Kids in the Hall will reunite for the road
North American tour kicks off April 23, with Ottawa show May 24
The Kids are back. The Kids in the Hall, this country’s groundbreaking gift to surreal sketchdom, are set to tour North America.
The comedy troupe kicks off its North American tour on April 23 with four shows in Toronto, with others Canadian shows in Calgary (May 18), Edmonton (May 19), Vancouver (May 20) Montreal (May 23) and Ottawa (May 24)
This tour will also mark the first time the Kids have come together since bringing their eight-part miniseries, Death Comes to Town, to the tube in 2010.
And, yes, all five originals will be on hand for this tour: Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Though each one of them has achieved success as a solo artist on stage and/or screen, the Kids, unlike other ensembles, have few qualms about getting back together. Likely because they have little difficulty grinding out yet more edgy material.
Though the Kids first hooked up in 1984, their careers really took off in the late 1980s, when Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, a noted judge of talent (and fellow Canadian), saw their TV potential. Their TV show, which initially ran from 1988 to 1995, was a smash on both sides of the border. The Kids also collaborated on the 1996 movie Brain Candy.
Montreal’s Just for Laughs comedy festival appears to be following the example of the Montreal International Jazz Festival by bringing in shows year-round, instead of packaging them all in July.
The laugh-fest is now behind some major off-season shows. Before the Kids in the Hall spectacle, Russell Peters, Canada’s premier comedy export, performs in Montreal as part of his Almost Famous World Tour on Monday, May 11.