{"id":217421,"date":"2026-04-03T12:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217421\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:09:20","slug":"improv-idol-colin-mochrie-comes-to-town-to-get-weird-with-orlando-fringe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217421\/","title":{"rendered":"Improv idol Colin Mochrie comes to town to get weird with Orlando Fringe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ColinColin Mochrie Credit: Helen Tansey<\/p>\n

This May, the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival marks 35 years of supporting unjuried, uncensored, unbelievably weird entertainment, but the celebrations really start this Monday, April 6, with the Fab Fringe Fundraiser at Plaza Live featuring Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Colin Mochrie. I recently spoke with the improv comedy icon ahead of the show about everything from his start in the business to why supporting Fringe is so important to him.<\/p>\n

Born in Scotland but raised in Canada, Mochrie was attending theater school in Vancouver when he saw an exhibition of Theatresports, an early form of competitive improvisation created by Keith Johnstone in the late 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my friends were doing this, and I was watching, and I thought, \u2018Oh, this looks like it would be a lot of fun to do,\u2019\u201d recalls Mochrie, who soon joined an improv troupe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started, nobody knew what improv was. We\u2019d run into the McDonald\u2019s that was conveniently right next door and say to people, \u2018Come see our show,\u2019 and they\u2019d go, \u2018What is it?\u2019 We\u2019d go, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t know yet. You have to yell things.\u2019 And then within the year, it was the cult show to see. There were lineups around the block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early on, Mochrie formed a friendship with Ryan Stiles, who also became a Whose Line mainstay. When they met, Mochrie says that Stiles \u201cwas a stand-up [comic] and if I\u2019m going to be honest, not a great one,\u201d but after a mutual friend brought Stiles to an improv show, the pair \u201cjust immediately clicked on stage for whatever reason,\u201d and then through that became lifelong friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After performing at Expo 86, Mochrie followed Stiles to Toronto and joined Second City, where he was hired by the woman who would become his wife. (\u201cIt was one-stop shopping for me.\u201d) When the British version of Whose Line began, the producers recruited Second City performers, but although Mochrie eventually appeared in more episodes of the U.S. and U.K. series than anyone other than Stiles, he bombed his initial auditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just blind luck and getting more chances than I probably deserved,\u201d he says. \u201cI psyched myself out; all the things that got me hired, I didn\u2019t do. I was reticent, I was hanging back.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Stiles convinced the producers to give him another chance, and he became a recurring guest \u2014 \u201cThey would bring me over to England and say, \u2018We\u2019re giving you two shows,\u2019 and then I\u2019d end up doing all of them\u201d \u2014 before being bumped to regular cast member for the final British season. \u201cIt was good, because it made me push to make myself get noticed [and] be the best I could be. I think it helps not to have everything kind of handed to you, although now I believe everything should be handed to me,\u201d he jokes. \u201cI put in my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with Stiles, Mochrie also has fond memories of improvising with Orlando native Wayne Brady, whom Mochrie recalls \u201ccame in and it was like, \u2018All right, who the hell is this guy?\u2019 \u2026 The songs he could do, the impressions; he could just do everything. It was fascinating to watch, because I\u2019d never been part of a moment where you go, \u2018Oh, there is a future star; a star is about to be born, and I\u2019m going to be to the left of them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Whose Line Is It Anyway? has received some criticism for popularizing short-form improv at the expense of other types, which Mochrie doesn\u2019t entirely disagree with as a fellow fan of long-form. \u201cI always said, Whose Line is an introduction to improv,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like vaudeville; this is the basics [but] there\u2019s many, many different ways of doing improv, and I always felt in some ways we got shortchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of the improv world, Mochrie has made memorable scripted on-screen appearances, ranging from The Drew Carey Show to Jane White Is Sick & Twisted, a cult comedy in which he plays a patron of transvestite prostitutes. \u201cMy agent said, \u2018This is something a little outside of what you might be known for,\u2019\u201d says Mochrie. \u201cI always love when I get a chance to do something that scares me; it takes me out of my comfort zone, but also sort of turns expectations of what people will see from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theme park fans may also recognize Mochrie from the Bakery Tour at Disney California Adventure, where he hosts (with Rosie O\u2019Donnell) one of DCA\u2019s few remaining opening-day attractions. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever taken the Bakery Tour,\u201d Mochrie confesses, \u201calthough you\u2019d think on the 25th anniversary they\u2019d send me some bread or something?\u201d He is an attraction fan, having filmed inside Disneyland with his daughter and \u201cdrank around the world\u201d at EPCOT with Drew Carey and the Whose Line cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my drink at Canada, and I pretty much nursed it throughout the rest of the tour, because also it\u2019s really hot. By the end, people were literally crawling to the next pavilion. That night we were booked to go to one of the Cirque du Soleil shows, and they were all asleep in the front row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mochrie\u2019s experience with Fringe Festivals goes back to performing in Edinburgh in the 1990s and includes Edmonton and Vancouver, but this will be his first foray with Orlando Fringe. He was brought here by local performer Chase Padgett, who will join Mochrie on the Plaza stage alongside Rob Ward, Joel Warren, Emily Fontano, Robby Pigott, DK Reinemer and pianist Ashley Evans. Of Padgett, Mochrie says, \u201cEvery show he does just kills me. It\u2019s just so beautifully done; it\u2019s so emotional, and there\u2019s so much you can learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite thing is working with people I don\u2019t know, because I have to listen. I can\u2019t assume I would I know what any of these people are going to do, so I\u2019m there to support [and] make the scene the best it can be,\u201d Mochrie says about performing with younger improvisers. \u201cThe other people in the cast, I\u2019m sure, grew up watching me, so that\u2019s sort of weird when, like, Mr. Rogers comes and works with you, [but I tell them] the only difference between you and me is I managed to get on television, on a show that showcased the one thing I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Mochrie claims he \u201ctruly has no idea\u201d exactly what the Fab Fringe frivolities will entail, don\u2019t expect many partisan polemics. \u201cWe\u2019ve actually been saying at the beginning of our shows, we\u2019re not taking anything political because we found it divided our audience in half,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re just there to help you actually forget what\u2019s going on in the world for a couple of hours. I feel that\u2019s probably a safer way to go, and probably something that\u2019s more needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite that, Mochrie is proud to proclaim that \u201cFringe is important, theater is important,\u201d and emphasizes that Orlando Fringe\u2019s support of the LGBTQ+ community is a cause that\u2019s especially close to Mochrie\u2019s heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a trans daughter who is one of the loveliest people I know, [and] there\u2019s no reason people should be ashamed of who they love [or] who they are,\u201d says Mochrie. \u201cNo matter what your sexual orientation is or gender, everybody wants to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fab Fringe Fundraiser: 7 p.m. Monday, April 6; Plaza Live, 425 N. Bumby Ave.; orlandofringe.org<\/a>; $60.<\/p>\n

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This article appears in April 1-7, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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