Ever since its start on British television during the late ‘80s, and then its transition to American television during the following decade, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was a successful improv comedy program that has spawned various adaptations.

Colin Mochrie was originally a regular performer on the British version, and he’s continued this role in the American version along with many other improvisational comics, including Brad Sherwood. Together, they’ve been performing as a duo since the early 2000s, and they’re going to be in Cranston at the Park Theatre on October 17, as part of their “Asking For Trouble” tour. It starts at 8pm and it promises to be a hilarious experience for the audience.

Mochrie and I had a talk ahead of the performance about his camaraderie with Sherwood, how they let the audience get involved, being on a film set versus improvising on stage and looking to have some goofy fun.

Rob Duguay: From your perspective, what makes sharing a stage with Brad stand out versus performing with other improv comics?

Colin Mochrie: Well, we have a personal history in that we’ve known each other for 35 years, so we knew each other before we did “Whose Line” and we had worked together when I was living in L.A. while performing in various little clubs. I’ve always found it easy to improvise with Brad, and he came up with the idea of us going out on tour, and I said, “Yeah, why not? What could go wrong?”.

RD: It’s mentioned that this current tour you’re both on is totally unscripted, so how do you and Brad go about preparing? Is it just a brief exchange of ideas, or is it through a different method?

CM: I wish I could tell you that there’s a magnificent warm up, but it’s just the both of us playing word games on our computers. Depending on the layout, we figure out what games we’re going to play, and then it’s pretty loose. We let the audience sort of dictate what we’re going to do that night, so we don’t do a lot of work during the show.

RD: Very cool. Along with doing improv, you’ve been a part of a variety of different films, with the most recent one being the coming-of-age comedy flick “Magnetosphere”. When it comes to playing a role on a film set versus doing improv on stage, how much adapting do you do? Do you feel that you have to change your approach at all or is it relatively seamless?

CM: It’s kind of like working two different muscles. When you’re doing a play or doing a movie, there’s the writer’s vision and it’s up to you to get it across. They have an idea of how this character fits into the whole story and how important they are to whatever is built up, so you’re there to make sure that vision is realized. When you’re doing improv or anything like that, it’s really loose and you can pretty much do anything you want. There isn’t a director’s or producer’s input.

RD: Yeah, I get that. You’ve also written scripts for comedy shows on television, so would you say that your experience with improv has been a direct influence on that aspect of your career where you can come up with different ideas in different settings to make people laugh?

CM: Improv is definitely a great writing tool, especially when you hit a block and you don’t know what to do. You just riff and you look back and go, “Ok, a lot of that is garbage, but this point right here is something that can lead to the next part of the story,” so it’s a great thing to have in your utility belt.

RD: Being a person who started their career in Canada, do you feel that there are any similarities between Canadian audiences and audiences in the New England region of the United States?

CM: Especially with our show, because we’re not doing political satire and we’re not doing anything that deals with current events, we’re just trying to have some goofy fun. I think goofy fun is universal, so we never really have to change the show or look out for certain things. People sort of accept what the premise is and they’re ready to have fun doing it, so it really makes it easy for us.

RD: Is that goofiness something that fans of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” can expect from this upcoming show at The Park Theatre?

CM: Yeah, we like to say that it’s a live version of “Whose Line” without the deadweight, so it’s us just having fun with the audience. People will recognize a few games from “Whose Line” and there’s others that we’ve adapted as the two of us. We’ll get audience members on stage for a lot of the show, so it’s just a lot of fun. You’re not going to learn anything, but you’ll have a couple of good laughs.