Two well-known improv comedians are coming back to Waukegan with a brand-new (sort of) show.

Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood are bringing their comedy improv show, “Asking for Trouble,” Jan. 11 to the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.

“It is a new title. This is how we work the hardest — trying to come up with a new title for our show,” Mochrie said. “It’s sad.”

Mochrie might be best known as one of the stars of the sketch comedy improv show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” with co-stars Wayne Brady and Ryan Stiles, which completed its 20th and final season in March 2023.

He also frequently tours the country with the show “Hyprov: Improv Under Hypnosis” with master hypnotist Asad Mecci. In addition to touring with his improv shows, Mochrie has a new movie on Amazon Prime called “How to Ruin the Holidays” and another new movie called “Villains Incorporated.”

He also has a recurring role as private investigator/killer Ralph Fellows in the Canadian crime drama “The Murdoch Mysteries” which airs on the Ovation Channel in the U.S.

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate,” he said of his work. “A couple of years ago I was able to do ‘King Lear’ with a lot of the Stratford actors up here in Toronto. I wasn’t King Lear, but I was working with incredible actors doing Shakespeare.”

He and Sherwood have been touring for more than two decades and still get along.

“To be able to tour with someone for 22 years on the road, things have to be good between you,” he said. “You have a level of trust that you get with someone who has been your friend for close to 30 years. When we’re improvising, I may not know where he’s going in a scene, but I know enough to follow him and see where this is going. And it usually works out.”

Preparing for an improv show doesn’t require the rigorous mental preparation you might expect it to.

“I wish I had an incredible method answer. We sit and have coffee. Each of us plays word games on our phones — that’s it,” he said. “My entire process is working towards being relaxed enough to walk onstage with nothing except what the audience is about to give us and the knowledge that it should work out at this point. After 40 years of improvising, you figure it’s going to work out.”

Getting onstage and talking to a roomful of people and being tasked with making them laugh might sound like a nightmare to most people, but not for Mochrie.

“It’s the most relaxed I am in life, weirdly enough. I probably need some psychotherapy,” he said. “I go out and hear the introduction and it’s like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ The reason people think improv is tough is because it goes against everything we do as human beings. It’s about listening, it’s about accepting the other person’s idea and building on that idea. If people actually found out how easy it was, no one would come to the show.”

They don’t have a script they go off when they go onstage, he said.

“No, we don’t write. That seems like work. We don’t have to come up with ideas; the audience shouts stuff at us and we just play with that,” he said. “We try to figure out new games — that’s been the toughest thing. Just the two of us, trying to find something we can do without a moderator. We bring audience members up onstage so they can fill various roles. We try to come up with new games, but that’s as far as it goes. We don’t write material.”

At the live shows, the games are over when they’re over, he said.

“We have scenes that can go 15, 20 minutes,” he said. “As long as it stays interesting, we’ll just keep going until that comedy cow is milked dry.”

They do try to keep the show clean, he said.

“Our audience is people who grew up with ‘Whose Line’ who have now gotten their kids into it,” he said. “We have a very wide demographic. We have had kids in our audience as young as 10 years old. We go from 10 to grandparents, so we’re aware that even in its roughest moments, it’s still a family show. We’re very aware of who our audience is.”

One of the joys of doing the show is not knowing what will happen next, he said.

“It’s wacky, you’re not going to learn anything but hopefully you will have a couple of good laughs.”

Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.