Whose life is it anyway? at the Palace Theater

Apparently Joel Murray didn’t get the memo before he performed with the quartet WHOSE LIVE IS IT ANYWAY at the Palace Theater on October 18th.

For most of the evening, Murray, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops and Jeff B. Davis entertained the audience with local jokes about the Circleville Pumpkin Show, Springfield cats and pot shots from our neighbors to the north as well as Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. (Rest assured, they’ll be making fun of Ohio at their next stop.)

Then Murray made the fatal mistake of making an Ohio State joke: “At least we didn’t lose to a Duck” (a reference to Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to Oregon on Oct. 12).

The audience didn’t take it well and responded with a long boo.

Proops, who served as master of ceremonies for the 90-minute performance, got a glimpse of how Buckeye-centric Columbus can be. When he asked the audience to tell him something they would see on the streets of Columbus, the loudest voice in the palace shouted, “Michigan sucks.”

“I’m not sure you understood the question, but I got an answer that was very Ohio-like,” he said with a laugh. He repeated the question and someone responded with “OH!”

“I asked you the simplest question in the history of mankind,” Proops said with mock sarcasm. “To recap: I asked you what you would see if you walked downtown and I got ‘Michigan sucks’ and ‘OH.’ I think we’re going to have a great show tonight.”

And to Proops’ surprise, the audience was treated to a fantastic performance.

If you’ve seen the television version of “WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY,” you know how hard it is to describe it to someone who hasn’t. If you haven’t seen WHOSE LINE yet, then what’s wrong with you?

WHOSE LIVE is basically the touring version of its TV forefather WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY and relies on improvisation games and spontaneously invented songs about audience members and audience participation. Of the crew members who performed on October 18, Stiles and pianist Laura Hall are regular members of the show, and Proops and Davis are considered recurring cast members.

“Well, we brought everyone except the rich guy (Wayne Brady) and the bald guy (Colin Mochrie),” Proops said. “By the way, we have a new season… on Friday evening of all days. We are on the CW (network). That’s why you didn’t know.”

The troupe began the evening with “Freeze Tag,” in which Murray and Davis assumed body positions based on audience suggestions to begin a series of rapid-fire skits. When a cast member shouted “Freeze,” he would step in and change the direction of the skit. Murray drew a downward-facing dog, meaning he was lying flat on the stage with his butt in the air, and Davis was given a prompt to “serve tennis balls.”

“We took a very elevated approach here with a yoga position and tennis serves,” Proops mused. “What happened to that worker from Michigan (crap)?”

While Davis pretended to hit imaginary tennis balls coming out of Murray, Stiles joked, “Oh Jeff, I see that anal tennis ball serving machine really paid off.” Then Stiles chimed in, grabbing imaginary bingo balls from Murray and shouted: “Under the B, 12. Under the I, 34.”

One of the best parts of the night was “New Choice.” Murray and Stiles performed a skit. Every time Proops called out “New Choice,” the two had to change their previous statement to something new. As the two described building a house, Murray said, “I was wondering if I could get a payment…” NEW ELECTION. “I’ve worked a lot here and I’m wondering if I could get paid in gold!” NEW CHOICE. “Could I maybe get some more of the meth?”

Stiles replied, “I think I have some here…” NEW CHOICE. “I keep it under the baby. It’s hidden, don’t worry about it.”

For most viewers, the show was a welcome change from the dreariness of a clear autumn evening.

However, Kristy, a GP who was dragged on stage, laughingly described it as her “personal level of hell”. Kristy was questioned by the four about her budding romance with Diesel, a bartender at Sloopy’s.

“And did he propose?” Davis asked awkwardly.

“I tried,” Diesel said from the audience.

“Oh sure, I know. “You don’t want her stealing all the bartending money,” Stiles joked.

Davis then channeled his inner Al Green and serenaded Kristy with a sultry serenade while Hall played a jazzy tune on the piano. Davis spontaneously produced melodic gems like “I get so sad, you know what I mean/I’m just ready to get gas from a green pump.” Oh Diesel, is his pump green too?/You probably know how to cure someone with a green pump/with a little penicillin…”

Most of the sketches went well, but Murray wasn’t the only one who had an off-color joke go wrong. Stiles got the second biggest boo of the night when he pointed to the rafters of the palace and said, “Hey up there, be careful. When you fall, you go in one direction.”

Sensing that he might have gone too far, Stiles said, “What?” Too early? Meth Babies jokes are okay, but One Direction jokes are banned?”

It was probably in bad taste, but at least it didn’t mention an Ohio State loss.

Photo courtesy of WHOSE LIVE IS IT ANYWAY

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