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Canwest News Service
In 1989, a sketch-comedy program burst onto North American TV screens that launched the careers of five young Canadian comics, becoming one of the most successful such shows in pop-culture history. That show was Kids in the Hall.
Consisting of Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson, Kids’ last episode aired in Canada in 1994, and the following year in the U.S. Since then, the troupe has reunited three times, including for a major tour of more than 40 North American cities in 2008.
Kids fans rejoice: They’re together again – this time, with Death Comes to Town, an eight-part “comic murder mystery” set in the fictional town of Shuckton (filmed in North Bay, Ont.), starting Jan. 12 on CBC. McCulloch is executive producer, and the show is his brainchild. He recently spoke with Canwest News Service about wearing a fat suit, the appeal of Death as a character, and how the Kids are all grown up.
Q: What’s your new show all about?
A: The backdrop is a small, weird Canadian town. Death gets off a Greyhound bus in the beginning, and we meet a bunch of characters, and it evolves into a murder mystery. Everybody’s pulled into the mystery, and it’s essentially a soft whodunnit – not that I’m Agatha Christie. It’s us doing multiple characters and multiple stories, and sort of playing the beats of a trial: a defendant and subplots of the attorneys, etc.
Q: Can you describe some of the characters, including yours?
A: Most important (laughs), I play a 600-pound, housebound, shamed hockey player whose best friend is an old pizza-delivery woman with Alzheimers called Marnie, who’s played by Kevin McDonald. And probably the biggest role Dave (Foley) does is he plays the mayor’s wife, who’s a boozy, drunk-driving force of nature. And Scott (Thompson), he plays the local town criminal who’s charged with murder, and also (plays) the town coroner, who’s always been in love with the person who’s murdered in the first episode.
Q: What’s it like wearing a fat suit?
A: It was like being stuck in a cage that is my body. It was less fun that you can even imagine. At the end of the day, I would just take it off, and my shaky hand would reach for a beer.
Q: How did the locals in North Bay react?
**** A: They were pretty great. It wasn’t like they’d line up to get autographs, or anything; they were just really friendly. They were going: `Glad you guys are here! Hope you’re having a good time!’ We shot Death driving around on his little motorized Mustang bike and his scythe hanging off the back of it – we must have shot three days of that s—. They never really said, `Why is Death driving around in cold weather in a little codpiece?’ They just kind of took it in stride, so it was good people.
Q: What makes Death an appealing character to work with?
A: He’s all we ever think about, first of all. He’s iconic, and for me, it was to do our version of that. . . . Death is just a great propulsive force. For me, it was also interesting to render him as kind of a weird Willy Loman (from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman) – that he’s hanging out in the motel rooms between jobs and killing time.
**** Q: You have said CBC gave you free rein to do your thing, including your “slightly juvenile need to attack any taboo that is generally considered untouchable.” Will there be anything along the lines of your recently created skit, Car F—ers, and do you think any of the material will make it past U.S. censors – assuming the show is eventually bought by a U.S. network, as well?
A: Car F—ers is for the Internet (laughs) so there’s nothing like that. Certainly, CBC lives somewhere closer to a cable network in the States. We’ve had a couple of things they’ve questioned, but, essentially, we’re getting to do all we want. But we’re not out to bust down walls – we’re practically 50! But I think some of it is pretty wild, I suppose.
Q: For instance?
A: It’s for other people to say what they think is wild. I suppose there’s some sexual content – there’s all kinds of content.
Q: Any taboos you think might set off some viewers?
**** A: I don’t want to say, ’cause then they’ll come get me. (Laughs.) I guess I kind of know what people would shy away from, but no, it’s certainly not Car F—ers landscape, and it’s not dirty in that way, and it’s not a bunch of swearing and all that.
We will sell this in America, but it certainly won’t be on network (TV) in America; it will be on cable. I know what American TV is like, and it wouldn’t work for us on network TV.
Q: How would you say Death Comes to Town differs from Kids in the Hall?
A: I don’t think the humour differs at all: What makes us laugh, makes us laugh. Obviously, our faces and bodies are older; we don’t play 20-year-olds; we play the mayor’s boozy wife and Mark plays a woman in her 40s who’s down to her last egg and has to decide whether to have a baby or not. And maybe my interest in a woman being down to her last egg, I wouldn’t have been that interested in it 10 years ago – or maybe I would have.
Q: What was the appeal of a narrative structure versus a sketch show?
A: We’ve done a sketch show, and we’ve done a lot of sketches, and we’ve kept the troupe alive over the last 10 years by doing sketch tours, and it was good to do something different. I’ve been working a lot in storytelling, 22- minute television, so it seemed fun to do, and once we started having a murder mystery and a whodunnit, then it just made it more interesting for us.
12. Q: Seeing that you’re the executive producer and the brains behind the show, was it more work that fun for you?
A: It’s always more work than fun for me, but that’s the fun for me. (Laughs. ) I’ve always been the guy who’s in the editing room late, or worrying about the graphics, so it’s just par for the course, and it’s a different phase of the troupe. Scott once joked, `You get to do all the work!’ I GET to do all the work? I’m at sound mixes and I’m at all the stuff that’s kind of tedious and kind of fun. When you’ve created something you really like, it’s worthwhile.
Q: How has your working dynamic changed in the intervening years?
A: In terms of us working together, I think that we’re better friends now. When the troupe started, we were in our `young man’s burst,’ as it were. We were really tied to each other, like, my future was tied to Scott’s, or whatever, and now, we’re only doing it because we want to; it’s not like our livelihoods are tied together, or our schedules are. We only did this because we wanted to, and because of that, we appreciate each other more and we’re kinder to each other.
Q: Do you argue about who gets what role, or what’s funny and what isn’t?
A: We always argue, but we used to have drag-out fights that can be counter- productive. I think now we all recognize that everybody should get as much as they can, because that’s the way the troupe functions the best. The show came out of our last tour, where it was like, `It’s fun to be together.’ When I’m pitching a show to ABC, it’s not as much fun as being on a tour bus in Madison, Wisconsin, with the guys. And you don’t know that till now, at this phase in your life.
Q: Are you happier now than you were more than 20 years ago?
A: Oh, mostly. Time is hard on people and it gives them wisdom and problems. (Laughs.) This has been very enjoyable, and our reasons for doing it are more spiritual, probably, than economic and ego.
Q: What projects have you been busy with since the Kids in the Hall show, and what’s coming up?
A: I had a show on ABC for 13 episodes that got pre-empted by the strike, called Carpoolers. And I’ve been doing a lot of writing for studios, done a lot of pilots and producing things. I’ve directed four films, but I’ve mostly enjoyed being in television over the last few years, and I’ll do another TV show after this.
