Where are they now?
You can’t really talk about improvisational comedy in the US without mentioning the hugely successful TV series ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?'hosted by Drew Carey and featuring some of the best comedians from both sides of the Atlantic, along with the regular performers Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. Not a lot of people know that this unusual programme, where the stars had to create comedy sketches from suggestions shouted out by the audience or do something funny with executive office furniture, actually started life as a British radio show. It seems weird that such a visual show would be a success on radio, but those Brits always did have a weird sense of humour…
For a while in the 90s the three regular comedians on WILIIA (as the long title was often shortened) were some of the most famous funny men in the whole country. So where did their careers go after ’Whose Line?'came to an end in 2004? Wayne Brady is probably the most successful of the three, although you could hardly say his career choices were predictable for someone who had been such an edgy comedy performer in his youth! He went into presenting, currently fronting the FOX show ’Let’s Make a Deal'having been the original host of ’Don’t Forget the Lyrics’.
Ryan and Colin were both much more established performers when they appeared on WILIIA – which is a polite way of saying they were much older and unlikely to be approached by a major network to host a prime time show! Colin Mochrie did some presenting in his native Canada, but has mainly been seen making cameo appearances on chat shows and other comedy TV series, including his own very tongue-in-cheek guides to surviving a range of animal attacks on ’Animal Planet’. Ryan Stiles, who was always more of a comic actor than a regular stand-up, returned to TV and movie acting, and modern audiences will probably recognise him from his recurring role in ’Two and a Half Men’, apart he won thanks to his friendship with Charlie Sheen. I wonder if he’s still mentioning that at auditions?
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