‘Whose Line’ guys bring their improv to The Orpheum

Quick – what rhymes with Wichita?

Comedy fans will find out next weekend when improvisational comedians Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood, veterans of TV’s “Whose Line is it Anyway?” perform at the Orpheum Theatre.

The show, titled “Asking for Trouble,” is different every night. “We have added some new games that take us out of our comfort zone, which is always fun,” Mochrie said.

Among the new features is a “musical tribute to the town we’re in,” he added, “Which is difficult since there’s only one of us who can sing.”

Mochrie and Sherwood have been improvising together for 22 years, Mochrie said in a phone interview from his home in Toronto.

“With Brad, at this point, I can see where he’s going to go with a scene,” he said. “Sometimes he surprises me from time to time, and even when I don’t know where he’s going, I trust him enough to follow along.”

“Whose Line” is an improv game show whose roots go back to 1988-99 England, where Mochrie was among the performers, followed by the first American version from 1998 to 2004. It was revived by the CW network in 2013, where it continues to air.

Mochrie and Sherwood, originally scheduled to perform at the Orpheum in November, were the first “Whose Line” alums to go on tour. A “Whose Live” tour featuring several other of the TV show’s performers is also touring the country, including its most recent stop at the Orpheum last September.

There’s no ill will between the two productions, Mochrie said, and members of the two casts will sometimes perform in the others’ show.

The 66-year-old Mochrie recalled his early days in improv, having to explain to people what the performance art was to get them in the door for performances. A veteran actor and comedian, he said he’s always had the skill set to be an improviser.

“I just felt really comfortable with it. I seemed to take to it right away,” he said. “When I first got involved in improv, nobody knew what it was. It wasn’t something that was in the public consciousness.”

Thanks to the success of the TV show, there’s been less that has to be explained.

“‘Whose Line’ really brought it into the public consciousness,” Mochrie said. “I was really fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.”

Mochrie said he’s glad to see improv companies still going strong throughout North America, and that the ability to think on one’s feet, listen and react is beneficial off stage as well.

“I constantly tell people to take improv classes even if you’re never going to be an improviser. Because it really is a good skill set to have,” he said. “The first thing you learn is to listen. As a world, our listening skills are pretty bad. And just being able to take peoples’ ideas and at least have a sensible discussion seem to be going by the wayside. I tell people you really find how to walk into situations, live in the moment, listen to people and work together for a common solution.”

While other performers will rehearse to get ready to perform, Mochrie said he just has to decompress.

“Most of the work I do is just get rid of everything I have and feel confident enough to walk on the stage with nothing but whatever the audience gives us, and Brad,” he said. “Just making sure I have that confidence in myself that it’s all going to work and even if it doesn’t, we’ll get through it hopefully unscathed.”

Besides touring with Sherwood, Mochrie headlines a show of his own called “Hyprov,” where audience members are hypnotized and Mochrie interacts and improvises with them.

“I think it’s actually made me better because I don’t have (friends on stage),” he said. “I get lazy because I’m working with people that I know, I’m sure everything’s going to be fine. With these people I really have to listen and pay attention because I truly have no idea where they’re going to go or what’s going to happen.

“I learned a lot about hypnosis. I realized all my knowledge about hypnosis came from ‘The Flintstones,’” he added. “That makes it exciting for me, to be outside my comfort zone and outside every zone I know.”

Like the TV show, Mochrie and Sherwood’s performance is family-friendly, for the wide age demographics in the audience.

Although another season of “Whose Line” is scheduled to begin this fall, Mochrie said it is going to be leftover material from previous tapings edited together as new episodes.

After taping episodes in January, he said, “I think everybody assumed that was it, but we’ve assumed for many years the show would die and never come back.”

Mochrie’s performances live on thanks to YouTube videos online. When exercise guru Richard Simmons died last month, a video of Simmons as a guest on “Whose Line” made the rounds on social media. Simmons played along with Mochrie and the rest of the cast in a 2003 scene where Simmons assumed different inanimate objects on a cruise ship.

When Mochrie and his wife teach improv classes, Mochrie said, they show that scene – where two minutes of solid laughter had to be cut, he added – to display that it doesn’t take training to become an improviser.

“He came on, he was committed, he made choices. Granted, some of them were odd,” Mochrie said. “Because of his involvement we ended up with some of the funniest things that’s ever been on television.”

COLIN MOCHRIE & BRAD SHERWOOD: ‘ASKING FOR TROUBLE’

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 200 N. Broadway

Tickets: $34.95-$59.95, from the Orpheum box office, selectaseat.com or 316-755-7328