COMEDY Proops preps crowd for what to expect

No topics are really safe from the comedian.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
When onstage, comedian Greg Proops prefers a slippery slope of pettiness.
"I take broad shots at everybody," said Proops, calling from Chicago. "Pettiness is beneath me. I'm more like a general overall tsunami of hatred."
Welcome to the bespectacled world of Proops, who is known stateside as a purveyor of gut-splitting improvisational hi-jinks on not only Drew Carey's "Whose Line is it Anyway?" series but the show's British television precursor. A 1989 "Whose Line is it Anyway?" audition lead to a 10-year-run of the incredibly successful British show, which oddly enough introduced him to American audiences with reruns airing on Comedy Central. Naturally, this also opened up Proops' comedy to the United Kingdom, where he's toured four times.
"They're saucy, and it runs the gamut from Shakespearian word play to [penis] jokes, and sometimes in the same joke," said Proops, who is also the voice of Bob the Builder in the children's animation series of the same name. "They're a lot of fun and they expect their comics to be pointed. Here I'm considered sarcastic and bitter. There, I'm considered Pollyanna. You can't be depressed enough for an English crowd, really."
View of Carey
As for Northeast Ohio's favorite son, Carey, Proops speaks kindly about his fellow comedian.
"He's a gentle lover, I'll tell you that," laughed Proops. "He's really quite intelligent -- I don't know if he wants people to know that. And he's fairly sensitive. What you see is what you get. He's a student of history, particularly Rome."
While Proops is part of Carey's traveling Improv All-Stars, which visited Cleveland last year, the Old Brooklyn native often makes guest appearances at Proops' live comedy chat show held at Hollywood rock club Largo. In fact, Carey recently dropped in as Vice President Dick Cheney. Before that, it was as Reese Witherspoon and Angelina Jolie.
"There's quite a range of female characters that he does," quipped Proops.
A surprise visit by Carey is the one thing people shouldn't expect at Proops' upcoming Northeast Ohio visit March 9-11 at Hilarities 4th Street Theatre. "They're going to be sorely disappointed, and they need to be spanked and sent home," Proops said. "No Drew, no black guy, no tall guy, no bald guy, just me. The spec-y guy with my jokes. And yes, I improvise but I'm not going to do it formally. I'm not going to ask you for suggestions. And no, I don't want anyone to yell out at me. People think that yelling out is somehow helping you at a standup show and it's not."
Hecklers shouldn't take it personally. Proops said he chose a career in comedy over acting because he hated reading other people's lines.
He also mentioned something about being a terrible actor, but the fact is Proops is a veteran in his field. In fact, he already knows how this upcoming weekend is going to go: "Laughter, then disappointment, then regret, then recriminations and then a short trial," Proops said. "Hopefully the people in the audience are too drunk to actually recognize me in a court of law and I've left town by that point, escaping once more with the money."