I saw my childhood afternoon entertainment come to life last night. I was always in awe of Wayne Brady as a kid. Undeniably the star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? (which apparently is getting a new season…), he had me in stitches every afternoon. His talents, for those who weren’t fans of the show/at home at 3.30pm during the week in the 1990s was making up songs on the spot. Thrown a genre and a profession of an audience member dobbed in by their friends, he would create songs on demand. He could do any genre, impersonate any artist and make even the most mundane profession hilarious. As I got older, I began to doubt the magic of TV, obviously these people had been picked before the show, he’d clearly had time to prepare. Not So! Last night started with the audience picking long words (rhinoceros, stethoscope, onomatopoeia), about 10 all up and then after that picking a topic (flowers) before the main man himself came on stage and rapped using all the words in order. Pow. It was brilliant. And hilarious.
During the rest of the show we were treated to some Whose Line Is It Anyway? style improv games with plenty of audience participation. Audience members were used as props and recruited to provide sound effects. Wayne and Jonathan Mangum (who served as Wayne’s sidekick) charmed everyone who was brave enough to get on the stage. Of course inevitably crowd participation can be unpredictable and an interview with an audience member about his expertise in computers definitely fell a bit flat. It was followed by wayne answering questions from the audience which was interesting but but not inspired. Luckily, things picked right back up and concluded with Wayne singing a song about being from Eketahuna in the style of Creed. This is where he shines and it’s what sets him apart from other improv comedians, so I’m glad we got lots of it.
As good in real life as on TV. He really is a lyrical genius.
