Colin Mochrie and his wife of 28 years, Deb McGrath, have had successful independent careers in Canadian comedy but have also worked together throughout their relationship. Are they the king and queen of Canadian comedy? The duke and duchess, maybe? What would they say?

“We, of course, wouldn’t say anything because we’d sound like pretentious gits,” says McGrath, on the phone from her home in Toronto. “But it’s okay if you say it. I would say we’re the lord and lady.”

Mochrie pipes in on the other line. “Obviously, Deb has thought about this for a long time. I have nothing.”

“Or we could be the footman and the upstairs maid of Canadian comedy,” says McGrath.

The couple met in 1987 at Second City in Toronto, after Mochrie moved out there from Vancouver at the behest of his buddy Ryan Stiles. (“Once I left, the city really boomed. I like to take a little bit of credit for that,” he says.) McGrath found herself in the role of directing new improvisers in the touring company, after two years there herself, followed by three more on the main stage.

“Deb hired me after a very gruelling audition,” says Mochrie.

“Colin was my anchor in the show,” she says. “I could always depend on him. Then one day I went, ‘Hmm… I think it’s something else.’ So I shamelessly pursued him. Typical of most men, he was clueless as a post.”

“It seems like it was a lot of work on her end,” he says.

The funnyman, best known for his many years on the improv vehicle Whose Line Is It Anyway?, studied acting at Studio 58 in Vancouver after graduating from Killarney Secondary (where he starred in a high-school production of Dracula Baby). In December, he’ll be going back to his roots in legitimate theatre with the role of the Fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear in Toronto. With actual lines to memorize, he can’t just show up and wing it the way he does when he hits the road with fellow Whose Line alum Brad Sherwood.

“Well, we’ll see,” he deadpans. “If I get the gist, I think that should be all right.”

There will be no lines to learn for his appearance with McGrath at a benefit show at the Centennial Theatre for the North Shore Disability Resource Centre.

“It’s just us having fun, but with the rapport of our marriage and sort of off-the-cuff kind of stuff with improv games, very much using the audience to be a part of it,” says McGrath, who played Mayor Popowicz on Little Mosque on the Prairie.

The two give generously of their time to many charities. They decided years ago to work for organizations they had a personal stake in or that needed help getting the word out.

“Deb’s always saying, ‘Cancer doesn’t need us,’ ” says Mochrie. “A lot of the top charities don’t need us, because they have great spokespeople and they do have a presence out there.”

They’re good people, as you might expect from comedy royalty.

“Being lord and lady, we have expectations made of us,” quips Mochrie.

NSDRC Live! 2017, featuring Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath, plays North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre on Saturday (September 23).