An Evening with Colin Mochrie & Deb McGrath, Centennial Theatre, Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m. For more information visit nsdrc.org.
In any marriage it’s important to go with the flow, trust one another, and be open to change.
For Canadian comedy and improv masters Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath that sentiment may hold an even greater degree of truth.
When the married duo performs together, creating improvised worlds, characters and scenes on the spot for audiences everywhere, they get to benefit from the immediacy of their relationship.
And like any improv practitioners worth their salt, the pair knows that in a scene – much like in a marriage – you have to trust where your partner is taking things and be ready to accept anything, good or bad, that might come about.
“Immediately you have that trust in your partner,” Mochrie says about the benefits of performing improv with his wife and best friend. “You know they’ve got your back for anything that may come your way. … Because we do know each other so well, we can finish each other’s sentences and we sort of know, at least 80 per cent of the time, I know where Deb’s going to go in a scene.”
The times when he doesn’t know where Deb is taking things, he adds, he trusts her enough that he’s willing to see what happens.
But audiences will have to wait and see what will happen between Mochrie and McGrath in anticipation of their show benefiting North Shore Disability Resource Centre Foundation at Centennial Theatre Sept. 23.
On the line from their home in Toronto, Ont., Mochrie and McGrath talk about their history performing together and passion for raising awareness for social causes.
For McGrath particularly, it’s been a long day – she just wrapped up a session doing voice work for an upcoming video game, a new venture for the veteran actor and comedian, but one that she says is particularly thriving these days.
Luckily for McGrath, she didn’t have to hop into the motion-capture suits often used in video game production to make the models that appear on-screen.
“My character is only heard, not seen, so I didn’t have to get in the hot, sweaty suits and get all claustrophobic,” she says with a laugh.
Mochrie didn’t have a function to attend that day, but admits, “I’m here to support Deb and make her dinner.”
Mochrie has been a mainstay in Canadian comedy for decades now. He got his improvisational start in Vancouver’s theatre scene before making the move to Toronto to join up with the legendary Second City comedy troupe that was at the time being directed by McGrath.
The pair married in 1989.
Mochrie is best known for his nine-season tenure on the U.S. version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
McGrath has been a well-known actor for decades, with one of her most recent performances being the recurring role of Mayor Popowitcz on CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie.
When the couple started performing improv together, it took them awhile to ease into a confident, consistent rhythm, they say.
“I was intimidated because I wasn’t a Whose Line person,” McGrath explains. “When we started, I think I was insecure and Colin knew that I was insecure. … It took me awhile and then one day we did a show and I remember him saying, ‘You were really funny tonight.’”
These days, they’ve got it down pat.
As improvisers, a Mochrie/McGrath show can go in any direction, but one thing that remains fairly constant is that a lot of their scenes will end up involving the nature of couples, relationships and marriage.
“I think that a lot of the humour that comes from our stuff is a lot of recognisability of, ‘Oh, I do that in a relationship,’ or, ‘My wife’s like that,’ or, ‘My husband does the exact same thing,’” Mochrie explains.
The couple’s strong comradery helps add to the improvs, too. McGrath says that after 28 years of marriage they still find each other endlessly amusing. It’s not uncommon for her to find herself laughing on stage at the sheer outlandishness of the scenes.
“I’m supposed to be a character at that moment – but at that moment it’s just Deb finding her husband very funny,” she says.
While they describe their shows as pure, goofy fun, the social causes they invest their time into are much more than just mere entertainment.
They just finished staging a show for Rainbow Camp in Ontario dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ youth. Their passion for this project isn’t random either.
The couple was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after their daughter Kinley’s gender transition spurred Mochrie to voice support online for his daughter and the community at large.
“Our daughter transitioning has certainly given us an education. I mean, being in the business I think I’ve always been sympathetic to LGBTQ needs … It just seems silly in 2017 that there’s still a stigma,” Mochrie says. “We have just so many wonderful people in that community, we just want to shine a light on them.”
In a promo filmed for the upcoming Centennial Theatre performance, Mochrie and McGrath warmly invite audiences to come check out the show, before Mochrie jokingly exclaims that wearing pants to the gig is optional.
“That still stands,” he says with a laugh. “We believe everyone should be as relaxed as they want to be.”
McGrath adds that people should come out to support a very worthy cause.
“It’s something they can get behind and they’ll have some laughs along the way. And my husband will maybe or maybe not be wearing pants.”
