Colin Mochrie brings HYPROV to Union County Performing Arts Center

Colin Mochrie, as we know from his work on “Who's Line is it Anyway?" and his many shows with Brad Sherwood is a master of improv. Assad Mecci is a master hypnotist.

So what do you get when you put the two of them together? You get HYPROV and it's coming to the Union County Performing Arts Center on March 17.

Mochrie and Mecci joined me on my New Jersey 101.5 show, you can listen starting at 59:45

Mochrie and Mecci explained:

"Assad asks for 20 volunteers" explains Mochrie, "gets it down to the best 5 and then they and I form an instant improv troupe and do an improv show.”

This whole thing started with Mecci who tells us, "I sent a cold email to Mochrie's website, his long-time manager Jeff Andrews set up a coffee. We chatted about the concept of mirroring hypnosis and improv together. We threw it up at the second city min stage. The show went exceedingly well. We toured it across North America, 43 cities and we're here.”

How do you get 20 people down to five?

"I'm looking for physiological feedback," says Mecci "so I'm looking for changes in rate location of respiration, so breathing changes, color changes, skin tones changes, stuff that poker players look for, "tells" if you will. When I see the right tells I'll keep the people on stage when I don't,  I'll remove them.”

So do they make them undress and imitate a chicken? Don't worry.

"We treat them as improvisers," says Mochrie. "Unlike other hypnosis shows, we don't make fun of our subjects they're there to help me do a show so we have a list of games we play. Assad gives some suggestions and then they just go for it.”

Mochrie explains what makes this so good:

"The beautiful thing about them is while they're under hypnotic state they're true improvisers. They react to whatever Assad and I say without thinking, they just do it naturally it's fantastic to watch.”

To get tickets for Colin Mochrie and Assad Mecci performing HYPROV click here.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise only. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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