The return of The Kids in the Hall isn't being treated like a national media event. Growing up, you may have caught their show on HBO or in reruns on Comedy Central. They did a movie in 1996, Brain Candy, and still go on tour performing live shows as recently as a few years ago. They haven't really gone away, but they're back with a different sort of TV show.
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town is an eight part miniseries airing on IFC in America. It's already played the Kids's hometown networks in Canada. In the show, Death (Mark McKinney) arrives in Shuckton, Ontario, where the town abortionist gives away free kittens. Each of the Kids portrays more than one of Shuckton's wacky characters, getting bumped off one by one each week. You'll meet three of Scott Thompson's latest creations on the series.
Thompson makes a triumphant return to the screen after spending last year battling cancer. His treatment for stomach cancer coincided with filming Death Comes to Town. The shoot fell right in between chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Not that a few months down time is ideal for performing on television, but he toughed it out. Now promoting the series, Thompson is back to full strength.
At The Beverly Hilton hotel, Thompson bounced around the hallways. He'd interrupt Bruce McCulloch or Kevin MacDonald's interviews with a joke, or pass out potato chips to reporters. It was a happy day anyway, the day after California overturned Prop 8. It's not the end of the fight in California, but Thompson shared a good attitude for overcoming social frustration, and funny stuff too.
SG: How does the group plan which character you'll play in which scene? The longer it goes, do you have to worry about interacting with yourself at some point?
ST: Well, that was part of it. That was part of the thing. There were certain characters that we might wanted to have played but you couldn't because you were playing another character that talked to that person too many times. It all came very naturally. I think there were certain characters that were created that people fought over. There were certain characters that everybody wanted to play. Marilyn, for example, the mayor's wife. Everybody wanted to be Marilyn but I think it became very clear that it was going to be Dave. For me, I play less characters than the other because I got sick before the show so I had not as much energy. So I had three main characters: Heather Weather, Crim Hollingsworth and Dusty Diamond. They are three main characters so I was in charge of those characters, their arcs and working on them. So there were certain smaller characters that I would have loved to have played, but next time. The next series when I don't have cancer I'll be doing that.
SG: Who did you miss out on playing?
ST: The motel owner that Dave plays. He does a great job but I would've loved to have been the motel owner. I would have loved to have been the grief counselor. Marnie the old lady but that was a big one. That was between Kevin and I from the beginning. Then I said, "I played the old lady in Brain Candy. My acting muscle's not that big so if I did her, it would be very similar to the old lady in Brain Candy." That's when I decided I'd play Crim who originally I think Bruce wanted to play. Then no one really wanted to be Ricky. Ricky was a tough one, the 400 lb. guy.
SG: Should people go on message boards and theorize about who the killer might be?
ST: It'll just cause you grief. It really won't help. For this series, as long as you're laughing, that's all we really care about. And if you're trying to follow it logically, just stop right now.
SG: There may not be logic, but it does tell a story.
ST: It does. There is a story. You're not going to cry. I hope not. You're not moved in any way. Characters don't really change. They don't really learn anything but then comiccharacters rarely learn. When comic characters learn, then they become dramatic charactersin a way.
SG: Is that a problem with comedies of the last 10 years? They're all trying to have a message and a lesson.
ST: Yes, absolutely. It's the death. It's the worst thing. It's the enemy of comedy. Comedy is not about teaching people lessons or preaching tolerance or any of those things. It's about mucking around in the id. That's why that phrase "positive role model" makes me fall asleep like it's a hypnotist waving in front of me, because that's not what comedy's about. Comedy is about laughing at how silly and foolish and venal we are.
SG: How did comedy get this way then?
ST: Maybe it's the generation. Maybe it's the generation of kids that have too much self-esteem. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's too many kids that were raised to think that everything that they did was amazing. Therefore characters have to. I don't know, it might be part of an American thing too, America's myths about coming from nothing and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and taking lemons and making lemonade. I think Canadians are maybe a little more cynical about that sort of thing. Definitely the Brits are and our sense of humor comes as much from England as it comes from the states. It's true, in Canadian comedy, people generally don't worry about a redemptive arc for a comic characters.
SG: That's really interesting about the self-esteem. It never occurred to me how egotistical it is that every character has to learn something.
ST: Isn't it? It is. And they don't. You look at the history of comedy and the great comic characters, what makes them hilarious is that they never learn.
SG: Look at Homer Simpson, it's been 20 years.
ST: He's not going to learn. "I shouldn't have that donut." You wouldn't want him to. There's nothing heartwarming in this series and I'm very proud of that. In fact it's heart chilling.
SG: Would giving away free kittens solve the abortion debate?
ST: For cats it would.
SG: Does the series make other political digs on hot button topics?
ST: By politics, if you mean the politics of human nature, yes. I'm sure there are things. Yes, there are. They're never taken on consciously. There are certain things that we know that we're doing and we know that that will piss people off and that's true. We don't set out to do that but we're aware that it will do that.
SG: Is it sort of funny that people feel so strongly about an issue anyway?
ST: I think it's funny. Outrage is funny and I can say that as a person who spent much of my time in a state of outrage. I'm not like that. I don't really feel that any more. Intense outrage is hilarious.
SG: What changed that for you?
ST: Getting older and beating cancer has definitely been something for me. When you're on the other side of it, you tend to look at life as much more silly and a game. It's like I've been playing a video game for a number of years and then I'm in the bonus round now. I'm like oh, man, this is great. Of course I still get outraged over certain things but I try to keep it outside of my comedy.
SG: Is part of it that things have gotten better socially?
ST: Oh yes, much better. Gay things, anything, socially, absolutely. We have a mixed race president. They overturned Prop 8. Yeah. I think for people to say that it hasn't is kind of weird. No, you should wake up, smell the coffee. Remember what coffee used to be like? Even McDonald's has good coffee. Absolutely things are moving forward. You're cynical about that.
SG: It's hard to get too happy because I know that even when they overturn Prop 8, that just mean more loud people will complain about it and it'll still be a fight.
ST: Oh, this isn't remotely over but it's never going to be over, I don't think. Never.
SG: Well, we ended slavery. We gave women and blacks the vote. It seems inevitable.
ST: It is inevitable but you'll never erase prejudice. There will always be a way for people to feel better than other people. That's what I believe. I just know that for me now I'm just like yeah, things are getting better. I just think human nature is the way it is. We'll find something else. It'll be like test tube babies vs. natural babies. Clones vs. non clones. There'll be something. Redheads. In 100 years, redheads are all going to be imprisoned and having sex. They'll just be prostitutes because they'll be so rare, everybody will fetishize red haired people.
SG: So we should see the humor in how upset and angry people get over something that shouldn't bother them at all?
ST: Yeah, yeah. Years ago, I remember being at the March on Washington many years ago, the very first one, and Fred Phelps, remember him? He's that freak from Nebraska who's got that family and they picket AIDS funerals and soldiers' funerals and they say things like, "AIDS kills fags dead." They're just evil, evil people. He got in his face with his family, just spittle flying out of him, and it's kind of funny if you think about it.
SG: Do you think people who are neutral can see that and think, "Well, let's not be like that guy. Whatever he believes, let's do the opposite."?
ST: I don't know. Outrage is always going to be funny.
SG: How many times did the Kids almost get back together?
ST: Oh, 17? It's a weird one. I think the only time we actually ever truly broke up was after the disaster known as Brain Candy, financial disaster that it was. Artistically I don't see it that way and we didn't speak for maybe four or five years. But then after that, we've never been apart.
SG: Was there blame within the group for problems with that movie?
ST: There was a lot of blame going around, but not now. Now it's different. Sometimes we don't even remember why we hated each other. It's not really important. Yeah, there were a lot of ugly things said but like a family, you get through it. The thing between us, the glue is very, very strong. We're like the mafia. You don't leave.
SG: Was doing the series more like doing the movie where you tell a whole story with sketches and characters inside it?
ST: It was like that but a hell of a lot more fun than making that movie. Yeah, I guess it was. There are certain scenes in the show that could survive as sketches. I guess you're right, it was.
SG: But with eight episodes, is it a lot more epic?
ST: Yes, it's like a four hour movie. 3 1/2, three hours 40 minute movie. It is quite epic. It's comedy, obviously, first. I don't think any of the great mystery writers are rolling over in their graves. Especially the ones that are alive, they're not rolling in their graves. It was a thrill. I just love playing characters so it doesn't matter to me what medium they're in. As long as I get to throw on wigs and clothes and moustaches, I'm a happy man.
SG: Whether it's a standalone sketch or it has a role in the story, either way?
ST: Yeah, doesn't matter to me. I just like playing different people.
SG: As the group gets older, does your point of view get funnier or less so?
ST: I think funnier actually. You look at life in a more realistic way. I think as I've gotten older, life has become more of a comedy than it was when I was younger. When I was younger I saw it more as a tragedy which is ironic that I would go into comedy, but now I do see it as much more of a comedy. Just generally I find people hilarious.
SG: Does that inform the characters you play or your reactions to the other characters?
ST: I think both. For example, one of the characters I play in the series, Heather Weather, I never really would've played a woman like that before because she's really not as nuanced as some of the women I've played before. She's kind of an out and out bitch. It's interesting, I never really worried about her motivation. I just went this is the way she is and this is the way she's written. I'm just going to play her like an out and out sociopath in a way. It's a lot of fun.
SG: Do you think anyone from Death Comes to Town will become one of your new trademark characters?
ST: Yeah, I do. I'm thinking of writing something for Dusty. I had this idea for Crim, the Windian, the white guy who's 1/16 Indian, eh. I thought it would be really fun, and sort of a page from Sacha Baron Cohen but I don't mind taking pages from him. He took pages from me. I thought it'd be really fun to host a show as him on Indian affairs. In Canada we have a station called APTN which is the Aboriginal network. I thought it'd be really funny pitching a show with Crim talking about native affairs, eh? And a white guy doing it, so that's sort of a germ in my head. That would be so post-racial. That's where I do think we are now. I don't think that the world has quite woken up to it yet but I do believe we're there. Certainly, there'll always be work to do but I really think that collectively, especially here in the west we can breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe I'm a little Pollyanna about it right now but maybe that's the euphoria of beating cancer.
SG: Doing a TV show in character, Cohen wasn't the first either. That's been around in comedy.
ST: Yes, that has been. I do love him. I think he's a genius.
SG: Do you have a relationship with him?
ST: Never.
SG: What do you feel he got from you?
ST: Maybe I'm wrong here, but I'd like to think he knows us. I can't imagine he's not a fan of The Kids in the Hall. It would be disappointing for me because I remember meeting one of the Monty Pythons and they didn't know who we were. I thought, "Don't ever meet another Python" because I don't want to hear that. I won't say who it is but I'm sure Bruno, I'm sure he'd seen Buddy Cole. Maybe not. You know what I like about when he does Bruno - I think Bruno is a better film than Borat. I thought it was genius - was that he's so far away from who he really is that he just feels completely free. I feel the same way when I played someone like Danny Husk, my businessman character. I can do whatever the hell I want. I have a book coming out with Danny called The Hollow Planet which is my graphic novel and I just went to Comic Con in character. When I put that moustache on, I do crazy things. He loves women so I end up making out with women all the time. Maybe that's what I'm doing. I use that moustache to explore my latent bisexuality.
SG: How many issues is the graphic novel?
ST: It's a book. There's going to be three books. This is a full length graphic novel. The whole series is called Husk and the first book is called The Hollow Planet. It's a big comic epic fantasy starring Danny Husk.
SG: And it's funny?
ST: Yeah, it's funny. Again, it's a comedy epic fantasy but comedy's first. It's beautiful. It's from Frozen Beach and IDW is publishing it November 1st so I'm very, very excited. It's funny, you don't do anything for years and years, or anything that gets into the public's radar. Then all of a sudden you have two things which is pretty amazing for me. Especially where I was a year ago.
SG: How are you doing now?
ST: Excellent. I just had a new report and everything was great. I'm feeling better than I have been and all the side effects are pretty much gone. I feel for the first time, in quite a while, myself.
SG: Ready to put on wigs and makeup?
ST: Yeah, absolutely.
SG: Are there any character you're glad you never have to play again?
ST: Nope.
SG: Any you miss?
ST: Oh yeah. Francesca Fiore, I miss doing her. Weston Esterhazy, he was a character that never totally took off and I don't quite understand why. Buddy. I definitely put Buddy away for a while. After I saw Bruno, I was with Paul Bellini and he said, "Buddy's gotta retire for a little while." I went, "Maybe so." Even though they're not remotely the same, they're just both really effeminate, but the public's not sophisticated enough to see those differences I don't think. But I'm thinking of putting a tour as Buddy Cole in the new year, like a Dame Edna kind of a thing.
SG: A solo tour?
ST: Yes, and I'm definitely planning a standup tour soon. I've really fallen in love with standup again. I love characters more than anything but I do think a Buddy tour would be a lot of fun. So we'll see.
The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town begins August 20 on IFC.
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town is an eight part miniseries airing on IFC in America. It's already played the Kids's hometown networks in Canada. In the show, Death (Mark McKinney) arrives in Shuckton, Ontario, where the town abortionist gives away free kittens. Each of the Kids portrays more than one of Shuckton's wacky characters, getting bumped off one by one each week. You'll meet three of Scott Thompson's latest creations on the series.
Thompson makes a triumphant return to the screen after spending last year battling cancer. His treatment for stomach cancer coincided with filming Death Comes to Town. The shoot fell right in between chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Not that a few months down time is ideal for performing on television, but he toughed it out. Now promoting the series, Thompson is back to full strength.
At The Beverly Hilton hotel, Thompson bounced around the hallways. He'd interrupt Bruce McCulloch or Kevin MacDonald's interviews with a joke, or pass out potato chips to reporters. It was a happy day anyway, the day after California overturned Prop 8. It's not the end of the fight in California, but Thompson shared a good attitude for overcoming social frustration, and funny stuff too.
SG: How does the group plan which character you'll play in which scene? The longer it goes, do you have to worry about interacting with yourself at some point?
ST: Well, that was part of it. That was part of the thing. There were certain characters that we might wanted to have played but you couldn't because you were playing another character that talked to that person too many times. It all came very naturally. I think there were certain characters that were created that people fought over. There were certain characters that everybody wanted to play. Marilyn, for example, the mayor's wife. Everybody wanted to be Marilyn but I think it became very clear that it was going to be Dave. For me, I play less characters than the other because I got sick before the show so I had not as much energy. So I had three main characters: Heather Weather, Crim Hollingsworth and Dusty Diamond. They are three main characters so I was in charge of those characters, their arcs and working on them. So there were certain smaller characters that I would have loved to have played, but next time. The next series when I don't have cancer I'll be doing that.
SG: Who did you miss out on playing?
ST: The motel owner that Dave plays. He does a great job but I would've loved to have been the motel owner. I would have loved to have been the grief counselor. Marnie the old lady but that was a big one. That was between Kevin and I from the beginning. Then I said, "I played the old lady in Brain Candy. My acting muscle's not that big so if I did her, it would be very similar to the old lady in Brain Candy." That's when I decided I'd play Crim who originally I think Bruce wanted to play. Then no one really wanted to be Ricky. Ricky was a tough one, the 400 lb. guy.
SG: Should people go on message boards and theorize about who the killer might be?
ST: It'll just cause you grief. It really won't help. For this series, as long as you're laughing, that's all we really care about. And if you're trying to follow it logically, just stop right now.
SG: There may not be logic, but it does tell a story.
ST: It does. There is a story. You're not going to cry. I hope not. You're not moved in any way. Characters don't really change. They don't really learn anything but then comiccharacters rarely learn. When comic characters learn, then they become dramatic charactersin a way.
SG: Is that a problem with comedies of the last 10 years? They're all trying to have a message and a lesson.
ST: Yes, absolutely. It's the death. It's the worst thing. It's the enemy of comedy. Comedy is not about teaching people lessons or preaching tolerance or any of those things. It's about mucking around in the id. That's why that phrase "positive role model" makes me fall asleep like it's a hypnotist waving in front of me, because that's not what comedy's about. Comedy is about laughing at how silly and foolish and venal we are.
SG: How did comedy get this way then?
ST: Maybe it's the generation. Maybe it's the generation of kids that have too much self-esteem. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's too many kids that were raised to think that everything that they did was amazing. Therefore characters have to. I don't know, it might be part of an American thing too, America's myths about coming from nothing and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and taking lemons and making lemonade. I think Canadians are maybe a little more cynical about that sort of thing. Definitely the Brits are and our sense of humor comes as much from England as it comes from the states. It's true, in Canadian comedy, people generally don't worry about a redemptive arc for a comic characters.
SG: That's really interesting about the self-esteem. It never occurred to me how egotistical it is that every character has to learn something.
ST: Isn't it? It is. And they don't. You look at the history of comedy and the great comic characters, what makes them hilarious is that they never learn.
SG: Look at Homer Simpson, it's been 20 years.
ST: He's not going to learn. "I shouldn't have that donut." You wouldn't want him to. There's nothing heartwarming in this series and I'm very proud of that. In fact it's heart chilling.
SG: Would giving away free kittens solve the abortion debate?
ST: For cats it would.
SG: Does the series make other political digs on hot button topics?
ST: By politics, if you mean the politics of human nature, yes. I'm sure there are things. Yes, there are. They're never taken on consciously. There are certain things that we know that we're doing and we know that that will piss people off and that's true. We don't set out to do that but we're aware that it will do that.
SG: Is it sort of funny that people feel so strongly about an issue anyway?
ST: I think it's funny. Outrage is funny and I can say that as a person who spent much of my time in a state of outrage. I'm not like that. I don't really feel that any more. Intense outrage is hilarious.
SG: What changed that for you?
ST: Getting older and beating cancer has definitely been something for me. When you're on the other side of it, you tend to look at life as much more silly and a game. It's like I've been playing a video game for a number of years and then I'm in the bonus round now. I'm like oh, man, this is great. Of course I still get outraged over certain things but I try to keep it outside of my comedy.
SG: Is part of it that things have gotten better socially?
ST: Oh yes, much better. Gay things, anything, socially, absolutely. We have a mixed race president. They overturned Prop 8. Yeah. I think for people to say that it hasn't is kind of weird. No, you should wake up, smell the coffee. Remember what coffee used to be like? Even McDonald's has good coffee. Absolutely things are moving forward. You're cynical about that.
SG: It's hard to get too happy because I know that even when they overturn Prop 8, that just mean more loud people will complain about it and it'll still be a fight.
ST: Oh, this isn't remotely over but it's never going to be over, I don't think. Never.
SG: Well, we ended slavery. We gave women and blacks the vote. It seems inevitable.
ST: It is inevitable but you'll never erase prejudice. There will always be a way for people to feel better than other people. That's what I believe. I just know that for me now I'm just like yeah, things are getting better. I just think human nature is the way it is. We'll find something else. It'll be like test tube babies vs. natural babies. Clones vs. non clones. There'll be something. Redheads. In 100 years, redheads are all going to be imprisoned and having sex. They'll just be prostitutes because they'll be so rare, everybody will fetishize red haired people.
SG: So we should see the humor in how upset and angry people get over something that shouldn't bother them at all?
ST: Yeah, yeah. Years ago, I remember being at the March on Washington many years ago, the very first one, and Fred Phelps, remember him? He's that freak from Nebraska who's got that family and they picket AIDS funerals and soldiers' funerals and they say things like, "AIDS kills fags dead." They're just evil, evil people. He got in his face with his family, just spittle flying out of him, and it's kind of funny if you think about it.
SG: Do you think people who are neutral can see that and think, "Well, let's not be like that guy. Whatever he believes, let's do the opposite."?
ST: I don't know. Outrage is always going to be funny.
SG: How many times did the Kids almost get back together?
ST: Oh, 17? It's a weird one. I think the only time we actually ever truly broke up was after the disaster known as Brain Candy, financial disaster that it was. Artistically I don't see it that way and we didn't speak for maybe four or five years. But then after that, we've never been apart.
SG: Was there blame within the group for problems with that movie?
ST: There was a lot of blame going around, but not now. Now it's different. Sometimes we don't even remember why we hated each other. It's not really important. Yeah, there were a lot of ugly things said but like a family, you get through it. The thing between us, the glue is very, very strong. We're like the mafia. You don't leave.
SG: Was doing the series more like doing the movie where you tell a whole story with sketches and characters inside it?
ST: It was like that but a hell of a lot more fun than making that movie. Yeah, I guess it was. There are certain scenes in the show that could survive as sketches. I guess you're right, it was.
SG: But with eight episodes, is it a lot more epic?
ST: Yes, it's like a four hour movie. 3 1/2, three hours 40 minute movie. It is quite epic. It's comedy, obviously, first. I don't think any of the great mystery writers are rolling over in their graves. Especially the ones that are alive, they're not rolling in their graves. It was a thrill. I just love playing characters so it doesn't matter to me what medium they're in. As long as I get to throw on wigs and clothes and moustaches, I'm a happy man.
SG: Whether it's a standalone sketch or it has a role in the story, either way?
ST: Yeah, doesn't matter to me. I just like playing different people.
SG: As the group gets older, does your point of view get funnier or less so?
ST: I think funnier actually. You look at life in a more realistic way. I think as I've gotten older, life has become more of a comedy than it was when I was younger. When I was younger I saw it more as a tragedy which is ironic that I would go into comedy, but now I do see it as much more of a comedy. Just generally I find people hilarious.
SG: Does that inform the characters you play or your reactions to the other characters?
ST: I think both. For example, one of the characters I play in the series, Heather Weather, I never really would've played a woman like that before because she's really not as nuanced as some of the women I've played before. She's kind of an out and out bitch. It's interesting, I never really worried about her motivation. I just went this is the way she is and this is the way she's written. I'm just going to play her like an out and out sociopath in a way. It's a lot of fun.
SG: Do you think anyone from Death Comes to Town will become one of your new trademark characters?
ST: Yeah, I do. I'm thinking of writing something for Dusty. I had this idea for Crim, the Windian, the white guy who's 1/16 Indian, eh. I thought it would be really fun, and sort of a page from Sacha Baron Cohen but I don't mind taking pages from him. He took pages from me. I thought it'd be really fun to host a show as him on Indian affairs. In Canada we have a station called APTN which is the Aboriginal network. I thought it'd be really funny pitching a show with Crim talking about native affairs, eh? And a white guy doing it, so that's sort of a germ in my head. That would be so post-racial. That's where I do think we are now. I don't think that the world has quite woken up to it yet but I do believe we're there. Certainly, there'll always be work to do but I really think that collectively, especially here in the west we can breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe I'm a little Pollyanna about it right now but maybe that's the euphoria of beating cancer.
SG: Doing a TV show in character, Cohen wasn't the first either. That's been around in comedy.
ST: Yes, that has been. I do love him. I think he's a genius.
SG: Do you have a relationship with him?
ST: Never.
SG: What do you feel he got from you?
ST: Maybe I'm wrong here, but I'd like to think he knows us. I can't imagine he's not a fan of The Kids in the Hall. It would be disappointing for me because I remember meeting one of the Monty Pythons and they didn't know who we were. I thought, "Don't ever meet another Python" because I don't want to hear that. I won't say who it is but I'm sure Bruno, I'm sure he'd seen Buddy Cole. Maybe not. You know what I like about when he does Bruno - I think Bruno is a better film than Borat. I thought it was genius - was that he's so far away from who he really is that he just feels completely free. I feel the same way when I played someone like Danny Husk, my businessman character. I can do whatever the hell I want. I have a book coming out with Danny called The Hollow Planet which is my graphic novel and I just went to Comic Con in character. When I put that moustache on, I do crazy things. He loves women so I end up making out with women all the time. Maybe that's what I'm doing. I use that moustache to explore my latent bisexuality.
SG: How many issues is the graphic novel?
ST: It's a book. There's going to be three books. This is a full length graphic novel. The whole series is called Husk and the first book is called The Hollow Planet. It's a big comic epic fantasy starring Danny Husk.
SG: And it's funny?
ST: Yeah, it's funny. Again, it's a comedy epic fantasy but comedy's first. It's beautiful. It's from Frozen Beach and IDW is publishing it November 1st so I'm very, very excited. It's funny, you don't do anything for years and years, or anything that gets into the public's radar. Then all of a sudden you have two things which is pretty amazing for me. Especially where I was a year ago.
SG: How are you doing now?
ST: Excellent. I just had a new report and everything was great. I'm feeling better than I have been and all the side effects are pretty much gone. I feel for the first time, in quite a while, myself.
SG: Ready to put on wigs and makeup?
ST: Yeah, absolutely.
SG: Are there any character you're glad you never have to play again?
ST: Nope.
SG: Any you miss?
ST: Oh yeah. Francesca Fiore, I miss doing her. Weston Esterhazy, he was a character that never totally took off and I don't quite understand why. Buddy. I definitely put Buddy away for a while. After I saw Bruno, I was with Paul Bellini and he said, "Buddy's gotta retire for a little while." I went, "Maybe so." Even though they're not remotely the same, they're just both really effeminate, but the public's not sophisticated enough to see those differences I don't think. But I'm thinking of putting a tour as Buddy Cole in the new year, like a Dame Edna kind of a thing.
SG: A solo tour?
ST: Yes, and I'm definitely planning a standup tour soon. I've really fallen in love with standup again. I love characters more than anything but I do think a Buddy tour would be a lot of fun. So we'll see.
The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town begins August 20 on IFC.