The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Colin Mochrie

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

"Whose Line Is It Anyway?" star Colin Mochrie joins Andy Richter to discuss turning improv into a career, learning from his daughter, performing comedy under hypnosis, deciding between show business and marine biology, the origins of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” why he can’t do a Scottish accent, the fun of playing murderers, and why Tarantino should put Colin and Andy in a buddy action film together!Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER

Hi, it's me, Andy Richter. Who else would it be? It's the Three Questions. It's my podcast. I'm the host, so here I am. And this week, I'm talking to the great Colin Mockery. You of course know Colin from Whose Line Is It Anyway, where he's been hilarious for years.

But you can also see him on tour now with HiProv, which is hypnosis plus improv, or on his Asking for Trouble tour with Brad Sherwood. Before I begin my chat with Colin, I just wanted to mention that The Andy Richter Colin Show is now airing every Wednesday on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Radio. Episodes will be available on demand in the SiriusXM app or you can find them a week later in this same three questions podcast feed. If you wanna be a part of this new radio show, you can call us at 855-266-2604, leave us a message, or fill out the Google form in the description

for this podcast episode, and we might get back to you and put you on the show. And now, here I am talking with the wonderfully hilarious Colin Mochrie. Alright. Well, hello, podcast world. Today I am talking to Colin Mockery the I mean one of the guys One of the guys who has figured it out how to basically take The make-em-ups the Improbs and make a living You know into you know a well weathered You know seasoned age and just basically from doing the wisecracks.

Yeah, it shocks even me. Even at this well-weathered age, it's like, what the hell? No, I mean, it's like, I never would have thought that it, you know what I mean? I'm sure you had the same thing. Like you thought, okay, I'll do these for a while, but you know, then I'll get on a TV show or something, you know what I mean? I'm sure you had the same thing. Like you thought, okay, I'll do these for a while, but you know, then I'll get on a TV show or something. Yeah, my very first show, my daughter was nine months old.

She just turned 33 and we're still different. Wow. Yeah, a little slower, but we're still different. By the way, seriously, do you find like the brain isn't as sharp as it used to be? The brain is sharp. It's the body that isn't. There are times, there have been times I've been clicking through the channels, I'll see

a Who's Line, I go, oh, I can no longer do that. I can no longer squat. That was one of my major things in my comedy utility belt. Right, right. It's during some physicality. Yeah, I've said it before, like, I live in fear of the acting job where it necessitates me, like, getting on my hands and knees and looking under a couch for something. Like, if it's written into the scene.

Because it'd be like, okay, I'm going to need at least 45 seconds to get down there. He's auditioned for one where one of the directions was he then gets up from his lotus position. And I thought, we're not having that. Yeah, with the assistance of three helpers. Short break in the action. Yeah, yeah. Short break in the action. Yeah. There's something, and I thought about this in thinking about talking to you.

Because I've had a similar career in that I was on a talk show and we weren't playing improv games, but we were basically cracking wise. It was still a very spontaneous, improvised kind of comedy that we did. And I don't know, there's just times where, and it's probably just my own mental illness, but I think, I think most people that, that do these kinds of things for a living, vacillate wildly between incredible self-regard and incredible self-loathing.

And when I'm at the self-loathing parts, I often feel like, okay, yeah, I was on TV and I said funny stuff, but where is it? It's all just kind of like floated out into the ether. And I'm wondering, like, do you ever regret like the lack of text in your life? You know, like, you know what I mean? I mean, Brad Sherwood and I have been touring for 22 years now. And after every show, you go, wow, that was a good show. And no one will ever see it again. And who knows how long those people remember it.

They'll remember maybe a couple of things, but yeah, it's gone forever. I guess that's a good thing about whose line and also maybe a bad thing. Maybe it's not meant to be seen more than once. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, cause that's another thing that I kind of go through is comedy does have

the shortest shelf life of any kind of entertainment, I think. I think it just it's very it's a very quick a very quick short line between my god, that's funny and what the fuck that's you know, like you look at there's there's just like lots of stuff. I mean, some stuff endures, but then there's lots of other stuff that I personally loved that I look at. And I think, ooh, that's kind of slow. Yeah, it's hard.

I mean, throughout the ages, everyone cried at the same thing, the loss of everyone. But not, you don't always laugh at the same thing as years Yeah, I mean I think of some of the early stuff we did in whose line that was Insensitive to many groups of people. Yes. Yes When I think I wake up at three in the morning with just in a cold sweat going I said what? but I guess

In comedy we learn we evolve. Yeah. Yeah. No,. No, that's the other thing too is that kind of learning that lesson and truly, you know, it always feels a little hollow when you say it was a different time, but honestly it was a different time. You could say stuff and people would laugh and now they would, you know, now they'll throw bricks. You know, it's just like we all were in on it. It wasn't just me. I gotta say, some of the audience is getting pretty bad for making something worse than it is. You'll say something, kind of innocent, you'll hear, oh, and then you have to stop and go, what did I say? It was...

Yeah, yeah. And so everyone's really sensitive. Yeah. Knee jerking seems to be the national pastime. Yeah. I mean, you know, I just... First, I don't disagree with the whole trend of like being more sensitive and not saying things that hurt people's feelings, but it is... For instance, I did a live show a little while ago and the comedian May Martin goes by they them pronouns. I just I'm still

bad. I'm still like clunky. I still, you know, it's like a language I haven't exactly become convert, completely conversant and it's not easy. So they came on stage and I said she or her and they started to roast me a little bit, which they don't mind. May doesn't mind. Like May thought it was funny, you know, and likes to tease me about it. But afterwards, they said, May said, you know, I would have gotten after you more, but I felt like the audience would have turned on you. And May was exactly right, you know,

I mean, the audience would have turned on me and with good reason, because- Again, it's when my daughter transitioned. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. It was the hardest part for the first little while it was like constantly getting the wrong pronoun and she was pretty good about it. But then, you know, after a while she started and I would go, you know, I've had 25 years of heat. So you've got to give me just a little more time. Yeah. And I have an older friend who's just confused about the entire thing. And she said, like, I don't know, am I supposed to say, Hey, oh, hey, how are they? I said, no, you still use you. It doesn't mean grammar has gone.

You is for everyone. Yeah. Well, no, my kids are so facile with it, and it's so easy to them. And they'll be talking about a person and say they. And I will all of a sudden think they're talking, wait, who else? Wait, who else was there? No, no, it was just me and them.

Who, you know, it's like a really dumb Abbott and Costello routine. But I instantly, and when I say it myself, I am instantly thinking it's a plural, you know, that it's more than one person. So. For me, it's the same whenever the computer upgrades to something new and it's like, I have to start from scratch again. It feels like that. Yeah.

I'll get there, but. When your daughter, how long has it been since your daughter? Seven years. Seven years. Seven years. And was it, I mean, was it difficult at first or was it something that you kind of had a, had an inkling was in the works?

It was an inkling. She was, there's just the three of us, my wife, Deb, Tinley and I, and we were a very close unit and she was very open with us. Sometimes more than I, because I still have kind of one foot in the the 50s as a father in some way. Yeah. When she was 11,

we were having dinner, she said, can we talk about fellatio? I was like, well, talk to your mother because I only have one viewpoint, I don't know if it's going to help. She was always very open and then she told us she was, there would always be this thing, can we go in the kitchen for a second? So that meant something. So we go and she told us she was bisexual. Then she said, okay, I want to maybe dress more in a feminine way, see how that was. And we got to the point where we can't go to the kitchen anymore. It's like, what, what's left?

Shows up on the table. Um, but yeah, I felt when I found out Brad and I had been doing shows in India, we flew back to Boston, did a show that night. Then I went to LA to do whose line and I was feeling off. So I called the office and said, is there a doctor you night, then I went to LA to do Who's Line, and I was feeling off. So I called the office and said, is there a doctor you can, I just don't feel right. And I thought, I'm probably just jet lagged. So I go to the doctor, he goes,

oh yeah, you're severely dehydrated. He goes, has anyone ever mentioned the heart thing to you? And I went, no. He goes, yeah. Okay, come into my office. He takes a ultrasound. He goes, oh yeah, you've got some, um, some holes in your, uh, um, ventricles or something like that.

Like I was paying attention. Some holes somewhere. And all I know is they're not supposed to be there. Yeah. And he said, I said, so what should I do? And he said, oh, you know, you don't have to do anything really till something happens. I said, well, like a heart attack?

And he goes, no, no, you'll get plenty of warning before that happens. I went, all right. And driving home, I got a allergic reaction to the tape that he used for the drip. So my body was covered in hives. So my wife calls me and goes, there's something I got to tell you. I just talked to Kinley. She's coming out. She's tramps. I went, I have holes in my heart and a rash on my body. Let's get serious here. In terms of pressing news. Yeah.

So I, yeah, I talked to her right away and it was, it was fine. And it was weird not being there when all that happened. But when I came back, it was like, oh, yeah, it's just my kid with a different coat on. Yeah. Um, she's, uh, she's lovely. She's every time she visits us and leaves, our wife goes, she's just so delightful. One of us did a very good job raising. That's so nice. Yeah. She's, uh, she's lovely. She's, um. She's great with seniors, with kids.

She's out there being just a voice for trans people for anyone who is being sort of overlooked. She's great. I can't say enough about her. And this is in Canada, right? Yeah. And is she in a career that isn't, is she in like a career that sort of, uh, service career?

Yeah, she actually has an, she's over here today because she has an audition that we are, uh, putting on self tape. So yeah, she's done some acting. She did, um, she did a short movie that my wife wrote about her father's dementia. I just realized our family, and we're a funny family, we're really funny, but we're going to the dark side. So- It sounded a little bit there just because

when you rush past wife and daughter about her father's dementia, it sounded a little bit like you were talking about yourself. It did. Like they made a movie about your dementia. Yeah, her father had this amazing dementia. It was Lewy body dementia, which is attached to Parkinson's. But he would have these delightful hallucinations that there'd be an art gallery,

there would be hotter balloons. There was this giant who was always with him. Wow. There was one time he had a urinary tract infection, which spiked the dementia. And then we came out of it. We were all there with them. And the doctor said, Jim, do you, do you know everyone here? And he said, yes, that's my, my daughter, my son, a lot of Colin, uh, my

granddaughter, uh, the giant and the doctor went, um, the giant. And he said, say what you like. He's the first one here and the last one to leave every day. So, right? Yes. We always had someone there he could talk to. And it was, he never lost us. So it was probably the best outcome from a dementia.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, I had an aunt that I sort of took care of at the end of her life. You know, I mean, at least sort of making sure that she had the care that she needed, kind of taken care of. And I was so, cause she was in a, in a memory care facility for people with dementia and Alzheimer's and, and so many of them are just so scared and angry. And she was just bright and sunny. It just, you know, it just brought out kind of like this

childlike wonderment in her. And she was, she's always one of the funniest people I ever knew. Like my favorite line of hers about dementia was I went to visit her and I said, so how have you been lately? And she said, I have no idea. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But, but, you know, I, it is, it is at least if it's such a terrible thing. Most of the time that it's like, if it can just, you know, if somebody, I just, in seeing so many people who were scared and angry, it just like, if it can just, you know, if somebody I just, in seeing so many people who were scared and angry, it just, it's, I just want to,

you know, you just think, oh my God, how do I better do some more crosswords? And, you know, and it is, you know, I'm at an age now where I do forget things and I go, is this normal? Because the person I knew really well, and it took me a long time to remember what their name was. Yeah. A little tense. Yeah. Yeah. Especially as we started out talking about,

you make your living with your brain. Yes. When you do improv, I can tell you because I don't do the kind of improv that you do very often anymore. And my brain is flabby in that, you know, you have to keep it going

because it's a very muscular way of thinking. Yeah, exactly. It really is a muscle and it gets flabby so quickly. Yeah. Have you found that if you take some time off and go on a nice long vacation that the first show's back or? Yeah, so I try not to take time off. I just do. Like I do the tour with Brad.

I'm doing also a tour with a hypnotist where he hypnotizes audience members and then I Tell me about that because I saw that and that's got to be so wild. Can't you tell my love's a crow? What I love about it is they're truly living in the moment. So they're not looking forward to, oh, we can put the scene in this direction and that they're just like giving information. And so they basically, the hypnotist hypnotizes an audience member and they are your scene partner. And then we form an instant improv troop. And it's weird because it looks like they're sleeping, but they're aware of the entire time

someone will come up and they'll reference a scene that was three scenes ago that they weren't in. And it's, um, we were in San Francisco and there was a doctor doing research on what happens to the brain when you improvise, Dr. Charles Lim. So he said, could I test your brain? I said, sure. So I improvised in an MRI for an hour and a half. Wow. It was horrible.

But I found that I'm not comfortable. What do you mean improvised? So I'd be lying. There were different... The first one was simple. It was like there's the control colors, red, white, and blue. Then I go improv. You just say whatever colors come to your mind.

Right. And there was the nursery rhyme where you sing the nursery rhyme. Then you do the nursery rhyme, but you make up words to it. Then you tell a story. And what he found was the part of the brain that deals with self-reflection, self-criticism, activity goes away. And the creative part of the brain, that surges forward.

And that's what happens when you're hypnotized. The part of the brain that says, you're gonna embarrass yourself, you can't do that, is gone. And you just become a pure reactor. Yeah, yeah. And you just, I'm a pure reactor. Yeah. Yeah. And who, how did you come up with the idea to do this? The, uh, hypnotist was taking, um, classes at, uh, second city.

And he realized that the exercises that they were giving the students to get outside of their head is what he sort of does to help, um, the subjects get out of their head and just do unconscious comedy. So he called my agent and I met him for coffee and thought, yeah this sounds insane. So yeah, see what happens. So did you like try a couple of dry runs in a small room first? Yeah, we did Second City afterward. Our first show was our first show.

There was no rehearsal. As I walk on, I went, oh hey, Hassan, if I ask them to do this, will they do it? He said, I don't know. He said, yeah, some will. It depends on the subject. Some will just do it.

Some will immediately be there and some not at all. I should have asked this three weeks ago. And we went on and it worked and it's been working ever since. And every night, it just, as I'm off stage, I'm looking going, how is this going to happen? It doesn't seem real to me. And what I love about it is there's all the skeptics who don't believe in hypnotism and all the skeptics who don't believe in improv can come together in one show and just get to both of us. Wow, that's great. Has anything happened that's kind of been like spooky

or like where somebody, know like mind-blowing or is it all just sort of amusing? It's all sort of amusing we're also keeping we keep away from things that could lead to trauma. Yeah yeah so like we do a pet funeral but we like I get two different animals put them together so it's a you know a half giraffe half penguin and it's their funeral. Right. Like there's real tears. And there was one woman who was so distraught, Assad had to take her out and leave her. But they do things like, one scene was I was a superhero and looking for a sidekick. So we got from the audience, the Gibraltar kid. The guy comes

on, I said, so you're the Gibraltar kid, what's your superpower? You come strong like a rock. He goes, no, I have residency in Gibraltar. I said, what? He said, yeah, anything happens in Gibraltar, I can take care of it right away. I said, so your superpower is, you can work in the country where you live. He went, yeah, it's not so easy.

It just became this whole kind of weird thing. Which, and I don't think that is something that out of a thousand improvisers, no one would have ever come up with. Yeah, yeah. And he probably wouldn't have come up with it unhypnotized too. Yeah. Yeah. It's so weird meeting them afterwards because they're so different from their on stage personas. A lot of them were quiet and one woman like killed singing this Broadway type song and afterwards she was going, what did I do? It's like really, it's really odd. Does anybody get upset like that, like it was too much, like they did too much? No, they all, there was one woman, she said, you know, I suffer from social anxiety

and I had no idea why I went up. That was the best hour of my life. Oh, wow, that's great. That relaxed and so on top of it. And that seems to be the big, everyone comes out going, oh, yeah, I feel great. I'm just so relaxed.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you were born in Scotland. I don't know if you remember, because it was a while ago. It was a while ago. I do remember my mother telling me that I immediately peed on the doctor. So everyone embarrassed her.

Well, you'd been holding it for nine months. You didn't want to sully your mother like that. I had my mother. But then your family, when you were seven, do you have many memories of Scotland or, you know, I mean, you were seven, but Yeah, I do have some memories. I've gone back, uh, I still have a lot of family there. So I, I certainly, um, I certainly love it there.

And I remember there's, there's smells I remember and I don't know what the smells are. I can still, and I've gone back and I can never find that smell again, but I remember the smell from the neighborhood we were working or living in. And I just love the people and the country is beautiful. It's just a lovely country. Where are you from originally? I'm from Illinois. Well, I was born in Michigan, but I'm from the Midwest. I was raised mostly in Illinois, about 70 miles west of Chicago. I think there's probably a similar sort of, like I feel like Canada is the Midwest writ large. You know what I mean?

Canadians have a very sort of humble, you know, unassuming, you know, helpful kind of vibe that I think is very Midwestern. It's starting to change a little though. Oh, is it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The world seems to be changing in that direction. We see blindness and of course lovely people, but yeah, there's a little bit more of an edge happening.

Yeah, my grandmother had a lot of family in Canada. So we used to, I mean, I used to, they used to come visit us and we used to come to go visit them. So, and then having lots of Canadian friends throughout my life. And when you, when you came to Canada, did you have a heavy broke? Did you have a Scottish, is that a broke? That's a broke.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was a beaten out of me by some Canadian toughs. So I was, I was assimilated. And it was beaten out of me by some Canadian toughs. So, I was assimilated. You had to make a conscious effort to mimic. And now because of that, I can't do a Scottish accent. Whenever I do it, people just, it's like really? It's like, I guess I was so traumatized that it's-

Wow. So even when you go back, you don't slip into it with your family that's older. No, I don't slip in, no. Wow. But do you have facility for other accents? I was once in a review, it said I should be prohibited by law

from ever doing the diet at this age. So I'm guessing no. Not my strong point. Yeah, yeah. Well, no, I just thought because, you thought because there was always a performer in there somewhere, it took a while for you to discover them. But I thought maybe you had a facility for mimicry, so you just thought, well,

when I get here, I'll just mimic the way they sound. My skill set is so limited. I can't, I'm not being humble or anything. I can't tell you how lucky that this show from Britain came along and showcased the one thing I can do well. Yeah. And gave me a career because I was planning to be a marine biologist when I was in high school. I was- Oh, wow.... a science, I was very quiet, I was very shy. And then a friend dared me to try out for the school play. I did and I got my first laugh and I could still admit. And every time I talk about it, I still get that thing up my back.

And I went, no, this is, okay, this is, forget fish, I want this. All the time. Yeah, yeah. Well, and you were in Vancouver. So that means, I mean, there's, you know, there would have been work. It would be different if you were in Winnipeg and wanted to be a, you know, it was before Vancouver became, I mean, there was theater, of course, but we didn't have a film industry or a television industry.

My first movie was a, and feel free, you may want to write this down, Space Hunter Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. Oh. A 3D science fiction with Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald and Michael Ironside is the villain over dog. So- Was it a spoof or was it serious?

No, they were hoping this would be the next Star Wars. Oh my gosh. So the plot was three supermodels get kidnapped by Overdog. Yeah. Yeah, usual. So there's this one point where Molly Ringwald and Peter Strauss go into this cave and there's all these bat people hanging upside down. They get attacked by the bat people. So of course Vancouver didn't have access to all this. So they ordered 10 crates of bat suits from LA. The crates come up, they

open it, 10 crates of fat suits. Watch the movie, they go into a cave and there's fat people hanging upside down. They knelt a little to make them look a little mutant-y, but it's still like, why are they so fat? Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, it was fantastic. I was so happy, so happy to be there to see it. And the director, directing the 3D movie had one eye. So there was a lot going against this.

Oh do you think this will be a hindrance for you? Oh no no no no no actually yeah you know I get it I get it 3D sure right. There's a lot of hand through like this. Yeah yeah it just goes at the camera a lot. I get it. ["Can't You Tell My Love's a Girl?" by The CW plays in background.] Were you doing improv in Vancouver at that point? I was doing improv, yeah. Theater sports had just, Keith Johnstone had just sort of

brought that to Vancouver. And so they immediately, when I saw that, I thought, oh, this looks like it'd be a lot of fun. And never thinking, oh, this will be my career. It was just something to do in the weekends with my friends. That was just fun. Did you go, I see you went to Longara College. Is that in Vancouver? Yeah.

And so you didn't even, like, you didn't really even, this wasn't gonna be a fallback. You went full into like, this is what I'm gonna do. Yeah, yeah. In my first term, the head of the program said, you're really good at low comedy. So I thought, I took that as a compliment. Looking back, I realized maybe, yeah.

And I always found I felt much more relaxed in comedy, so I thought I'd be known for doing the comic roles and plays and whatever. And how was it received at home from your folks, from your mom and dad, when you said I'm going to be an actor? My dad was absolutely fine with it. And there was nothing in his background. I don't think he ever saw theater until I was in it. But his thing was, you do what you love.

My mother had a little more trouble with it. She would constantly send me match books that said on the back, so you want to be a lawyer with a phone number. I thought, first of all, you could talk to me. Right. I get excited. I go, I got mail. It's like a weird threatening.

Yeah. Is she encouraging you to smoke? What did you know? Like why matchbox? It was bizarre. And yeah, I don't know where she got them from. Yeah, yeah. She, one year the cast of Whose Line was on Hollywood Squares.

That's when she accepted it. Oh, wow. I was like, okay, fine. Yeah. It's gonna be okay. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think that, you know, definitely getting on television was,

but you know, it was weird, because even being on television, like I remember, cause I did the, I did Conan show, the late night show on an NBC for seven years, but then I, you know, I wanted to do something else. So I left and came out to LA. And I remember when I finally told my dad,

Hey, I'm gonna do something else. You know, I'm gonna leave the Conan show. And he went, Oh, good. He said, he said, congratulations. I know you've been thinking about it for a while. And I mean, if you change your mind, you can come back to Conan, right? Can't you?

Like, no, it just, the notion of like, wait, you've got a steady job on television and you're going to go do something else. What it just, it fried his wiring. He couldn't. It is a hard thing for normal people to understand. And they always, you know, when whose line went off the air for like six years, it was like, so are you retired? It's like, well, first of all, I'm still fairly young.

Yeah. Maybe 45, 50 at that point. Yeah. Just because we're not on television doesn't mean we're not working. Yeah. We had this tour going on where I was doing plays. I did King Lear. Oh, wow.

I wasn't Lear. I was a fool. But still, it was me and like, Stratford actors, like Shakespearean actors. And it was a woman playing Lear who was formidable and lovely. It took me a while to not be afraid of her and for her to warm up to me, but then she finally did.

And every night we'd walk off and she'd turn and go, closer. Ha ha ha ha! What a dick. Ha ha ha ha! I mean, I was going to say, that's got to be daunting though, because that kind of capital A actor is, I just feel like I don't know what they learned,

but you know, cause I've just been sort of, you know, I got, they started hiring me for things and I just started learning the lines and doing them, but I don't, you know, technique, I don't know what that is. Yeah, I mean, and the Shakespeare thing, it's like, oh, I hate having to look up words to see what I'm talking about.

Yeah, yeah. Now, from Vancouver, I mean, what do you think? Are you just gonna kind of hang out in Vancouver and do improv? Are you thinking you're gonna make your way to LA? Are you gonna make your way to Toronto? Because as you said, there was just sort of a, the beginnings of a film scene in Vancouver.

Yeah. I didn't have, well, anyone who's kind of looked at my career sees no plan. I get no plan. That's improv. That's improv. I thought I would work. Um, expo 86 happened in Vancouver. And at that point, second city was doing a Show there there and they hired a couple of my friends one was Ryan styles

Okay He is he Canadian. I mean is Ryan Canadian or he it depends what side of the border he's on and then he just He was born in Seattle Mainly in Vancouver. I see. Yeah, went back. So he moved out because I mean, he was so great. They offered him a job in Toronto main stage.

So he went back and a couple of months later, I moved out there and he called and said, hey, they're looking for someone for the touring company. So I told him about you. And so I went audition and I got it. And then I ended up marrying the director a year later. So that was audition for me. Good job.

Yeah, good job security. Yeah, yeah. Of that audition. I don't know what I did. That's, I tried to marry Lorne Michaels when I was in Rockefeller Center. It just didn't work out. So particular.

Well, now how does it say you're in Toronto doing, how does whose line start? Because you started in England, you started on the English version of it. First of all, whose idea was it to do, whose idea was it anyway to do this? Dan Patterson, who went to school in university for a while. He was part of a barbershop quartet. So seems like the perfect person

to get involved with improv. Yeah. Cutting edge. Oh, I was once at a hotel that had a barbershop quartet convention. It was insane. Just everywhere. And at four in the morning, sweet Adeline ringing through the. So I had an uncle, my uncle Bill, whom I loved, sang barbershop quartet. And occasionally I would be around him and his barbershop friends and it was the cringiest thing and it was before I even understood what cringy meant it was just like and the looks on their faces as they harmonized they were having such a good time and it was so

uncomfortable to watch. Yeah you don't need that. Yeah. So Dan went back to England to start as a radio show with people like Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Yeah. It moved to television and it was still a fairly new art form in Britain. So he came to North America, got Greg Probst and Mike McShane first and then did a cross North America tour. So he came, saw the show at Second city. We auditioned the next morning at eight in the morning, which for so many reasons was not good. You know, what are your idea? You're at second city, you know, you do the show, but then you're kind of hyped up. So you hang out afterwards. Yeah. So we did the audition and because we'd worked together as a cast for a while

Everybody was doing that thing where everybody was supportive. It was like great ensemble some good stuff, but nobody stood out So yeah, none of us got it The following year my wife had created a show that was being produced by imagine television show So we we moved down there. She was eight months pregnant to LA. You mean well, a yeah, yeah, and she And then they came through again. I was auditioning with people I didn't know so it was like, yeah Hey screw you look at me. So for the kids out there, I hope that's a valuable left Always number one and that's right and my first show I did over there, I sucked. I psyched myself out. The cast was lovely.

We met like an hour before the show. And then I started thinking, okay, we have the same language, but will they understand any of my references? Well, I get, even though I have a strong British background, I understand all of their stuff. So I just didn't do anything. I was very tentative. And then, so I thought, well, that's that. And then the following year, uh, the show had gotten a big, uh, following on the

company, Comedy Central, which I think was the HOD network at that point. So they decided to film some in New York and then have college audiences. And Ryan talked them into trying me again. And so they hooked me up with Ryan, who I basically grew up with. And then they kept bringing me back, but they would never, they would say, we're going to give you two shows this year. I was like, okay. And then I'd end up doing all of them.

And that went on to the second to last season We did in Britain every year. No shit. Yeah, how many years is that that they it was eight eight years? Does that mean they pay you less? No, they would just they would just use me all then. Okay, they would pay me but they do it say Okay, you're just booked for these two. And they say right right do tomorrow. And it's like, yeah, I'm not going anywhere. I'm in Britain. Right. Right.

And then, um, I don't have a return ticket yet. I mean, did you start doing that? Just buying a one-way ticket and then kind of, it was such a dream gig. We go over there. It was like six weeks. We shot on the weekends. Um, we had the week free to do stuff in London. They would give us an insane per diem.

Every year they'd call and say, we have more money. I thought, I don't understand why people say this showbiz thing is tough. It seems. Yeah. And so that went until they hooked up with Drew for the Americans. So we did the last British season in Hollywood. And then two weeks later, we shot the first American series. Wow.

And what's so sweet about it too, is that it's not like a sitcom where you do the sitcom and then it's just the sitcom. like you can take this anywhere and everywhere until the end of time and do it live or you know or like you know you and Brad going you know going off and doing just like a mini version of it just the two of you it's's such a great thing, you know? It's so great. And I mean, you know, our set is like two stools and mics. Yeah. Kind of all you need. So it's really easy to tour. And I think the show kind of came at the right time because improv was starting to crest. And also it was, I found a lot of sitcoms at that time. It was almost, you could come up with the punch line

before the character did. It was like a da da da da da da punch and da da da da da. And with Who's, you never knew what a setup was or what the punch line was gonna be. So it was a little bit of like, so it made it kind of different and fun for people. And it is like, Who's Line is,

because I've always felt, you know, people, I just remember when I was in improv and they were like the true believers in improv that, you know, said this is, you know, like TV will come around to improv and they'll, and, and I always just feel like, no, because the enemy of improv is the remote control, you know, if you, because improv is imperfect and that's, it kind of has to be imperfect or as a result of that. You know, if you, because improv is imperfect and that's, it kind of has to be imperfect.

Or I mean, as it was doing shows in Chicago they weren't the greatest thing ever. And it was for 50 people and people afterwards could not believe it was just made up. So if it's fantastic, no one's ever going to believe. They're just going to think, no, you guys, that just was all memorized. You all wrote that. If it sucks, they go, that was improv. Yeah. Yeah. So I, and I just always felt like you improv requires a patient audience. It requires, it's not a standup where if I'm not laughing every 30 seconds, I'm going to, I'm out. I'm, you know, I'm switching off my attention.

You need an audience that kind of will go with you. And that will understand that you're just making this up. And on nobody has time for that. I mean, I don't, I'm an asshole when I'm watching TV and it's like, this show is boring click, you know? You have a little more time on, on stage. I, a lot of people are playing around with little more time on stage? Yeah, yeah. Or playing around with what they can do with improv.

I did a Dungeons and Dragons one and I don't know anything about it. Yeah. All I was, I'm a cleric, I'm neutral something. I just kept trying to fly because I thought it'd be fun. And the dungeon matter, we go, you can, you can jump. You can't. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

Those things are fun because the audience is also in on, okay, this guy doesn't know what this is, but he still has to fulfill this task in this. Right. Oh yeah. It's, uh, I'm glad it came into my life. Now, when you, you are, when you're doing so much improv, do you go through periods where you kind of, you sort of lose faith in yourself?

Like, does it become hard at times? Because it is, I mean, I can, I just put myself in your shoes, going and doing improvised shows all the time. I would worry about just how much production the factory can do, which the pre-factory being your brain. And I mean, and what do you do with nights that are just kind of, you know, because you got to have the low notes to make the high notes really sing.

And so there's some shows that just are a little slower than others. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, it's a 50-50 proposition at best. Yeah. And there was always a worry of getting also too comfortable, and then you just kind of slip into, oh, yeah, I did that before, but it worked. So that's why when I saw the hypnotist approach me, I thought, oh, this is great. I also try to work as much as I can with people I don't know, because I find that makes me focus and get back to, okay, I'm here to support this person, take their ideas.

So when my daughter was 17, she had some friends who started an improv troupe and I did sit with them. And it was, I mean, it was kind of weird in that, Oh, look, they brought their grandfather. It was great because they, of course, they had the energy and they weren't polished, but they still understood what improv was. And they were quite good. So, and that also gave me some faith in humanity. I don't often get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I keep trying not to get bogged down and doing the same thing over and over again. And I do some shows with my wife, which again is like a totally different experience.

So yeah, it's just trying to keep involved and curious and do different things. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Like, what are you looking forward to now? Are there challenges ahead that you are putting for yourself? When the pandemic happened, and let me just say, I know it was a bad thing. Right. Wasn't very good at all in many.

Right. Right. I loved it. I was home for the longest time in 20 years. It was like reconnected with my wife. We found out we still really enjoyed each other. And I never thought I could retire. I thought, no, I got to keep going. But I thought during the pandemic, I thought, no, I don't think I could ever fully retire,

but I could certainly pull back. Same here. It was not good. I'm, you know. Yeah. It was like a little bit too much like, oh, this is not so bad. I always said, oh, I couldn't handle not having anything to do. And I found out, oh no, I can, I could very well.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it hasn't worked out that way. I think I'm booked until 2025 right now. Well, good. But that's good. So I'm booked until 2025 right now. Well, good. Oh, but that's, that's good. Um, so I'm, I, I'm trying to do different things. There's a show here called Murdoch mysteries. Uh huh. So, um, when they had their 13th season, I put out a tweet saying, Hey,

congratulations. I'm not the only Canadian actor who's never been on this show. Two days later, I got a call from him. Smart. It's only worth that time. Smart. That's the Patton Oswald method. Yeah. You say online, hey, good job, guys, and then you're in the next episode. Yeah. So I did the episode, and then they brought me back, same character, but they made me a serial killer. Ah, sweet! And so for the next, um, I'd been on it like five times, uh, now, and each time I'm, uh,

worse and worse and I always managed to get away. And the last one was their musical episode. And I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a, um, a singer, but- Yeah. Be a- I'm- I have this big song as I'm about to suffocate the hero. And it was like such a magical moment. A producer came up and said, you know, you sounded like a young Leonard Cohen. I went, Oh, okay.

Let's go with that. I'm pretty good at sweetening. But I'd like to do more things like that. I'd like to, um, I'd like to do more movies and television just because it really isn't a muscle of use. I mean, whose line is vision? It was, it was basically filming an improv set. We would do like 22 games and there were no retakes or anything or, uh, so, and I have done some episodic television, which is great,

but I would love, here's my dream, two dreams. One dream is to be in a production where they start off with money is no object. Yeah, like the Marvel universe or whatever it's called. Yeah, how about one of those? You know, we don't have much money, but. Yeah, yeah. I've always wondered what's the

what's the craft service like on a Marvel movie? It must be unbelievable. The closest I got was on the Drew Carey show when I it was like the I talked to the craft person and she said, it's like I am cooking for two battalions of Marines every day with turkeys and cams and everything, it's just amazing. Yeah, yeah. The second thing I want,

I want to do an action movie where I'm the lead. Nice. Because I've always felt, in most action movies, it kind of, you know, Schwarzenegger or Liam Neeson or whoever, they know, they're going to make it. Yeah. I don't have that guarantee with me.

I may not. On screen and off screen. Yeah. It's like the knees can go to my back is bad. And I think that would reflect real life if someone, a normal human being doesn't have any skills, can't do the fight, but somehow through wit and luck. Yeah. So, anyone's out there with a script of an old act in the interval?

Well, that's, I mean, those are wonderful goals. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, I'm with you. It's just so much fun to act. I just, you know, I actually just hosted a, I got, I think it's the only time I've ever got to be a murderer. I was on an episode of Monk, you know, whatever, you know, 15 years ago, and I just hosted a moderated, a Q and A with the cast because they had a movie on Peacock just last year, and they're trying to get an Emmy for it.

And just remembering that and just, you know, I mean, I made a crack about all those pistol whipping classes I took at Juilliard really paid off because I finally got to pistol whip someone to death on camera, you know, in the lighthearted fun show Monk, you know. Wow. I do see a bit of that. Yeah, yeah, no, it was like, you know, in the lighthearted fun show Monk, you know. Wow. I do accept that. A bit of a...

Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it was like, you know, I've always kind of felt that way about that show and different shows like, I was on an episode of the show Bones too. Oh yeah. And they're all kind of lighthearted, it's like a little bit of madcap romance kind of thing with a horrible murder at the core of it every week and like

but that part you just kind of oh yeah that person was decapitated whatever look let's yeah you know what the shovel was that was cool just oh wow yeah i was a demon here's what's gonna happen i think this is what i think is gonna happen barrentino is gonna hear this podcast oh good and he's going, you know what? A buddy movie, an action buddy movie with two people who should be action heroes. Will be his biggest grocer yet. Yeah. Will be there Academy Awards singing whatever our hit song is.

Yeah. Come on Quentin. You can look at our feet. We don't mind. Bring know, bring it on. Well, Colin, what do you think is the best lesson you've learned throughout this enviable fun career of yours? Oh, I think the best thing is definitely is if I could talk to my younger self, it would be mainly just relax and truly live in the moment.

As a younger actor, you're always going, how am I going to make money? Where's my next job coming from? And all the stuff, good stuff that happened to me just came out of nowhere. Living in the moment for me is the thing I've learned most going into situations without any prejudgment, uh, you know, you know, whether it's applying for a loan, not going in there going, well, this guy's not going to give me anything of her just going in with, let's see what happens. And, and I'm not an optimist by any stretch of the imagination, you know,

they could, oh, good. That's that shit just gets you in trouble. Glass apple, glass apple. Mine is glass. So, uh, yeah. So, so that I just, and also, um, I've been very fortunate and that I've had great people look after me, uh, well being nice and giving me a chance and being there at my back from

my, my wife and daughter to people like Ryan. And so be also just be good, just try to be nice. And yes, it's somebody said, you really can't be to be good. You can't be good without being selfish because there's always something you want. And that may be true, but so what? Yeah. If enough people start being good to each other, who knows what could happen. I've always felt, even if you just look at people like vending machines, that you want to like put something

in and get what you want out. Like you just, all you care about is what people can give you. The way to grease those gears the most is being nice to them. Even if you're like, have no consideration for other people whatsoever. Fake being nice and you'll get so much more out of them than you will by being a dick. You know, it's just, it's simple. We have to bring manners back. I'm sorry. I knew I sound full of people.

But, please and thank you. What's happening to that? And then just that little bit goes, oh yeah, okay. So I just respected this person by saying thank you. And but yes, all gone. People stand at the top of escalators once they get off and just stand there. It's like, what the?

No, it's true. It's true. Yeah, please and thank you. I've always said like about Mike, cause I have older kids and a four-year-old now, but I've always just been like, look, as long as they're polite and courteous, at least to other people.

And that's what I would hear is they're polite and courteous. I'd be like, okay, not so much at home, but at least they're doing it out in the world. That's all I care about. Exactly. And they're taking the name of Richter out there. Precisely, that glorious name of Richter. Okay.

Well, now you and Brad Sherwood, you're turning your two-man show called Asking for Trouble. Where can people find out those dates? Go to cullinandbradshow.com. Okay. And then Hiprov, your hypnotist with Asad Meche in Toronto. If I was up there, I would be there when the next one was, cause that sounds fascinating.

A lot of fun. And as Asad said, if you ever want to do the show, feel free. Oh, love to. Get hypnotized and tell way too much. Oh, you don't get hypnotized. You have to work. And you also are in the movie Villains, Inc. which is coming out, well, I mean, very soon.

It was a long time. There was that two hour hiatus in the middle of filming. And I kept thinking, I'm gonna be okay because I don't really age that much in this. How long to what? Three years, during the pandemic. Oh my gosh. So I had younger people in the cast going,

oh yeah, that's a post pandemic shot. I'm sure they spent millions in CGI just to keep you looking good. This was not one of those projects, money is no object. It's a really fun movie. Great. Well, Colin Mochrie, thank you so much for taking the time. It's been a real joy talking to you.

Thank you. I wish nothing but the best for you. Whereas most of the people I talk to here, I wish them ill. I hear about it. I always wish. I know superpowers, people want to fly or be invisible. My superpower is the ability to make people soil themselves immediately. That would be a fantastic superpower. Yeah. Okay. Be, yeah, be rude to me. Hope you like shit in your pants. Follow you and we can do a presentation somewhere.

All right. Well, thank you, Colin. And thank all of you out there for listening. I'll be back next week with more of the three questions. The three questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista with assistance from Maddy Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl.

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