Improvised Sulu

Tonight on NBC at 8/7C Mr. Sulu himself, the great George Takei will headline the new hour-long improvisational show “Thank God You Are Here!”

The new weekly series features a bevy of actors, personalities and comedians and tests their improvisational skills as they walk through a door on a set to an ensemble cast that says to them “thank God you are here!” From that point on its bedlam and hillarious surprises as nothing is scripted and all dialogue is off-the-cuff.

The show is hosted by “In Living Color” alum David Allen Grier with Dave Foley, from the famous improve group “Kids in the Hall,” judging the guest stars’ performances and choosing a weekly winner. Both of these veterans are masters of improvisation.

“It was a terrifying experience,” Takei told the crowd of fans at this weekend’s Grand Slam convention. “They invite about four actors to each one of the shows, but we know nothing about nothing. No scripts, no rehearsal, no nothing. We show up, and there’s a curtained-off area, and we’re escorted back there, and then they ask us to take our clothes off and put on these costumes, and so we put on whatever they give us, and then they take us out of that curtained-off area, we go on stage, and there’s six or seven hundred people in the audience all, you know, eagerly waiting for you to do something.

“And then they push you through a door, and there’s a group of improvisationalists, and they look to you and say, ‘Thank God you’re here.’ And you gotta go into the bit and start improvising. I mean, it’s a struggle for survival with these comics!

“So do tune in [this] Wednesday, April the 18th, to see how I survived on that terrifying show!”

Backstage George spoke with a reporter from StarTrek.com and said that for one of his skits, he was dressed in a hospital gown. Based on the git-up he thought for sure he would be a patient, but it turns he is the surgeon preparing to operate on a patient. The irony for George was “We’re desperately trying to be funny, and it’s a situation of life and death!”