‘The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks’ Review: Re-sketching the Career of Canada’s Comedy Finest
30.04.2022 - 20:35
/ variety.com
Dennis Harvey Film CriticViewers before them had first-generation “Saturday Night Live” and “SCTV.” But five Canadian lads turned out to be “kind of the only comedy group that reflected Gen X,” as fan Fred Armisen puts it in “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks.” Reg Harkema’s documentary is a breezy, worthy overview of a collective career now approaching its 40th anniversary.While best enjoyed by the already converted, it provides enough showbiz insight and interpersonal drama to entertain newbies. It will provide both camps with an appetizer for the Kids’ limited-run reboot of their original sketch series, which new episodes (featuring an array of name guest stars) launch May 13 on Amazon Prime, followed by this doc a week later (on May 20).
While all in their early twenties, Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch met in 1981 via a Calgary comedy-improv group, as did Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald in Toronto the next year. By 1984 the two units had heard enough about each other to meet up, then begin performing under the “Kids” name (borrowed from Jack Benny patter).
Their ranks were completed in ’85 by Scott Thompson, a drama student who’d “wanted to be James Dean” but quickly revised his goals after seeing the other four. “The moment they invited me in, I was never leaving,” he says in connective latterday interview sequences shot with the quintet in Toronto’s Rivoli club.It was there that they scored a residency, honing their act for paltry audiences over many months’ course.
Culling the best material accumulated for a streamlined show, they suddenly found every evening sold-out. A rave “Globe & Mail” review drew attention from an “SNL” talent scout.
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