Cast: Wayne Brady, Denny Siegel, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles, and Drew Carey

Let's Make a Date: Denny = contestant; Wayne = outraged grandmother; Colin = Bad Stand up Comic fed up with audience; Ryan = has taken a powerful aphrodisiac by accident
(Is it just me, or are these quirks getting longer???) Denny did a bimbo act that really didn't enhance her image. Although I liked it when she paused and moment and told Colin, "You sound....... creepy." Nice effect. Wayne's outraged grandmother was pretty good. Although he sorta creeped me out with the dentures in and out of the mouth effect. It was a nice piece of mime, but still........ yech! freaked me out. The bad stand up comic quirk has shown up a couple times before in WLiiA history. But Colin gave it a new twist by bringing the audience member up to try and be funnier than Colin. (One big difference between the US / UK versions is the inclusion of the audience members. Some may not like using the audience, but this is one area where I like the US version better.) I thought the unsuspecting guy did quite well reacting to Ryan's hand on his leg. Ryan's performance was neutral. By that I mean, it was everything I expected it to be — no more, no less. Without Colin to play off of (like with the boa constrictor quirk) there was only so far Ryan could take the quirk. I was surprised at Ryan's reaction to Denny's guess. I can understand why Denny thought Ryan was being "a little premature" about their date. So I'm not sure why Ryan responded with "That's not even close!" which I thought was a little unkind of him.

Song Styles: Wayne singing about a blender in the style of the Temptations with back up from the others
The most notable part about this game was how badly out of synch Denny was with Ryan and Colin's dancing. Eventually, I think she gave up trying to synchronize with them and started doing a counterpoint dance. So she was perhaps the funniest performer here, but probably not the way she'd intended. Side-comment: I think Colin dances better than Ryan which surprises me because Ryan is perhaps WLiiA's most physically gifted performer.

Narrate: at an airport terminal
Normally, I love Narrate, but this one makes me uncomfortable. Narrate has always had its share of insulting each other from the very time first it was ever played. But the insults seemed to be a little too personal this time. The first time I saw it, I felt Ryan was a little peeved at the Big Wing Boy remark. Watch Ryan freeze when Colin first says it. Although I think Colin just ran some words together to create a phrase and didn't seem to really mean anything by it. Ryan's remark about the metal plate replacing all Colin's hair seemed to catch Colin off guard too; check out Colin's face. Which, of course, prompts Colin to reply that Big "Wind" Boy hadn't had any humor in his life. (The fact that Colin changed Wing to Wind is why I believe Colin had just strung words together.) I usually look forward to rewatching Narrate, and while I've decided there's not as much animosity during this scene as I first felt, I generally don't rewatch this one.

Weird Newscasters: Denny = anchor; Colin (co-anchor) = injected with dinosaur DNA; Wayne (sports) = Jerry Lewis; Ryan (weather) = cornered criminal looking to take a hostage
Denny's top / dreidel joke was worth a smile, but that was about all she did amusing during the whole game. I'm not a Jerry Lewis fan so not only didn't I particularly enjoy Wayne's performance, I also thought he didn't quite know where to go with the impression. Colin, on the other hand, was great. Yea, I know the dinosaur is one of Colin's specialties. But I thought this dinosaur impression was one of the best I've seen. I wonder if the man is double-jointed in every major joint in his body? Because I'm sure the human body wasn't designed to get into those odd angles. Ryan's performance was also good. He obviously planned from the beginning to have his hand bitten off by Colin. If you look carefully at his sleeve when he grabs Colin, you can see that the cuff is already unbuttoned. And watch as he dips his mouth behind Colin's head so that Ryan can tell Colin what to do without us seeing him talking. Nice forethought, Ryan.

Scene to Rap: brain surgery; all four
Probably Denny's best game of the night. I liked her lyrics although her nasal monotone kinda wore on me by the second verse. I thought Ryan's verse was good too. Did you notice the logic conflict in the lyrics? Denny gave Wayne the lobotomy because he wouldn't give her a divorce. But the first thing Wayne does when he gets his brain back is to give her a divorce! As Mr. Spock would say, "Illogical". (Of course, logic has never been a requirement in improv before!)

Hoe-down: movie users with a second suggestion of pirates; Wayne, Drew, Colin, and Ryan
I've stated before that Wayne's Hoe-downs don't thrill me, but I liked this one. Probably the best one I've heard him do. But, you know something — I can't remember what it was about, just that I liked it. That's what I mean about Wayne's Hoe-downs. They don't stick with me. Sorry, Wayne fans. Drew's was more memorable if a little more raunchy with the Pee Wee Herman reference. Colin once again delivered with a nice punch line. (I read somewhere that Colin starts with the punch line and works backwards. Drew apparently creates Hoe-downs the same way.) Ryan went for the pirate suggestion in addition to movies. Although he had to add some beats to get the word "swashbuckling" into the lyrics, I still liked his best. Nice punch line — "it is rated Arrr"! Ryan wins the Hoe-down.

Credits: Wayne as an excited Spanish host of a variety show
Standard ABC credits fare. Did you notice Colin doing some sort of butt waggling thingie at Ryan? Don't you wonder WHY Colin was doing some sort of butt waggling thingie at Ryan?????? I do.

Best Game:
Normally Narrate would be in the running, but not this time. So despite some good work by Ryan and Colin in Weird Newscasters; I'll vote for Hoe-down for first with Scene to Rap as second place.

Overall Comments:
WLiiA has been better than this even in the US version. Much better than this.

© LKK 09/10/00