Comedy Review: Mochrie and Sherwood @ Abravanel Hall
By Jenni Stokes
01/25/10 - 11:26 AM
I discovered improv in eighth grade, with the help of Drew Carey and the BBC’s love child, Whose Line is it Anyway? So many hours spent procrastinating homework and staying up later than my parents would ever know, watching comics spout lines from the top of their heads in audience-suggested skits. When I was offered tickets to cover the Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood show on Jan. 22 at Abravanel Hall, I jumped.
While Mochrie and Sherwood headline the show, the audience should receive just as much credit for the hilarity. Sherwood started the show by explaining it's all audience participation, no scripts or rehearsals.
“Alright,” Mochrie said, “Let’s make some crap up.”
And so it all began:
The show started w/ Mochrie and Sherwood grabbing an unsuspecting couple to assist them in “Moving Bodies.” The scenario: stealing peanuts from an Austrian factory, while on rollerblades. And the couple was instructed to move and tap the limbs of the actors while they narrated. Making two grown men rollerblade and steal peanuts is no easy task.
Sherwood brought a microphone to the back of the auditorium and told the audience to pass it down the rows, so each person could make a sound effect in the skit about climbing Mount Everest — resulted in yodels, duck farts, and insulting echoes. Completely unexpected and hilarious!
The comedians ended on a high note — a skit met w/ side-splitting laughter from the audience, even causing some (including myself) to well up w/ tears. Brad and Colin preformed an opera based on suggestions for an unusual subject for an argument. The audiences' response: Missing shoes and recycling. Although this skit was hilarious, the true laughs came from watching Mochrie and Sherwood sing the opera blindfolded and barefoot on a stage set with a minefield of 100 live mousetraps. Each “click” and “snap” was met w/ uproarious laughter and became a game for the comedians, who began trying to snap the other up in a set mouse trap, all mind you, while being blind folded. In a sadistic commentary on the audience, the funniest moment came when Mochrie removed his blindfold and began tossing mousetraps at an unmentionable area of unsuspecting Sherwood, ultimately succeeding.
With six years of performing audience-inspired improv, Mochrie and Sherwood have undeniable chemistry and ability to think on their feet (even with mousetraps everywhere).
Not one minute passed w/o giggles heard throughout the Hall @ the packed show, the lobby was abuzz with praise and fans laughed their heads off all the way home.
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