Colin Mochrie wants to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I’ve always wanted to be the star of an action movie, just because you see a lot of action movies, and you see the star, and you think, ‘of course they’re going to survive: they have skills, they’re all built, and they’re very strong,’” muses Mochrie in a recent phone interview.
“But if I was the star of an action movie, I think the audience would be really invested as to whether I make it or not.”
Mochrie's joking, of course. It's what he does.
But the action hero aspiration isn't a completely far-fetched idea, because if anyone could succeed at something so far out of his or her comfort zone, it’s Mochrie, the soft-spoken, self-deprecating improviser who’s built a career out of throwing himself into the middle of the action and finding the funny.
The Scottish-born Canadian – who grew up in Vancouver and attended Killarney Secondary School – achieved a level of fame unthinkable to most improvisers via the British and American versions of the televised improvisation show, Whose Line is it Anyway?
Mochrie's career and Vancouver are inextricably intertwined. Mochrie found his calling more than 20 years before Whose Line is it Anyway? via the then newly formed Vancouver TheatreSports League (VTSL).
It was there that the Studio 58 grad (who’d given up a career in marine biology after auditioning for a high school play on a dare and receiving his first audience laugh) uncovered what would become his life path.
“I started looking forward to every Friday night at City Stage and making up crap with my friends,” recalls Mochrie.
This week, Mochrie (and Vancouver) will experience a blast from the past when he reunites with VTSL for five special performances.
Going into VTSL that first time around, Mochrie describes himself as a shy kid, but his time playing with the improv troupe infused him with confidence both on and off the improv stage, he says.
“I became more fearless in doing things: things that challenged me, or things that I was a little leery of,” says Mochrie.
“I started to jump into the middle, which is basically what you do in improv. You learn to agree to ideas, accept them, and build on them, and I found when I actually used that in my real life, these incredible adventures would happen. I became less shy, I came out a little more of my shell, and I learned to interact with people more.”
Despite his enviable level of success, Mochrie has never shaken off his shyness.
“Because of the success of Whose Line, I had to learn to deal with it more, and I’m certainly a lot better than what I was when I was younger, but it’s not my best thing,” he says.
The improv world can be an entertaining and addictive one, for audiences and improvisers alike. Between the endless well of audience suggestions and games, there’s a certain magic that can happen when improvisers step out onto the stage.
But like anything requiring stamina and versatility, improvisers need to be constantly working on their crafts, says Mochrie.
“It really is a muscle that gets flabby really quickly if you don’t do it for a while,” says Mochrie, who also logged time on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
“Basically at this point for me, it’s working towards trusting myself to know that walking onstage with absolutely nothing and no preconceived ideas is going to work out. It’s working to whatever is happening and not trying to push a scene in a direction, and just having the belief in yourself and the people that you’re working with that, from absolute nothing, you’ll be able to build a scene.”
Mochrie loves scenes “that don’t have a lot of gimmicks to them, where it’s just improvisers working with each other and doing what you’re supposed to do when you improvise, which is just throw out ideas, and people picking them up and just running with them,” he says.
“And doing that magic trick of making it seem like this was written in advance. Of course if you actually transcribe most scenes that people have improvised, they really don’t work well. It truly is one of those things where you had to be there, it only works for that audience at that moment with that suggestion.”
However you look at it, Mochrie is a really big deal in the improv world – and being such a big deal means that it’s not uncommon for up-and-coming improvisers to ask him for advice.
The best advice he has to give is to stay at it, and enjoy it while you’re doing it.
“The only thing that I think got me anywhere in this business is I’m really stubborn, and I have stamina. So my thing was I was going to keep going until everyone else quit or died,” he says.
“I just keep in mind that it’s a marathon. When things started happening for me, like the American Whose Line, I was 40. There had been 22 years between graduating theatre school and making a good living doing something I loved.
“Unless someone is two days old, they’re never an overnight sensation.”
Even though he calls comedy “the worst occupation in the world, in many ways” (“You’re truly judged on your looks. Everything is judged on a personal level”), Mochrie says his occupation brings him ongoing glee.
“It still amazes me that I’m doing something that wasn’t an occupation when I was growing up, and it’s still hard to do,” says Mochrie.
“Improv now has certainly changed. People have found different ways of doing it. I love the fact that it just seems to keep evolving into different styles, whether it’s long-form or doing a life story of someone or doing a musical, people are finding wondrous ways of keeping the art form alive.”
The aptly titled Colin Mochrie & Friends runs for four shows on Aug. 21 and 22. The event will find Mochrie (according to the press release) “spinning comedy gold with a hand-picked cast of all-star improvisers.”
And before that, on Aug. 20, VTSL presents An Intimate Evening with Colin Mochrie. The $125 ticket includes a pre-show catered reception, bubbly, a Q&A, and a show featuring Mochrie and VTSL troupe members.
Tickets and details at VTSL.com.
