Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood returned to Bristol, Tennessee, on Friday, September 18, bringing their unique brand of improvisational comedy back to the Paramount Theater, two years after their first performance there on March 29, 2024. Once again, they proved why they are legends of improvisational comedy with a tour named after the television show that turned both talented performers into household names. I grew up watching both of these gentlemen on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and having the opportunity to see them perform live, for my third time, is a genuine thrill. It is a singular honor to know them both and to call them friends, especially Colin Mochrie, who has been generous enough to allow me to interview him five times over the past 18 years.
His two appearances in Bristol, along with his 2024 appearance in my hometown of Wytheville, Virginia, where he shared the stage with comedic hypnotist Asad Mecci, have proven that Southwest Virginia and the surrounding region have a genuine appreciation for improvisational comedy. Friday night’s performance was no exception. For 90 minutes, Mochrie and Sherwood delivered entirely improvised hilarity that seemed to fly by in an instant. Despite having undergone knee replacement surgery and surgery for a detached retina, 68-year-old Mochrie proved himself to be in tip-top shape.
The show opened with a popular Whose Line game called “Moving Bodies,” in which Mochrie and Sherwood must remain perfectly still unless two volunteers from the audience move their bodies. Based on suggestions from the audience, Colin and Brad found themselves in France preparing to celebrate “Yay for Cheese Day.” Before beginning, Mochrie warned the audience about his recent surgeries. Sherwood then pretended to hand one of the volunteers a piece of paper.
“Would you please sign this waiver?” he quipped.
That set the tone for the evening. In the next game, “Motivational Speaker,” Mochrie and Sherwood were tasked with delivering a seminar on how to improve your partner. Audience suggestions included being more submissive, naked, quiet and competent. Using the word “juxtaposition” as an acronym, the comedians proceeded to deliver “The 13 Steps to a More Submissive Partner,” with the kind of inexplicable hilarity that only Mochrie and Sherwood can create from audience suggestions.
Before choosing a woman from the audience to represent each comedian in the popular “Sound Effects” game, the pair asked the audience to provide a fictitious name for a store. The response was “Bobsleds R Us.” That left Mochrie and Sherwood trying to sell an array of bobsleds in the middle of a blizzard, while their volunteer sound-effects artists provided the noises necessary to bring the increasingly ridiculous scenario to life.
In “Interview,” Mochrie and Sherwood once again demonstrated why their ability to work together is so impressive. They acted as one person while bringing various audience members with different occupations onto the stage. Each audience member was instructed to ask the duo a question related to their profession. Mochrie and Sherwood then had to answer by alternating one word at a time or, at times, speaking the same words simultaneously as if they were a single voice.
A history teacher asked, “In what era did Homo erectus live?”
“Homo erectus lived during the time of large ferns,” the two answered, one word at a time.
The response only became more absurd from there, as the comedians constructed a completely improvised history of ferns, Homo erectus and human evolution.
Instead of performing a musical dedicated specifically to Bristol, as they had done during their 2024 appearance, Mochrie and Sherwood gathered a new assortment of audience suggestions, including Tennessee football, groundhog, aggressively, desperate redhead, indignant wombats and front desk at a seedy hotel. Those ingredients were then transformed into a musical performed to the tune of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a number of other tunes. The song contained a note just a little too high for the now 61-year-old Sherwood, who otherwise had no trouble carrying his tune throughout the evening.
Closing the show with their trademark improvised lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” Colin and Brad recapped the evening with an uncanny memory of each game and volunteer. The laughs from the audience during the finale earned the pair a rousing standing ovation in appreciation of the one-of-a-kind evening. As with every show, it was a memory that could never be replicated.
A native of Chicago, Sherwood told me after the show that he has step-siblings in Tennessee and that many of his relatives attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He and Mochrie were leaving Bristol that night to perform at the beautiful Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville on Saturday. To have interacted with these two talents personally is among the greatest thrills of my career.
Both comedians were once again very pleased with the Bristol audience and said they looked forward to returning within the next couple of years. One can only hope they might bring their show to the Millwald Theatre in Wytheville sometime soon as well. Sherwood genuinely inquired as to whether I thought they were as funny this time as before, a question I considered futile. I consider their work among the greatest comedy I have ever witnessed. Their live performances only heighten the hilarity and joy they have brought to audiences across the country and around the world. Here’s hoping they continue for at least another 30 years.
