The Kids in the Hall take to the stage at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival on Wednesday, more than 12 years after the end of their popular television show.

The troupe is promising a slate of all-new material for three shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The Kids in the Hall, from left, Scott Thompson, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald, are back with a new show for Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival.
(Canadian Press)

Only a couple of characters from their hit TV show, which ran for five years on CBC in the early 1990s, have survived into the current century.

But their creative process remains the same, troupe members Dave Foley, Scott Thompson and Mark McKinney said in an interview with CBC News. The Kids in the Hall comedy troupe also includes Bruce McCulloch and Kevin McDonald.

"We did a secret show in L.A. over the past couple of months and developed new material," McKinney said.

They used the same crash comedy writing technique they used for their TV show, which was peppered with quirky characters such as McKinney's Chicken Lady, gay socialite Buddy Cole and an affable axe murderer.

"We started on Monday with a blank page and did the show on a Thursday and culled our material from that," McKinney said of the new show.

The result is a mix of comedy sketches, monologues and even a song, all refined through some appearances in Los Angeles and rehearsals over the last few weeks.

Almost no topic is taboo for the Kids in the Hall, though a sketch called "Happy 25th Anniversary AIDS" didn't make the cut for the show, according to Foley.

"There's usually one point where we sit back and look at the material and go, 'Wow, is this show way too dark? Or is it way too dirty?'" Foley said in an interview with Canadian Press.

"Which is the question we've been asking each other for 25 years. And then we go, 'Oh, well, that's what we wrote.''"

Since their show ended in 1994, the Kids in the Hall have gone their separate ways.

They reunited in 1996 for the feature film, Brain Candy, which got lukewarm reviews though fans still embraced it.

All five live in Los Angeles, with Foley now hosting Celebrity Poker Showdown.