Thursday with The Kids

Last night a group of us went to see The Kids in the Hall perform some brand-new material at The Steve Allen Theater. Apparently the Kids hadn't performed together in four years (at least according to the program, and I can't pretend that I'm such a devotee that I know that info offhand), and decided to do these shows like they did in the old days, basically writing and rehearsing the sketches starting on Monday and putting up the show three days later.

In less talented hands, something so hastily thrown together could possibly be unbearable, but the Kids are all gifted comedians, so even when the sketches sagged, the Kids could be relied on to keep things amusing with their performances. And really, the sketches were pretty high quality overall. A few of them even felt like bits that could easily have been on their show. I particularly liked the time machine gags and the bit with the hateful baby ("I feel like I'm cradling all human suffering!"). There were more than a few line flubs, but they were handled pretty well with some funny improvising. Mark McKinney proved the worst offender; in one solo sketch he announced that he had blown his lines so he was going to leave the stage now. And so he did. The final intervention sketch felt like they were all just making it up as they went along. Still, the show was really funny on the whole and it was really just great to see those guys live in such an intimate setting.