Danielle Solzman
Paul Myers’ newest book, The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy, is an authorized biography that celebrates the Canadian sketch comedy group.
Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson came together in 1985. The rest as they say is history. They found their way to TV in 1988 so this book is the perfect way to mark the 30th anniversary. Their television series would run through 1995–airing on the CBC for the entire run. Down in the United States, the sketch comedy show would split time between HBO and CBS. The late night CBS run allowed for more viewers to be able to watch the series in the US.
If not for Lorne Michaels, the comedy group would not have the staying power that they maintain today. A lot of things had to happen first. A few of the KITH were invited to write for SNL while some toured with Second City in Canada. They found a way back to each other and the rest would be history.
Because of the show’s success, Dave Foley would become a series regular on NewsRadio. Most recently, he could be seen as a series regular in Dr. Ken. Unfortunately, ABC did not extend the series past its second season. The actor will make an appearance in the upcoming comedy, Second Act.
Mark McKinney has also seen notable success. Following KITH, he appeared as a cast member on SNL for two and a half seasons. Currently, McKinney stars as Cloud 9 store manager Glenn on Superstore. The show is currently airing its fourth season on NBC. Earlier this year, McKinney had an amazing cameo in Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh. The film is one of my favorite films to premiere this year but is still awaiting distribution.
While Bruce McCulloch has been around, his filmography isn’t quite the same as Foley. McCulloch did create Carpoolers but because of the writer’s strike, the series was stopped in its tracks.
Kevin McDonald has found lots of success as a character actor, most notably in Lilo & Stitch. The same goes for Scott Thompson with regards to finding success as a character actor. Thompson made some appearances on The Colbert Report as Winter Olympics correspondent Buddy Cole.
Foley and McKinney are by far the two big stars of the group. While they’ve found success aside from Kids, it’s what the five are able to do together that make things work.
There was a reunion tour across North America in 2000 and a one-off appearance during Just for Laughs 2007. Another tour took place in 2008 before a mini-series aired in 2010.
Paul Myers does his research and it shows thoroughly in The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy. The only thing that I don’t necessarily like is that it’s not written in the interview format that we tend to see in books falling under the oral history category. This is the only negative thing I have to say about the book.
