Most Valuable Cast Member?

Alright, so we all know that I'm practically in love with Colin Mochrie, yes? Good? Okay then.

But the thing is that even though I personally favour Colin over the other Whose Line boys for unknown reasons probably buried in my psychology, I am willing to see and even agree with an argument that says that Colin is not the most VALUABLE cast member, in terms of the quality of the show.

This whole line of thought got started when I was reading an article somewhere where someone speculated the most valuable cast member on Whose Line.

And it was more or less a well-thought out article, and I enjoyed reading it and it certainly made me think. Of course the person had narrowed down the options to three: Ryan, Colin or Wayne. What it talked about for each person was that Ryan could commit to anything, he literally does anything for a laugh, which is completely true. Colin is able to turn a mistake/ineptitude into laugh-out-loud comedy, which is also true (though it wouldn't be my first remark about him). And Wayne has the incredible talent of being able to think on his feet in such a way so that he can sing lyrics that he's making up as he sings, sound good, and still be funny. The article ended by crowning Wayne the most valuable member on Whose Line. It did invite people to debate it, of course, because you can't just say things like that like it's fact, but that was the conclusion in the article.

A summed up version of that that I read is that Ryan had the most consistent laughs, Colin had the biggest laughs, and Wayne had the most raw talent. Which I agree with.

But there are serious problems with this article and I just need to address it.

First off, it didn't read into nearly all of what each person brought to the show. All it talked about with Ryan was that he had an advantage when it came to physical comedy, due to his height and "elasticity", that he would do anything for a laugh (of course referencing the Carol Channing incident, not breaking character after SMASHING HIS HEAD INTO A FREAKING LIGHT BULB) and that he can pun. All of this is true, but it doesn't nearly cover all of what he contributes. The first thing and last thing he mentions I wouldn't even think of when first thinking of Ryan. Anything for a laugh? Well, they don't call him Ryan Anything-For-A-Laugh-Stiles for nothing. But the others wouldn't be the first thing I think of. The first thing I think of would be his sarcasm. His ability to know what the audience likes, what they won't be expecting. And, what I would consider his most valuable trait, his ability to create chemistry with anyone who cares to be onstage with him. I mean, with Colin it's super obvious, but when you see him with people like.... like Jerry Springer or David Hasselhoff (who were unfortunately on the show for rating's sakes) and even in his first episode on U.K Whose Line, he has the ability to sort of connect with anyone onstage. Which is an EXTREMELY valuable talent when it comes to improv.

All it talked about with Colin was that.... well, honestly, I was extremely disappointed with the page it had about Colin. It basically said that he can make everyone laugh out loud, as in everyone onstage, to the point where the game more or less stops because they're laughing too hard. Which, again, is true, and probably would have been the first thing I thought of about a year ago, but now...... what bugged me about the article was that it talked about him in a real backhanded compliment sort of way, saying he "kills the flow of a sketch or even simple banter, but in the best way possible" or that there are times of "Mochrie ruining jokes and making them better" or that "his greatest moments come from his inability to improv quickly enough" and finally that "Mochrie's ability to f*ck everything up actually made it all much more enjoyable". So basically, his page circled around one point, and while it's clear that the author of this article laughed out loud at Colin's antics, I sort of got the feeling that he wasn't at all actually impressed with him. And I do associate Colin with a masterful straight face, and the ability to kill people with laughter, because who doesn't, but it's not his most valuable trait. I would say that Colin's most valuable trait is the ability to be what he is not. Because the thing is, Ryan can commit to any role, but he's always sort of winking at you, you know? "You and I both know this is ridiculous." He's always doing it kind of dryly. Colin doesn't do that. That's probably one of the reasons they always get him to play a woman. *exaggerated hair flip* It's certainly one of the reasons they're getting him to be angry all the time. For a short period of time, he's not Colin-pretending-to-be-a-temperamental-Hollywood-director. He's a temperamental Hollywood director. He's not Colin-having-to-kiss-everyone-because-he's-a-temperamental-actor-in-a-passionate-kissing-scene-with-Ryan-and-Wayne. He's a temperamental actor who has a passionate kissing scene with Ryan and Wayne. The utter lack of a wink at the audience is what makes it so totally enjoyable.

It seemed to me that the author only took note from Greatest Hits when it came to Colin. And, I mean, his most memorable moments are from there because those are the moments that make you laugh until you cry (quite literally with my mother), so it's understandable, but it doesn't nearly take into account all the other things that Colin brought to the show. The thing with Greatest Hits was that it was such an EASY game for Ryan and Colin, who basically just talked until they decided to cue Wayne, who did all the real work. So I think those were the times when Colin decided that he COULD do that, when he decided he could AFFORD to be so, sort of, random, on a different wave-length, because they're both just being goofballs anyways. So it's really not a totally accurate representation of all that they could do.

Finally, Wayne. Of course it talked about his incredible talent with the songs, doing an impression of an artist, rhyming and being funny while making it still sound like a song. Not an easy task. And, of course, Wayne was the most physically able of the three, since Ryan had a bad back and neither Colin nor Ryan were particularly young (though Colin could follow Wayne in Action Replay surprisingly well). So with that, Wayne was dubbed the most valuable cast member on Whose Line. And I agree with him on this, that Wayne certainly brought a much more hyper kind of energy, since he could do all that physical stuff with such ease, and even though I myself don't rank the singing bits as my favourite part of the show, it certainly takes an insane amount of skill and talent to do all that he did. So I see his reasoning, for sure. And while his singing was an EXTREMELY valuable contribution to the show, I wouldn't rank it as his MOST valuable contribution to the overall humour, if that makes sense. I respect the amount of talent it takes and all that, but the show didn't really NEED it. I would say that Wayne's most valuable trait is that he is not afraid to go that extra mile. With any character given him, he will physically reincarnate even his facial features just to add to it. I can't count the number of times he's impressed everyone with any style of dance he cares to do in Greatest Hits or whatever. It's easy to go the route that takes the least amount of effort, but Wayne looks at that, goes "screw that" and then goes as far as he can. Because he knows it's funnier, because he knows he can, and because it's great. THAT'S what I love about Wayne.

But the fact that the author of this article didn't decide to really look into all that and think about it with all that analysis doesn't bother me too too much. It's to be expected, really. Who in their right mind thinks about this stuff with all that care? What does bother me about the article is this:

Most. Valuable. Cast member.

Because..... no.

The problem with that is this:

This is improv. There is no individual star in improv. Making a scene work is a TEAM. EFFORT. Even if Colin really shines in a particular playing of Improbable Mission, it wasn't only Colin that made that happen. It was Ryan being generous with the spotlight, it was Ryan setting him up. Improv is completely made up of give and take, and they're all improvisers and they're all good at that give and take kind of play. So ranking one cast member as most valuable is an ultimately ridiculous idea. Because, as improvisers, they're not valuable individually. They're valuable as a team. They each cater to different senses of humour, but most importantly..... the thing about it is that they're not..... running a race competing against each other. They're running a relay, passing the baton to one another and working together. One person running a relay by himself couldn't do it, (or he could, but he'd fail). You need a team. That's what improv is. That's what Whose Line is. So there is no cast member more valuable than the others, in my opinion. They work solely BECAUSE they're a team.

Well, that's what I have to say about it.

Hope it made you think.