"This `Drew Carey Show' is the longest I've ever had a job," he says of the ABC sitcom that's made him a celebrity since it debuted in 1995.
But the comedian has always been a restless soul. "I lose my attention real easily. I really do," he says. The search for something different led him first to improvisational comedy, then to a second TV show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" -- which he's now re-creating onstage at Caesars Palace.
The shows at Caesars today through Sunday will feature 10 people drawn from both the sitcom that airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on KTNV-TV, Channel 13, and the improv show that follows at 9:30.
"Nobody's ever done this in Vegas before," Carey says of the unscripted format that, like the TV version of "Whose Line," throws performers into comic role-playing scenarios suggested by members of the audience.
Ryan Stiles is the link between the shows. Before he was cast as Carey's lanky buddy Lewis, Stiles was a regular player on the British version of "Whose Line," which has been running overseas (and sometimes on the Comedy Central cable network) since 1989.
"People always say the show looks so slick over here. I remind them that we had 10 years of rehearsal, basically, for this show," says Stiles, who also will be performing at Caesars.
Kathy Kinney, who plays Carey's nemesis, Mimi, and Ian Gomez, who plays Larry, also will be at Caesars to match wits against Stiles and "Whose Line" regulars, including Colin Mochrie. "Whose Line" musician Laura Hall will be on board to supply backing for the bits involving songs.
"Everybody's so excited. It's all we talk about every night (after rehearsals)," Carey says of this weekend's engagement. "When we do our live improv (at a Hollywood nightclub) each week it's a real good release for us. I think that's our favorite night of the week.
"We get our own laughs. Nobody writes it for us, there's no rehearsing or blocking -- we just get up there and do it," he notes. "I think we prove to ourselves that we're funny on our own. It's nice for us to do that. We look forward to our little Thursday nights."
Stiles' excitement about the spontaneous format convinced Carey to try it in a weekly Thursday gig at The Improv comedy club in Hollywood. Last year, the two pitched an Americanized version of the show as an ABC summer replacement series.
"I guess I was kind of the guy in the middle," Stiles says, introducing Carey to British creator Dan Patterson when talks about a U.S. version of the show had stalled. "They didn't like Colin because he looked too old, and they wanted (MTV personality) Kennedy to host the show."
With Carey as host, the show won a summer time slot on ABC that became semipermanent last fall.
Stiles would "always talk about going out and doing improv at places in L.A. during the week, or going back to England to do the show. So I hooked up with him doing improv at The Improv for a whole season," says Carey, who found out he liked it.
"I get tired of doing stand-up all the time, and it's hard to write stuff for stand-up and be on the (sitcom) at the same time," Carey says.
Some viewers may think the show is too funny to be true. The one-liners are often so clever, the song parodies so well-rhymed, that it seems there must be some pre-rehearsal or behind-the-scenes gag writing.
Not so, says Carey. "It might look like it's all made up and these guys are cheating. But once you know the different rules and parameters, you see it's not worth making up."
Using different improvisational games with rules and structure gives the performers guidelines to latch onto.
In one game characters can only speak in questions. "Just to have somebody asking you questions forces you into funny things," Carey says.
"Part of the entertainment is seeing people make something up on the spot," he adds. "If you really wrote it out and saw a transcript of it, it wouldn't be that great."
Stiles agrees that "you're kind of walking a fine line, because if it's really good nobody believes it, and if it's really bad nobody watches it."
When one lady in England confronted him on a sidewalk, Stiles told her the show was scripted two weeks in advance. "I knew it," she told him. "You're funny but you're not that funny."
Although 18 games will be played to get the 6 that run on television, "I think the one thing that reassures them is that we can't edit during the scenes," Stiles says. "You have to leave in stuff that doesn't work, otherwise they don't believe it. And I think people enjoy watching you struggle."
Like Carey, Stiles says he tried out for Canada's Second City improv company after becoming tired of eight years in stand-up comedy. "I was doing the same jokes every night; I wasn't writing any new stuff. It just got kind of boring to me," he says.
Even though "Whose Line" is riskier than a tried-and-true stand-up set, Stiles thinks it has potential to become a regular Las Vegas offering. "I get older people telling me they love the show, and we get 10-year-old kids. I think the kids think it's goofy, and I think the adults think it's kind of clever."
Carey realizes he doesn't have to go out on a comedic limb to play Las Vegas. He's seen the city grow and evolve, having lived here in the late '70s. He used to sit just out of cover-charge range to hear sets by Pete Barbutti, the late Wayland Flowers and others.
After a stint in the Marine Corps that gave him his trademark crew cut and black plastic glasses, Carey returned to Las Vegas as a professional comic in the early '90s, playing franchised comedy clubs on the Strip.
"When I used to work the comedy clubs, people would just wander up. They didn't care what show it was. They just wanted to get away and see something," he recalls. "They weren't there to see you or anything special."
What a change then to command a $65 ticket as a Caesars headliner last July. "It's a lot easier to be playing a room like that. People are just so happy to see you live and in-person it makes it actually easier," he says. "You know people are there to see you and they're gonna be paying attention and excited to be there."