Review: WHOSE LIVE IS IT ANYWAY? at Palace Theatre

Apparently Joel Murray didn’t get the memo before performing with the WHOSE LIVE IS IT ANYWAY quartet Oct. 18 at the Palace Theatre.

Most of the night, Murray, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, and Jeff B. Davis humored the crowd with locally sourced jokes about the Circleville Pumpkin Show, Springfield cats, and pot shots at our neighbors to the North, as well as Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. (Rest assured, they will be making fun of Ohio at their next stop.)

Then Murray made the fatal flaw of making an Ohio State joke:  “At least we didn’t lose to a duck,” (a reference to Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to Oregon on Oct. 12.)

The crowd didn’t take it well, responding with a long chorus of boos.

Proops, whose served as the master of ceremonies for the 90-minute performance, got a taste of how Buckeye-centric Columbus can be. When he asked the audience to tell him something he would see on the streets of Columbus, the loudest voice in the Palace shouted out, “Michigan sucks.”

“I’m not sure you understood the question, but I did get a very Ohio answer,” he said with a chuckle. He repeated the question and someone answered “O-H!”

“I asked you the simplest question in the history of mankind,” Proops said in mock sarcasm. “To recap, I asked you what you would see when you walked around downtown and I got ‘Michigan sucks’ and ‘O-H.’ I think we’re going to have a great show tonight.”

And, to Proops’ surprise, the audience received a fantastic performance.

If you have seen the television version of  WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY, you know how hard it is to describe it to someone who hasn’t. If you haven’t seen WHOSE LINE,  what is wrong with you?

WHOSE LIVE is basically the touring version of its television forefather, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY, relying on improvisational games, songs made up on the spot about audience members and audience participation. Of the members of the crew who performed on Oct. 18, Stiles and pianist Laura Hall are regular members of the show and Proops and Davis are considered recurring performers.

“Well, we brought everybody but the rich guy (Wayne Brady) and the bald guy (Colin Mochrie),” Proops said. “By the way, we  have a new season … on Friday night of all things. We’re on the CW (network). That’s why you didn’t know.”

The troupe started the night with Freeze Tag where Murray and Davis took body positions based on audience suggestions to begin a series of rapid fire skits. When a member of the cast shouted Freeze, he would then step in and change the direction of the skit. Murray drew downward dog, meaning he laid flat on the stage with his butt in the air, and Davis received “serving tennis balls” as his prompt.

“We went very upscale here with a yoga position and tennis serves,” Proops mused. “What happened to that blue-collar, Michigan sucks, (crap)?”

As Davis pretended to hit imaginary tennis balls coming out of Murray, Stiles quipped, “Oh Jeff, I see that anal tennis ball serving machine really has paid for itself.”  Stiles then tagged in and grabbed imaginary bingo balls from Murray and shouted, “Under the B, 12. Under the I, 34.”

One of the best bits of the night was “New Choice.” Murray and Stiles would act out a skit. Every time Proops shouted “New Choice,” the two would have to change their previous statement to something new. As the two described the construction of a house, Murray said, “I was wondering if I could get a payment …”  NEW CHOICE. “I have done a lot of work here and I was wondering if I could get paid in gold!” NEW CHOICE. “Could I possibly get a little bit more of that meth?”

Stiles responded, “I think I have some here …” NEW CHOICE. “I keep it under the baby. It’s hidden, don’t worry about it.”

For most of the audience, the show was a welcome diversion to the dreariness of a crisp fall evening.

However, Kristy, a family doctor who was pulled up on the stage, laughingly described it as her “own personal level of hell.” Kristy was grilled by the four about her budding romance with Diesel, a bartender at Sloopy’s.

“And has he proposed?” Davis asked awkwardly.

“I’ve tried,” Diesel said from the audience.

“Oh sure, I know. You don’t want her stealing all that bartending money,” Stiles quipped.

Davis then channeled his inner Al Green and sultrily serenaded Kristy as Hall plunked out a jazzy tune on the piano. Davis spontaneously produced melodic gems like “I get so sad, you know what I mean/I’m just ready grasp gas out of a pump that’s green. Oh Diesel, is his pump green too?/You probably know how to cure someone with a green pump/with a little bit of penicillin ...”

Most of the skits went off well but Murray wasn’t the only one to have an off-color joke go awry. Stiles got the second largest boo of the evening when he pointed to the rafters at the Palace and said, “Hey up there, be careful. If you fall, you’re going to go in One Direction.”

Sensing he may have gone too far, Stiles said, “What? Too soon? Meth babies jokes are okay, but One Direction jokes are forbidden?”

It was probably in poor taste, but at least it didn’t mention an Ohio State loss.

Photo courtesy of WHOSE LIVE IS IT ANYWAY

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