By CHRIS PACKHAM
Canadian comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall performed a two-hour set of mostly new material last night at the Uptown Theater. At least, the only sketch I recognized from the TV series was the "Chicken Lady Phone Sex" sketch. A return to form for the Kids in the Hall, the show also hearkens to their roots working stages in small clubs when they were in their twenties.
Five guys, dozens of characters, zero sets. Well, how would you do it, Baby Genius? The show, Live As We'll Ever Be, is a revue of sketches, demanding dozens of locations which the group evoked via a formal theatrical technique called the Wondrous Magic of Imagination. Plus, they made clever use of a back-projected Powerpoint-y display to suggest locations and transitions, as well as a couple of taped sketches and live shots of the audience at the Uptown, about which MORE LATER.
In an enormously crowd-pleasing show that featured a super-powered drunk, gay stage kisses, one stage blow job, a time helmet and attempted statutory rape of a retarded teen girl with a soy candle, the group also revisited classic characters from the television series in new situations:
My favorite moment of the show occurred after some technical fuck-ups that interrupted a new sketch with Foley and McDonald, and fully encapsulates why the Kids in the Hall are so great: Sixty seconds after beginning the sketch, realizing an off-stage Scott Thompson's mic was still on, the two shouted at him, aborting the scene. "Too bad. It's really a great sketch," Foley said, laughing. Starting over, they redelivered the scene's opening dialogue at a double-time clip, arriving at their previous stopping point.
"And now, the premise," said Foley to the audience, and the ensuing scene was brilliant and surreal and totally hilarious. The two actors, who hadn't performed original material together since Brain Candy, delivered their lines with confidence and fun, as though the scene — like the group's professional collaboration — had proceeded uninterrupted. HEY! Look what I did there.
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Jenny -- thanks, you're right. Joel, my girlfriend & I saw the Mark McKinney monologue, like, two nights later, on the first disc of the first season of KITH. I never would have remembered that one.
Great review, but just to make a correction: it was Mark McKinney and Kevin in the two missionaries sketch. :)
The Mark monologue about the guy in the alley and his contact lenses was a TV bit. But I think those three were it, if I recall correctly. The new stuff was great -- I do hope this recent creative streak means we'll see more from them. I read some chatter about a second film, but I can't say how much truth there is to that.
Personally, I laughed the hardest at the Gut Spigot sketch. The silly Photoshop bits in the background killed me.
The one with Gavin and the missionaries was from the show (changed up a little, of course).
p-nut, I suspect. you'll probably have another chance.
MMM, I was trying to think about things you might have asked.
As near and dear as Buddy Cole is to my heart (and he is, if I weren't already queer, I'd totally go gay for him) Scott Thompson plays his straight characters with such aplomb, it drips with hilarious incongruity.
I'm going to regret not seeing them live for the rest of my life.
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