Colin & Brad Live and Dangerous, Thurs 24 Oct, 2013 ****

Brad Sherwood & Colin Mochrie in Live and Dangerous 
At Comedy Theatre, Melbourne
Oct 24 and 25, 2013 (NB: 2nd show added Friday)
Reviewer: Kate Herbert (This review is not published in Herald Sun.)
Stars: ****  
I improvised with Brad years ago in Theatresports shows at BATS in San Francisco. Happy memories! KH

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood

My face is achin’ after laughing so hard at Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood improvising their socks off in Live and Dangerous, their two-man Improv Show.

If you are a late adopter of the US TV comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway, you’ll know Colin and Brad and the improvisational games that are the basis of their chaotic and hilarious stage show. You’ll recognise a lot of stuff if you’ve ever seen Theatresports on stage – or done a beginner’s drama class.

It is delicious to witness two razor-sharp minds whirring as they conjure characters, stories, dialogue and gags from thin air. This may look like goofing around, but Colin and Brad’s skill and spontaneity are exceptional.

Every show is totally different and Colin and Brad – who are dead charming and totally engaging – don’t know what the content will be, even if though know which formats/games they will use.

As Colin says at the start, “Let’s make some crap up!”

Oh, and be prepared for some audience participation because they ask for suggestions of jobs, places, movie styles etc. and they also ‘volunteer’ people to take part on stage.

In Moving Bodies, two audients act as puppeteers, moving Colin and Brad around the stage as they play French skydivers; much of the comedy comes from their incorporation of impossible body positions; these skydivers jump out of their plane without attaching their parachutes!

Improvising is risky for a performer but danger reaches a new level in the Mousetrap game, in which they improvise a Crime Thriller movie while blindfolded and navigating across a stage littered with 100 mousetraps that snap at their bare feet. The audience shrieks and doesn’t care if the story falls apart because they love seeing an actor in real peril.

There is plenty of kooky chaos in the Sound Effects game when audience members provide sound effects – ranging from spectacular to awful – for a scene about a fitness centre in a church. Suffice to say that the Madonna is tied up, the church bursts into flames and there is lots of hosing, peeing and explosions.

The crowd goes wild in the game called Kick It, when Brad is forced to rap non-stop for about 5 minutes. Who knew how many rhymes there were for ‘luck’?

90 minutes is a loooong time for two people to improvise – well – and keep an audience roaring. Bravo Brad and Colin. Please come back for the Comedy Festival in April. Melbourne loves to laugh.

By Kate Herbert