Aug152007

Kids In The Hall - A Belated Just For Laughs Update

Filed Under Sketch Comedy

When you’re at comedy festival and seeing a lot of shows - sometimes three a day - you miss talking about a couple that were exceptional. I feel a little negligent that I didn’t talk about the Kids in the Hall Just for Laughs reunion show the next day. I’m making up for it now.

The material was all brand new - 90 minutes worth. Most of it was fantastic, showing their instincts to be as sharp as ever. My particular favorites were the following:

• Dave Foley getting recognized by a fan (Scott Thompson) on the subway - which leads to a surprising joke about the late Phil Hartman.
• Foley and Kevin MacDonald arguing over who their imaginary girlfriend loves the most.
• Kevin MacDonald vamping with a song that’s only 3/4ths written, including a missing guitar solo.
• Mark McKinney and Bruce McCullough as a husband and wife seemingly oblivious to their horrifically evil baby and their chosen godparents’ attempts to escape caring for the child. (BM: “But you do crack socially.” MM: “You’re trying to be responsible. That’s why we chose you.")

But obviously, recurring characters are something fans like to see. Scott Thompson didn’t disappoint with a fantastic Buddy Cole monologue about Jesus Christ being gay, stating that Christ “wanders with twelve other men, drinking wine and washing each other’s feet. I went to a party like this.” But a highlight was definitely the encore, which brought back the Headcrusher character to decimate the cast for their post-KitH career choices. With the amount of cell phone cameras that went up soon after the character introduced himself, I knew it would make its way to YouTube. Here it is:

Though the Kids are talking of doing another tour, let’s assume that this is the end of the line for the Headcrusher bit. Yesterday, a DVD came out of the KitH Pilot Episode - “Headcrusher” edition. Featuring the original Headcrusher sketches, it’ll serve as a nice backwards bookend to the live show bits I’ve embedded above. (The less said about the rap remix on the promotional site for the DVD, the better)

Posted by Todd Jackson at 05:41 PM | Send to Friend
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