Minor point of clarification: the Greg/Ryan/Jeff/Joel tour is "Whose LIVE Anyway?". They use the TV's show's name extensively in advertising, but not in the actual title of the show.
I haven't seen the Brad/Colin tour, but I saw Whose Live a couple of years back at the Keswick in Glenside (Philly). I believe it was their first or second stop coming out of COVID hiatus, and frankly Ryan looked AWFUL, but I was inclined to give them some slack because a) I like all of them (or, at least, Ryan, Greg & Jeff - I don't really know Joel at all) and b) see above re: COVID. I'll echo David's comments above, but I'll add that I think improv suffers in a big house like the ones these tours typically play. Improv is, at its heart, an intimate experience, and doing improv in a barn just doesn't; work. Normally I'm the first person to start shouting suggestions when prompted, but I didn't even bother at WLA because I was a good 20+ rows back from the stage; the combination of the distance, my mask, and the fact that theatrical acoustics do not work that way meant that there wasn't a chance in hell that anything I suggested would make it to the stage. Anyone pulled for participation in a game (and any crowd work being done) would be confined to the first few rows of the house. While the evening was still very funny, the loss of the potential for audience participation was a bit deflating. I'm not here to suggest that improv should be hidden away in basement comedy clubs and college black box theaters, but from my experiences (both as a fan and as a performer), smaller venues work better for improv because smaller venues facilitate a better connection between audience & performers. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. On Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 2:33:19 AM UTC-5 David Bruggeman wrote: > Last night I went to see the Whose Line is it Anyway? live show in Santa > Rosa, followed by Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood's improv tour tonight in > Sacramento. > > Besides the performers (the current Whose Line tour lineup is Ryan > Stiles*, Greg Proops, Jeff Davis and Joel Murray), there are probably three > major differences between the shows. > > Laura Hall provided live piano accompaniment for the Whose Line show, > while Colin and Brad performed to tracks. I suppose improv purists might > be bothered by having the same instrumental tracks for each show, but I'd > counter that the live music tends to follow pretty standards forms when > it's used, even on the show. > > Brad and Colin would do some longer games, and more of their games either > weren't on the TV show, or weren't in heavy rotation on the show. > > Most of the time Colin and Brad got suggestions from the audience before > saying what the game was, while the Whose Line gang usually called out the > game first. > > *Ryan was not there in Santa Rosa (and he probably misses/missed their > other shows this weekend), but they got Drew Carey to sub in. > Understandably, he was a bit rusty and repetitive, to the point of using > the same Dobie Gillis reference twice. (For those less charitable among > us, you could note that Drew usually hosted the TV show, and rarely > performed.) > > The main drawback with these shows is the audience. You can expect a lot > of (dumb, repetitive, boring, nonresponsive) suggestion shouting. > > If you had to choose between the two shows, I'd go with whichever one has > more of your favorite performers. If that's not a factor, Brad and Colin's > show will be different enough that you won't think it's just like a TV > episode. > > Either way, it's a fine way to spend an evening. > > Best, > David > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/df5e15cc-8794-4ecf-8669-39049c9e24b0n%40googlegroups.com.
