'Whose Live Anyway?' comes to Elgin and Batavia

Comedy, like baseball, is all about timing.

When Joel Murray and his fellow comedy cast members come to the Chicago suburbs for four shows over the next week, it could be prime time at Wrigley Field.

"We're hoping on our day off the Cubs might be in a playoff game over there," said Murray, whose Wilmette upbringing and involvement in Chicago's Improv Olympics and Second City may have served to reinforce his lifelong fascination with the team.

Three years ago, Murray joined forces with Ryan Stiles, Jeff Davis and Greg Proops in "Whose Live Anyway?," a live theater touring company version of the popular TV improvisation show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

The four comedians will be at the Elgin Community College Arts Center for Oct. 11 and Oct. 14 performances; they'll be at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre on Oct. 15 and round out their Chicago-area stay with a show Oct. 16 at Governors State University in south suburban University Park.

The show is not scripted at all.

"We don't have anything prepared whatsoever," said Murray.

Getting onstage with no idea of how things will play out may seem like it would be intimidating, Murray allows, but he said improvisational comedy isn't scary so much as it is liberating.

"Some people think it would be the most frightening thing in the world. There are no lines to memorize, so that's nice," he said. "We trust each other. As long as you try to make the other guy look good, you will end up looking good."

Murray advises audience members to "wear something nice" because there's a chance they'll be pulled up into the onstage action.

"We have a lot of audience participation," he said. Usually, it works well, but it can make for some uncomfortable moments if a too-timid person freezes up or an attention-seeking ham gets carried away.

"We do get some interesting folks on stage now and then," he said.

All four cast members are improv veterans. Stiles, who had a regular role on "The Drew Carey Show," was a mainstay star of the original "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and he's currently in the new version of the show on The CW Network. Proops, a stand up comic, is also on the new CW show. And Davis, a guest on the new CW show, has a long list of TV and theater credits.

Murray, brother of Bill and John Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray, went on to TV and movie roles after his Second City days.

He played advertising executive Freddy Rumsen on AMC's "Mad Men."

So what were his favorite Rumsen lines? Well, there was the one wherein his character advised protagonist Don Draper, "Do the work, Don."

Another of his favorites, he said, was when he delivered a searingly backhanded complimentary comment on staff member Peggy Olson's knack for copywriting.

"It was like watching a dog play the piano," Rumsen told his male counterparts.

The group's two-night stint in Elgin is a return performance. The troupe visited the 650-seat Arts Center a few years ago and sold out both shows, said Steve Duchrow, director of performing arts at Elgin Community College.

Duchrow said he's thrilled to see them come back.

"They were so easy to work with. You love it when performers are great onstage and great offstage," said Duchrow. "They're really leaders of the artistic craft of comedy. These are some of the finest, funniest, most clever and creative comics around."

The Batavia Fine Arts Centre, a relatively new venue, offers 890 seats.

Murray said the group will tailor some of its comedy to the local audience's experience.

"You read the paper and you throw in some local references," he said.

There's one local reference that requires no research and Murray goes there without prompting.

"Go, Cubs, go!" he said.