Colin Mochrie joins master hypnotist for improv show
Whose Line Is it Anyway? star joins hypnotized audience members in Hyprov, coming to Hamilton’s McIntyre Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 5.
The show that combines hypnosis with improvisation is like performing a highwire act each night, says renowned comedian Colin Mochrie.
He and master hypnotist Asad Mecci have co-created Hyprov: Improv Under Hypnosis, which lands in Hamilton on Feb. 5 as part of a 49-city North American tour called "Yes, It's Real.”
The tour’s name came from questions from audiences after touring the show the first time from 2019 to 2023.
Yes, the hypnosis is real and yes, the improv is, too. Nothing is staged and no one is planted.
About 20 per cent of the population is prone to stage hypnosis, says Mecci.
He takes the initial 20 volunteers through an exercise during which he looks for physiological feedback like rates of respiration, changes in skin colour and “an expressionless face, slow, sluggish movements, and a muted voice.”
Mecci then chooses the best three to five subjects to form an instant improv troupe. They join Mochrie and perform the rest of the show while fully under hypnosis.
Mochrie, who is best known for TV’s improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, says he didn’t know what to make of the idea of blending improv and hypnosis at first. He knew little about hypnosis but he says he realized right away that this concept would take him down a new path.
“One of my fears in my career has been that at a point I'll get too comfortable, and I feel in improv especially, that is a very bad thing to do. And I thought, well, this will take me outside of my comfort zone. This is sure to make me feel uncomfortable,” Mochrie tells HAMILTON CITY Magazine.
Hyprov is like improv on a highwire because no one else on stage is working a scene towards a resolution, says Mochrie.
“When I'm working with professional improvisers, like the Whose Line guys, even though we're all improvising, I can sort of figure out where they're going to head in the scene, or what they're going to do. And then there's times with these people, I think, ‘Oh, I know what they're going to say,’ which is incredibly stupid, because I don't, and I'm always wrong. It's so out of left field where it takes you aback and go, ‘Oh, that is something a real improviser probably would never have said.’”
Mecci says hypnosis disconnects the part of the brain that deals with self-reflection.
“First-time improvisers will often hesitate. They'll look nervous, they'll play to the crowd. Whereas these people who are hypnotized just follow my suggestions without hesitation and without question and commit to the scene fully. So it makes a really seamless and great improv when the subjects are at the top of the game and Colin is at the top of his game, the result is absolute hilarity.”
Every show sees a rush of volunteers to the stage.
“It's insane,” says Mochrie.
“It's just mad. It's just a group of lemmings heading towards the cliff. There's no stopping them. I mean, it would be the last thing I would ever volunteer for.”
Mecci came up with the idea of combining hypnosis and improvisation while taking a course at the Second City Training Centre in Toronto in 2015. He wanted to pitch the idea to Mochrie, whom he calls the “world’s greatest improviser,” but didn’t expect to hear back from his agent.
But Mochrie was game.
So they tried out the concept on the Second City stage and then premiered it at the Just for Laughs Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016. It has toured to more than 150 cities across North America since, including runs in Las Vegas, off-Broadway and Toronto.
The show comes to Hamilton for the first time as part of a national tour that began last year and wraps up in April. A Feb. 2 performance in Oshawa will be recorded.
The show at the McIntyre Performing Arts Centre will mark Mecci’s return to Hamilton. The Sudbury native graduated from McMaster University with a business degree in 1998. Mecci then began performing as a solo act at colleges and universities across North America, later expanding his reach to include cruise lines such as Carnival, Celebrity, and Disney.
He also works with athletes and corporations in the areas of performance, motivation, advanced communication, and stress management and recently released an album titled An Exploration of Hypnotic Sound with Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.
Mochrie, a native of Scotland who moved to Canada at seven years old, gained fame as a regular on the British and U.S. versions of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? He was the winner of Last One Laughing on Amazon Prime in 2021 and has written a collection of short stories called Not Quite the Classics.
He has appeared in dozens of television series and films, as well as theatrical shows. With his wife, comedian Debra McGrath, Mochrie co-starred in the Canadian sitcoms Getting Along Famously and She's the Mayor. He has written for numerous other series and events, and wrote and performed for the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Mochrie and Whose Line co-star Brad Sherwood have intermittently toured North America as a two-man stage show since 2002.
Mochrie's work has been recognized with numerous awards, including two Canadian Comedy Awards, and Gemini Award. He was named Canadian Comedy Person of the Year at the 2013 Canadian Comedy Awards.
NEED TO KNOW
Hyprov: Improv Under Hypnosis
McIntyre Performing Arts Centre
Mohawk College
135 Fennell Ave. W., Hamilton
Tickets here
Tour dates here
