IPOD
RADIO
Dave Foley
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Nov 30, 2006
I finally got a chance to talk with Dave Foley and I just couldn’t resist the chance to ask him what his favorite episodes were from both The Kids in the Hall TV show and Newsradio. Those are just two of the best comedies, in any medium, ever created. But Foley was most excited to talk about the new play he’s co-directed called The Tribute.
Check out the official site for The Tribute
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you get involved with The Tribute?
Dave Foley: Well, my wife is one of the cast members and writers. She and three of her friends were doing some vocals in the studio and they were just all enjoying singing together. Then they decided that they should try to put a show together to give them the opportunity to sing. First they were just going to put together a cabaret review and then they started trying to get a narrative to hold it all together. They did a first draft and after that I came in and helped them rewrite it and then they asked me to direct.
DRE:
Have you ever directed a play?
Dave:
I’ve never directed anybody else for a live performance. I’ve directed for TV and film but never a play.
DRE:
How did you like it?
Dave:
I liked it. It was a lot like directing a sitcom, in that you’re going with a live performance but I didn’t have to worry about cameras, which was nice. It was really quite exciting. It was actually one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time because for one thing I wasn’t in it, which was nice. It was a show that I couldn’t be in because it had a lot of really great singing in it.
DRE:
Oh. You can’t sing?
Dave:
Not like these women can sing. They’re all great singers and I can get by if I really practice.
DRE:
How did it get to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater?
Dave:
Someone from the theater called and asked if we would take the show there and do it. I guess somebody from there had seen it when we did it in LA.
DRE:
Is there a plan to try and get it to bigger venues or are you keeping it in smaller places?
Dave:
We’re still working on it as we go along. Right now the show is using existing songs like Baz Luhrmann did in Moulin Rouge where he used existing songs to create a musical. We’re looking at gradually replacing all the songs with originals. Then we want to do longer runs at a bigger venue.
DRE:
Is narrative theater something that you want to keep doing?
Dave:
Maybe, this has been fun. I’ve been asked to direct before but I’ve always said no but now that I’ve done it for this show, maybe I would do it again.
DRE:
Do you keep up with a lot of new comedy?
Dave:
I keep in touch with the alternative comedy scene in LA mostly through Largo down on Fairfax. But is there any sketch comedy on TV now?
DRE:
I don’ think there’s anything new. But is that the kind of thing that you usually watch on television?
Dave:
I do check it out. I actually produced a pilot for an English group called The Hollow Men. It ran for a season on Comedy Central.
DRE:
Had you seen The Hollow Men when you over there?
Dave:
They were in town for the Aspen Comedy Festival and they got a deal with Comedy Central. Comedy Central asked to come see a showcase they were doing and to think about producing the pilot.
DRE:
Do people ask you to do that kind of thing a lot?
Dave:
I wouldn’t say a lot but sometimes and that was one where it seemed like it would be a fun gig. I thought they were funny and different from what the Kids in the Hall were.
DRE:
Do you do often do a pilot around pilot season?
Dave:
Yeah, I’ve done several over the last several years.
DRE:
When I interviewed Bruce McCulloch, I asked him why I don’t see the other kids in as much stuff. He said, “The other Kids do a pilot almost every year.”
Dave:
Yeah, if they don’t get picked up you don’t see them. I was lucky the first time out. The first pilot I did ran for five years.
DRE:
I saw you on Lovespring International. I like that show. How was it getting out there and doing improv again?
Dave:
Well it was fun. I did that because my friend Brad Isaacs was producing the show and he used to be one of the producers on Newsradio. They have a great ensemble cast and in the episode I was in we had like 112 guest performers. It was a huge group of improvisers. It was a lot of fun just to spend the day improvising based on direction from the show’s director. Everybody there is such a good improviser. Jane Lynch is amazing.
DRE:
There’s so much improv in the mainstream media now, would you want to get involved in improv for movies or television?
Dave:
Maybe. For years I thought that might be a fun thing for The Kids in the Hall to do as a film. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it. In fact, there might be so much of that now so we probably wouldn’t do it anymore.
DRE:
The Kids in the Hall box set just came out. Is it good feeling that it’s all out there?
Dave:
It is a good feeling. Also it is the versions that we like, which haven’t been out in a long time. We always did two versions of everything. We also did a censored and uncensored version when we were shooting the show. All the stuff on the DVDs are the original HBO and CBC sketches. Comedy Central censored the show pretty extensively.
DRE:
Yeah they chopped it all up. It wasn’t as much fun on Comedy Central.
Dave:
That’s the way most people have seen the show.
DRE:
Yeah, when I talk to people that are younger than I am, they often say that they never even saw it when it was on HBO.
Dave:
The Comedy Central version of the show was a version that we were never terribly happy with so now people can see the shows the way we intended.
DRE:
What’s your favorite sketch that you weren’t in?
Dave:
One that comes to mind was a sketch with Bruce and Scott [Thompson]. It was a simple sketch where Bruce has something in his mustache and he can’t wipe it off.
DRE:
That’s a good one. [laughs] It was a piece of lettuce or something like that.
Dave:
Yeah and he can’t get it out. Also the sketch with Kevin [McDonald] and Scott where they can’t get the car started. They’re huddled outside and they’re like “Try it now. Try it now.”
DRE:
I know you made a gag out of it on Newsradio but was it ever disturbing to you how pretty you looked in those dresses?
Dave:
No, I enjoyed it. It was nice to feel sexy for the first time in my life. I know Kevin found it disturbing how attractive he found me and so did some of the crew guys. Some of the crew guys would develop crushes on certain characters and would ask if they’d be showing up soon.
DRE:
Newsradio is now on Nick at Nite.
Dave:
Yeah, which officially means I’m old.
DRE:
I saw my favorite episode the other day where your character thought the staff would think you were a spy because you were Canadian. What were some of your favorite episodes?
Dave:
There’s an episode where Phil Hartman’s character comes to work with a cane. I liked that episode. Quitting smoking was fun. My favorite might be Phil’s last episode with us, which was our Titanic episode. It was our season ender for the fourth season.
DRE:
What do you bring to Celebrity Poker that Kevin Pollak just couldn’t?
Dave:
I don’t know how to answer that [laughs]. I know what Kevin Pollak did that I couldn’t do [laughs].
DRE:
I interviewed Phil Gordon and I asked him if he missed Kevin Pollak’s hats. He said he missed his impersonations but not his hats.
Dave:
Yeah that’s true. My Shatner’s terrible.
DRE:
[laughs] I saw you have a couple horror movies coming up out soon.
Dave:
Two? One I think.
DRE:
Isn’t Postal a horror movie?
Dave:
Postal is more like a dark comedy where everyone kills everybody. The horror film I did is called Netherbeast Incorporated which is an office comedy about a company that’s basically a hideout for a community of vampires.
DRE:
That sounds fun.
Dave:
Yeah, very fun. Darrell Hammond and Robert Wagner are in that as well.
DRE:
I know that you were always a big fan of being in a suit in an office. Is that something you still like to do?
Dave:
Yeah, when I got Newsradio I liked the fact that I didn’t have to go wardrobe fitting anymore. They knew what size suit I wore and they just gave it to me. I like wearing a tie and dressing up nice. But I really loved that I didn’t have to put on fake tits and stare at myself in a mirror under florescent lights in fake tits and pantyhose anymore.
DRE:
Are you and the other Kids planning on going on tour again?
Dave:
We were talking about doing it this fall but Mark [McKinney] got a job writing for Studio 60 [on the Sunset Strip]. So we threw the whole schedule out.
DRE:
Will it be similar to the last tour with new material mixed with the old stuff?
Dave:
We actually did an unannounced show in LA a while back. We were all out there for a week and we wrote 90 minutes of new material. Actually we wrote like four hours of new material but we wrote 90 minutes that we agreed on liking. We did the show over three nights in The Steve Allen theater here in LA and that went well. So we’re thinking we want to do that again and then maybe go on tour with all new material.
DRE:
Are you guys are getting along ok?
Dave:
Yeah, we’re getting along pretty well right now. We’re all older. Three of us have kids so we’re all less intense. We still fight when we get together but it’s less intense than it used to be.
DRE:
When you guys fight, is it over minutia stuff or is it over jokes?
Dave:
It could be anything. It ranges from trying to make the work the best to personal attacks. But most of the personal attacks have gone away now. It’s mostly now just arguing over comedy.
DRE:
I know you and Kevin did a bit in a theater and it was shown on HBO’s Sketch Pad. It seemed like a one off thing but do you and Kevin do stuff like that together anymore?
Dave:
As you said, that was a one off thing. HBO called and asked if we’d come out and do them a favor. But if one of the Kids has a project going we’ll call one or two of the others to come in and do a bit. I had Kevin in a Christmas special I did back in Canada and Kevin brought us all in to do voices on Lilo & Stitch. In fact, [the movie] Sky High is the first time that any two of us have worked together on something that one of us didn’t create or have a big involvement with.
DRE:
Do the Kids want to do another movie?
Dave:
Yeah, it’s something we talk about. We just have trouble coming to a consensus on how to do it. But we usually get together and talk about it at least once a year. At this point we’re already open to doing stuff together but we just have trouble finding the time and what it is we want to do.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
I finally got a chance to talk with Dave Foley and I just couldn’t resist the chance to ask him what his favorite episodes were from both The Kids in the Hall TV show and Newsradio. Those are just two of the best comedies, in any medium, ever created. But Foley was most excited to talk about the new play he’s co-directed called The Tribute.
Check out the official site for The Tribute
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you get involved with The Tribute?
Dave Foley: Well, my wife is one of the cast members and writers. She and three of her friends were doing some vocals in the studio and they were just all enjoying singing together. Then they decided that they should try to put a show together to give them the opportunity to sing. First they were just going to put together a cabaret review and then they started trying to get a narrative to hold it all together. They did a first draft and after that I came in and helped them rewrite it and then they asked me to direct.
DRE:
Have you ever directed a play?
Dave:
I’ve never directed anybody else for a live performance. I’ve directed for TV and film but never a play.
DRE:
How did you like it?
Dave:
I liked it. It was a lot like directing a sitcom, in that you’re going with a live performance but I didn’t have to worry about cameras, which was nice. It was really quite exciting. It was actually one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time because for one thing I wasn’t in it, which was nice. It was a show that I couldn’t be in because it had a lot of really great singing in it.
DRE:
Oh. You can’t sing?
Dave:
Not like these women can sing. They’re all great singers and I can get by if I really practice.
DRE:
How did it get to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater?
Dave:
Someone from the theater called and asked if we would take the show there and do it. I guess somebody from there had seen it when we did it in LA.
DRE:
Is there a plan to try and get it to bigger venues or are you keeping it in smaller places?
Dave:
We’re still working on it as we go along. Right now the show is using existing songs like Baz Luhrmann did in Moulin Rouge where he used existing songs to create a musical. We’re looking at gradually replacing all the songs with originals. Then we want to do longer runs at a bigger venue.
DRE:
Is narrative theater something that you want to keep doing?
Dave:
Maybe, this has been fun. I’ve been asked to direct before but I’ve always said no but now that I’ve done it for this show, maybe I would do it again.
DRE:
Do you keep up with a lot of new comedy?
Dave:
I keep in touch with the alternative comedy scene in LA mostly through Largo down on Fairfax. But is there any sketch comedy on TV now?
DRE:
I don’ think there’s anything new. But is that the kind of thing that you usually watch on television?
Dave:
I do check it out. I actually produced a pilot for an English group called The Hollow Men. It ran for a season on Comedy Central.
DRE:
Had you seen The Hollow Men when you over there?
Dave:
They were in town for the Aspen Comedy Festival and they got a deal with Comedy Central. Comedy Central asked to come see a showcase they were doing and to think about producing the pilot.
DRE:
Do people ask you to do that kind of thing a lot?
Dave:
I wouldn’t say a lot but sometimes and that was one where it seemed like it would be a fun gig. I thought they were funny and different from what the Kids in the Hall were.
DRE:
Do you do often do a pilot around pilot season?
Dave:
Yeah, I’ve done several over the last several years.
DRE:
When I interviewed Bruce McCulloch, I asked him why I don’t see the other kids in as much stuff. He said, “The other Kids do a pilot almost every year.”
Dave:
Yeah, if they don’t get picked up you don’t see them. I was lucky the first time out. The first pilot I did ran for five years.
DRE:
I saw you on Lovespring International. I like that show. How was it getting out there and doing improv again?
Dave:
Well it was fun. I did that because my friend Brad Isaacs was producing the show and he used to be one of the producers on Newsradio. They have a great ensemble cast and in the episode I was in we had like 112 guest performers. It was a huge group of improvisers. It was a lot of fun just to spend the day improvising based on direction from the show’s director. Everybody there is such a good improviser. Jane Lynch is amazing.
DRE:
There’s so much improv in the mainstream media now, would you want to get involved in improv for movies or television?
Dave:
Maybe. For years I thought that might be a fun thing for The Kids in the Hall to do as a film. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it. In fact, there might be so much of that now so we probably wouldn’t do it anymore.
DRE:
The Kids in the Hall box set just came out. Is it good feeling that it’s all out there?
Dave:
It is a good feeling. Also it is the versions that we like, which haven’t been out in a long time. We always did two versions of everything. We also did a censored and uncensored version when we were shooting the show. All the stuff on the DVDs are the original HBO and CBC sketches. Comedy Central censored the show pretty extensively.
DRE:
Yeah they chopped it all up. It wasn’t as much fun on Comedy Central.
Dave:
That’s the way most people have seen the show.
DRE:
Yeah, when I talk to people that are younger than I am, they often say that they never even saw it when it was on HBO.
Dave:
The Comedy Central version of the show was a version that we were never terribly happy with so now people can see the shows the way we intended.
DRE:
What’s your favorite sketch that you weren’t in?
Dave:
One that comes to mind was a sketch with Bruce and Scott [Thompson]. It was a simple sketch where Bruce has something in his mustache and he can’t wipe it off.
DRE:
That’s a good one. [laughs] It was a piece of lettuce or something like that.
Dave:
Yeah and he can’t get it out. Also the sketch with Kevin [McDonald] and Scott where they can’t get the car started. They’re huddled outside and they’re like “Try it now. Try it now.”
DRE:
I know you made a gag out of it on Newsradio but was it ever disturbing to you how pretty you looked in those dresses?
Dave:
No, I enjoyed it. It was nice to feel sexy for the first time in my life. I know Kevin found it disturbing how attractive he found me and so did some of the crew guys. Some of the crew guys would develop crushes on certain characters and would ask if they’d be showing up soon.
DRE:
Newsradio is now on Nick at Nite.
Dave:
Yeah, which officially means I’m old.
DRE:
I saw my favorite episode the other day where your character thought the staff would think you were a spy because you were Canadian. What were some of your favorite episodes?
Dave:
There’s an episode where Phil Hartman’s character comes to work with a cane. I liked that episode. Quitting smoking was fun. My favorite might be Phil’s last episode with us, which was our Titanic episode. It was our season ender for the fourth season.
DRE:
What do you bring to Celebrity Poker that Kevin Pollak just couldn’t?
Dave:
I don’t know how to answer that [laughs]. I know what Kevin Pollak did that I couldn’t do [laughs].
DRE:
I interviewed Phil Gordon and I asked him if he missed Kevin Pollak’s hats. He said he missed his impersonations but not his hats.
Dave:
Yeah that’s true. My Shatner’s terrible.
DRE:
[laughs] I saw you have a couple horror movies coming up out soon.
Dave:
Two? One I think.
DRE:
Isn’t Postal a horror movie?
Dave:
Postal is more like a dark comedy where everyone kills everybody. The horror film I did is called Netherbeast Incorporated which is an office comedy about a company that’s basically a hideout for a community of vampires.
DRE:
That sounds fun.
Dave:
Yeah, very fun. Darrell Hammond and Robert Wagner are in that as well.
DRE:
I know that you were always a big fan of being in a suit in an office. Is that something you still like to do?
Dave:
Yeah, when I got Newsradio I liked the fact that I didn’t have to go wardrobe fitting anymore. They knew what size suit I wore and they just gave it to me. I like wearing a tie and dressing up nice. But I really loved that I didn’t have to put on fake tits and stare at myself in a mirror under florescent lights in fake tits and pantyhose anymore.
DRE:
Are you and the other Kids planning on going on tour again?
Dave:
We were talking about doing it this fall but Mark [McKinney] got a job writing for Studio 60 [on the Sunset Strip]. So we threw the whole schedule out.
DRE:
Will it be similar to the last tour with new material mixed with the old stuff?
Dave:
We actually did an unannounced show in LA a while back. We were all out there for a week and we wrote 90 minutes of new material. Actually we wrote like four hours of new material but we wrote 90 minutes that we agreed on liking. We did the show over three nights in The Steve Allen theater here in LA and that went well. So we’re thinking we want to do that again and then maybe go on tour with all new material.
DRE:
Are you guys are getting along ok?
Dave:
Yeah, we’re getting along pretty well right now. We’re all older. Three of us have kids so we’re all less intense. We still fight when we get together but it’s less intense than it used to be.
DRE:
When you guys fight, is it over minutia stuff or is it over jokes?
Dave:
It could be anything. It ranges from trying to make the work the best to personal attacks. But most of the personal attacks have gone away now. It’s mostly now just arguing over comedy.
DRE:
I know you and Kevin did a bit in a theater and it was shown on HBO’s Sketch Pad. It seemed like a one off thing but do you and Kevin do stuff like that together anymore?
Dave:
As you said, that was a one off thing. HBO called and asked if we’d come out and do them a favor. But if one of the Kids has a project going we’ll call one or two of the others to come in and do a bit. I had Kevin in a Christmas special I did back in Canada and Kevin brought us all in to do voices on Lilo & Stitch. In fact, [the movie] Sky High is the first time that any two of us have worked together on something that one of us didn’t create or have a big involvement with.
DRE:
Do the Kids want to do another movie?
Dave:
Yeah, it’s something we talk about. We just have trouble coming to a consensus on how to do it. But we usually get together and talk about it at least once a year. At this point we’re already open to doing stuff together but we just have trouble finding the time and what it is we want to do.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
