Spring Break
The Daily OrangeQ & A with "Kids in the Hall's" Kevin McDonald
By Andrew Parks
Posted: 3/28/02, 12:38 AM EST Section: Feature
Kevin McDonald is going out of his mind, and with good reason. The wiry member of the “Kids in the Hall” is in the midst of rehearsals for the comedy troupe's first tour in two years — tense rehearsals that began just a week ago.
The pressure of assembling a new show might not seem like much to worry about for a group that has performed together off and on for more than 10 years, but this tour leaves little time for preparation. The 32-stop, nationwide "Tour Of Duty" trek starts in just two days.
While speaking by phone from a sealed-off rehearsal space in Toronto, McDonald sounds like he is either doped up on caffeine or overcome with shaken nerves. Words roll off his tongue like water and his tone constantly shifts from tranquil to urgent, while a clock ticks away the minutes until he has to return to rehearsal again. Hopefully he enjoyed that sparse 10-minute lunch break before he jumped on the line.
The Kids (McDonald, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson and Bruce McCullough) formed in Toronto in the 1980s. They spent years honing their skills in the Canadian comedy club scene before "Saturday Night Live" producer/creator Lorne Michaels signed them to a television deal that would introduce their groundbreaking sketch comedy to the masses on HBO and the Canadian network CBC. The show ran from 1989 -1994 and is currently in syndication rotation on Comedy Central. Our brief but punchy conversation on Tuesday unfolded something like this:
So you're pretty busy, huh? I was told you just started rehearsing last week.
Yeah, we started last Wednesday. And today (pauses)…is Tuesday. And the first show is Thursday.
And you think you are going to be ready?
Well, we somehow will be. It doesn't seem like it's possible, but we will be. As of right now, if you would ask any one of us, we would say no. But I'll say yes because I don't want to scare the people coming to the show. We will get it together. We always get it together somehow.
The pressure of assembling a new show might not seem like much to worry about for a group that has performed together off and on for more than 10 years, but this tour leaves little time for preparation. The 32-stop, nationwide "Tour Of Duty" trek starts in just two days.
While speaking by phone from a sealed-off rehearsal space in Toronto, McDonald sounds like he is either doped up on caffeine or overcome with shaken nerves. Words roll off his tongue like water and his tone constantly shifts from tranquil to urgent, while a clock ticks away the minutes until he has to return to rehearsal again. Hopefully he enjoyed that sparse 10-minute lunch break before he jumped on the line.
The Kids (McDonald, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson and Bruce McCullough) formed in Toronto in the 1980s. They spent years honing their skills in the Canadian comedy club scene before "Saturday Night Live" producer/creator Lorne Michaels signed them to a television deal that would introduce their groundbreaking sketch comedy to the masses on HBO and the Canadian network CBC. The show ran from 1989 -1994 and is currently in syndication rotation on Comedy Central. Our brief but punchy conversation on Tuesday unfolded something like this:
So you're pretty busy, huh? I was told you just started rehearsing last week.
Yeah, we started last Wednesday. And today (pauses)…is Tuesday. And the first show is Thursday.
And you think you are going to be ready?
Well, we somehow will be. It doesn't seem like it's possible, but we will be. As of right now, if you would ask any one of us, we would say no. But I'll say yes because I don't want to scare the people coming to the show. We will get it together. We always get it together somehow.
