Time Out New York article continued....

For all of their envelope pushing, most of the Kids claim no political motives. "We didn't have any agenda other than to make each other laugh," says Foley. But Thompson disagrees: "I did. I came out in '84, and I was a Kid in the Hall a year later. My goal was to make being gay something that would make kids go,"hey, it's cool." As Buddy Cole, he delivered monologues about gay sex and culture ("Really, such a fuss over a few extra s-es"). Guided by his up-front style, the Kids demilitarized the homosexual comedy zone-though to this day, Thompson gripes about being known as "the gay one".
  Thompson isn't the only one who's been singled out. After seeing the group in Rivoli in 1984, Lorne Michaels was so impressed that he asked McKinney and McCulloch to come to New York to write for Saturday Night Live. "We thought maybe the group was going to split up, which was kind of scary," remembers Mcdonald. But the kids didn't disband. Mcdonald, Foley, and Thompson got jobs with SCTV's touring company, and whenever they had a week off, McCulloch and McKinney flew back to Toronto to do shows with the guys.
  After the 1985-86 SNL season ended, Michaels returned to Canada to see the Kids perform again. He had thoughts of giving them their own show. The guys endured a couple years of Michael's television "boot camp" (honing their performance skills, rewriting skits) and The Kids in the Hall premiered on HBO in 1989. After a three season run, the show moved to CBS, where it occupied a late-Saturday night slot until 1995. Thanks to characters like Mckinney's Head Crusher, and half-breed chicken lady, and McCulloch's lecherous Cabbage Head, the Kids in the Hall soon became a cult hit.
  For the guys, the transition from stage to small screen wasn't difficult, but it did change the way they wrote sketches. In their days at the Rivoli, they had created scenes as a team. The Lorne Michaels method-which more often split them up to write in seperate rooms-fostered the troupe's best comedy yet. But since a limited number of skits made it onto each show, it also fostered intense competition. As McKinney recalls, "We still wrote collaboratively. And what's the opposite of collaborative, when you want the other person to die? We wrote that way, too."
  Stories of the group's fractious work style started to show up as magazine gossip. "People used to say, 'Oh my God, they're breaking up!' because they'd <read about> some dressing-room fight over the ending of a sketch." McKinney explains. "But to us it was just business as usual." Each Kids tells the same tale: They fought fiercely, but appreciated each other like family. "We were mean. But no one really minded," says Foley. Still, it was his departure from the group to star in Newsradio and his subsequent lack of involvement in writing their feature film Brain Candy that prefaced stories about bad blood and an imminent breakup.
  Maybe it was time to split anyway. In the beginning, recalls Foley, the guys had made a bargain: If the TV show ran 5 years, they'd quit. And the truth is, the writing and filming of Brain Candy (which ultimately tanked) was fraught with infighting. "It wasn't just Dave leaving," confides Thompson, whose brother committed suicide days before filming started. "We decided to write that movie right after we put the show to bed. We were exhausted; our relationships were coming to a boiling point. Dave was being swept away to be a sitcom star, and everything just started falling apart. Maybe everyone isn't as dramatic as I am-and there's no maybe there-but that's how I see it." The guys were tired, and they needed a rest. At that point, no one knew how long that rest-from each other- would be.
  Four years proved long enough. Late last summer, the Kids met to discuss reuniting for a tour (but don't call it a comeback, instructs McKinney). "We had a few meetings before we all said yes,"Mcdonald recalls. Over Labor Day weekend, they started writing new sketches and selecting old ones to revive. "It was great to look into the heart of these guys," gushes lawyer/tour manager Himelfarb. "They were happy, they were into it, they were laughing. That's all they did for three says--they laughed." Luckily, their time working individually hadn't interfered with the group vibe. Foley deadpans, "It hasn't affected our dynamic at all--at least that I'm aware of. I know my backstabbing is the same as it always was. I can only guess about the other guys."
  Whatever madness goes on behind the scenes, the Kids' method has produced nearly two decades of groundbreaking comedy. And with this long-awaited tour, fans are wondering: Might the Kids be back for good? As one of the groups best creations, Billy Dreamer (see Hall of Fame-click here), might say: Be happy about little things. Apart from a television-airing of one of their performances, a possible tour documentary and a pledge to at least think about another movie, the guys don't have a lot of promise. Embarking on this tour is like being on-stage at the beginning of an in-the-Hall improv bit--they know it'll be full of laughs, but it's anyone's guess where the thing is going to lead.

TIME OUT NEW YORK first page of article....