The popularity of improvised comedy shows both live and on TV testify to the incredible ability those who practice this type of performance possess. Most of us wish we had the improv skills to be seemingly and spontaneously funny and interesting. Long-running programs like Whose Line Is It Anyway have made celebrities of several improv comedians like Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. And, now, a Las Vegas permanent show has brought that style of comedy performance to common people like you and me. The show that is a feature of one of the casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip is called Hyprov, and it plays to packed houses nightly.
In fact, the show was co-created by Colin Mochrie. Mochrie and his collaborator, Asad Mecci, tested the show at comedy festivals like the Edinburgh Fringe in the pre-Covid days, and they did a 50-city US tour with it. The success and reception of those shows led the pair to bring the concept to its permanent home now in Harrah’s Casino. And the audiences who come there get an opportunity to try out their improvisational skills with the veteran improv comic Mochrie.
Mochrie earned his improv credentials at Toronto’s famous Second City theater troupe, the same place that produced people like Martin Short, John Candy, Gilda Radner, and Eugene Levy. Born in Scotland but raised in Canada, Mochrie went on to create sit-coms for Canadian television and to have a successful TV career. But he is best known and seems the most comfortable doing short improv skits like he has done for over two decades on first British and then US versions of Whose Line. It was then that fellow Canadian Mecci approached Mochrie’s agent with the idea of using people in the audience in improv.
Mochrie was intrigued by the concept. Improv isn’t as easy as the professionals make it out to be. Most people who haven’t been trained in the genre tend, Mochrie says, to overthink things. The conversations that should flow over a situation become stilted and unnatural because of most people’s tendencies to make a conscious effort to be funny–and that often results in long periods of silence while the would-be improv actor is thinking about a punchline. To hear Mochrie and other professionals tell it, you have to actually not think about the situation too much. They advise that good improvision comes from not acting but rather reacting to what the other improv actors give you. In the parlance of that artform, they call it the “yes, and” concept, where you then accept what the other person has said and then either add to it or disagree, but they you give the first improv actor an opening to add his or her own “yes, and” idea. It’s very much like a good rally in tennis, one improv comic has said, but instead of winning the point, you’re trying to help the other player hit the verbal ball back to you.
And what makes Hyprov so unique and interesting to both the improv comics and the audience is that the people from the audience who become part of the show have no experience doing that, let alone being on stage at all, usually. The show begins with Mecci coming out alone and introducing the concept. He then calls up about 20 audience members. After speaking with them first as a group and then individually, he culls about five of them from the group and sends the others back to their seats. The five then become part of the improv cast, and they perform the skits with Mochrie or other “regular” improv comedians. And, since they are completely new to the comedic form as well as to the stage, you would think that the resulting show would be something resembling a really bad elementary school play. Certainly, it wouldn’t be worth the high price of a Las Vegas-style show.
Surprisingly, the show using completely rookie improv audience members works far more often than it fails. And, if it doesn’t quite work, that, too, can have its comedic but cringe-worthy moments. But, again, using these newbies on stage–which is certainly taking a professional risk to do–has proven to be a successful formula for Mochrie and Mecci. How can these audience members become instant improv stars, even if only for one performance? Well, as Mochrie said, you have to make sure these regular folks are not thinking too much about what they’re doing. The trick, therefore, is to take them out of themselves and allow them the luxury of simply not being themselves for a while. And who, you might wonder, do Mochrie and Mecci do that?
Well, the clue for you is in the name of the show.
You see, before the audience members successfully interact with the professional improv comics, Asad Mecci hypnotizes them.
The Rest of the Story 