Month: April 2026

The hilariously brilliant team from Whose Live Anyway?—based on the hit show Whose Line Is It Anyway?—entertained more than 2,500 people over two sold-out performances at the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. I was lucky enough to attend the second of these outstanding shows with my dear friends Jeremy Miller, Jenny Baker, and Angie Jackson in the beautiful Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre. Greg Proops was ill on the second night, and we felt a bit disappointed that he couldn’t join us. However, Gary Anthony Williams—who would typically serve more as the show’s emcee—stepped in and delivered plenty of hilarious comic relief in Proops’s absence. I’ve also enjoyed watching Williams in the reboot of another favorite show of mine, Night Court, which was canceled last year after three seasons. Jeff B. Davis, a fan-favorite guest improviser from the original American Whose Line Is It Anyway?, was on hand to provide his signature comedic flair, along with some impressively talented improvisational singing. Comedian Joel Murray also appeared, best known for his roles in TV shows like Mad Men, Dharma & Greg, and Still Standing. The main star of the show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? legend Ryan Stiles—the 66-year-old Canadian standing at an imposing 6’6″—surprisingly had the least to do during the 80-minute performance, which opened with a game called “Freeze Tag.” Audience members suggested that Murray begin the scene with Davis in a crab position, while Davis started in a downward dog pose. Whenever Williams called out “freeze,” he and Stiles would swap in and continue the scene from those same positions. The result was a wildly absurd progression—from Jeff Davis “giving birth” to a large man dancing to “Me and My Shadow,” to a visit with a Hokie bird in the wild. Stiles’s take on the Virginia Tech mascot drew big laughs from the audience of 1,274, made up largely of students and faculty. In the game “New Choice,” Jeff Davis corrected any line he felt needed improvement while Ryan Stiles and Joel Murray acted out a scene about doing the dishes. Some of the lines are best left unrepeated, but suffice it to say that when a husband behaves inappropriately with his wife’s sister, it tends to derail the evening—hilarity ensued. Things escalated when a secretary named Rachel with multiple piercings and tattoos was invited on stage to be serenaded by Jeff Davis and Gary Anthony Williams, with accompaniment from original Whose Line Is It Anyway? musical director Laura Hall, whom I recognized immediately from the ABC version of the show. They improvised a song about her dream of traveling to the Caribbean with her husband, Jonathan—whom she first noticed when he walked across a Food Lion in a way that won her over. Her most tropical destination so far? North Carolina. “Boo” and “Hubband,” their affectionate nicknames for each other, became running jokes throughout the night. Juliet and Courtney were then invited on stage to play the classic game “Moving People,” in which Jeff and Joel could only move when physically repositioned by the audience volunteers. The improvisers gamely attempted the Hokey Pokey while being awkwardly adjusted, resulting in a cascade of comedic mishaps and what turned into a keg party gone wrong. Next, all four performers participated in a Jeopardy!-style sketch. For the category of exotic foods, one audience member suggested “shakshouka.” Responses included “What is not a biscuit?” and “What is an exotic dish I convinced my wife was from North Carolina?” The winning answer: “What is how you pronounce Chewbacca when you’re really high?” A married couple—Matt and Mary, former Virginia Tech students who had been married for 32 or 33 years (they couldn’t quite agree)—joined the stage next. Their first date at Top of the Stairs involved Matt, a member of a ska band called Boy, Oh Boy, and Mary, a Catholic schoolgirl. As the performers reenacted their date, the couple signaled accuracy with a “ding ding” and inaccuracies with a “wah wah.” When “Mary” said, “I just come to church for the wine and the boys,” the real Mary gave a “ding.” When drug use was implied, she quickly responded with a “wah.” In another segment, audience-written lines were randomly inserted into a scene. During a fairy tale titled Secrets of the Prima Ballerina, Stiles played the ballerina while Davis portrayed a passionate French suitor. At one point, the suitor dramatically quoted Ezekiel 25:17—famously used in Pulp Fiction—with a hilariously mangled delivery. For the “Sound Effects” game, the audience suggested the year 2009 as the setting, with sound effects provided by two brothers. At one point, a suit with snaps and buttons sounded less like clothing and more like a squirrel scurrying down his pants. In yet another sketch, Ryan Stiles portrayed a deceased Gordon Lightfoot, while Joel Murray played Dan Aykroyd, selling a compilation album of the neuroscientist’s greatest hits. Highlights included sea shanty “EKG,” folk-rock anthem “Frontal Loading,” and jazz standard “It’s All in Your Head.” The show closed with a Blacksburg-themed hoedown. As Joel Murray sang, “I wish we could stay for the game—once you’ve seen ‘Enter Sandman’ in person, your life is never the same.” A live Whose Line Is It Anyway? experience is something few people ever get to enjoy. I’m grateful they made a stop in Southwest Virginia, and I hope this won’t be the last time we see such a hilarious and talented group perform here.