By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 5, 1991
The Kids in the Hall are comedy’s answer to matinee idols.
In their native Canada, the young, smart and cute Kids attract groupies who would look at home at a Winger rock concert.
“I think that if it weren’t for the fact that we were onstage, most of us would be considered dorky,” said comedian Dave Foley, a 28-year-old Kid. “Until I was 19, I looked like one of those cute little boys who looked like cute little girls.”
The Kids in the Hall are scheduled to perform at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage. Tickets, $15, are available at Ticketmaster outlets (559-1212). The other Kids are Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson.
With their clean-cut looks and a satirical sense of humor, the Kids act out odd sketches that add surreal twists to ordinary situations. The comic quintet has a repertory that includes a skit about a group of men sharing fond memories of a deceased friend (whom they recently bludgeoned to death) and another about a smug stud whose leafy cabbage head is his excuse to win sympathy dates with women.
Foley said some critics have compared the Kids’ twisted skits to the strange humor of Britain’s Monty Python troupe.
“Being compared to Monty Python is like a pop band being compared to the Beatles,” Foley said last week, during a phone call from a San Francisco hotel. (He had turned down the volume of his TV set, but Daffy Duck’s familiar lisp still could be heard.) “I do think that our comedy is darker than most American comics’, but it’s not intentional. Things that shock some people come easily to us.
“In the beginning of our career, we were accused of being elitist with our material. That’s so ironic, because our mental capacities actually are in the lower percentile. If we understand it, then rest assured that a 14-year-old will get it.”
Named for a group of struggling writers who waited outside Jack Benny’s radio studio, hoping to sell jokes to the comedian, the eight-year-old company soon will begin a third season of “The Kids in the Hall,” a cable series on the HBO channel.
“I was the product of a hippie family and went to an alternative high school, so my parents didn’t try to hide the seamier side of life from me,” Foley said, laughing. “I had long hair, patched jeans and that whole ’60s look 10 years before it became chic. And as teens, my friends and I listened to a combination of ’60s music and punk rock. I didn’t think I was that weird. But looking back on it, evidently I was.”
