Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall fame is in Ottawa this weekend to lead a one day workshop on writing sketches through improvisation. Participants will also have the opportunity to be on stage with Kevin later that night in front of a real live audience. Pretty amazing, eh? Organized by Crush Improv, the workshop is happening on Sunday, May 22 at 10am and there are still a few seats to fill. Click here for more info and to buy your ticket.
We caught up with Kevin earlier this week to discuss KITH and comedy today.
No one is the beginning of a movement. There is always someone who comes before you. Every great and bad artist is a different version of several influences.
On the Marc Maron podcast “WTF” you explained that you saw yourselves as punk rock comedy. Creating sketches like “faggo” or simply two men kissing on air. Could you describe the process of fighting for those scenes? Was the CBC attempting to censor any sketches?
We were very lucky in that we were on a time before political correctness was just starting and not so strong. Also we were on HBO in the States and they wanted us to be “punk” and “edgy”. CBC was also forgiving because they wanted to be in business with Lorne Michaels (our producer). So they let us get away with a lot. In fact, they invented two prime times for us. In those days, they showed the family shows from 7 to 9 pm. Then the National. And when that was over, they showed programs like ours and Larry Sanders – uncensored.
So there weren’t so many fights with the networks. Scott had the most fights because a lot of his stuff was overtly sexual. He would write a scene about being best friends with his sperm – the networks would say no. He would want the four of us to fight with him. We wouldn’t because we knew we’d lose and he would hate us for a week. Our big fight with HBO was for the scene, Suess Bible – where we crucify Jesus to Dr. Suess verse. They said no, we argued a little bit but lost.
Were you ever afraid of a sketches outcome?
We were never afraid of a sketch’s outcome. We did the sketch because it was funny. No other reason. We would re-write it, change it in rehearsal and sometimes even add stuff when we shot it. When it was done, we moved to the next sketch. We were kind of callous. If people were offended by the sketch, we would be surprised. We just thought it was funny. We never did anything just to be shocking. If it shocked people that was fine – as long as it was funny.
What are your opinions of the current comedy shows being produced by Canadian television? Is there anyone who is currently pushing the envelope?
If I ever get time to watch TV these days, it’s usually sports. Sportscentre is the closest thing to a Canadian sketch show that I watch. But if a comedy show is on CBC, I usually find it playing to a different audience than one that defines my tastes. I used to say that CBC was for my parents. Now I’m that age but my tastes haven’t changed. I’ll be 86 still listening to Nirvana’s Never Mind. but – as I say – there are a lot of shows I haven’t seen. I used to like the John Dore show very much.
On the WTF podcast you mention looking up to the Sex Pistols, were there any comedic voices at the time guiding your creative choices? Or was Kids in the Hall the beginning of a movement?
No one is the beginning of a movement. There is always someone who comes before you. Every great and bad artist is a different version of several influences. When you’re young, you start off performing like your heroes because that’s all you know. As you perform more and more, you find your own voice a little bit. When I was a kid in the 70s, I loved Monty Python, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Woody Allen, Gene Wilder, Albert Brooks, SCTV, Ernie Kovacks, The Marx Borthers, Buster Keaton and many, many more.
Do you think shows such as Four on the Floor and Codco were influenced by Kids in the Hall?
The Frantics came before us. In fact when we Kids in the Hall were teenagers, we used to go watch their CBC radio tapings – dreaming of having our own show, one day. We liked them – especially Dan Redican. Codco came together, long before us and influenced us very much. They were brilliant. They did things, no other troupe would ever think of. In our last year, we hired one of them – Andy Jones – as a writer just so he could be with us every day and so we could hear him speak and say brilliant things.
Shockingly, Kids in the Hall did not have writers, which created moments of desperation to write new sketches. Some artist avoid the feeling of desperation because it it uncomfortable but do you think this desperation forces artists to rise to the occasion?
By season three, we did have writers. But they were people (except for Andy Jones) who used to be in our troupe but quit, before we had a TV show. They were brilliant and really contributed – but the 5 of us, all kept writing the same amount of sketches as we did before – we just had a lot more material to choose from. Now-a-days when we write new sketches for our touring shows or miniseries’, it’s just the five of us again.
Did the sketches have an underlying goal? And did this goal change over time?
We never talked about a goal. We never had a spoken mission statement. But there was something there that was unspoken. The five of us clicked like we did because we all share the same piece of brain – that makes a group of people all laugh at the same thing. We just had the same sense of humour. At the beginning of our time together, there were around 10 of us. And we were all funny. But when people quit and just left the five of us – that’s when we clicked.
We weren’t better than the other five, it was just that our chemistry was the best. We think the same things are funny. We get angry and happy at the same things. We get jealous and possessive of the same things. We all came from the suburbs. We all had bad dads who drank a lot. When we all saw Saturday Night Live for the first time as kids , we all got excited. When you mix all that together, you get as close to a common goal among as the five of us as you will ever get.
Kevin McDonald will be performing at Arts Court with Crush Improv on Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 8pm. Tickets are $15-$40 and available online.
