Is There One Last Chance to Touch Paul Bellini?
Courtesy of Canada.com
Helping out the kids: Gemini-winning writer pitching ideas in Toronto
By Andrew Matte
National Post
January 22, 2000
He is famous not for how much he's been on TV, but rather, for how little. Toronto's Paul Bellini remains best known for his portrayal of himself during brief, sporadic appearances on the Kids in The Hall television show.
Wearing only a towel around his grand waist, he walked into scenes being performed by the regular cast members and glanced stone-faced into the camera before walking out of view.
"There are two poses," a towelled Bellini says, giving direction to a photographer. "There's this," he says, his right hand gripping the top part of his towel. "And then there's this," he says, letting his hand fall by his side.
"It was meant to be a sort of non sequitur, bizarre type of image. And it seemed to work -- there was really very little acting at all." The character was twice featured in two shows -- one season, one winning viewer in the Maritimes was picked to "touch" Mr. Bellini with a stick, and in another season, the winner won the prize of having lunch with him in the Ottawa airport.
The Bellini character was also the last image viewers saw in the last show ever in 1995. Wearing just a towel, he was seen walking on the Kids' grave before uttering his character's only words: "Thank God that's over with."
Today, however, Bellini, 40, has more noteworthy credits than being the Kids' cherubic towel boy. He won a Gemini writing sketches for the show. Working with the CBC comedy show This Hour has 22 Minutes, he has earned two more for writing and producing.
There were other accolades, including an Emmy nomination for Kids. As well, he co-wrote a book with pal and Kids member Scott Thompson. The book, Buddy Babylon: the Autobiography of Buddy Cole, is a first-person account of Thompson's wildly gay character, Buddy Cole. Most recently, he produced the first eight episodes of The Bette Show, a CBC sketch-comedy show with new episodes airing in February.
There are other projects -- he is mixing his second music CD which he recorded as a hobby and sells over his Web site.
As well, he is pitching his own comedy series, Paul Bellini's Living Room, a pseudo talk show that would see Bellini discuss important topics with famous people.
Bellini earns his living dabbling in a handful of freelance writing gigs and loves living in downtown Toronto. But he concedes he'd return to Halifax if he gets asked back to produce more episodes of The Bette Show.
These days, all of this "non-towel" work of little import to the legions of Kids in the Hall fans who are filling halls across North America to catch their reunion tour. Bellini is neither part of the tour nor a member of the troupe, and though he contributed to the TV show, he had no role in the stage performances that led to it.
But he'll be in the audience, probably on all three nights, just as he was when members of the troupe were honing their skills at the Rivoli club, and before Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels brought the troupe to television.
"When they were doing their live shows back in 1985, they were it. There was no troupe and there was no comedian in Toronto who even came close to what they were doing," he says.
Bellini videotaped most of the now-infamous performances. Admittedly, he was little more than a hanger-on in those pre-television days, but it led to his job as sometime writer and office assistant during the show's first season in 1989.
"They were so quick and they were so good on stage. They were willing to improvise. But at the same time they were so good with their written material.
"They were so spirited and so willing to bring the audience into what they were doing," he says. "And that was one of the most valuable lessons that I learned from them."
There is talk that Bellini might be asked to bring his towel and resurrect his deadpan character for one more performance.
"I'm going to go to the show and see the boys, some of whom I haven't seen in a long time. And if they ask me to do something, fine. And if they don't, then that's fine too."
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