The Drew Crew - 1/15/1999

January 15, 1999

The Drew Crew

Sitcom star Drew Carey brings his other show, 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' to Caesars Palace

By John Katsilometes

LAS VEGAS SUN

Drew Carey's fettered public persona -- the infantryman's buzz cut, body by Bud and ubiquitous black spectacles -- cloaks a fertile imagination. This is a man, afterall, who had the vision to add Shirley Jones to the lineup for his own "The Drew Carey Show," casting the venerable 62-year-old actress as his girlfriend and smooching with the former Mrs. Partridge.

It was a characteristically skewed bit of comedy from one of television's hottest stars.

"I'm always looking for new things, to expand," Carey said during a recent phone interview from the ABC studios in Burbank, Calif. "I don't like feeling stale at all."

Such a philosophy led Carey to wrest "Whose Line Is It Anyway" from Comedy Central and convince ABC to give the quirky improvisational comedy series a chance as a summer fill-in, where it's been an unexpected critical and ratings hit. But Carey, for one, is not surprised.

"I felt there was a slim possibility it wouldn't succeed, but it did have a solid track record and I came in very confident in the format and the people involved," Carey said. "To put odds on it, I would've given it an 80-20 chance of success. It's grown already and will continue to grow."

The Strip receives its first taste of the improv show when Carey and company take over the Caesars Palace Circus Maximus Showroom tonight through Sunday.

"I think it will go over really well in Las Vegas, I really do," Carey said. "It's a gambling form of live comedy, really, with no script and a lot of freedom for the performers. You never know what you're going to get and the audience is involved."

Carey, listed as one of the show's producers, has been a popular live draw in Las Vegas for several years, gaining marquee status after "The Drew Carey Show" became one of ABC's most successful situation comedies soon after its 1995 debut.

However, prior to "Whose Line," Carey's live act was traditional standup fare. For the former "Star Search" champ whose career got a huge boost after a 1991 appearance on "The Tonight Show," the format had become staid.

"Last summer, I was really tired of standup, and I wanted to do something outside the show but not just standup," Carey said. "From having Ryan Stiles on the show, I knew he had a lot of experience in improv and I thought, maybe, I'd like to take a shot at it, too."

Carey had no experience in the free-form improv style, but Stiles -- whose skills were honed on the original British "Whose Line" production -- became an inspiration.

"He's one of the best in the world at it," Carey said. "He always comes through, no matter what. He's the best I've ever seen, and I'm in awe of him a lot of the time."

Carey quickly became a regular featured performer at The Improv in Los Angeles.

"Every Thursday I'd have my improv night," Carey said. "It was the most fun I've had performing, more fun than the show or doing standup. It's my favorite night of the week, when I don't have to worry about no makeup and I don't have to dress up. I'm free!"

Carey describes the process as "nerve-wracking," for himself and the audience.

"The best way to describe it is like a balloon that's inflating," Carey said. "You keep blowing it up, blowing it up, and if you poke it at the right time, it pops."

Then Carey paused.

"Does that sound stupid or what?" he said, laughing. "The point is, the audience is really on the edge. They'll think, 'Wow, I can't believe he just thought of that.' Even if it's not that funny, there is always tension because, in theory, you can fail at any moment."

Performing at Caesars will be Stiles and Colin Mochrie, two veteran hold-overs from the show's British incarnation, which originally was an English radio show and ran from 1992-1997 on Comedy Central, as well as series regulars Wayne Brady, Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood and musician Laura Hall.

They will be joined by cast regulars from Carey's original show: Kathy Kinney (who plays Carey's chief tormentor, Mimi) and Ian Gomez (who plays the balding, philandering Larry).

The live format will be similar to the taped show, with Carey acting as moderator/master of ceremonies/ringleader, and the players responding to suggested ad-libbed sketch topics from him and the audience.

Carey keeps the reigns loose, joining the cast onstage only near the end of every show to perform his own improvisational sketches. He also blithely awards points, which matter not at all in the show's broad scope.

Carey said he's eager to unleash the cast on a Las Vegas stage.

"I think that it'll be a lot more interesting and less restrictive (than the TV show)," Carey said. "You're not limited by time, or by someone from standards and practices when you're doing this live and not taping it for network TV."

A typical bit popular on the series is for the performers to perform impromptu musical numbers -- on a recent episode, Carey doled out a million points after Brady pulled off a rollicking song about plumbing, sung to a reggae beat.

Another recurring bit is for the comedians to conduct an entire conversation by simply asking questions.

"Are you going to Kansas? Do you know I have a cousin in Kansas? Did you know her name is Stella?" Carey said, giving an example of one such exchange. "Having to keep that going can be a real pressure cooker." Carey says there are a few "rules" comics must adhere to in improvisational comedy.

"You have to remember that it is teamwork, and if one member of the team falls apart, it can lead to disaster," he said. "Let's say you're supposed to be at a bus station. One guy will say, 'Are you waiting for a bus?' You don't respond with, 'No, I'm here washing my hands.' You have to stay with the premise and build on it, not stump your partner."

Carey also said the cast strives to keep each performance fresh and unrehearsed.

"These people are such pros, they won't even look at the props before the show," Carey said. "They go out of their way not to see them. No one sees them. It's like a badge of honor not to be clued in on any element of what's going to happen."

Initially, Carey considered pitching the project as a late-night show, similar to "Saturday Night Live," where it might build a cult following.

"We thought about late-night, building a weekly audience on Saturday nights, but you get more money in prime time," Carey said, laughing. "We make more than the cast of 'SNL.' "

Actually, payroll is probably the largest outlay for ABC on a show that has been called, "good TV on the cheap," by USA Today.

"I think our salaries are the biggest expense, not the set, not the props," Carey said. "The props are all cheap. They're made of foam rubber. The network likes cheap props."

Money won't be a cause for concern in Las Vegas. Essentially, Carey said, he'll just about break even over the weekend.

"When I'm here doing standup, I make money," he said. "I don't have to pay anyone. This time, other people get paid, too. So I'll make a little gambling money and it'll be like a free trip to Vegas, which I plan on thoroughly enjoying."

For a guy from Cleveland who has carefully cultivated an Everyman image, aligning himself with the Las Vegas Strip could be perceived as a career risk. But Carey's not concerned.

"Cleveland is a part of me, but so is L.A. and Las Vegas, places I perform," Carey said. "These days, with so many media outlets trying to get a piece of you -- whether it's the E! network, or 'Entertainment Tonight' or 'Access Hollywood' -- you're constantly being probed and examined, and I think people accept and even expect the fact that you're not just one person." For once, Drew Carey is not making that up.