Published: April 30, 2008 04:24 pm      

COMEDY: The Kids in the Hall come to the Falls

They haven’t been children for years, but the members of the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe still get a kick out of acting like them.

Their popular Toronto-based TV series has been off the air for some 14 years, but the characters brought to life on screen never died. Fans have enjoyed the antics of Buddy Cole, “Headcrusher” Mr. Tyzik and other created beings ever since “Hall” ceased production in 1994.

The group reunited for a tour in 2000 featuring the show’s greatest sketches, but the challenge of writing new material remained. The five group members did new skits at last year’s Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, but the recently ended writers strike offered a better opportunity to be creative.

“We were all free again, which is something I figured would never happen again,” troupe member Mark McKinney said during a recent phone interview. “(Writing for old characters) was literally like riding a bike, like nothing had changed.”

The result is a roughly 90-minute show that will stop Friday night in Niagara Falls. About 85 percent of this show is new material, McKinney said, with a combination of new sketches being created for old characters and entirely new material.

With the strike forcing a prolonged work stoppage, the troupe members figured the time was right to return to the road. Despite the short notice in organizing the tour, McKinney said the show has been well-received to date.

“It’s been really great. The crowds are enthusiastic,” he said during a bus ride from stops in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Pennsylvania via Chicago.

“Hall” was created in 1988 and produced out of Toronto. Local viewers could watch the program on CBC, but the show was offered for national release courtesy of HBO, which aired episodes a year after they were broadcast in Canada with some minor edits.

The group disbanded in 1994, after which time they collaborated on the movie “Brain Candy” before members went their separate ways. McKinney, who joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” after the break-up, said the reason was simple.

“We had a meeting and took a vote to see who wanted to keep doing sketch comedy ... I was the only one with my hand up,” he said. “I wanted to do everything, but a lot of people felt it was either (working on a) movie or another year of television.”

McKinney and some of his troupemates ended up doing film roles and guest TV spots over the years before a reunion tour in 2000.

That tour was followed by another series of gigs in 2002, after which time the group didn’t collaborate much until brainstorming the Montreal show 18 months ago.

Despite their Canadian origins — all five troupe members hail from the Great White North — McKinney finds U.S. audiences to be just as receptive.

“In the states, there are some towns that are particularly over-the-top enthusiastic,” he said, citing Minneapolis, Madison, Wisc., and several Texas towns as examples. “It’s really trans-border. It doesn’t really change that much.”

McKinney is thankful that fans have welcomed the Kids back, a phenomenon he attributes to the strength of the material as well as the throwback factor. A huge Monty Python fan, he can relate to fans’ appreciation of what the Kids do.

“We were lucky that it was the kind of show that bonds people together. A lot of people have come up to me and said, ‘We used to get together every week in college and watch.’ It was sort of like a social event,” he said. “I know I organized my day and week to watch ‘Monty Python’ and would do anything (for a ticket) if they ever toured again.”

The tour wraps up in June in Ontario, after which time troupe members will evaluate what to do next. He’s not certain what might come next — perhaps a movie or television special — but McKinney is confident the group’s collaboration will continue.

In the meantime, local Kids fans can look forward to the double-treat of seeing favorite characters in new situations.

“What the Kids in the Hall offers as part of my artistic is really unique,” he said. “We’ve grown to appreciate what specifically the Kids in the Hall is for us.

“It just kind of works, whatever kind of dynamic the five of us have. We still like doing the same weird, silly stuff.”