CBC Digital Archives

Meet the Kids in the Hall

Whether they're homegrown comics or jokers from abroad, CBC has hosted more than its fair share of comedians over the years. From Buster Keaton of the silent-film era to a young Jim Carrey, CBC Digital Archives presents a selection of guests that have kept us laughing.

On the spot and tongue in cheek, Dave Foley says a good label for The Kids in the Hall is "macabre mirthmakers." In 1986 the troupe has been together for less than two years, but its Toronto show Graverobbers from Hipsville has proven so popular it's been held over. In this interview from CBC-TV's Midday, Foley and castmate Bruce McCulloch joke that there is one working brain shared among the group's five members.
• After performing and writing with different groups in Toronto and Calgary, the members of Kids in the Hall coalesced as a quintet in 1984. The group -  composed of Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney from Calgary and Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson from Toronto - soon become a popular fixture during comedy nights at Toronto's Rivoli nightclub.
  • The group briefly went on hiatus in 1985 when scouts from the U.S. comedy TV show Saturday Night Live invited two of the troupe, McCulloch and McKinney, to join their staff as junior writers. But the pair returned in 1986 and the group reunited. (McKinney would later become a cast member on SNL, in 1997.)

Medium: Television
Program: Midday
Broadcast Date: July 31, 1986
Guest(s): Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch
Resource: Peter Downie
Duration: 6:02

Last updated: February 24, 2012

Page consulted on March 28, 2013

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