Kids say the darndest things

Mark McKinney

Time Out New York: Have you been keeping a notebook? Did you have old ideas to pull from?
Mark: It kind of happened organically; I was quite busy at the time, so I didn’t have a lot of new stuff to pull out, but I brought a good mood, and you know, Bruce had a few pieces that he submitted and the rest just kind of evolved organically.

TONY: Did it feel different this time around?
Mark: I don’t see any discernable difference—except maybe a small increment in discipline on my part. The way we write is a dynamic of the function of the personalities in the troupe. Whoever happens to be lingering near the coffee machine when two people get an idea…it’s that kind of, it’s serendipitous.

TONY: Have the ideas that you’re attracted to as a group changed?
Mark: I don’t know if we’ve gotten weightier as we’ve grown up…maybe our POV is slightly wider, but I think there’s the same combination of silly and strange in what we do—if there is a collective taste.

TONY: I heard that Kathie and Cathy are coming back too, is that right?
Mark: Yes, there’s an up-to-the-minute scene with Kathie and Cathy.

TONY: “Up-to-the-minute”?
Mark: Well, there’s an aspect of the subject matter in that scene that’s kind of current, let’s just say.

TONY: What are some of your favorite things about live performance versus the TV show?
Mark: There’s something about the dare of stepping out onstage and trying to make a character or a story work in front of people in real time. It’s a unique kind of thrill. The TV show was fun, and a lot of work, and a lot of that was live as well, but I like doing live without the cameras in the way.

TONY: I’m interested in the fact that y’all are coming back to sketch after careers in other media. Is sketch an end in itself?
Mark: Yeah. It’s like haiku for novelists. It’s not as long as [film or sitcoms] and it might not have the breadth, but it can capture a lot. I have faith in sketches to be really rich. And that’s our tradition from the beginning: that we shouldn’t be limited, that we should pack them with as much as possible. You can talk about pretty much anything; you can do any style of acting, almost any style of writing; you can do a scene that’s very close to the bone and personal, and then do something in flippers, goggles and a smoke hat.

TONY: Do you think we’re currently in a sketch renaissance?
Mark: Very much so. It feels like what happened in Toronto just after we got on TV—or maybe just after we left TV—which is, the clubs were suddenly packed with groups identifiable by their name. Rather then waiting till they got to television or the industry pipeline, people started looking at sketch comedy as a way to be individuals, to be like bands. On a grassroots level, the Internet opened up a lot of doors. Now you have Human Giant and the Whitest Kids U’ Know and stuff like that. It’s good that sketch comedians don’t wait around to get hired to show their stuff.

TONY: What do you think about those two that you just named, have you seen them?
Mark: Yeah, yeah. I think they’re both really great.

TONY: That’s good to hear. So how much of what is Kids in the Hall comes from the group mind? From things that none of you could have achieved on your own?
Mark: Sometimes big chunks. And there’s a certain flavor that comes out in pieces like that. There’s one we did a long time ago in the TV show called “Joymakers.” I play this character who’s trying to organize an office party and it really gets silly—because that becomes the currency of working on something like that. It’s like, Who can bring in something that’s silly that pushes the story along? I would have to say that some of the sillier, longer pieces are the hallmark of a collective creation.

TONY: What’s in your rider?
Mark: Fresh fruit, almonds and where’s the local swimming pool.

TONY: Really?
Mark: Yep.

TONY: Who’s the most difficult to tour with?
Mark: Kevin

TONY: Why?
Mark: Finicky.

TONY: Okay, and what’s your favorite character that you’ve played?
Mark: Darryl. It was easy to become him. And his character irritates people—that’s a fun thing to do.

NEXT: Kevin McDonald»