QI Watchdown: K1 (Knees & Knockers), or Murray Can’t Help Me Now…

Yeah, might as well start another series of QI on here. Last one took me 2 years, maybe this one’ll take me four.

Like Series J, Series K features a lot of mainstream BBC comic bookings coming aboard, which would eventually spell doom for the sort of rep company of semi-regulars we’ve had for so long, and we’re gonna get a lot of regular BBC people coming in starting this series and recurring over the next several series’. Which is fine…if they’re good gets.

This episode, which features David Mitchell as our anchor, which I’m perfectly fine with, and Jack Whitehall as our comic guest, which after Joints I’m pretty okay with as well, but we bring in Sara Pascoe, who I’ve enjoyed on Mock the Week and NMTB, and will probably enjoy here.

All the buzzers are K-animals. Jack guesses for his “that is Kevin Bacon getting into really hot water”

David, with a sinister buzzing noise: “…is that a Klingon spacecraft?”
HA

Stephen mentions that the QI scorer has been replaced, and refers to the old scorer as ‘David’s nemesis’, probably after the International incident [“NOW ALL THIS IS DOING IS GIVING HIM MORE TIME TO TYPE”]. Stephen mentions the new scorer, Murray, is a big fan of David’s
David: “I’m glad to hear that…you told me too late to bribe him…”

David and Stephen just get into saying that they  should be the next stage of the house of lords, before sending something to the Queen
David: “Just let all the legislation come before us, we’ll fiddle with it, gag it up a bit, and then send it to the Queen…”
Stephen, as the Queen: “MY  GOVERNMENT…will find SIX PENISES on this particular insect…”

Stephen asks the panel what the following noise is, and plays the infamous klaxon noise.
Jack: “A KLAXON”
KLAXON
IT IS THAT SIMPLE.
Alan: “HAW HAW”
PFFFF
Stephen: “in a strange  sort of way, pop just ate itself, didn’t it?”

Stephen tries one of his ‘conversational’ tricks, basically saying about  the automobiles “places like Pennsylvania must have welcomed them when they arrived, yes?”
Alan, who has learned from Series J: “NO.”
Stephen: “…IS THE RIGHT ANSWER.”

Stephen, reading the ‘anti-automobile association’ rules: “If a driver of an automobile is to see a team of horses, he should stop,-”
Alan: “KILL HIMSELF!”
HAHAHAHA

Stephen: “In America, they have a rule when you  hear a siren, you just simply stop driving”
Alan: “…and go and have a meal.”
Alan’s killing it already

Stephen, trying a transition: “but even more intolerant were the Nazis…”
Alan: “They’re not KNOWN for their intolerance..”
Stephen tries going on, but gives Alan a look and cracks a little
Alan: “ZIS WHOLE THING HAS BECOME INTOLERABLE…”

Stephen has a nice moment, where, after reading a statement from Velcro saying their product isn’t really ‘velcro’, more ‘hook and loop fasteners’, and explodes in opposition, saying ‘THIS IS VELCRO!’, and saying even the person who invented it called it Velcro. Railing against modern fact.

Stephen: “And he noticed the way burrs caught to his socks, he had to pull them off-”
Jack, confused: “…oh, I thought you said BIRDS. Like he was kicking in the air…”

Stephen exclaims that Webber had to copyright Technicolor for his Joseph Musical, put the logo next to it, cause it was the official name.
Sara: “Y’see, God really missed a trick not doing more of that in the Bible..I mean, I THINK he came up with the idea originally…they just added some songs..”

David does a mini-rant about the trademark of apples, and Stephen thinks he’s talking about computers when he’s really just talking about fruit, and they’re really  going on intersecting rants.
Stephen, finally: “You were talking about the inventor of the fruit just then, and now you’ve suddenly sidestepped…with a blithe disregard of a bloody pansy…”
PFFF

Stephen’s shocked that Sara’s never seen a  pansy before
Jack: “Cause we’re too busy TEXTING and listening to JLS and going out…”
Okay, that’s a good line. I still don’t love Jack, but he has good moments occasionally
Stephen: “CRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY…OH, HELL’S TEETH ON A BUCKET OF BLOOD…”
I do love Stephen Fry on this show, and I’m gonna miss him in 3 seasons when he’s gone
Jack: “We’ll be sorted when the Jaeger-bomb round comes up later on…”
HA

Jack: “My dad genuinely referred to it as a Jaguar-bomb the other day…”

Stephen ends that topic with a very Mark Lamarr-esque read: “According to Velcro, there’s no such thing as Velcro, EXCEPT FOR THIS, WHICH IS *VELCO*.”
[The instantly-recognizable velcro.]

Stephen throws in some rejected names for body parts, including ‘the end-bulbs of Krause’
Jack: “That is the best nickname for someone’s balls ever. BEHOLD, THE END-BULBS OF KRAUSE.”
That cracked me up
Stephen: “KNEEL before the end-bulbs…”

Alan, on all of the names: “aren’t they all Star Trek movies?”
Stephen: “yes, Star Trek 13, the Valves of Kerckring”

After Sara names an intestinal fold correctly
Jack: “This is like the QI version of that game Operation..”
David: “So, what had Kerckring done that someone named…disgusting, shitty  bits of the body after him?”

Sara is good on this program because she also has random bits of knowledge lying around. Being a vegan, of course, helps this, because it’s about human intestines being made for plants and not meat, and then pandas intestines being exactly the opposite. All of this, and the random Intros knowledge she had on NMTB just impresses me. Sara Pascoe might be one of the more intelligent comedians working the circuit [and naturally, Youtube commenters really love her in my knowledge, sarcasm intended]

Jack, with another perspective on pandas always eating bamboo to sustain their intestines: “And that’s why they never have sex. As a moral note, you can never have sex on indigestion”

The panda topic gets David cross about why, logically, they stopped eating meat, and why that’s impractical. I get a sense of this panel that Sara supplies facts, Jack supplies jokes, and David supplies angry logic, and it’s good that they know who they are and how the circuit works.

Stephen tries to get back to the  names, like the “Pores of Kohn”
Alan: “The bell-ends of-”
Stephen: “No, WAIT FOR THE BELLENDS, ALAN…they will come-”
WORD CHOICE, STEPHEN.
Alan: “another ringtone  I can’t wait for”

Stephen says the Kohn pores were named after someone who was expelled by  the Nazis
Sara, bringing it back to the car horn topic: “Did he beep his horn?”
Alan: “EEHHHHHHHH I FOUND SOME PORES, IN THE LUNGS, EHHHHHH’ ‘Out, get out.”
DEAR GOD

Stephen mentions a ‘fenestration’
David: “I know DE-fenestration is chucking someone out of a window, maybe fenestration is chucking someone in…”

Stephen mentions the End-Bulbs of Krause are on the genitalia area, and Jack does a long  upward motion trying to measure the vicinity…which doesn’t look right at all, and then Alan starts doing even more suggestive upward motions

Stephen: “But they’re very sensitive to a particular, um, pos-”
Alan: “LADY.”
PFF

Stephen mentions these pores again, and Jack, jokingly, checks under his pants: “what, is that cheating?”
Stephen: “We have a special isolated camera above you, I just thought I’d warn you…well, *I* do…”
Jack, looking up: “SORRY, COLIN..”

Stephen: “Why  do doctors hit your knee with  a hammer?”
David: “to test  your reflexes”
AND HE IMMEDIATELY DRAWS BACK WAITING FOR A KLAXON…WHICH NEVER COMES. This amuses the hell out of David. Stephen says he’s correct, but he’s looking for specifics
Alan: “YOU KNOW THE SCORER…you SO know Murray…”

Stephen talks about the science of the reflex test, and how more of a reaction and less of a reaction mean different things, and “none at all could well be an index or sign of-”
Jack: “wooden leg.”
HA
Alan: “OR DEATH”
Stephen: “or…syphilis…”
Audience: “OOOOOOHHH”
Stephen: “as if that was tonight’s star prize…FORGET GONORRHEA, GO FOR SYPHILLIS”

Sara, talking about ‘murder by automaton’, “so if you sneeze for instance…SOMEONE SNEEZED.”
Sure enough, they keep in the audio of the person in the  audience sneezing as she says that
David: “THAT MEANS…THERE’S BEEN  A MURDER.”
HAHAHAHAHA
Jack: “THERE’S A KILLER!”
Sara: “now they know they’ll get away with it…”

David: “So if you go into a room with a gun cocked, sneeze, it goes off, it kills someone…you’re in the clear..”

Jack: “If you wanna kill your wife, what you do is you drive down  to Dover, you  get her right up against the cliff, and then you put your leg behind her and get a doctor to tap your knee…”
Sara: “And the doctor would go to prison…”
Jack: “What if he was sneezing  as he tapped-”
David: “THE PERFECT  CRIME. BROADCHURCH SERIES 2.”
Okay, that is good. This is a fairly standard show, but the dynamic and callbacks are winning me over

Sara, on the McCartney question, brings up the theory that someone replaced Paul after he died, by getting  a lookalike to stand in. I did a whole research project on this.
David: “There’s a similar theory about the Pope, isn’t there. It’s not, like, the same guy, there’s been more than one…”
I do enjoy David’s illogical moments on here

Sara rolls off this information about two staring statues faced towards each other near Parliament, and breaks from it and says to the audience ‘sorry, this is really boring’
Jack: “She saw it on Cash in the Attic, as well’
Sara eventually reveals she used to be a tour guide on buses, but that doesn’t explain the REST of her wealth of knowledge

Stephen asks about “the botanist who couldn’t tell heads from coconuts”, and:
BE NICE, HE’S NOT HERE FOR ANOTHER FEW SHOWS…

Sara uses this to roll off a nice amount of knowledge about brain damage and this specific psychological phenomena, and…again, she really is perfect for this show

Yeah, again, Jack isn’t impressing me as much here because a lot of his jokes are either too obvious or too lowest-common-denominator.

Stephen asks who ‘these people’, showing a picture of klansmen, represent
Jack: “THE BNP!”
You’re not wrong

On the Catholic Spaniards who wear KKK-like outfits
David: “They must be aware that these days, that has other connotations”
Stephen: “They’d like to reclaim it”
David: “not sure they’ve quite succeeded…”

Stephen: “Now, what color is a red kite?”
Jack: “BLUE.”
Again, he’s not ENTIRELY unfunny, but his digressions aren’t great. He’s good in short bursts, like that one

David has another nice mini-rant late about Jesus not being a very Christmas-y figure: “All I can say is he’s lost control of the festival”

Finally: “How did the monkey wrench get its name”
David: “I’m nervous of this, because this is a fact that came up on the Unbelievable Truth. And it has HAPPENED BEFORE that facts we’ve researched on the Unbelievable Truth have been…I think the right word is ‘mocked’…on this program for being factually incorrect.”
I do love this runner has resumed

David: “ON THAT SHOW…what was given to me on a piece of paper to read out…was the fact that the monkey wrench was named after a person, whose name was, like, Moncker, and he was…I dunno, some kind of-”
KLAXON: MR. MONCKY.”

Stephen: “and you  DID mock US last series…”
David: “Again, the PERSON THAT HANDED ME THE PIECE OF PAPER…put on it a piece of QI fact ever mockery…IT’S TURNING INTO WAR.”

David: “But in this war, we’re like the southern states, we haven’t gotten the proper resources, and we’re going to resort to racism as a result!”
Topical joke!

Stephen goes onto the stores, after 50 points have been docked from David
David: “Murray can’t help me now…”
David does lose with -41
David: “IT MEANS I WAS ON 9.”

Sara has a HUGE victory with +28, confirming my thoughts that she is perfect for this show.

Overall: Uneven and disappointing in the middle, but not without sharp moments from Sara, Alan and David. Honestly, there was too much incongruence between all three, and David’s best days as a connector seem to be behind him. Sara fit really well with the premise of this show, as she just knows a lot, and Jack…pissed me off a lot more than in Joints, but still had alright moments. The back half of the show was weak, and a lot of the show felt unfocused. Still, not BAD per se.

MVP: Sara
Best Guest: David
Show Winner: Sara
Best QI Fact: Panda intestines
Best Runner: David and Murray

UP NEXT: Two more newcomers join someone who’s become one of my favorite semi-regulars. One is someone who’ll frequent the program for the next few years, the other is…an old friend from Buzzcocks.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 35, or IT LEADS ME TO WONDER, JAWARHELLO

And so, for the final taping of the eight filmed for IAG, we go to one of the first weeks of the show, and a lot of the same participants of the purple taping, though swap out Colin and Brad for Ryan and Greg, meaning Ryan and Colin didn’t get to do a scene together until a few tapings in.

This dispatch from the white taping has the distinction of being the only IAG show with five games instead of four. Considering the editing issues I’ve had with this show, I’m proceeding with caution.

Two-Headed Expert: Kathy and Drew interview Greg and Jeff in a laundromat

Drew: “It-”
Kathy: “the”
Drew: […]
AND WE’RE OFF TO A ROUSING START
Drew: “HELL”
Kathy: “of…”
…..
wow

I love Jeff and Greg goofy-laughing in unison, then snorting.

There’s not many substantial pieces of this game, but…the moment where Jeff and Greg repeat the word ‘pudding’ at gradually ascending tones is hysterical
Chip literally has to stop Ryan from falling off his stool

Drew and Kathy: “Excuse me, did you say ‘pudding?”
Greg and Jeff: “PUDDING!!!!”

Jeff and Greg: “Here is a can of pudding, and here are panties. [slurping noise]”
DEAR GOD

Kathy and Drew: “How long do you wait for the pudding to clean the panties until it’s fluffy?”
Jeff and Greg: “DING! THEY’RE READY!”
This is so stupid, but somehow it’s winning me over
Jeff and Greg: “AHHHH, NOW THAT’S A FLUFFY PANTY.”

This game is the ‘Tyrannosaurs in F14s’ of Whose Line. It is…so stupid, and so ridiculous, but you can’t help but laugh. And sometimes you need a scene like that. There’s barely any substantial improv in this scene, but the goofy shit that Jeff and Greg pull is worth it.

Duet: Chip and Jeff sing an 80s R&B song to Deanna, who used to do computer programming

Once again, as Deanna announces that her husband’s a lawyer, Ryan quickly comes in to sidewipe and Jeff is going ‘DEANNA, EVERYBODY.’

Deanna reveals she was a computer programmer
Drew: “Are you still on the computer every once in a while…maybe while your husband’s away?”
DREW.

Of course, the Pam backing track makes its return

First bit of this song is pretty basic, some good harmony, some good vocalizing, but nothing lyrically is going on yet. Jeff throws in a ‘WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO’ that reminds me of Jonathan Mangum backing away from Wayna Morris

You can tell that Jeff and Chip don’t have a lot to work with lyrically, but they’re at least making this a good, and well-performed, song

Jeff and Chip finish the song with some insane vocal back-and-forth on top of each other, which is goofy enough to keep me interested. Jeff keeps going so hard that Chip has to snap him out of it.

An alright number, but, like Expert, barely any substance in it.

Freeze Tag: Chip sitting, Jeff crawling

Drew, with Jeff still on all fours: “I’ve been out in the desert for a while…time to get on the donkey…”
Ryan, immediately: “FREEZE.”
Drew: [STILL TRIES GETTING ON JEFF]
Ryan AND JEFF have to repeat that

Ryan, shaking Jeff’s ass: “ASK AGAIN LATER.”
PFFF

Kathy, sitting on Jeff: “If you wanna marry me, you have to get down on your knees IN  FRONT OF ME.”
Ryan: “I was actually proposing to the chair…”
PFF

Drew tags Kathy and Ryan out, sits on Jeff, goes “Well…BETTER GET BACK ON THE DONKEY”, and races to straddle Jeff before anyone can call freeze.
Jeff: “OHHHH GOD!”

Greg tags out JEFF, which shocks Jeff and Chip, and gets under Drew’s legs: “I am so tired of carrying you, Drew Carey.”
HA

Jeff comes back in: “…excuse me senor…is there room for one more on your donkey?”
YES.
And, of course, Chip and Ryan get on as well

An improvement on the last few Freezes, but still a bit light.

Forward Reverse: Chip and Drew in the Revolutionary War

Already, Chip’s accent and snootiness is funny as hell. “GO ONNNN”

Drew starts cracking  up as he has to do ‘GENERAL WASHINGTON, GENERAL WASHINGTON’ backwards, so…this is him already. I know what’s coming, so that’s funny

Chip, all the way reversed: “…I wonder if news will come from the front soon?”
[Now I wish we could find the ‘I have news from the front’ F/R that was on the GSN site]

Jeff calls forward/reverse on Drew like FIVE TIMES as he’s doing his ‘GENERAL WASHINGTON’ running in. Eventually:

Jeff: “FAST FORWARD”
Drew, exhausted: “…GENERAWASHINGTONGENERAWASHINGTON…”
Drew even throws in ‘I have news from the front’, which isn’t from this game, it’s from the other one.

Jeff now F/Rs Chip on ‘WHAT’S THAT YOU SAAAAY’, which is interesting as hell, eventually going  ‘SLOW-MO’, making Chip do the line in slow-motion, which is also amusing

Chip: “Well, we must come up with a plan of some kind, I know what we should do, we should call together all our forces and put our brains together and come up with something to do, for I do know this, THIS COUNTRY WILL NOT LONG GO WITHOUT INDEPENDENCE, FOR IT IS OUR GOD-GIVEN NATURE TO GO FOR THAT INDEPENDENCE, I WILL NOT LET A KING OR HIS TYRANNY REIGN DOWN THEIR ANGER UPON THIS FINE LAND.”
APPLAUSE
And then, inevitably, Jeff almost sings this: “REVEEEEEERSE!”
Chip doubles over, and…does his best to recreate as much of that as possible while still getting applause.

Really good, funny playing of this. Like the theme, very empty, but still funny.

Sentences: Jeff and Ryan; The soap opera Tales of Intrigue

OH THANK GOD A GAME INVOLVING ACTUAL IMPROV MOVES.

Ryan, in collecting sentences, grabs a beer off a nearby table and goes ‘cheers’. As he returns it, you can hear the lady go ‘you can have it!’

The opening melodramatic miming is funny as hell here. Ryan even dramatically rings a phone, eventually answering “I’M NOT HOME.” The tone is down

Jeff brings back the name ‘Jawarhela’, which is always funny
Jeff: “PACKING A BAG, GOING SOMEWHERE, *JAWARHELLO*?”
PFFFFF

This is like line 3 and Ryan’s already on  edge
Jeff just says Jawarhello like 3 more times because he KNOWS Ryan’s there. It’s very interesting seeing how Jeff puts Ryan on edge as opposed to how Colin does. Colin does weirder stuff in serious ways. Jeff does serious stuff in weird ways. And that’s getting to Ryan here

Jeff: “Shady Cove is our home, we’ve had 14 children here.”
Ryan: “YOU’VE had 14 children here.”
Jeff, chuckling: “…that I know about…”

Jeff’s accent comes and goes in this game, and he makes a note of it: “Also, I’ve started off English, and now I’ve moved to a kind of South of the Border…”
Ryan: “I CAN NEVER FIGURE YOU OUT.”

Jeff: “I have a motto which I live my life by, Jawarhello, and it is this: “was that a duck?” BUT WITH ME, YOU NEVER KNOW. It could have been a…p-penguin.”
I love the way he says ‘penguin’ here.

Jeff: “is that a gun underneath your blouse?”
[proof that Jeff was paying attention at rise]
Ryan: “…could be…could be a gun…’I can’t wait to open your account.”
The film-noir-ish manner that Ryan is playing this is so damn good
Jeff: “There’s a penalty for early withdrawal, Jawarhelo…”
Of course
Ryan: “That would require you making some sort of deposit.”
WOW.

Jeff, bringing in a map leading to gold: “The map said ‘YOU  DON’T SWEAT MUCH FOR A WOMAN YOUR SIZE.”
Ryan: [sobs]
Jeff: “IT LEADS ME TO WONDER, JAWARHELO. IT LEEEEEADS ME TO WAAAHNDER ABOUT YOU.”
Jeff Davis is just killing it, man

Ryan: “I’m trying to take off the weight for you.”
Jeff, still going: “HOW COME A WOMAN AS BIG AS YOU NEVER SWEATS AT ALL???”

Ryan: “I look at that fridge and I say to myself “my…TIME…for my pap smear.”
Pffff
Jeff: “I love it when you’re disgusting…”

Jeff: “Remember the first thing I said to you when we met in that cantina, which is “where…were you when the dog died?”
Ryan: “That’s the only night the dog ever died, from what I remember”
Jeff, who is now on edge himself: “…I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about…” He is gone by the end of the sentence
[serious ‘YOU’RE my little pork roast’ energy]

Jeff, reading a line and absolutely selling it with his accent: “for your prostate exam you can either lay down or ben’dooover…”
DAMMIT.
Ryan: “LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT.”
Jeff: “WAIT, YOU HAVE A PROSTATE TOO??? IT LEADS ME TO WAAAANNNDER ABOUT YOU.”
That line is like a musical motif.

Ryan: “Why do you even come by anymore? I’m fat, I’m sweaty, I have a pap smear in the fridge, and I’m getting that? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? HOW COME YOU DON’T FIND ME ATTRACTIVE?”
Jeff, finally figuring it out: “I’m going to give you a prostate exam because I’m going to find the gold no matter WHERE you’ve hidden it.”
Ryan: “You can search for the gold, but you’ll never find it there.”
Jeff: “I will leave NO CAVE UNCHECKED.”

And…with an abrupt cut, that’s the scene. I easily would have sacrificed Duet to see more of that, or at least how they ended it, because that was too goddamned funny. Another high-tier Jeff-Ryan scene, right next to Sex-Butt and their Cabo F/R. So many funny moments, so many great Jeff rationalizations, and Ryan acting up a storm. Where the hell was this level of improv for the rest of the show?

Overall: Four really stupid games and one massively smart one. So clearly there’s an imbalance. I still have a lot of love for Forward Reverse and Freeze, and even the ridiculousness of Two-Headed Expert, but compared to the heights of this season, it feels incredibly empty. Yes, Sentences is here, and it’s a classic, but it can’t boost up the improv levels singlehandedly. This is an alright show, and has some great moments, but I can’t really get past how dispensable and solely-spectacle-based the majority of the games are. This is not a problem a lot of this series has, which is why it really gets me down here.

Best Performer: Jeff Davis. Of course.
Worst Performer: Greg did a lot of backup tonight.
Best Game: Sentences by a mile.
Worst Game: Duet was a dud and I think they knew it.
Best Dynamic: Ryan and Jeff, sentences. Watching the moments where they throw each other was priceless.
Best Host: Drew, Duet and Sentences.

COMING UP NEXT: Back to the purple taping for some third playings, indicating either a third show or repeat games.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 34, or Sorry, I Had the Poo Beans

Finishing off the fourth of four consecutive shows from the purple tapings, and hopefully this one is as strong as the first three, because we’ve been on something of a hot streak at this point in the watch. Granted, this show is really good, and the majority of the show is just a hot streak [there’s only been like 7 meh-to-bad shows so far], but the fact that we’re late in the series and it’s still good says a lot.

Song Styles: Chip, Jeff and Brad sing a doo-wop number to Kristi, a mom of quadruplets

Colin: “I’m just going out into the audience here because…I’m tired of being onstage..”

Colin: “Can we have a seat here for our lovely lady-OH. IT BLENDS IN WITH THE STAGE!”
Jeff: “Yes, let’s give the woman with a short skirt on a NICE HIGH STOOL.”
Colin: “Boy, I didn’t plan that well.”
Jeff: “There’s a whole different show going on in the first couple rows…”

Kristi says she had 4 kids in 5 minutes.
Colin: “I would just be swearing and…my ass would be around my ankles…”

Colin: “what is it that first attracts you to a man?”
Kristi: “I like handsome men?”
Colin, perfectly: “right, and anything less shallow?”
OHHH
Kristi: “You know what, I love bald men-”
Colin: “YOU LOVE BALD MEN? I LOVE YOU, THEN!”

Kristi, who seems really comfortable talking to Colin, says she always wanted to be ‘one of those Coyote Ugly girls”
Colin: “…THIS IS YOUR DREAM…”

Of course, the opening harmonies are great

Jeff: “I hear you had 4 children in 5 minutes…[to her husband] 5 minutes ain’t that long…”
And later: “If you could have them all in five minutes, I guess there was no foreplay..”

Brad: “I know that you’re in job placement
I have a job I’d like to do with you in my basement”
HA

I love how everyone keeps playing with the 5 minutes comment, Chip adding “almost a basketball team”, and Jeff doing “you give me 5 minutes, I’ll give you 9”

Brad FINALLY throws in a coyote ugly joke: “I’d like to see you in faded jeans dancing on top of a bar”

Jeff: “and I know tonight you probably wish that you had worn some pants”

A pretty good number. Towards the end, all three had different ideas about how to end the song and it sort of conflicted with Bob’s actual ending, but it was still a charming and funny number.

First Date: Kathy and Drew, with the rest of the troupe, act out the first date of Sharon and Matt

So this is my favorite First Date. Just forewarning you.

Jeff, on the restaurant: “was it a regular hang-out for you?”
Matt: “It’s cheap.”
Jeff laughs at this. Hey, I’ll have you know that cheap first dates are totally normal. Not everyone has the porterhouse on the first date, some people go to a burger joint across the street from the movie theater and still turn out fine.

Sharon reveals that Matt came to the date in uniform
Jeff: “Oh, you were in uniform? YOU OLD SMOOTHIE. Oldest trick in the book”

Matt: “We drove separate, cause…in case it didn’t work out…I could just kinda take off”
Jeff, in a delivery that has never left my mind: “Yeah, HOP IN A C130 AND GET THE HELL BACK TO DJIBOUTI.”
Matt: “Exactly”
Jeff just randomly knows air force lingo. Sure!

Jeff: “Did you like the food?”
Sharon: “Yeah, the beans looked like poop…”
Jeff: “THE BEANS LOOKED LIKE POOP. That’s sounds like a nice place- EL SIR’S IN TUSCON, EVERYBODY, THE BEEEANS…[chef’s kiss] LOOK LIKE POOP.”
Sharon and Matt: “THEY TASTE GOOD THOUGH!”

Drew, on his keyboard: “Hi, Sharon, it’s Matt.”
Matt: [multiple dings]
Drew just gives a thumbs up to the audience. Like, ‘okay, we got THAT RIGHT’

Kathy: “I’m not wearing any clothes.”
Sharon: [reaches for bell]
Audience member, audibly: “OHHH!”
Sharon: [grabs horn and honks before that can sink in]
HAHAHAHA
Drew, miming: “…me neither.”
Matt: [dingdingding]

Drew: “Well, I don’t have a lot of money, let’s go to this cheap mexican restaurant I know…”
Matt: [honks]
Drew: “…but i’m not sure if I’m gonna like her or believe anything you say, so LET’S WAIT IN OUR CARS FIRST.”
BOTH DINGING
Kathy: “I tell you what, when you get there, you text me, and if you’re handsome, I’ll get out of the car.”
Sharon: [ding]
EVERY LINE IS REALLY GOOD

Drew: “You look alright”
Kathy: “I don’t mind you either.”
HA
Kathy: “You’re wearing a uniform, you’re makin’ me hot already.”
Sharon: [multiple dings]

Drew: “We’ll have the poo beans…and two chimichangas”
Colin: “Ah, poo beans, good choice.”
Can y’all tell how much I love the fact that they brought the poo beans into the game. It’s such a goofy detail

Drew: “now that that’s out of the way” [jumps Kathy]
Matt: [honks repeatedly]
Kathy: “I’m sorry, I only do that online”
That line doesn’t get enough love because BRAD, JEFF AND CHIP SPRING IN AS A MARIACHI BAND, COMPLETE WITH BOB BACKING THEM, then are shooed away when Matt and Sharon both honk. Jeff shrugs and sits back down. The music abruptly cuts out.

Jeff, as a friend of Drew’s: “I’ve never seen you with a girl before!”
Matt: [HONKS]

There’s an audible cut here, because you can hear a fragment of Jeff yelling ‘POO BEANS’, and then he goes into “I’m sorry, we’ve never met, have we?”

Jeff: “And I can see…that this woman is very much in love with you, and hopes-”
Sharon: [honks]
Jeff: “….sorry, I-I had the poo beans, I’ll be back…”
HAHAHAHA

Kathy talks about being popular and going on the website “because I was curious”
Drew: “Well, I’m not that popular, that’s why I was on the website to begin with”
Matt: [honks]
Sharon: [DINGS MATT’S]
I really hope this marriage lasted

A fantastic playing of this, and still probably my favorite one. Drew and Kathy surprisingly brought a lot to this one, and Kathy had a lot of great lines, but Jeff came in with the assist towards the end. The poo beans runner is just…so good.

Freeze Tag: Brad baseball stance, Chip the letter C

Chip and Brad hold their opening stances and are about  to start when Drew freezes. I’m glad Greg wasn’t starting or else he’d get mad.

Jeff, to a hunched-over Kathy: “Quasimodo…it’s almost 9:30, RING THE BELL FOR GOD’S SAKES…”
Kathy does the repeated motion, as Bob simulates the bell noise
Jeff: “You’re fired.”
PFF

Colin: [does this motion]

Colin: “…YAHTZEE!”
HAHAHAH
Jeff, barely in character: “thank god, I thought you were doing something COMPLETELY different…”

I kinda like how this scene progresses, as Colin, the Yahtzee champion, gets beaten at slap-hands by Jeff.
Jeff: “I WIN AGAIN.”
Colin: “OH, DAMN YOU.”

Chip, with Colin pointing: “SEND IN THE KING’S NOSE-PICKER.”
Colin sighs, and readies his finger: “I’m sorry, sir, the Queen had a bit of a booger.”
Chip tries starting another sentence and that line does him in. He just stands there, mad at that line

I love the scene with Kathy as Brad’s ‘trained hunting parakeet’. It’s such a goofy Brad animal idea.

Jeff: “Hey, guys, seriously, where’s Roosevelt?”
HA

Second consecutive ‘meh’ Freeze. Again, there are highlights, but there were long stretches of meh.

New Choice: Colin and Kathy; beauticians; Jeff calls

[we are beauticians, and we will bury you!]

Colin: “Hello, make me beautiful, ya got 10 minutes.”
First 5 minutes, now 10…

Kathy, after a NC run: “I’m gonna do it, but it’s gonna take 11 and a half minutes.”
Colin: “Oh, that’s good. I just need it really quick because I’m the grand marshal of the rose parade”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “I’m the…semi-mediocre captain of the…turnip…guide.”
[…]
Kathy: “…I’ve heard of you.”
PFFF

Kathy: “We’re gonna give you some tips and…possibly a perm.”
Colin, after staring for 5 seconds: “…good luck to you.”
YES

Kathy: “I can’t help but notice you have claw hands.”
Colin: [dramatically turns]

Colin: “Don’t ever mention my claw hands. I got them when I was involved in a terrible thresher accident.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “I got my claw hands from a renegade chicken.”
PFFFF
Jeff: [keels over]
Colin: “DON’T ASK.”

Colin: “I want you to give me a complete makeover with rosy cheeks.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “I want you to give me broader shoulders and a nice full-”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin, possibly referencing Options: “I WANT YOU TO THINK OF A NUMBER BETWEEN ONE AND THIRTY.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “I WANT YOU.”

PERFECT

Kathy: [unbuttons shirt]
Colin: “That was easier than I thought”

Kathy: “wait a minute, you were in here last week.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Kathy: “…okay, you can have me right here.”
HA
Colin’s reaction:

That double-take. So subtle.

Kathy: “YOU’RE MY HUSBAND.”
Colin: “Jeez, Louise, I’m trying to make the relationship exciting! I’m gonna take off the pirate costume now!”
PFFF

Colin: “I don’t know what to do with you anymore, Louise.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: ‘…I know EXACTLY what to do with you, Louise.”
Yes, the logical antithesis
KATHY:

BEAUTIFUL
Jeff: “NEW CHOICE, KATHY”

PFFFF

Jeff does a few more, and then an ‘all of those choices together’, which Kathy easily does
Colin: “OH. MY GOD.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “…YIPPEE-YI-YAY.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “…I’M HARDER THAN CEMENT.”
HAHAHAHHAHHA

Such a funny New Choice, more than made up for its runtime, and brought out the best in Colin and KATHY. OH MAN WAS SHE QUICK.

Overall: Fifth strong show in a row. This one was an improvement over last show for not having any truly bad games, just Freeze being meh, but it also didn’t have the insane height of Options, instead having a classic First Date and a hysterical New Choice. Very similar in format to last show, but also last show’s Duet might have been better. This was Kathy Kinney’s best show yet after a slowly ascending ramp up over the past few shows, and had strong moves by Colin, Drew and Jeff.

Best Performer: Kathy Kinney. All the haters can shut up.
Worst Performer: Chip lands here again for, once more, doing a lot of backup and not standing out as much.
Best Game: First Date, a personal favorite of mine.
Worst Game: Once again, Freeze was kinda weak.
Best Dynamic: Colin and Kathy, New Choice. I…kinda love all the scenes they’ve done together.
Best Host: Jeff in First Date and New Choice.

COMING UP NEXT: With 6 shows to go before the end, we finally get to our final taping, bringing back Greg and Ryan, and fitting in five games and a truly inspired Jeff accent.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 33, or I’d Like to Apologize to your Grandparents

Right back into the thick of the purple taping, which has been giving considerable output for the past two shows. I hope they keep it up

Duet: Jeff and Chip sing a disco ballad to Jan, a tax professional

Kathy, once again, proves why she’s excellent at getting audience members: “don’t be frightened…[to Jan] YOU should be very scared though, cause I’ve chosen you..”

Jan mentions she’s from Minnesota
Kathy, fully into her accent: “Oh, I’m right from that neighboring state, Wisconsin…”
Chip: “HERE WE GO…”

Bob and Jan are insanely cute. We find out that Bob’s nickname for Jan is ‘Shortcake’
Jeff: “BOB YOU OLD SOFTIE”
Chip: “That is SO BOB.”
Jeff and Chip are just riffing on ‘classic Bob’, so they’re in a good mood

Chip: “and what is your nickname for Bob”
Jan: “…Bobby”
Chip, to Bob: “You worked a LOT harder than she did…”

Chip, in a nice move, literally skates into the scene

Jeff: “You fill out tax forms all day long that’s true
But after you get home, I’d like to fill out you”
AND WE’RE OFF

Jeff and Chip are doing this number pretty well, with the right amount of energy and soulfulness for this style

Jeff: “I love shortcake, but you have to realize
That when I get a bite of you, you go straight to my thighs…”
FAMILY SHOW, JEFF

Hell, Chip even throws in a split for the second time this run. THEN JEFF TRIES ONE. And after about a good stretch, he just calls it off. Obviously his legs aren’t as flexible as his fingers.

Jan is really into it, too, doing some dancing and bopping with Jeff and Chip

A truly delightful and really fun duet, made better just for how much fun all 3 were having, and how genuinely wholesome Jan and Bob seemed.

Options: Kathy and Colin: The strange life of a woman named Marnie who lives in New York but spends most of her time in North Carolina doing nothing; Jeff calls

Jeff, to Marnie: “New York, and what do you do there….YOU DO NOTHING…AND YOU LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA?…That’s a strange thing to do in New York.”
HA
Jeff just decides to give Colin and Kathy that exactly

Colin is smart about this: “did you feel that Earthquake?”
Kathy: “I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING.”
Colin: “…honey, I wasn’t BLAMING YOU for the earthquake…”
SUCH A COLIN DELIVERY

Kathy: “I’m so bored here in North Carolina”
Colin: “BORED?? LOOK OUT THE WINDOW! WE’RE NOW IN NEW YORK!”
PFFF. Such a good move

Western
Kathy mentions a shootout at the OK Corral, and Colin almost immediately draws back from a gunshot. Jeff loves this move
Colin: “WARNING! A LITTLE WARNING!”

Jeff: “FREEZE. THEATER! [beat] FORD’S THEATRE? No-NOT A SPECIFIC THEATRE. [once again, going with it] ALRIGHT, CONTINUE IN FORD’S THEATER, let’s see a little Our American Cousin, maybe a president will get assassinated, it’s gonna be very awesome..THANK YOU, SIR, FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE SPECIFICITY.”
This is why I love Jeff. He screws with audience members and the scene at the same time

Kathy: “Look up in the box, it’s President Abraham Lincoln”
Colin, drawing back from another gunshot: “COME ON!”
HAHAHAHA

Jeff: “Let’s try this again, can I get a genre that might take PLACE in a theater…”

Shakespeare:
Kathy: “I would like to go anon to the village square and look for young men by pushing my bosom up high in my dress!”
Colin, who has been cast as the nurse: “Aye, I did same as you when I was young, I pushed my bosom well beyond my chest and now it does lay by my bottom.”
SO GOOD
Colin: “DOES THOU NOT NOTICE I AM BLEEDING FROM THE HEAD AND ARM?”

Colin, as they do some really good Shakespearean lines: “the blood is leaving my body like a man that does not want to pay his bar check!”
IS THIS A REFERENCE TO E32’S SENTENCES???

Jeff, from an audience member’s grandparents, has them continue in Mexico. As a fluent spanish speaker, Jeff pronounces with the h, perhaps with high expectations for this scene:
Kathy: “…Hola…I cannot help but see you have a gunshot wound in ze shoulder.”
Jeff, as this sounds more Swedish, cracks up
Jeff, to Kathy: “MEXICO. ME…HEE..CO”
Kathy, smirkingly: “ME..HE..CO..”
Colin, however, takes a different approach, SCOTTISH ACCENT: “oh aye, I got shot RIGHT IN THE ARRM. DID YE SEE THAT?”
PERFECT. Colin randomly doing a scottish accent is a staple of WL, so I’m glad it shows up here.
CHIP LITERALLY RUNS OFF TOWARDS BOB HE’S LAUGHING SO HARD

Kathy: “LET ME MOVE DA PINATA.”
Jeff: [dies]
Colin: “Ya know…I’ve only been in Mexico for 3 minutes…I THINK I’MIGHT SETTLE DOOOON”
PFFFFFFF

Jeff, to the audience member: “I’d like to apologize to your grandparents…”

Jeff: “Kathy, you may only speak in sentences containing 3 words and 3 words alone, Colin, 17 words.”
Colin:

Jeff: “and I’d like to continue in that bizarre part of Mexico that you guys were both from.”

Kathy: “HOLA, SENOR GUNSHOT.”
SEE, EVEN THAT’S FUNNY.
Colin: “ACH I know you want a boyfriend, and I’ll do what i can for you, if you actually want one yeah.”
Colin, that’s 21.
Kathy: “…Oh, I do”
Colin: “OCH, I KNOW MANY A MAN WHO’D LIKE TO MARRY YOU CAUSE YOU ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THIS SIDE OF MEXICO AYE OCH AYE.”
…COLIN, THAT’S 26.
Kathy, looking to the audience for help: “LOVE YOUR ACCENT.”
Colin: “OH IT’S JUST A LITTLE THING I PICKED UP WHEN I WAS BORN IN SCOTLAND AND MOVE OVER HERE TO MEXICO [GIBBERISH] AND STUFF.”
PFFFFF
Jeff thankfully calls it there

SUCH A FUNNY SCENE. Colin and Kathy did their best keeping the scene, but this was all about accents and  gunshots and Colin being an absolute goof while keeping the integrity of the scene.

Freeze Tag: Jeff squatting, Chip with one leg and one arm up

Chip: “This casino has weird urinals.”
Jeff: “I’ll tell you this, I wish they had doors on these stalls…”

I like Drew’s ‘we open in a week’ initiation, but I like Jeff’s hunched-over attempts at the kicks.

Drew has another one with Jeff in this position, pulling something out of Jeff’s ass: “…B5.”
Jeff: [shakes ass like there are more balls in there]

Jeff and Kathy’s scene turns into a really tender character study, but nobody’s tagging in because they’re in such normal positions

Jeff comes in as a Steve Irwin type setting up Drew and Kathy as ‘the mating of the great white panda’. Within seconds, Kathy is humping Drew. Again, why do people not like Kathy?

Colin…for some reason, takes Kathy’s position and starts shaking Drew from there.
Colin: “…you’re right, I do feel warmer!”

Chip: “NEXT UP ON THE POLE, DREW CAREY”
Drew: [pole dances off Colin]
Colin: [very faintly sighs]

Brad: “well, Mr. Carey, your x-ray shows that you’ve got a Colin stuck to your ass…”
HA

Jeff: “The Venetian hotel proudly presents…WHITE MAN GROUP.”
HA
Colin, Drew and Brad do some amusing musical miming tricks.

An alright Freeze, not one of the better ones but still amusing enough.

New Choice: Drew and Brad; a doctor and patient somewhere near a lake; Chip calls

Brad goes on with his procedure, a detailed line
Chip: “new choice”
Brad: “Listen, if you put some clothes on, you’ll be warmer..”

Drew stumbles a bit on a NC-run, but has the inspired idea to put on a bear suit.

Drew: “Do I look like a bear?”
Brad, perfectly: “…not really.”
Chip: “new choice”
Brad: “a little bit”
Chip: “new choice”
Brad: “I’ve never seen a bear with glasses and a soul patch.”
Drew:

Brad: “But there’s probably some jazz bears around…”
Bob: [comes in with jazz music]
Drew, Louie Armstrong impression: “GOTTA FIND DAT PIC-A-NIC BASKET [scats]
Right after losing me a bit, Drew wins me back
Chip: “NEW CHOICE”
Drew, same voice: “…Watch out for the ranger, bay-beehhhh”
Chip: [loses it] “stop that choice.”

I also love that during Brad’s next line, “now I know your insurance covers an entire hunting expedition while getting your physical”, Drew just props his bear hands back up again, casually. It’s a small, goofy move, but it’s cracking me up

Brad gets NC’d on what outdoor event to do next, landing on “I think we should get on our cross-country skis and wait for it to snow!”
Chip cracks at this one
Drew: “alright, you’re the doctor.”
DREW HAS SO MANY GREAT MOVES IN THIS GAME.

Drew follows that with another great move: “hey, how do I know you’re a real doctor? This is the most unusual exam I’ve ever had in my life.”
Brad: “Well, I have a diploma laminated to the inside of my parka.”
Chip: “new choice”
Brad: “well, I have a stethoscope and a tattoo of, uh, wings and snakes going around like that…”
Drew composes himself, then has another great move: “wings and snakes! I used to play that when I was a kid!”
Brad: “They’re great as long as they don’t get on a plane.”
HA

Brad, after a NC: “So, I’ve done your blood work, and I think you’ve been eating too many danishes…”

Chip finishes by making Brad do all 4 choices from a run, and he does so admirably. This is why we love Brad in this game.

It was shaky in points, but this was still a very funny NC scene, and Drew had a lot of good moves and lines, though…still no match for Brad at this game.

Overall: Another strong show, maybe down a few pegs from the last two but still really good, thanks to fun games like Duet and New Choice, and that genuinely hilarious Options. Our streak of seeing Brad, Drew and Kathy ace games continues, as well as seeing the usual standouts like Jeff and Colin give good work. I can see why this taping is so consistent, as this is a very solid chunk of the All-Stars crew that had been working together for years.

Best Performer: Jeff Davis, winning multiple games for me, and making Options even better.
Worst Performer: Once again, there’s five people I simply cannot put here, and that leaves the guy who did backup in Duet and didn’t stand out much else tonight, Chip Esten.
Best Game: Options. So many funny moments, and Jeff’s calling in this was superior. A lesser caller would let some of these bits go.
Worst Game: Freeze, but I still enjoyed it, cause it’s Freeze.
Best Dynamic: Chip and Jeff, Duet.
Best Host: Gotta be Jeff for Options. He schooled everybody.

COMING UP NEXT: One last purple taping show that looks very similar to this one, with another Duet, another Freeze Tag, another New Choice and another Colin-Kathy scene. Luckily there’s a personal favorite First Date to break the monotony

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 32, or Never Challenge a Banjo-Wielding Velociraptor

In the middle of four straight shows from the purple taping, we get another…if I remember correctly, sharp show with this matchup. I loved E31, and this one has some good bits.

Greatest Hits: Jeff and Colin present ‘Songs of the Steelworker’, sung by Chip and Brad

Another odd pairing, Jeff presenting rather than singing.

Jeff: “I’m Taylor Swift”
Colin: “And I’m Swift Taylor”
Of course

Within seconds of Chip and Brad starting the mambo number, ‘our love is like hot rivets in the pants’, Jeff starts cracking up

Chip has some trouble staying on tempo, and once he gets to the title line, “your love makes me feel like rivet-fire pants”, he buckles.

Brad is honestly the stronger of the duo in this mambo number, and has more of a handle on the genre in general, and comes off as very confident on it.

Chip, recovering with good lyrics: “I’ve got a five-alarm down in my 501s”
HA

Chip: [high note]
Brad: [rolls r’s and AY-YI-YI]
Chip: [breaks again]
ADV- BRAD
Jeff, once again, is cracking up basically over Colin’s lap. Maybe he’s just relieved he doesn’t have to take part in this one.

I love how many details Jeff and Colin give to set up the 70s rock number, that it’s set in Pittsburgh and everything.

Brad has done his Springsteen on WL a ton of times, so of course he can do a number like this. Chip also does a really good 70s Bruce, which gets Jeff laughing for the umpteenth time this game

Chip, mid-chorus, Bruce-esque: “SHA-LA-LA-LAAAHHH”
Jeff:

GONE

Chip does a slide towards the camera, perhaps recreating this, and Jeff goes down once again in the background.

A really strong, well-done, well-fleshed-out GH, with great work from all four. Perhaps the closest we’re gonna get to a WL Greatest Hits playing.

Sentences: Jeff and Chip, Colin eventually enters; the soap opera My Revolving World

Jeff, in charge of collecting sentences, holds up a slip of paper: “Somebody’s receipt…ooh, a credit card number..”

Same taping as 31, but these guys pocket their sentences instead of putting them all on a  stool.

Chip: [enters]
Jeff: “…Amantha.”
Chip: “…Teven.”
AND I’M HOOKED

Jeff: “You left me for the TSA? It used to be only me who you would grope unnecessarily…”
GO JEFF

Jeff: “HOW MANY CROTCHES HAVE YOU FONDLED SINCE YOU WALKED OUT THAT DOOR?”
Chip: “I CAN’T COUNT THAT HIGH.”
PERFECT

Chip: “Every time I did, I thought of you, and I thought to myself…”what the heck is that smell?”

Jeff: “I’ve taken a new lover.”
Chip, sipping on a drink madly: “IS IT TAN? I KNOW IT’S TAN.”
I…love these two working together in scenes.
Jeff: “No, it’s…Tephanie. [reads] ‘…will you pay our bar bill?”
AND HE LOOKS DIRECTLY AT THE PEOPLE HE GOT THE RECEIPT FROM. DAMN. HE CHUCKS THE CRUMPLED-UP LINE RIGHT AT THEM

Chip: “I laid awake nights thinking to myself…THOSE AREN’T PILLOWS!”
Not the first Sentences where that line has showed up
Jeff, stepping away as Chip composes himself: “yes…you’d curl up between my butt-cheeks and fall fast asleep.”
PERFECT. This and sex-butt coming within two shows of each other was not by chance.
Chip, without flinching: “that’s what sent me to the TSA.”

Jeff: “I did a little needlepoint and put it up over the bar.”
Chip: “Darling…’you know I love you but that really is ghastly!”
Jeff: “FINALLY SOME EMOTION FROM YOU, YOU COLD…HEARTED VILLAIN.”
Chip: “OH, GO KNIT IT.”
HA

Jeff just starts frantically knitting and playing right off Chip as he does it. This game is damn near masterful, and I’m loving that it still holds up.

Chip reads Jeff’s scarf for him: “My son is a velociraptor who plays the banjo.”
Jeff: “YES.”
Chip: “OUR SON…”
Jeff: [does some great prop work getting under the bar and back to Chip]
Jeff: “OUR SON is a velociraptor…”
Chip: [does dinosaur arms]

As Jeff goes on monologuing…Brad gets an idea:


Brad: “DINGALINGALING- TEVEN, I’M DROPPING OFF YOUR BOYYYY”
Colin:
It is that simple for Colin. He goes right into his trademark dinosaur impression and it just fits, even though it’s a two-person sentences. It’s a combination of Brad’s genius for doing this and Colin’s genius for knowing what Brad was needing him for

Hell, Bob even throws some music in as Colin mimes playing the banjo and Chip dances

Jeff: “Don’t move, his visual acuity is based on movement, he’ll eat you ALIVE”
Chip: “Wait a minute…HE LOOKS LIKE BURNOOSE.”
WHY THAT NAME, CHIP? WHY BRING THAT BACK?

Chip, coming towards Colin and Jeff: “I AM DOCTOR NAPKINFACE, OH YEAH, COME ON.”
Colin: […]
Chip: “…I probably shouldn’t challenge him like that…”
Jeff: ‘Never challenge a banjo-wielding velociraptor, it’s suicide, Amantha!”

Jeff hands Colin his ‘first words’, and Colin has to readjust the line “I KNOW YOU THINK…YOU LOOK GOOD BUT YOU REALLY NEED TO WORK ON THAT HAIR.”

That’s a very transparent expression, just impressed the hair slam isn’t directed at him for once

Colin follows this up with some great velociraptor noises:

Bob loves this
Jeff: [feeds Colin a fish]

Jeff, as Chip is doing a passionate exiting speech:

[‘can you believe this?’]

Chip, with his final line: “you think losing weight is hard for a man? Try being a woman…where the fat stays!”

As they wrap up, Jeff gives Colin a big, long look, which Colin now returns, amused by that scene, and Jeff, for the umpteenth time this show, breaks

Phenomenal. Not only was this an awesome Jeff-Chip duo scene, but it got so much funnier as it went on, and having Colin and his dinosaur impression thrown in late only helped matters. One of the best scenes of this show’s run.

Bob’s Call: Colin and Kathy are on a gondola

AND SPEAKING OF COLIN MOCHRIE’S STANDBYS…

Kathy, with a fantastic initiating line: “Get in, Everett, I’ve had two lessons and I’m feeling pretty confident”
Again…I kept waiting for Kathy Kinney to piss me off over the course of this series, and it hasn’t really happened. Some of y’all are just sexist.

Kathy: “And here’s the thingy that makes the whirly-giggy-go, and-”
Colin: “WHAT KIND OF GONDOLA IS THIS? [remembering the other audience suggestion] this is the best helicopter gondola I’ve ever seen…”
Kathy: “And this is the best anniversary I’ve ever had with somebody I’m not really married to…”

Colin: “In my family, we don’t go for diamond rings, because we’re notoriously cheap, so I have this hard bagel.”
PFFF
Colin: “It’s as hard as a diamond”

Bob goes in with a fast-paced russian-style song, and Colin, who starts with some ‘AAAROOOOO’s,…I’m just gonna put the lyrics here:
Colin: “In my family we like bagels, put them on the finger
Then we find out that their love surely will linger
We like bread it’s really hard, we stuff it in our mouth
It doesn’t marry [matter] if we marry here or in the south”
And then, as the chorus comes in, instead of doing more lyrics, he just pulls a show-stopping number move and descends into complete gibberish while dancing: “KEE-TY-YA-TA-TO-TEY-YA-TA-”
AND THE PLACE GOES WILD

This will never not make me laugh. It’s so damned funny. What’s even funnier is the only person that doesn’t laugh at this is Kathy, who takes this as an opportunity to dance with Colin. That is a show of professionalism.

Kathy: [Hits long, high note]
Colin: [cleans out ears]

As Kathy does this heartfelt number about regret and love, Colin has these…insanely funny gestures and expressions
Kathy: “I’M IN LOVE WITH ANOTHER”
Colin:

Kathy: “And that man that I love….is my brother.”
Colin: [cleans out ears again]

Colin, bringing back the location: “I threw away the pole…you upset me with the brother thing, I just let it go…”
Kathy, now wobbling to keep the location
Colin, taking this literally: “NO, DON’T DO *THAT*”

Colin: “…now I’ll have no one.”
Bob: [comes in with bouncy music]
Colin: [sports a grin suddenly]

Colin, singing: “second best is good enough for me
Unless of course you’re a urinal, have to pee!”
PFF

A really fun, insanely silly number that both Colin and Kathy were able to keep going, and keep about character and relationship.

Moving Bodies: Drew and Brad; something involving the ocean

We end with Moving People and begin with GH. Curiouser and curiouser.

Kathy, as I’ve discovered recently, is just really good with interacting with the audience: “oh, you’re trying to not look at me? YOU’VE been chosen…”
HA

Kathy tries demonstrating the ‘move Drew’s arm and it’ll stay in place’ thing, but Drew accidentally forget this and has to hastily re-raise his arm

Drew starts by pointing at a ship
Mark moves Brad’s arm, and not his head
Brad, with a fun accent: “in my peripheral vision, I see where you’re pointing”
Mark: [tilts Brad’s torso]
Brad: “ALRIGHT”

As Brad asks Drew to steer the boat, Terry just moves Drew’s arms up and down, like it’s more of a dance move than actually steering a boat.
Drew: “I’M GETTIN SEASICK, CAPTAIN!”
Terry: [puts Drew’s arms at his sides]
Drew: “I’M NOT STEERING YOUR GODDAMN BOAT.”

Brad, as Mark keeps moving his shoulders, and just swaying him: “…this part of the boat moves a little more than that part…”

Brad: “I’ve taken two spyglasses and taped them together…I call them ‘double-noculars…”
Mark puts Brad’s arms down, as Brad goes “Oh, I’ve ripped them apart”
Mark now bends Brad over, and Brad just makes a vomiting noise. This is really funny

Brad: “ALRIGHT, I’LL GO MAN THE CANNONS”
Mark, here, forgets to move Brad’s legs as well as his top half:

Brad: “OHHHHHHHH”
PFFFFFF
Brad: “I’VE BROKEN MY NOSE, RANDY!”

Brad, muffled by the floor: “YOU KNOW, WHAT I NOTICED IS I FORGOT TO USE MY LEGS…”

Terry has to get Drew up, then over to where Brad is, which is goofily haphazard for Terry

Mark is trying to get Brad up, but ONCE AGAIN he’s not tapping his legs and just focusing on his torso. Brad just goes “SOMEHOW I’LL JUST *FLOAT* UP! IF ONLY I CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO PUT MY WEIGHT ON MAYBE ONE LEG WITH THE MUSCLES IN IT…”

Mark CONTINUES TO TRY HIS TORSO, AND NOT HIS LEGS. Brad just keeps making grunting noises.
Brad: “IF I COULD JUST GET ONE KNEE TO FLY FORWARD..”
MARK FINALLY MOVES A KNEE. THE AUDIENCE APPLAUDS.
The game ends as Mark finally figures out how to get Brad back up, which is as triumphant as, say Tony Wright finally getting an Intro right on Buzzcocks.

A really, really funny Moving People. More of a struggle than a substantial game, but a really funny struggle.

As we end the show, we get a shot of the audience, and- WAIT A MINUTE:

THAT’S JOEY FATONE. DON’T TRY TO HIDE JOEY FATONE FROM US, EDITORS. He may have jumped onstage for a game, and we may never know, GSN. Jeez!

Overall: An outstanding show, no doubt. I knew I’d be enjoying Sentences and Bob’s Call, but Greatest Hits was pretty consistently awesome, and Moving People cracked me up just in Brad TRYING DESPERATELY to get Mark to move his legs. This was also a great one for good improv moves, especially in the middle scene games with Chip, Jeff, Colin and Kathy. Definitely one of the highlights of the entire run.

Best Performer: It came down to Colin and Brad for me. But despite Bob’s Call, I’m giving it to Brad for the second show in a row. Not only did he excel in Greatest Hits and Moving People, but he also had the idea to bring Colin into Sentences, which was a genius move. Brad is making up for his spotty first 30 shows quickly.
Worst Performer: Drew was only in Moving People, and didn’t do much that impressed me in that one.
Best Game: Sentences. Jeff’s second classic playing of this in a row.
Worst Game: Greatest Hits is the most ‘normal’ of these, but is still really good.
Best Dynamic: Jeff and Chip, Sentences. So much of the joy of this scene comes from these two working off each other.
Best Host: Kathy, as we’re gonna find out in this part of the run, is so good at getting suggestions, and performers, from the audience, and she made this clear in Moving People and GH.

COMING UP NEXT: More from this taping. We had two of Colin’s standbys in this show, and this one has a third.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza Episode 31, or THE PRICE IS WRONG.

Now, with 10 episodes to go before the end of the run on GSN, we switch things up a bit.

The last 10 shows consist of material from the first two ‘two-per-night’ tapings, as opposed to the glut of Heather shows that started off the run. We have the purple taping, consisting of Colin, Brad, Kathy, Chip and Jeff, and the white taping, consisting of Ryan, Greg, Kathy, Chip and Jeff. The purple taping, which we pick from tonight, is the only one that Ryan Stiles is absent from, again owing to this show’s ensemble format- anyone can show up, any variation of the rep company can be there.

And so we head into the purple taping for the first time.

Greatest Hits: Colin and Chip present Songs of the Lawyer, sung by Jeff and Brad.

This is an intriguing combo. Chip presents?? Cool.

Drew: “And Colin and…uh…CHIP…are gonna make up the names of songs”
Jeff: [doubles over] “You’re doin’ great, Drew!”
Drew: “…I’ve never introduced anything in my life…”

Drew, continuing: “…Brad and Chip are gonna make up songs-”
Jeff: “I’M JEFF.”
PFFFFFF
Drew: ‘…Colin and Chip..”
Colin and Chip: [cracking up]

Colin: “Studies show that [this time of night] is when you’re at your weakest”

Chip: “I’m glad to be here with the grandaddy of rock and roll, the original pioneer, YOU TELL ‘EM YOUR NAME.”
Colin: “…PHIL.”
I love this, and I love how Chip frames this as an interview with “Phil”, who still buys albums

Colin: “We have collected over 15,000 songs about lawyers, because songs can’t always be about nice things.”
pFFF

Colin: “You know, back in the 60s I belonged to a folk group called ‘Happy Granola and the Birkenstock 3.”
Colin is too damn good at this. And he just improvises a random silly folk song

I love how echoey Jeff’s mic is for this number, just like the old reggae songs

Brad and Jeff’s reggae number is really good, and they have the sense of dirty, bare-bones reggae that’s really needed here, especially when Jeff talks about legalized weed

Brad: “I don’t know what to do
I want some 420, but it’s 4:22
So it’s past the time that I like to get my stone on
And then I see a girl I want to get my bone on.”
Brad is just killing it

Pretty strong number, but, as usual, I wish I could have seen more from this game, more from the Jeff-Brad combo AND the Colin-Chip dynamic. As is, this is still pretty good

Sound Effects: Colin and Brad are lumberjacks; Diane and Zack do SFX

Sooooo…Diane is a very important whoser because her taping reports were vital to the early understanding of this show. So it’s genuinely cool to see her show up in a game

I am saddened that Jeff didn’t see the immediate joke with these two audience members, and start singing a little ditty about Zack and Diane…

Jeff, to clearly-freaking-out-Diane: “…pay attention, Diane, don’t panic…”

Zack’s prelim soda-shake noise has a little ‘WOOOWWWUUU’ at the end
Jeff: “…at a rock-concert…”
Brad: “with a wah-wah pedal”

Zack and Diane both start with rooster noises
Brad: “I can’t wait to cut down all these trees and displace these annoying birds!”

Brad mentions his chainsaw, and Zack already starts doing really good chainsaw noises
Brad, quickly: “…it’s self-starting!”

Diane’s wolverine noises are…INSANELY good. Zack cracks up. Bob applauds. I’m impressed as hell.
Colin: “alright, just…calm down!”
Diane, wolverine voice: “…okay.”
pFFFF

Colin: “TIMBER”
Diane: “….FFP.”
Brad: “I like the way the tree landed on that throw pillow!”

Brad uses his chainsaw, and Zack adds some high-pitched noises to it
Brad: “Oh, apparently this tree was full of birds…”

Colin, on Diane’s beeping noise for his truck: “Usually it beeps, but I just attached my truck to an old Pong game…”

There’s a nice turn after a Diane noise, when Colin and Brad run into some mystical creatures
Colin: “We must be cutting down their home!”
Brad, in a line that just…works for me: “…OH, CRAP!”
I DON’T KNOW WHY THAT’S SO FUNNY, IT JUST IS. LIKE IT DOESN’T FIT.

After Zack and Diane make more little creature noises
Brad: “I have two firearms. I know it’s [crack] politically incorrect, but I think it’s our only consequence at this point…”

After some gun noises and cries in pain, Colin: “…thank god those 4 were standing one behind the other, I got all of them..”
Brad: “It was kind of like a bullet shish-ka-dwarf”
This is why I’m glad Colin and Brad did all their IAG shows together

As Colin digs with a shovel, Zack comes back in with the shouting creature
Colin: “oh, GOD, THIS ONE!” [whacks repeatedly]

Brad, summing up the scene perfectly: “I like how we started out as just lumberjacks and now we’re eco-terrorists and mass murderers.”
Thank you, Brad.

Brad: “Would you care for some heroin?” [injects]
Zack: “PFFFFLLBBB”
Brad: “OOOH, I CAUGHT A REAL BIG VEIN!”

Colin picks some ‘magic pixie dust’ to bring the creature back to life, and the creature noises return.
Colin: “…oh, no, it was CUMIN.”
HA

Brad: “We’ll back away slowly…towards this hill, you just keep cumin round the mountain”
BRAD SHERWOOD.

EXCELLENT SFX. Diane and Zack were both really good in this game, and this central trust led Colin and Brad to take this scene in weirder directions because of that. Some really funny stuff from both of them, especially Brad.

Sentences: Drew and Kathy act out the soap opera “Slept with my boss”

Chip, getting the title suggestion: “…SLEPT WITH MY BAAHHSS…she tells America…”

Unlike later games, all the lines are on a stool, rather than pocketed

Drew, surprisingly starting the scene off on a good foot, comes out of the shower as the boss, and says “I always like to lather myself up in the shower and say ‘how do you make a woman happy?”
All good character stuff

Kathy says she’ll never forget what Drew said last night: “what the hell are you?”
PFFF

I do absolutely love Drew and Kathy’s back and forth in this game. Obviously they still have great chemistry from TDCS, but also their minimalist improv experience kind of brings out the best in each other

Drew: “Like…Cecil, down at reception. She might say “If I had more confidence, I wouldn’t have gotten this…penile implant…”

Kathy: “That’s why she never changed her name…”
Yeah, she’s good at picking up on little things like that

Kathy: “In fact, many nights in my diary, I’ve written: “…is that a banana in your pocket..”

Drew: “It is in fact…an apple.”
A weird reply that gets weirder the more you think about it. Chip literally drops his head at that.

Drew: “If anybody asks any questions, I’m just gonna say: ‘..what the hell is up with these LEAVES?”
And he sells that by just looking around, confused. I’m genuinely enjoying this game, and this pairing.

Kathy: “Standing here, still in my bathrobe, the thing that I most want to say to you is “I smell cheese”
PFFF
Drew: “…After sex, I often smell like cheese…”
ANOTHER SHOT OF CHIP JUST BUCKLING.

Drew: “And if you don’t like the way I smell, then [opens note, has a brief moment of ‘oh come on’, then] THE PRICE IS WRONG.”
YES. That was like a Colin Jost reaction.

We cut off before the ending, but this is a pretty strong, well-improvised game with some great chemistry from Drew and Kathy. Not always ha-ha funny, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Two-Headed Expert: Jeff and Drew interview Kathy and Chip in a science class.

For some reason, Colin’s audience question of ‘where would be the worst place to escape to after a prison break’ gets Drew and Jeff laughing
Colin, with that unforgettable Colin delivery: “…a science classroom. THANK YOU MA’AM.”

Chip and Kathy, in one of their first few lines of dialogue, crack up midway through, kinda losing their own bit.

Like Jeff’s last playing, Jeff is doing a specific voice while Drew is sort of doing his usual voice, so there’s a slight disparity.

Jeff pulls this face after a line:

Good lord.

This is the second Kathy-Drew game in a row involving cheese, which Kathy drops as an exclamation, and Jeff and Drew respond with: “DID YOU JUST CALL ME CHEESE???”

I love Jeff’s reaction to this, saying  ‘WELL’ with Drew, and just walking to the other side of the stage angrily…and not saying anything else

After another line from Chip and Kathy involving the window
Jeff and Drew: “WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND THE WINDOW.”
Jeff, a la Kathy: “JEEZ.”

Chip and Kathy: “I’m thinking of you……”
AND THE LINE ENDS THERE. THIS IS SUCH A GOOFY ONE.

Chip and Kathy: “WAIT…I want to tell you a joke.”
The second Kathy says this, she realizes how hard it’s gonna be to tell a joke like this
Jeff and Drew: “OH BOY!”

AUDIBLE BONK. Yes, thank god the mic picked up the sound of Jeff’s head clanging against Drew’s glasses. He has to literally take them off and fix them, getting away from Jeff for a moment to recollect.
Jeff, getting Drew’s attention to say it in unison: “SORRY”
Also, Colin and Brad are LOSING IT FROM STOOL CITY.

Chip: ‘WHAT”
Kathy: “Does”
Chip: “difference”
Kathy and Chip both look confused here
Kathy: “between”
Chip: ‘a”
Kathy: “RABBI”
Chip: “and”
Kathy: “…AN IRISH.”
PFFFFFFF
Jeff:

This goddamned game…
Chip: “…WINDOW.”
HAHAHAHAHA. GOOD LORD

Drew, leading Jeff: ‘I ALREADY HEARD THIS ONE, BUT TELL US IT ANYWAY.”
Jeff loves this move
Chip, with an even better move: “NO, NO…”
Kathy, getting it: “YOU”
Chip: “tell”
Kathy: “US”
Jeff, and Drew: “…ASSHOOOLE…”
The bleeps are even funnier in this game because it’s longer words so it’s a drawn out bleep.

Drew punctuates a line with this silly hand motion that cracks up Colin and Brad as they start the punchline

Jeff, leading Drew: “One…is a pane of glass…and the other is…a…..Jew.”
PFFFFFF

Jeff and Drew: “I’M TELLING THE PRINCIPAL THAT YOUUUU…ALWAYS ARE…AAAAAA…DOODY-HEAD.”
Good god

Chip: “Don’t”
Kathy: “you”
Chip: “tell him…OH.”
HAHAHAHA

Kathy  and Chip: “I’ll call your name at…[Kathy is confused]….work.”
Jeff and Drew, leaving: “YOU’RE DRUNK.”

SO GOOD. SO FUNNY AND RIDICULOUS AND SO GOOD. SO MANY LITTLE MOMENTS. So many fun lines and moments of throwing each other. The infamous Drew glasses bonk. Oh my gosh, how did I forget about this one?

Overall: A surprisingly strong show to kick off the purple taping. No games really angered me, or even underwhelmed me, and only GH’s length really caught my ire. This was a great show for guys like Kathy, Drew and Brad who’ve been on backup duty for the past 30 shows, and all 3 got to shine in numerous parts of the show. SFX was a really good one, and Two-Headed Expert was phenomenal as well as goofy. Plus, Sentences is a really underrated character/scene-based round that didn’t go too far on shock or gross-out value. A lot of the best games banked on great pre-existing duos, like Colin and Brad and Kathy and Drew. Just a strong, genuinely overlooked show to kick off the last 2 weeks of IAG.

Best Performer: BRAD SHERWOOD FINALLY GETS HIS FIRST SHOW-WIN OF THE RUN. Deservingly so, as he DOMINATED the first half.
Worst Performer: I don’t wanna put anybody here. I really don’t. But honestly, Chip made more mistakes tonight than anybody.
Best Game: Two-Headed Expert. I completely reverse my preconceived notion about this game. Because this was a fun one.
Worst Game: I liked Greatest Hits, but it felt shorter than it needed to be.
Best Dynamic: Kathy and Drew, Sentences, barely edging out Colin and Brad. I knew Colin and Brad would deliver a great SFX together. I wasn’t sure about Kathy and Drew’s. More of a net win.
Best Host: Jeff, SFX. Best audience-screwing.

COMING  UP NEXT: This one, also from the purple taping, has two games I’m looking forward to covering.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 30, or Wanna Have Sex-Butt?

We end the final episode of the third 2-week-stretch of shows, and the final episode before the editors switch things up, by going back to the teal taping one last time. We’ve seen a lot from this taping recently, some of it has been good, some of it hasn’t.

Sentences: Jeff and Ryan in the soap opera ‘Airports’

Ryan’s opening motion is just nonchalantly bringing planes in

Ryan: “You must carry a lot of clout…’once you pop, you can’t stop’

I do like Jeff’s pseudo-Sam-Elliott pilot voice, just emphasizing his top lip and having this faint twang to it

Jeff: “They made an announcement at the airport: “I LOVE SEX, BUT….”
He then just works with this, makes lemonade out of the lemons, and goes “…I love sex-butt”
PFFF
Ryan: [walks away]
Jeff: “OH, TAMERLYN”
Ryan: “STOPPIT”
Jeff: “LET’S HAVE SEX-BUTT.”
PFFFFFF
Ryan: “I told you once before I will not have sex-butt with you. OR ANY OTHER MAN.”
It feels like the IAG equivalent of ‘remember the alimony’

Ryan: “You know, the first time you ever ASKED me to have sex-buff…”
Jeff, realizing Ryan is, in fact, going with this, breaks

Ryan’s barely hanging on himself.

Jeff, still recovering: “Oh Tamberlyn…if my wife ever found out about the love…we’ve shared.”
Ryan: “We’ve never shared love, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Jeff: “Sometimes the love that’s deep and never shows its face is stronger than the love that DO…”
Ryan:

Jeff, waiting for that line to sink in: “……wanna have sex-butt?”
This is too damn funny

Ryan: “We’ve never had sex-butt, we don’t even KNOW EACH OTHER, REALLY.”
Jeff:

I don’t blame either of them

Ryan, getting a line: “those aren’t pillows.”
Jeff: ‘comes nearer”
Ryan, knowing where he’s going: “No, that is not an invitation…”

Jeff, with the slogan for the airline: “Mommy loves her baby’- THAT TURN YOU ON WHEN I’M YOUR MOMMY?”
Ryan, again clenching himself: “STOPPIT”
Jeff: “You wanna breastfeed?”
PFFFFF

Ryan, filling out a form: “what we have here is a failure to communicate.”
This fits, just like the ‘there can only be one’ one from last show

Jeff, pulling out a locket: “Still bares the inscription you gave me…[smirk] when you were an engraver.”

Jeff: “My half was ‘I forgot to manscape, you might not wanna look down there…”
HA
The whole audience, and Ryan need a second after that one
Ryan: “and mine says ‘…and he spiked me, give me a chicken salad sandwich…”
Jeff: [loses it]

MASTERFUL. Not only was it a great Jeff-Ryan scene, but that sex-butt moment kept them on edge for the ENTIRE REST OF THE GAME, leading them to so many funny moments and exchanges. I love this one so much.

First Date: Kathy and Brad, and Ryan, act out the first date of Callie and John

Callie and John’s story is pretty damn cute- they’re both Beatles fans, Callie got the cheapest thing on the menu, then changed it once John was getting the steak and lobster. Wholesome stuff. None of that stalker mentality from the E5 one.

Kathy: “I didn’t know you didn’t have the car, I like the cable truck.”
Callie: [multiple dings]
Kathy: [nods]

Kathy: “I like HELP”
honking
Kathy: “I like all the stuff on Abbey Road”
honking
Kathy: ‘YOU KNOW, I REALLY LIKE THE MONKEES”
hoking, but I laughed

Brad: “Peaking at your little blue eyes under your bandana…your like a sexy little pirate.”
John: [too many dings]
Kathy: “I’m glad you like it, I was just having a [turns to Callie] BAD HAIR DAY.”
DING

Brad: “I thought I’d take you to my favorite restaurant, called Affordable Fish.”
I love this move. That’s also such a Brad title.
John honks, Callie dings

Brad: “Let me get your door for you, that one sticks, I ran into a telephone pole.”
I do like how they’re grounding this with a very slice-of-life tone

Kathy: “I’ve never been in a restaurant made out of seashells and cement blocks before.”
DINGING FROM BOTH

Brad: “I’ll have the 14 australian lobster tails and HALF A KOBE COW.”
Ryan, after Kathy gets that as well: “Two…Sam and Ella’s…”
HA

Kathy: “WANNA GO HOME AND HAVE SEX?”
John: [multiple dings]

A very sweet and fun First Date. Not my favorite, but very close.

Sound Effects: Colin and Drew are zookeepers; John and Barbara do SFX

Brad has John practice for Colin with a hammer-and-nail, and John responds with a cork-opening. Brad pats Colin on the back.
Brad: ‘Good luck to you Colin’ [glances worriedly at the audience]

John is actually very clever at SFX. As Colin hoses down the elephant, John throws in a shorting noise, and Colin goes “…oh, I’m standing on the hose!”

Colin: “I’ll just unlock the [lion’s] cage”
John: “RRRRRRRAAAAAAWWRRRR”
Colin: ‘…hey, why don’t YOU go?”
HA

I do love the selective moments John and Barbara do SFX, like Drew thinking the lion’s dead, and kicking him, but John eventually coming in with an angry lion noise

Drew kneels down to extract the lion’s tooth. Colin, screwing with him, goes “hey, the teeth’s at the other end!”

I also love Barbara’s innovation of an elephant doing an Elvis impression

A bit too short, but pretty fun.

Greatest Hits: Ryan and Drew present Songs of the Gold Miner, sung by Chip and Jeff

Drew: “Welcome to songs of the gold miner, a job that doesn’t exist anymore. That’s right, we’re ALL OUT OF GOLD.”

Another GH song with mic stands, and there’s some great energy coming from these two.

I love both Chip and Jeff in this number, they complement each other perfectly, and it sounds like a really fun, competent Motown number, and different from Laura’s Motown Group backing as well

Chip and Jeff even end with some James-Brown-esque “TWO TIMES! “THREE TIMES!” that Bob gladly returns

A truly fun, and energetic number, to end the show.

Overall: The content was strong, and the editing of the last half nearly foiled it. We started this show with two awesome games that were longer, and I would have gladly taken only 3 games than have the fragments of SFX and GH crammed in there. Both games were good, but I feel like they were edited too thinly, and without room to breathe. This doesn’t take too much away from my overall opinion of the show, as I still really like this one, but if it had been a longer GH, or SFX, it would have been a lot better.

Best Performer: Jeff wins his second straight for ruling the bookends.
Worst Performer: Drew goes here for not doing much in either of his games.
Best Game: I can’t not go with Sentences. It felt masterful.
Worst Game: Sound Effects, but I still love John’s tiger noises.
Best Dynamic: Ryan and Jeff, Sentences, OF COURSE.
Best Host: Chip, for introing First Date and carrying out that interview.

COMING UP NEXT: For the last ten shows of the run we see material from, ironically, two of the first tapings of the series. We start the purple taping with a game featuring a Whoser whose coverage is very important to this series.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 29, or I Heard Hookers and Cocaine, Dude

This is the last hurrah for the fern taping, a fairly simple taping schematic that has blown me away with very strong material over its output. This is also the last show that Kathy Kinney doesn’t appear in.

Duet: Chip and Jeff sing a Neil Diamond song to Diane, a mortgage broker

Ryan, as Colin picks out Diane: “This isn’t actually part of the show”
Colin: “It’s so hard to find women these days…”

Diane’s husband takes a second to come up with a nickname for her
Ryan: “I give this relationship a month.”

Jeff’s Neil Diamond voice is pretty good.

As Chip goes on with his verse, Jeff, doing backup, throws in a ‘TONIGHTuh’, which, if you know your CW WL, Ryan is also fond of.

Jeff: “I know that you like horses, so I’m also pretty sure you know how to ride…”

Jeff is making the most of this very thin number with some rampant refrains and backups. If it’s not substantial, he can make it funny at least.

By the end, Diane is literally sitting on Jeff’s shoulder’s riding him.

Not the best Duet, but not without its silly moments.

Question This, Greg hosts, Ryan, Drew, Chip and Jeff are contestants

Greg hosts, and while he’s hosted in the past [the 2007 Just For Laughs video that made it around youtube for a while], he’s not my favorite out of the ones we’ve seen in this run [Colin, Brad, Chip and Ryan]

Ryan comes in as “Neil Patrick Harris Sr.”, which…fits
Ryan: “I’m in the real estate business, I own a company called Doogie’s Houses.”
SECOND DOOGIE HOUSER JOKE IN A ROW.

Drew comes up as Mr. Ed, which is the SECOND HORSE JOKE IN TWO GAMES

Chip comes in with a refreshing character: “my name’s Corky, and I sell papers on the streetcorner in 1932!”
Jeff even tilts his head in confusion. After Chip does another line, Jeff gives him another look…then looks back to Colin on the stools. Like ‘you getting this?’

Jeff, as his old standby in this game, plays as Keanu Reeves. “OH, I was in the Matrices. [audience groans] NO, NO, You know what…that’s how you pluralize Matrix. ONE MATRIX…..TWO MATRICES…”

Kumquat
Drew: “What do horses do if they eat too many quats?”
DEAR LORD, DREW
Greg: “I WILL TAKE YOUR WORD FOR IT.”

The reason I don’t like Greg as much is because he explains the jokes when they don’t need to explained, like Ryan’s ‘how do you summon a quat?’

Jeff: “How do you measure the electricity in a kumqu?”
Greg: “…you measure them in kumqu watts.”
Jeff, to the audience groaning ONCE AGAIN: “It’s scientific, dudes.”

I’ll give Jeff credit, the explanation does occasionally help. On Ferrari, Chip guesses “what’s a wrong way to pronounce ‘furry'”, and Greg does this weird ‘FuurAAAHHHREEHHHH’ noise that helps.

Drew, after Ryan gets a ‘what comes before’ letter joke, does another one with cucumbers, and Chip IMMEDIATELY goes ‘ooohkay’. I think they remember one of the first QTs they played, and…how Drew did with the alphabet then.

Chip: “What does the director say when he wants the cumbers to come on?”
HA
Annnd Greg explains this one as well
Jeff, saving it: “I don’t get it.”

For ‘SAT words’, Greg gets ubiquitous
Ryan, not even trying: “what is a word from the SATs.”
Chip: “HEY!”

Greg: “that sound you’re about to hear-”
[RANDOM CARTOON SFX]
Greg: “…indicates that a 1930s cartoon has just finished…”

For ‘exotic places far away’, some audience member goes ‘NEW JERSEY’, which Greg smirks at
Chip, 9 years early: “What’s Tom Brady gonna need?”
OHHHHHHHH

Chip goes for ‘items you’d find in a gambling establishment’, Greg gets ‘dice’
Jeff: “I HEARD HOOKERS AND COCAINE, DUDE.”
Yes, Charlie Sheen is in the audience

Drew: “What did I use to win a silicone-titted hooker?”
[cut to Charlie Sheen applauding]

For ‘periodic table’, some wild audience member yells ‘SILICONE’
Greg: “…yes, my darling.”
Chip: “She’s PROUD.”
Jeff: “I heard hookers and cocaine AGAIN.”
Greg: “…I did too.’

For Indian dishes, some audience member yells out ‘hummus’
Greg, confused: “we’re gonna STRETCH THE DEFINITION OF INDIA…”

Jeff: “…what do you get from hookers?”
Oh, dear…

A good QT, though not as good as it could have been.

Freeze Tag: Greg hacky sack, Jeff macarena

Colin asks for a sport you would play by yourself: “…or SOCCER, if you’re unpopular…”
Chip, chuckling: “…ANOTHER GOAL!”
HA

Colin: “I’m sorry, but we already have two possums on the ark…”

Drew, tagging out Colin: “Tom Brady, get up, you’re getting your ass kicked.”
And we’re going with consecutive Tom Brady slams as well

Jeff’s ‘Siegfried and Roy’ scene is pretty basic, but I love Jeff using the line “ZIS IS GOING TO BITE YOU IN THE ASS ONE DAY.”

Ryan: “How much more fat do I have to suck out of you?”
HA

Chip, freezing in: “How much longer is that Drew Carey blow-up-doll gonna take?”
THAT is a great move

Jeff uses Drew as a jetpack, and Drew eventually goes into high gear, yanking Jeff around and nearly losing him.

Colin: “YOU SAID YOU PACKED THE PARACHUTE”
Colin doesn’t go in often, but he’s good at this game

Ryan, going in: “Mr. Nolte, Ms. Lohan, we have bad news.”
HA

Ryan: “You know what, Mr. Nolte, you don’t look too bad? This is gonna be one of your better mugshots”
Colin: “I’M READY FOR MY MUGSHOT!”

GOOD LORD
Ryan, breaking: “WHEN DID B…BOZO THE CLOWN SHOW UP?”
Drew, going over to Colin: “ONE SECOND, I WANNA ORDER A HAMBURGER…I’LL TAKE TWO HAMBURGERS…”
This is too funny. Ryan even goes “CHHHHRRRRIIIST!”

Greg casts Colin as the ‘white-crested owl’. Then Jeff twists his hair and casts him as a bull.
Ryan: “MANUEL. Why you tease the old bull?”
Colin: [takes out a cigarette]

Chip, with Colin’s hair still pointy: “…table for Satan’s grandfather?”
HA

A really strong, consistent and fun Freeze, and with lots for Colin to do.

Sentences: Drew and Jeff in the Dungeon Soap Opera ‘Into the Depths’

‘dungeon’ is a pretty clear suggestion, but Drew takes this to an interesting place and makes this more of a ‘sex work’ type of dungeon.

Drew: “So good to see you…’GET IN THERE’.”
THAT WORKS
Jeff: “You don’t let the grass grow under your feet, I can see that”

Jeff: “My fetish is to be chained up and to be read bad poetry by…dudes.”
Drew chains Drew up, and leaves one hand free
Jeff: ‘thank you….how prudent of you.”

Jeff, talking about price: “I mean, I’m rich, but I will tell you this: “follow the yellow brick road!” I have a tattoo somewhere on my body of a yellow brick road, and I want you to follow it…”

Drew finds a tattoo on Jeff, and reads it: “Hello, Angels, my name is Charlie”

Drew: “All you have to do is sit here by the phone, and when you answer it, you say “at night, I turn into a ravenous boa constrictor”
Jeff: “OOOOOH. That IS sexy…”

Drew: “You know what happens if you shut this place down? I go out on the street and I tell everyone “I just love Christopher Walken.”

Jeff, in shutting this place down, calls someone, and picks out…a very perfect line: “there can be….only one.”

Drew: “Let me tell you something, Jack….what’s your name?”
Jeff: “JACK.”
Jeff is doing some strong work this game, but Drew isn’t too far behind

Drew has a line about breakdancing, but refuses to onstage, but Jeff pimps him out to breakdance for the fate of the dungeon, as Drew winces and, out of character, goes “I can’t breakdance…”
Jeff: “OH, YOU’LL BREAKDANCE.”

Drew, as the music kicks in, reads one more line: “PASS THE SOAP, PLEASE”
And Drew gets on the floor and breakdances. Way to go.

A pretty good Sentences. Drew and Jeff worked well off each other, and Drew didn’t make many mistakes, especially in a game about sex work.

Overall: A good show, but flawed in the first half, thanks to Duet being low on material and Question This being a bit upended by Greg’s explaining jokes. Still, Freeze was a really good one, and Sentences was just a really solid two-person scene. The fern show continues its hot streak, though this is nowhere near as good as some of its other ones.

Best Performer: Jeff pulls ahead of Jonathan indefinitely. Keanu and Jack did it for me. And all those TONIGHTs
Worst Performer: Greg, mostly from his over-explaining in Question This.
Best Game: Freeze Tag was a big, fun, substantial one.
Worst Game: Duet was a very thin number, but it still charmed me.
Best Dynamic: Drew and Jeff, Sentences
Best Host: Colin, Duet AND Freeze

COMING UP NEXT: The final show from the teal taping, and some sentimental favorite games of mine.

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 28, or Free Stew!

Once again, we return to the teal taping, as we hammer out the rest of its output quickly before Episode 30.

Song Styles: Jeff, Chip and Brad sing a country waltz to Michelle, the accountant

Drew: “an accountant in Canada, but it’s Canadian money so it doesn’t…”
WHY DOESN’T COLIN JUST COME OVER AND STRANGLE DREW?

These three’s harmonies are so damned good.

Jeff, on her husband the farmer: “and when he gets home, he’s got some extra plowing to do…”
DEAR GOD
And another boner joke for the road: “she makes his corn grow real high”

Brad even manages to rhyme with ‘anagronomics’, which is a tough thing to do

The super-strong harmonies are the best part of this song, a lot like I Killed Him in Kenya

Jeff and Chip end up messing up and going off-bar, and sort of awkwardly lengthening a verse

Brad has a very fun move when, after Jeff and Chip have already gone ‘SPENDING YOUR DAYS’, just throwing in a quick bass ‘SPENDINYERDAYS’

Chip, setting up the final note, goes way lower than we’ve ever really heard him go in terms of octave, which is nice

A bit long, and a bit clumsy in places, but still a pretty good, and a very strong number.

Moving Bodies: Drew, Colin and Ryan are fencing; Rachel, Manuela and Gwendolyn, Price is Right models, move them

As Drew brings the models onstage, Jeff swoops in and brings one of them backstage. SLY DOG. Then, as they come back onstage, Jeff jokingly wipes lipstick off his face and Manuela, I assume, plays along.
Chip: “How did I end up ANNOUNCING this game?”

Ryan, as usual, fights to remove his wedding ring
Chip, jokingly: “where’s the wedding ring gone, Ryan?”
Ryan: “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!”
Chip: “…I think it’s so funny that you think you have a shot…”
HA

Drew: “D’ARTAGNAN….OTHER GUY….”
Okay, so we’ve established Drew knows one of the Three Musketeers, and enough to initiate a scene based off of them…but not the other musketeers.

Ryan, all the way on the other end: “ARE YOU GUYS LEAVING WITHOUT ME?”

Colin: “ALL FOR ONE!”
Drew: “ONE FOR ALL!”
Ryan, as Gwendolyn moves him: “I’m sorry, I’ve just poked you in the head!”

Ryan: “LIFT A LEG AND MOUNT YOUR HORSE.”
Gwendolyn: [keeps moving Ryan’s arms]
Ryan: “A LEG. A LEG.”

Colin: “WHY DO WE HAVE TO RIDE THE SHETLAND PONIES?”

It is very amusing seeing all three being yanked up and down riding horses.
Colin, as Gwendolyn finishes: “no, I wanna go a little farther…”

The biggest issue for this is having 3 people, including Drew, crowds the action, and it’s harder for each to A.) find a dynamic and B.) have moments to take charge of the scene.

Colin, as Manuela has him climb the wall: “I have the upper body strength of an orangutan”

As they do the ‘dance of the Musketeers’, Rachel causes Drew to fall
Colin: “OH NO, WE LOST PORTHOS!”
Drew: “I’M HURT!”

A clumsy but admirable Moving People. Not as good as the other ‘guest game’ from this taping

New Choice: Colin and Kathy; a Las Vegas sightseeing tour; Jeff calls

Colin: ‘VOLCANO!”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “GEYSER”
Jeff: “new choice”
Colin: “…free stew!”
HA

I love Colin’s move of drinking the hot stew and subtly choking a bit. Not enough people notice this

Colin, on a NC run, doubles over: “ohhHHHHH. OH. OH. GASTRIC…DISTRESS.”

Kathy: “Remember what happened last time…you ate that dog and got really sick.”
Jeff: “new choice”
Kathy: “…you killed that cat with your hands…”
Jeff, mid-laughter: “new choice”
Kathy: “You stripped naked and ran screaming through Circus Circus?”
PFFF
Jeff: “new choice”
Kathy: “Honey, there’s a cat, will you kill it?”
As evidenced in E25’s NC, Kathy is great at this game.
Jeff: […]
Chip, cracking, turns to Jeff: “THAT ONE???”
PFFFFF

Colin: “I’m going to show you the interpretive dance I’ve come up with based on our marriage.”
Jeff: […]
Colin: [looks at him, then goes on with it]

OH MAN

A bit short, but good enough for its runtime.

Kick It: Brad and Chip; nail tech; Colin calls

At long last, the last playing of this…until Trust Us With Your Life [I’m already shuddering at the SFX file from that frigging show]

So here’s how this one works better than last playing. Colin keeps it going more than just a verse. Brad is generally good at rapping, as the Colin & Brad shows would back up. Also, I love Colin wiggling around in the back as Brad keeps going.

Both Brad and Chip are good at this game, but so far I’m not finding anything substantial to look forward to in it.

Brad: “We have everything from HAWAII to uhm…um…..”
Colin, not caring: “KICK IT”
Jeff loves this move

Chip: “I’m gonna go with the thunderbolts with the buckets and the pails.”
Brad: “It’s kinda like Thor at the beach.”

Not great.

Overall: Blah. I had too many issues with this show. The one I liked the most was too short, the singing games had too many issues with losing the tempo, and the big guest game underwhelmed me. Tonight it wasn’t just Drew’s moves that pissed me off, but Chip, and even Jeff, had some mystifyingly bad moves tonight.

Best Performer: Colin, by default, for being great in the two core games.
Worst Performer: Chip, on TWO OCCASIONS, couldn’t stay on beat.
Best Game: New Choice, despite being too short, was a great showcase for Kathy AND Colin
Worst Game: Kick It was very dull
Best Dynamic: Colin and Kathy, New Choice. Thank god we’ve got another game with these two together coming up.
Best Host: Chip, Moving People.

COMING UP NEXT: We say goodnight to the fern taping, potentially one of the best top-to-bottom tapings of the run, with another Question This

Whose Offseason: Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza Episode 27, or GOTTA FIX THE STAGE!

For the last time, we get material from the lilac tapings, the original run that acted as a pilot session for this show. Heather Anne Campbell makes her last appearance tonight, but rest assured that this is not the end of her association with the Whose Line family.

Not only that, but this episode is also Jonathan Mangum’s last Improv-a-Ganza of the run. Right now, Jonathan is tied with Jeff for the most show wins from me at 6. Leaving now could allow others to catch up. Still, he’s been undeniably one of the standouts of IAG, and I’ll miss covering his shows…til we get to the CW.

Bob’s Call: Jeff and Ryan; shoe collecting

Ryan begins the scene with the obvious joke of lifting comically large shoes for himself

Jeff uses his first song to set up the game of the scene:
“Our best customer…is you
Strangely, all you buy is one single shoe…”

The beginning of Ryan’s first number is just funny on its own
Jeff: [bounces to music]
Ryan: “Do you see two shoes up there?”
Jeff: “YES”
Ryan: “NO.”
PFFFF

Ryan has a great turn by accidentally revealing he orders stilettos, and it becomes a deeper character study

Ryan has a very sad, contemplative number about wearing his mother’s shoes, corners himself into a rhyme with ‘that’, and goes: “Don’t accuse me of wearing my mother’s shoes…you big twat.”
PFFFFFF.
CUT TO:

I love this. Nobody was expecting that turn

Jeff: “You can no more change who you are than you can change…your socks.”

I do love that as Jeff does the ‘you aren’t really a man’ refrain, you can see Drew, Jonathan and Heather all mouthing along with it in the background

This is a genuinely heartfelt, well-done scene about gender identity, and I do love the occasional hints back to how silly the concept is, like Jeff going “go into your mother’s shoe cabinet and find a pair…”

Of course, Ryan takes this…very serious gender identity scene for one of his usual genitalia jokes
Ryan: “I’ll say ‘YES, I’M A WOMAN, HA HA HA
I’M TRADING IN MY PENIS FOR A VA GI NA.”
PFFFF

Ryan, after this dramatic number: “…too much?”
PFFF
Jeff: “No, in fact, I don’t think you went far enough!”

Ryan: “All these years I’ve lived as a man, what a pity
Finally I can tune in to Sex and the City”

Jeff, again tempting taste: “And I look at the size of those feet, for a woman, you’re certainly hung!”

So…that was really good. Not THE funniest, but a fantastic scene focused on character and musicality, and…dare I say it, a rare song involving gender identity that HAS aged well with these guys, unlike the various Narrates and Remember that Song where Ryan would play a trans person. Genuinely good work, and…surprisingly not in a show where a famous trans ally is on.

Forward Reverse; Drew and Jonathan; janitorial services; Jeff calls

Jonathan shows up in what he thinks is a car, and Drew hops behind him
Jonathan: “oh, it’s a motorcycle, good!”
PFFF

Already, Jonathan and Drew have this game going at a fun rhythm as Jeff reverses

Jonathan, going forward for the umpteenth time, realizes he’s forgotten a line as he gets off the motorcycle, goes ‘OH SHIT’, then gets back on and hastily does the line again as Drew cracks. It’s a fun little blooper, nothing too infuriating yet

Jonathan makes another mistake in, on a reverse going ‘WHAT?’ after Drew’s finished a sentence, instead of fitting  it in between, so Drew’s just said the thing, and Jonathan, before, goes “what?”, and stands there for a second. Really silly

Also, seeing Drew and Jonathan’s silly walking across the stage back and forth is super fun

Then, Drew does the ‘I forgot my mop’ line out of order, and then reneges, causing Chip to literally walk away laughing.

Literally, them stumbling back to the top, putting lines out of order and everything, is so damn silly. I’m not even mad for some reason

Since Jeff keeps it on reverse past the top, we see the rest of Jonathan’s morning routine, like sleeping and going to the bathroom.

Then, Jeff puts it on fast forward, and Drew and Jonathan run through the opening at warp speed, which is also really silly

Jeff lets them progress the scene, but once Drew does a ghost noise, Jeff has to play it back a few times

Then, Jeff calls ‘fast reverse’, and Drew just starts squirming and struggling, running backwards through the scene and making occasional murmurs, which made me laugh

SUCH A GOOFY SCENE. Not substantial, but very funny, light, and silly as hell.

Options: Ryan and Heather; on the farm; Jonathan calls

Heather: “Gerald…how come you never got married?”
Ryan: “How come you’re milking the bull?”
HE’S SO GOOD

Ryan: “We can ponder questions all day long. I never found the right woman, I guess…”
Heather: “…I never found the right cow, I guess…”

film noir
Ryan: “…she grabbed that bull…in a  way I’ve never seen a woman grab a bull…”

Ryan  and Heather’s film-noir back-and-forth is excellent. They’re really good at working off each other.

Romantic literature, Heather takes off her shirt
Ryan: “Oh, look, you…scared all the crows…”

Jonathan: “another style of film from over here.”
Audience member: “PORNO”
Another audience member: “ADULT”
Jonathan: “ahahahaha…I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that…”

For ‘horror’, Ryan does really good creepy hand physicality, as he has one of his hands crawl up his face

French style, Heather responds in fluent French. So Spanish may not have been her strong suit, but French certainly is.
Ryan does his usual french babbling. Odd how the Canadian isn’t as fluent.

Jonathan: “STAR WARS FRENCH”
Heather, taking out a lightsaber: “LE BWAAAAAHHH”
Ryan: “LA [CHEWBACCA NOISE]”
HAHAHAHA

Hip-hop
Ryan: “The isn’t the only place that needs my seeds IT’S YOU, BABE.”
Jonathan: “FREEZE”
Ryan: “did you say hip-hop?”
PFFF.
Ryan: “I dunno WHAT the hell that was…”

Ryan 3 words, Heather 7 words
Ryan: “I’m so lonely”
Heather: “I wish…more than anything…I’d help”

Jonathan: “Continue in hip-hop, but with the same restrictions”
Ryan and Heather both shake their heads

Ryan: “I’M SO WHITE……”
PFFFFFF

A great round of this. The Ryan-Heather pairing usually works for me, and here is no exception, as Heather was very hot on Ryan’s tails for most of it. They lost the scene slightly, but the last half was very funny.

Greatest Hits: Ryan and Jonathan introduce Songs of the Stockbroker, sung by Jeff and Chip

Jonathan presents with Ryan? I guess that’s one way to end his run.

Drew: “…stockbroker, that sounds good”
Jeff: “IT DOES?’

Jonathan uses his George Takei impression here, which works
Ryan: “and together, we are the Dougie Howser tribute band”

Ryan: “George, what have you been doing since your Star Trek days?”
Jonathan: “SO LET’S TALK ABOUT MUSIC”
HA

Jonathan: “You know what I enjoy when I’m listening to?”
Ryan: “YES I DO.”
Jonathan and Ryan chuckle, then sort of…belt the theme to Star Trek. So goofy.

Jeff and Chip take out mic stands for the Memphis Soul number, and Jeff leans into Chip’s and does a James Brown-esque “I GOTTA FIX THE STAGE”

This is actually a great number in the wake of the 2008 market collapse. Chip even uses the line ‘my company’s too big to fail”. Jeff even mentions Bernie Madoff

Chip and Jeff do some really good Otis Redding energy on those mics. I genuinely like this one just from musicality, and it’s not a ‘Jeff screws with Chip’ number, though Jeff has to ‘fix the stage’ a lot

Hell, Chip even does a split onstage, which is a big moment

The ending is fantastic, as they get some audience participation, some good ‘i’ve gotta go’ speech, and an explosive ending out. Had to have been an awesome way to end the show.

Overall: Not the most memorable, but pretty good, and with some strong scene games from Ryan, Jeff and Heather. Forward/Reverse was the most expendable, but Bob’s Call is a great serious number, GH is a STRONG song, and Options was a great scene game. This may not have been the funniest show, but it was a strong display of improv moves for games that did not include Drew Carey.

Best Performer: Ryan has another strong show, and has had a lot of them in the past stretch.
Worst Performer: Drew tanked Forward/Reverse, despite it not being completely awful.
Best Game: Options was a really damn strong improv scene.
Worst Game: Forward/Reverse. More laughs than Bob’s Call, but clumsier improv
Best Dynamic: Ryan and Heather, Options. Gonna miss this pairing.
Best Host: Jonathan for ruling Options

COMING UP NEXT: And we’re back to the teal taping. One more ‘guest game’ without being too shoehorn-y, and the last performance of a game I dislike.