The Kids In The Hall: Comedy Punks (2022 | Canada | 95 minutes | Reg Harkema)
When I was young, The Kids In The Hall sketch comedy show felt like some kind of underground secret. Something that none of my friends or schoolmates knew about whose ridiculousness I could quote on queue like some big shot. Little did I know they’d been around in the Canadian comedy scene creating weird wonderful sketches for years before landing on my little television set. The Kids In The Hall: Comedy Punks brought all of that sassy schoolyard fun back but adds in the back stage frustrations, heartbreaks and growing pains of that amazing quintet of goons.
Starting in the rough and ready sketch comedy scene of Toronto where anything went, but the audience was tough, they came together in a seemingly random turn of events that would create arguably the best comedy troop of this century, if ever. While Saturday Night Live was making huge waves in America, Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson were crushing heads, breaking sexual stereotypes and the third wall all in the name of laughs. Bombing night after night on that stage they rarely cared as long as they made each other laugh, and that’s where their genius truly lies. They somehow created a following within the burgeoning arts scene on Queen Street and that’s where we find the group again, over thirty years later to tell us their story and reminisce about the heady days of celebrity and how much it hurts when you fall from the limelight.
This doc was more than a step back in time, it was a reminder of how precious it is to find four other people that help to complement and complete your art form so thoroughly, so instinctively, that you rarely question and always laugh. But what we didn’t know as fans was the strain full-time celebrity and a heavy shooting schedule was doing to these best friends. Life gets in the way, choices are made and keeping five people on the same page with so much on the line just isn’t sustainable. Families, new opportunities, cancellations and disheartening work created a perfect storm that threatened to rend them apart; and it did for many years.
The story of these friends, these collaborators and artists, was intriguing and heartbreaking but just about the time you wanted to stop watching for fear of hearing they’d never speak to each other again, things came together and they found their way back. I believe that life is a series of random, silly, incomprehensible events that can push us apart as well as pull us together and following along with this story reiterates that belief, but also conjures the idea that destiny can’t be all baloney. If you’re a fan, or even know one of their sketches this one is for you.
The Kids In The Hall: Comedy Punks premiered in person on March 15 and virtually on March 16 at SXSW Film 2022. Be sure to check out all the SXSW 2022 Sunbreak Coverage