A childhood dream came true this past weekend. I saw The Kids In The Hall perform live! SO MUCH FUN!
Remember when I made my "vision boards" a few weeks ago? One of the pictures on one of my vision boards is the advertisement for the Kids in the Hall "Rusty & Ready Tour" at the DAR Constitution Hall. Can you see it below? (Hint: it's in the bottom left corner.)
I didn't buy tickets to the show because I thought it was irresponsible of me to buy $60 tickets when I currently don't have a full-time job. I decided I just didn't have the money for such a luxury.
But the day before the show, my housemate Marguerite told me that a friend of her's had invited her to the Kid In The Hall show. I was so jealous of her! But she encouraged me to bite the bullet and buy the tickets. It was on my "vision board", after all. It was destiny. So I said, "To hell with fiscal responsibility," and I bought tickets for me and Eric.
And I'm so happy that I did! The show opened with the 5 cast members all on stage in wedding dresses. There was immediate cheer and immediate laughing. The whole skit was them saying, "We wear wedding dresses because..." Hilarious. After the opening skit was over, the lights on stage blinked on and off while the classic Kids In The Hall theme music played ("Bing, buh-bing, buh-bing, budda-bing-bing-bing-bing", etc.). It felt like being at a taping of the actual Kids In The Hall TV show!
Apologies. It's not a great photograph. Two of the "Kids" are sitting in chairs, and the other three are standing behind them, and they're all in different wedding dresses. Brilliant.
After the opening skit and opening music, Kevin McDonald came onstage and performed a song about the history of The Kids In The Hall, and admitting that, "Most of you are probably here because your 41-year-old boyfriends made you come."
The next skit was none other than THE ORIGINAL CHICKEN LADY SKIT!!!! Word-for-word. Such hilarity. Such laughter. Such nostalgia.
Again, apologies for the poor photograph quality, but it's clearly Mark McKinney and Dave Foley performing the classic skit. "Do you love life? Chicken lady loves life."
Bruce McCulloch did a funny-yet-despressing monologue about being the only single guy living in a neighborhood of families, and how he's the creepy guy with the poodle. It wouldn't be a Kids In The Hall show without a Bruce monologue.
When Kevin McDonald came on stage in a silk smoking jacket, with a streak of grey through his hair, the crowd (myself included) immediately erupted into thunderous applause. We knew that it must be The Pit of Ultimate Darkness. And of course, his trusty man servant Hecubus, played by Dave Foley. It was a new skit, with classic characters. "I am here to serve you, Master... aaaaaaaaand Satan!"
One of the final skits was a new Buddy Cole skit, played by Scott Thompson. In the skit, he basically mused about kids today and all the anti-bullying campaigns, and how no one talked about or worried about bullying "in my day." He talked about a little boy who thought he was a girl, and his family raised him as a girl. Buddy said, "That little boy wasn't a girl, he just had too much self esteem!"
Yes, the cast is a little older, a little puffier, and a little more grey. But who am I to judge? I am also a little older, a little puffier, and a little more grey than I was in 1990! But watching them on stage, in character, under the bright stage lights, they looked like the same Kids In The Hall to me.
The show ended at around 9:30 PM. We waited outside of the DAR Constitution Hall for almost 2 hours after the show, in the hopes of meeting the cast members in person. We didn't know which doors they would walk out of. About 10-or-so of us fans were waiting around the stage door. By 11:00 PM, we were starting to give up. I told Eric and Marguerite that my cut-off time was 11:15 PM. If these guys didn't come outside by 11:15 PM, I was going to give-up and call it a night.
At 11:13 PM, a girl standing near us screamed, "They're coming out the other door!"
I haven't sprinted that long and that that hard since I was a teenager! But I BOLTED around the building and found Scott Thompson and Mark McKinney signing autographs. I approached Scott, almost in tears and told him, "It is such an honor to meet you. I have been a fan since I was a kid! When I moved to Texas, from Canada, in 1989, the only pop culture that I had in common with the other kids in my class was the Kids In The Hall. So I am a fan on a deep primordial level." And here, on film, is the moment I said that to Scott Thompson (note the hand on his heart).
Scott Thompson was so kind and so personable. It's like he actually enjoyed meeting his fans. He yelled at Mark McKinney to come be in a picture with me. "Hey Mark, she's a fellow Canadian!" "Oh yeah," Mark asked, "where are you from?" I told him, "I was born in Brantford, Ontario." Mark asked, "Where do you live now?" I said, "Washington, DC." Mark replied, "Traitor!" Then we took this picture.
These guys were great to me. I laughed so hard that night. If it's possible, I'm even a bigger fan of the Kids In The Hall now than I was when I was a kid.
And I needed a laugh that day. The night before, I had been awoken by a phone call from my mom at 1:00 AM, telling me that my dad (who lives in Mexico) had had a stoke and was in intensive care. Punch to the gut. It was a scary night. The next day, I didn't know how he was doing, so I was numb, with an aching pain in my stomach.
But then I went to the Kids In The Hall: Rusty & Ready Tour, and I laughed for hours. Then I met some of my comedy heroes! And it was exactly what I needed. And I am happy to report that my dad is getting better, his arms and legs work, and he is recovering his speech. He's going to make it through this.
So thank you, Kids In the Hall, for getting me through that. You guys rock!
~Leila
P.S. After you've caught up on all of your favorite episodes of The Kids In The Hall, why not catch up on all of your favorite episodes of The Sherman House Webisodes? Watch for free at www.shwebisodes.com?
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