Not too long ago, I got to speak to actor/stand-up comedian Jonathan Mangum about his new ABC show, Trust Us With Your Life, which premieres July 10, at 9/8c. Fred Willard hosts the show, while Jonathan performs alongside Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie. He is also the co-host of Let’s Make A Deal on CBS. Read on to see what Jonathan had to say about his new show, his background, and more.
Jenny: In your own words, explain the premise behind the show, since to me, it sounded awfully similar to Whose Line Is It Anyway.
Jonathan: Fred Willard is our host, and he interviews our celebrity guests. We had some great ones. Ricky Gervais was there, and David Hasselhoff, Serena Williams… There were eight total. And based on stories from their lives, we’ll take those stories and then do them in an improv game or an improv scene. One example: We interviewed Ricky Gervais about something in his childhood, and then we did it as a Forward-Reverse scene, or we would redo it in a different game style, but it’s all based on the stories they tell us. On Whose Line Is It Anyway, Drew Carey would ask the audience for suggestions, like “give me a job” or “give me an unusual food” or whatever, and they’d come up with the improv scenes. Well, on this show, instead of the audience yelling out suggestions, we’re getting stories from the celebrities and using those to create the comedy.
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