Kids in the Hall in a Movie
Courtesy of GWI
Kevin McDonald Interview
by Stephanie F. Wishnick
One might wonder if the stars of television's Kids in the Hall are as wacky off screen as they are on. Kevin McDonald answered this question in a recent interview with GWI. McDonald stars in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the popular television show.
GWI: So are you guys coming out with a movie soon?
McDonald: Yes we are. Kids in the Hall Brain Candy. There's no semicolon, just Kids in the Hall Brain Candy.
GWI: Is the movie in sketch form or is there one grand plot?
McDonald: There is a plot, a story that we follow. It's sort of like the [Monty] Python movies, like Life of Brian ... though it doesn't take place in medieval times, it takes place nowadays. But there's one guy, me, I guess. I sorta play one main character and the other four guys play a lot of characters, and I meet them in my story.
GWI: So will we see any famous recurring Kids in the Hall characters in this movie?
McDonald: No. Well yeah, some. Like the cops are in it and a guy that Scott [Thompson] played, "Raj," a club kid, he's in it. But not a lot of the famous ones because they just didn't fit into the story. There was no way you could squeeze the Chicken Lady in. We tried.
GWI: No "Gavin" in this movie?
McDonald: No, we thought about that, but then we thought, no, a 30-year-old guy playing a kid on the big screen just wouldn't work.
GWI: Now that Kids in the Hall is off the air, do you still keep in touch with your former co-stars?
McDonald: Oh yeah, we're still together. We were together the last year and a half, two years on this movie. Took us a long time to write it. We've been together a long time, so yeah, we're stuck with each other.
GWI: Forever and ever, eh?
McDonald: Except for David [Foley]. Dave is pretty busy doing News Radio. But the four of us are pretty stuck together.
GWI: Any hope for Kids in the Hall coming back on the air?
McDonald: No, no, we're done with that turkey. Five years ... five long years and we just - nah it's not a turkey; we love it. We were afraid of running out of ideas. We were really proud of it, and we wanted to pull a Mary Tyler Moore and quit while we were still ahead and the quality was still good. And it was time to do a movie too, so it just made a lot of sense.
GWI: Do you have any projects coming up besides the Kids in the Hall movie?
McDonald: Yes, yes, I have been writing a movie and I'm almost finished, and now I am going to try to see it to a studio and get it done. I've been turning down some TV show things 'cause I want to concentrate on ¬ well, I want to write my own movies and stuff. I want to have some control. So I turned down some TV things. Aaahh! I don't care! Even if one of them was a hit! I don't care! Doesn't bug me!
GWI: So you were supposed to be on News Radio ¬ is that what you are saying?
McDonald: Yes! Why yes! It was supposed to be me, and I gave it to Dave on a silver platter!
GWI: Do you have a favorite Kids in the Hall sketch?
McDonald: I have a favorite ... I have several favorites. Yesterday when everybody asked me my favorite, I was kind and said the favorite of other guys, but can I say favorite of mine?
GWI: Sure.
McDonald: The favorite that I was in was "King of Empty Promises" we called it. And that's the one-
GWI: With the guy who says, "Slipped my mind"?
McDonald: Yes. It's sort of based on me because I would go around the office promising editors and other guys on the show, "Oh yeah, I'll get you that thing. Don't worry, will do!" and the next day, "Oh sorry, sorry, slipped my mind."
GWI: Are a lot of sketches based on private jokes around the office?
McDonald: Yeah, a fair portion of them are, and even if they aren't, there's always private jokes within the scenes. There's one thing where ... I just came into the end of the scene playing a woman and they called my Lacey 'cause my girlfriend, whose last name was Lacey, just left me. It's full of things like that.
GWI: So that's why it's kind of disjointed?
McDonald: Yeah, and the rock group we play in Armada is sort of based on what we were like when we were first starting out, practicing in people's basement[s] and stuff. And like I always said before, we were supposed to be in rehearsal, I'd say, "Come [to the rehearsal] having eaten," and the other guys never would. I was the only guy that would have lunch before we'd get there, and then we'd have to go and have lunch, so I always got mad ... and lots of other things like that.
GWI: OK, thanks a lot.
McDonald: Thank you.
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