March 2, 2000

TV Guide Online: Tonight we are chatting with Wayne Brady from the hit series Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Welcome Wayne! Thanks for coming!

Brady: Thank you everyone for dropping by. Let's talk!

Question: What's your favorite game to play?

Brady: I love the film, TV and theater stuff.

Question: Hi! What goes through your head when you have to improvise?

Brady: The information I need to do the improv. I do it so much that it kinda just happens.

Question: What is it like to work with all of the people there and drew?

Brady: The cast is great. It's a bunch of grown men acting like kids and getting paid for it. I love America!! :)

Question: Are we going to see you in a feature film anytime soon?

Brady: There are a couple of things I'm working on right now, but I can't talk about it. But, I will have a guest shot in Geppetto, the TV movie on ABC with Drew. And I'm the voice of the Pied Piper in the new Nickelodeon film, The Pied Piper.

Question: If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be? Why?

Brady: Why would I want to change anything ?!? It's an ideal vehicle for all of us. Hmmm... maybe I'd change the outfits. We look like we're wearing Garanimals. I'm PRAYING for better clothing next season.

Question: Who are your comedic influences?

Brady: I'm not really a comedian, so all my influences are actors like me.. Danny Kaye, Sammy Davis Jr., Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and also people like Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones and Gary Coleman. Just kidding... :)

Question: Hey, love the show. What’s a typical day like on the set of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Brady: We show up for camera blocking, do a couple of warm up games. They let the audience in, and off we go! Sometimes we'll shoot two shows in one day, and that would be a ten-hour day.

Question: Your improv songs on Whose Line are great. Have you ever tried to professionally sing?

Brady: I DO sing professionally. I have my whole career. I started off as a musical theater performer and a singer.

Question: Hey Wayne! I was just wondering, how long have you been acting? Thanks!

Brady: I've been acting for... this'll be my twelfth year. And I started in high school.

Question: What was your favorite guess that you had to serenade on the show?

Brady: In recent memory, the lunch lady.

Question: I read that you belong to a comedy troop in LA, which is it? Is it The Groundlings?

Brady: No. It's a group called the Houseful of Honkies. It's the same group I've been with since I was in Orlando, just under a different name. We perform every Friday night at the Acme Comedy Theater at 8:30 PM. In Orlando, it was called the Sak Theater. We formed the Sak Theater Comedy Lab in '91, and I was with the group in '90. The seven founders, of which I was one, all left at different times, and we met up again in LA, the most natural thing for us to do was reform.

Question: With all the success you have had with Whose Line is it Anyway?, is there any possibility of you getting your own show?

Brady: We're taping the pilot for my own sketch show this summer, and hopefully the show will be on this fall. So, thanks to all you guys!! :)

Question: Who is the one person that you would like to work with that you haven't had a chance to?

Brady: Robin Williams...and I've worked with Whoopie Goldberg on Hollywood Squares, but I'd actually like to perform with her. And, like James Earl Jones. I really, really admire him.

Question: What other job would you like to do other than acting?

Brady: I can never see myself doing anything else, so it's hard to say. But I think one of three things...maybe in the military...maybe as a cartoonist...or testing video games for Sega.

Question: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR HOBBIES?

Brady: Well, video games, video games, video games... and paintball. I'm a big paintball enthusiast. My wife and I both have paintball guns and all the gear. And I'm an avid reader. The book I'm reading right now is... I'm in the middle of the Left Behind series. Being a Gemini, I'm doing a million things at once...I'm in the middle of the Left Behind series, I'm playing Half Life on my PC, and another game called The Sims. It's so dope. I'm also in the middle of reading Why She Left Us. I have the world's shortest attention span. :) I totally live up to everything that a Gemini is supposed to be.

Question: What was your most embarrasing moment on the show?

Brady: Probably when I lifted up the girl's skirt and I didn't know... I just wanted to crawl under Drew's desk. But, she was great. I was way more embarrassed than she was.

TV Guide Online: Thanks Wayne! We had a great time and please come back and talk to us again soon!

Brady: I'd love to. :) Thanks to everyone who's made Who's Line a hit. And hopefully we'll have a lot of chances to talk. You can see me this Sunday on the TV Guide Awards, and I'll be doing comedy across the country. I have a website up in couple of weeks... www.waynebrady.com where you can check that out. And look for the Wayne Brady Show this fall.