Improv jesters reunite for ‘Whose Live Anyway’

Instant Scenario: Funeral of a woman who died in a freak miniature golf accident.

“She was into miniature golf, miniature bowling, miniature basketball. She loved everything mini. Which explains why we dated for four years.”

Ryan Stiles ad-libbed that mourner’s zinger on ABC’s former improv quipfest, “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” reinvented as “Whose Live Anyway,” a touring comedy caravan starring the original scamps vamping through a Saturday night show at the Henderson Pavilion.

“It’s a drug for us,” says Stiles who, while on a break from filming a guest spot on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men,” explains why the stage show trumps the TV series for improvisational possibilities for himself and tour-mates Greg Proops, Chip Esten and Jeff Davis.

“A lot of times on ‘Whose Line,’ we couldn’t do scene-type games because of time restraints,” Stiles says. “But we have a big stage to work with and try to stay away from the games on ‘Whose Line’ where we’re just standing in a line talking. We’re trying to make things more physical and active and energetic.”

Instant Scenario: A bad habit that could be cured by a miracle product.

“Snoring.”

“Britney Spears.”

“Same thing.”

Similar to the series, the four jesters will take game, song and sketch suggestions shouted from the audience. “Every once in a while, someone you think is a sweet old lady will yell something horrifying,” says co-joker Proops. “I remember ‘(expletive)-sucker’ in New Jersey. Then her son yelled, ‘That’s my mother!’ so it couldn’t have gotten much funnier than that.”

Instant Scenario: Hollywood auteur directing his actors.

“Don’t you know what good acting is? For God’s sake, you’ve all made love to your wives.”

Proops also points out that the stage shenanigans engender more intimacy between the ad-libbers and the audience than the TV series could ever inspire. “There’s a different energy,” he says. “On television, it’s like you’re invited to a party but you’re watching it through a window.”

Instant Scenario: What was Lassie really trying to tell everyone?

“The square root of nine is three.”

Though a “Whose Line” reunion, “Whose Live” is minus show host Drew Carey, at least at this tour stop. “Drew pops up once in a while, but we like to keep it clean so we don’t work with Drew too much,” Stiles quips. That also applies to portions of the program where amateur improvisors are invited onstage — “a hostage situation, but we call them volunteers,” Proops says — given Carey’s pulchritudinous preferences.

“If Drew were hosting the show, he would take a really hot 22-year-old out of the audience,” Stiles says. “But we tend to take a middle-age housewife who we can make a star for a few minutes. They have more history than a 22-year-old. We try to make people look good onstage. We certainly don’t belittle anyone.”

Instant Scenario: Song title for a psychiatrist’s office.

“Feelings.”

Shyness, Proops says, no longer prevents crowd participation in the hey-look-at-me-reality-TV era. “Everyone’s TV-ready now,” he says, though their suggestions sometimes aim to flummox the funnymen. “They’ll throw out the name of a playwright like Pirandello,” he says. “They don’t know who it is, they’re just trying to trick you. We just fake it, basically. We had one suggestion for a hemp festival. It gets pretty weird sometimes.”

Instant Scenario: Slogans on T-shirts worn by George W. Bush.

“More than a slogan for pubic hair.”

“The ‘W’ stands for honesty.”

Luigi Pirandello penned “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” At “Whose Live Anyway,” expect four actors in search of some characters. And count the audience among the authors. … Maybe not that mom from Jersey.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.