Tag: Paramount Bristol

Mochrie, Sherwood return side-splitting improv to Bristol

September 22, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

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.

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Improv legend to return to Bristol

September 10, 2026September 10, 2026 Zach Cooley No Comments

Having the opportunity to interview Colin Mochrie for the fifth time in my career is a thrill that is difficult to put into words. The first time I interviewed him was in 2008. I simply sent an email requesting an interview and was absolutely thrilled when he accepted. The four interviews that followed came in connection with performances he gave in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Bristol, Tennessee; and, finally, my hometown of Wytheville, Virginia. On Nov. 2, 2024, Mochrie performed in Wytheville with famed hypnotist and comedian Asad Mecci. The show was sold out. “It was a fun show,” Mochrie remembered. “We had a good time.” Whether Mochrie and his Whose Line Is It Anyway? veteran co-star Brad Sherwood will ever return to Wytheville remains unknown. For now, however, the pair are making a second appearance at Bristol’s Paramount Theatre, where I was fortunate enough to see them with my wife on March 29, 2024. As always, the improvisational legend was every bit as kind as he was funny. Mochrie was extraordinarily generous with his time, giving me twice as long as he had originally allotted for our interview so I could turn it into a double episode for my podcast. “It’s really not a chore,” he told me. “It’s always fun to talk to you.” He had no idea what those words meant to me. Mochrie’s book, Not Quite the Classics, was inspired by a Whose Line Is It Anyway? game called “First Line, Last Line.” In the game, performers were given the first and last lines of an existing piece of writing and had to improvise everything in between. When I asked Mochrie if he had any interest in writing another book, however, he was less enthusiastic. “It’s something I really hope doesn’t happen,” he admitted. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my career, and I’m glad it turned out like it did, but I would be afraid to try something like that again.” That doesn’t mean Mochrie is completely opposed to putting another book together. He and Sherwood have discussed the possibility of writing a coffee-table book about their adventures on the road together called We Are Not the Rolling Stones. “It’s something we keep talking about,” Mochrie said. “But we’re too lazy to do anything about it.” I offered my services as a ghostwriter, an offer for which he graciously thanked me. We’ll see if a career opportunity comes out of that. Mochrie has also never seemed to mind my occasionally excessive enthusiasm for his work. He once regarded me as completely nuts for memorizing the improvised songs performed by Wayne Brady during the one season of Whose Line Is It Anyway? that was released on DVD, but he has always been gracious about my gushing over his talent and kindness. Most importantly, he has always been willing to talk with me. “I think you have finally proven yourself as my number one fan,” he assured me. There is no higher accolade I would rather receive from Colin Mochrie. I immediately asked him to put that in writing. With a chuckle, he said he would be happy to do so. I haven’t forgotten that he later inscribed his book for me: “Thanks for loving me.” “I’m truly grateful that you continue to enjoy my work,” he told me. He has no idea just how much truth there is in that statement. His journey to Whose Line Is It Anyway? began more than 40 years ago when he and Ryan Stiles were friends and aspiring comedians at Second City in Toronto. Stiles heard about a touring company that was being assembled for a new comedy program that would eventually become Whose Line Is It Anyway? As it turned out, Mochrie wasn’t auditioning for merely another television show. He was auditioning for a role that would change his life in ways he could never have imagined. The woman heading the touring group was Deb McGrath, the woman Mochrie would marry 37 years ago. “It was a very tough audition,” he joked. “It went on for a while.” Mochrie doesn’t view Whose Line Is It Anyway? simply as the television show that made him famous. “Whose Line Is It Anyway? not only gave us a career,” he explained. “It gave us a joy in coming to work. We were all great friends who worked together well and enjoyed being around each other.” Drew Carey served as the moderator of the American version of the program, and his infectious laughter became almost as recognizable as the comedy itself. “Drew was the moderator of the show, and he had such an infectious laugh that we all figured if we can make him laugh to the point of crying, we’ve done our job.” In many cases, Mochrie was the one responsible for bringing those tears of laughter to Carey’s eyes. Although Wayne Brady frequently found himself responsible for the musical games, including “Irish Drinking Song” and the ever-popular “Hoedown,” Mochrie became particularly renowned for the one-line zingers and perfectly timed responses that left audiences and his fellow performers laughing uncontrollably. “Those moments came out of sheer panic,” he said. “When you have to come up with two or three rhymes to make sense with the audience suggestion, it was horrible. I think audiences loved the hoedowns because we hated them.” To know Colin Mochrie, to have had the opportunity to interview him repeatedly over the past two decades, and to be able to call him a friend is a blessing than he’ll ever know.

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