Podcast episode 568ish: Colin Mochrie

As social isolation continues, our guests keep on coming. This week we invite the great Colin Mochrie into our isolation studio. Everyone knows Colin from his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (they should bring back that show!) or from just about any other TV show made in the past 20 years. I've interviewed him five times for the newspaper, but in this chat he really opened up (thanks in large part to the Malbec he was guzzling throughout). He's talks about politics, comedy, fate, Archie Bunker, The $10,000 Pyramid, Donny & Marie, mime, and his weirdest Hollywood night.

It's a good one so you're going to want to get started right away, which you can do by clicking below. Or you can find us on your favourite podcast server. Go download us there and put us in your ears. And then give the show a much-needed rating and review. You have no choice in the matter. It's fate!

Still more interviews

I'm slowly getting caught up on old podcasts and transcribed interviews. Today I offer you – free of charge, by the way – two new interviews. At least new to you. One is the second one I did with Colin Mochrie, of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame. This one was conducted in November of 2007 (I told you I was getting caught up). Here's a random quote to whet your whistle:

The whole thing was just surreal for a little Canadian improviser to all of a sudden be doing a rap with Karl Rove. Then the next day he called us and invited us to the White House. He took us around. We went into the Oval Office and President Bush and Vice President Cheney were there, so we talked to them for a while. It was just surreal.

If you're so inclined, you can read the first one, from May of 2005, here. And a random quote from that golden oldie:

The best thing about improv is that once it's gone, it's gone. You can't think, 'What I should have done was...' To me, I just can't remember. Even great scenes I've been involved in, I can sort of remember parts of it but I could never remember what the suggestion was or how we got there. I'm sure there are sometimes where you go 'I got nothing.' And sometimes from that magic happens.

And then there's an interview with Harland Williams from November 2006. It was also the second time I'd interviewed the funnyman, but the first one, done years and years ago, is long gone so this will have to do. Finally, a random quote from Harland, on taking on the role in Half Baked despite not being a pot smoker:

At the end it was kinda my manager. He said, "You know what? It's just a movie role. It's going to really widen your fan base and a lot of people are going to see it." And taking that I kinda went, "You know, I've played a guy on Mars, I've played a cop drinking pee, I've played a serial killer in There's Something About Mary. You know what? They are just roles." And so I kind of justified it that way. It kinda helped. I look back on it and I've had a lot of kids come up to me in the streets and go, "Hey, man, thanks to you I got into the bud." I'm like, "I don't really like that." So it was a bit of a mixed thing for me.