The Student Association Programming Board announced Wednesday that this semester’s Family Weekend comedy show will feature stars from the hit show “Whose Line is it Anyway?”
Show veterans Brad Sherwood and Greg Proops will be bringing their live improvisational act to the Events Center on Sept. 17 as a part of the weekend’s family-friendly festivities.
“Whose Line is it Anyway?” ran in the United States on ABC from 1998 until 2006 and featured a cast of comedians doing improvisational games and performances. Each episode had a guest star who would join them.
Besides the show, Proops is also known for his role as Max Madigan on “True Jackson, VP,” and as the voice of Bob from “Bob the Builder.” He is currently on his “The Smartest Man in the World” tour.
Sherwood has served as a host on ’90s game shows “The Dating Game” and “The Big Moment.” He is currently on tour with Colin Mochrie, performing an improvisation show that is completely driven by audience participation.
In the survey, Sherwood and Mochrie were listed as the headliners instead of Proops and Sherwood.
Proops and Mochrie were the most popular choice among respondents, with 31.5 percent of students saying they were “Dying to see!” They were followed closely by Hannibal Buress, with 27.3 percent “Dying to see!” them, then Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of “Broad City” with 20 percent responding the same. Less popular choices in the survey were Patton Oswalt and Chelsea Peretti, who each received less than 15 percent of students voting “Dying to see!” for them.
According to Max Maurice, the vice president for programming for the Student Association, unforeseen circumstances led to the switch.
“Colin accepted our bid and everything like that, but a week later we had heard back from him and he had said that he had gotten an offer to perform at a prestigious gig at the Kennedy Center in D.C.,” said Maurice, a senior majoring in electrical engineering. “It’s a very prestigious thing that a bunch of comedians go to that he was invited to so he was like, ‘I should go,’ and it was the same day unfortunately.”
Still, Maurice is confident that the two will put on a fun and exciting show for students and their families.
“I am very confident that Greg Proops will be a very good replacement if anything because he was on the original both U.K. and U.S. version of the hit series.”
The show will feature openers from the Bing Stand Up comedy club, Helen Frazer, a senior majoring in anthropology, and Seth Owitz, a senior majoring in integrative neuroscience.
Frazer says she is excited to be a representative of the University and her club.
“It’s a great opportunity to show our classmates and their parents how much we can accomplish as a club, but it’s also definitely nerve-wracking because of the size of the Events Center,” Frazer said. “For me, it’s not about how many people will be in the audience, I’m just easily intimidated by high ceilings.”
A special presale for $7 student tickets and $20 family tickets will be from Friday, Aug. 26 to Monday, Aug. 29, or until 400 tickets are sold. Regular tickets for a student fee of $10 will be sold beginning on Monday, as well as student floor seats for $20.