced himself, he said, “Hi, I’m a gold-digger from the 1880s!” Colin looked at him and said, “Hi, I’m a game show host from 2004!” Colin/Alex had to ask his name twice, so Chip/Pappy repeated it, saying, “What are you? Deef?” Colin looked at him, “You aren’t going to win either.”

Jeff was “a 1/2 snake, 1/2 magic. (Dramatic Pause.) I am called . . . Cobracadava.” Oh, Lord . . . the cast completely lost it. Greg especially, well, actually all of them. But yeah, Greg LOVED it. Colin/Alex called him “Cobra” and Jeff interrupted and said that he preferred to be called by his full name, “Cobracadava.” Colin responded, “I’ll call you whatever the hell I want.”

Greg was ????, an onion farmer from ??? (local reference, maybe Walla Walla, WA), who sold meth part time.

The game began . . .

Unusual Food – Beef
Brad/Corky buzzed in with, “How does a hair lip say beep?”

Three Syllable Word – Someone shouted “Dog!”
Greg buzzed in with, “What passes for a three syllable word in Olympia?” (Which started a long line of jokes of how stupid the residents of Olympia were.)

Exotic Cars – Jaguar
Chip/Pappy buzzed in with, “What killed my wife?” There was no response, so Chip said, “Well, it’s true.” Colin/Alex shot back, “It’s sad, and we don’t really care.”

Color – Periwinkle
Jeff/Cobracadava buzzed in with, “Who was Rip Van’s brother?”

Funny Names for Boobs – Fun Bags
Ryan buzzed in with, “What is the name of the safety devices on clown cars?”

Things on an Indian Menu, Not Curry – Cumin
Ryan buzzed in with, “What comes after, “I hear you knocking, but ya can’t . . .?”

French Artists – Matisse
Brad/Corky buzzed in with, “What do French women call their boobs?”

Exotic Cars – Volkswagon
Greg giggled and couldn’t let that one go . . . he piped up, “THAT is what passes for exotic in Olympia????” (Poor Olympia! Greg just made fun of them for most of the evening. Both shows. *G*)

By now, Chip’s “goldminer” accent had gotten so goofy that Jeff/Cobracadava did a magic spell on him and fixed it, and Chip got to use his own voice for a while. Ryan asked Jeff/Cobracadava if he could use magic to shrink him down to normal size. Jeff did so, but Ryan was dismayed to find that Jeff actually had only shrunk his penis. When Jeff saw that he could manipulate the size of people’s penises, he cast a spell on his own penis, making it gigantic! Chip/Pappy joked, “That IS a magic snake!”

Colin/Alex announced that it was now time for the Lightning Round of Jeopardy, a round where the first person to get two correct answers would be the winner. (I like this version better than the version that I have seen them play in the past, where they go in order down the line and there is major pressure on the final person in line to have the funniest line, to end on a big laugh. In this Lightning Round version, well, it’s just sort of whoever gets two answers right, and even that is kind of sketchy cuz no one is really paying that much attention. *G*)

Towns in Oregon – Salem.
Brad/Corky buzzed in with, “What do you do with boats?”

At one point in the Lightning Round, Ryan made a verbal goof and it became a running gag of the game and the night. He made reference to 2000 pounds equaling one ton. But he mixed it up and said, 2000 tons equaled one pound. So, the guys ragged him about that for the rest of the evening.

Somebody won . . . not sure who.

SENTENCES:
Sentences were collected (in that same little prissy basket they had in Portland) and Colin and Ryan played. Jeff asked for the title of a made up soap opera and “Sopo de Pollo” (“Chicken Soup”) was accepted. From what I remember of the scene, it had very little to do with either chickens or soup . . . but involved around a relationship drama set in Alaska. I only remember two sentences pulled:

“What does the barber do with all that hair on the floor?” and “I like to eat fudge.”

Towards the end, as Colin was leaving Ryan for someone else Ryan said, “I know its true, I can see it written all over your face!” Colin responded by wiping and scrubbing at his face. THIS just made me giggle.

SOUND EFFECTS:
Jeff and Chip played with sound effects provided by George and Ally. Scene involved Cowboys. And that is all I remember. *G*

GREATEST HITS:
It took a very long time to get “Acrobat” from the audience. The guys kept asking for suggestions from the second balcony. And it was REALLY high up. So that took a while.

“Songs of the Acrobat” as sold by Greg, Colin and Ryan. And sung by Chip, Jeff and Brad. They again adopted the personas of aged rock stars selling compilation CDs, with Greg announcing, “You might remember us, Peter, Paul and Gary.”

First song, introduced by Greg -- Reggae: “How Did Your Feet Get There?”

Next up -- Protest Song. According to Ryan, “This song was on the charts for 18 week.” (Yep. 18 week. Not WEEKS. But “Week.” 18 of them. Silly Ryan. And Greg and Colin teased him about it too.)

Final song was in Style of Boy Band. The name of this Boy Band group, according to Greg was, ‘The Magic Squeegee,’ bringing back a running gag from the shows in Portland. The song was: “I Tumbled For Your Love.”

The Protest Song and the Boy Band song, by far the best of the three songs. As always, Jeff, Brad and Chip were amazing. The crowd LOVED them.

After the final song, Colin, Greg and Ryan (who had pulled their stools upstage to get out of the way of the other three for the final song) joined Chip, Brad and Jeff for a standing ovation. Thunderous shouts, clapping, etc . . . I think it was Jeff who did the calling out of everyone’s names again, and with waves and smiles, they dashed offstage.

Only to come to do an encore game . . . CONDUCTED STORY:
Ryan asked for a period of time, got Renaissance (which they had already used that evening, so I was a bit surprised that they used it again) and chose to tell the story of the “Bungee Jumping Festival.” The story ended on a high note and again, with waves and smiles (and another acknowledgement to Bob Derkach), they ran offstage.

Yipppee!

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A NIGHT OF IMPROV - With Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, Chip Esten and Jeff Davis.
June 3, 2004 - PORTLAND CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS – 7p Show
Portland, Oregon

Written by M and loaned to colinmochrie.com with permission. Please do not remove from this site.

Note: I was fortunate enough to be able to attend 5 shows over the course of a couple of days in June 2004. The Allstars were on a Pacific Northwest Tour that took them from various stops in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. I managed to hit the shows in Portland (2 shows), Olympia (2 shows) and in Ryan’s hometown of Bellingham (1 show.) These reports are from