Laugh Lines: Conversations With Comedians Read Online Free PDF

Hall?
     
    Mark: At 3:30 in the morning on a Tuesday, desperate, I learned something about writing. I can’t actually say what it was—it may just be something like ‘Hang in there, baby’; the cat on the curtain rod poster—but we wrote some of our best stuff.
     
    Corey: What was it like working with Lorne Michaels?
     
    Mark: My experience working with Lorne Michaels is a lot better than my experience working without Lorne Michaels—in comedy anyway.
     
    Corey: You guys played women—a lot—during Kids in the Hall, but they were quite realistic portrayals generally.
     
    Mark: I think that happened really early. We just had one idea about performing as women. I think it probably wasn’t one of our most creative ideas; it was simply that we weren’t going to be those guys with big water-balloon tits.
     
    Corey: Was there ever the thought of using a real woman like Python did with Carol Cleveland?
     
    Mark: We were writing a lot of scenes where we did wish we had a female member, but they never stuck. We were too obnoxious for females.
     
    Corey: Did you dare try to pull off your drag in public?
     
    Mark: I never had the guts to do it, but Scott Thompson said he was gonna spend an entire summer in a dress, and he didn’t do that either.
     
    Corey: Will you share the origin of the Chicken Lady?
     
    Mark: Kevin had written a sketch. The whole idea was he was a guy with a freak show at the circus, and his trick was he could make his nose bleed at will. And the whole scene was these kids taunting him, and he doesn’t need them because he’s in therapy and in touch with his feelings, and he doesn’t need to perform; he’s on his lunch break.
     
    At the end, the throwaway line is, ‘Get out of here, kids; go see the Chicken Lady. She’s an emotional dependent; she’ll do anything.’ And at the last second, we decided it would be funny to see the emotionally-dependent Chicken Lady.
     
    Corey: Post-Kids, you played a priest in two films. Do you see yourself in that calling?
     
    Mark: Either that or I look like I’m after little boys.
     

Kids in the Hall—Scott Thompson
     
    With most of the great comedy teams either dead or disbanded—and chances of a Monty Python reunion about as likely as founding member Graham Chapman returning from the grave—it’s refreshing to see one Canadian troupe still make it work after three decades. During the first season of “Kids in the Hall,” audiences were introduced to Buddy Love, a flamboyant barfly created by Scott Thompson.
     
    Corey: How do the Kids get along today?
     
    Scott Thompson: This is now a group that has accepted that we’re together forever. It sounds like we’re dealing with a terrible disease, but in a way it is. You know, a marriage is a disease. You just decide to embrace it or not, and so it’s more of a creative affair.
     
    Corey: How is Buddy Love?
     
    Scott: He’s excellent; he’s really good. He just got back from the Middle East, so he’s a little tired. He needs some down time.
     
    Corey: Buddy seems to celebrate some of the elements that make up gay stereotypes. How much of Buddy is in you?
     
    Scott: It allows me to say things that I think people wouldn’t listen to in my own voice. It allows me in some ways to say the un-say-able. Somehow the accent lulls people into a false sense of security, like ‘Oh, I know what this is; it’s a stupid queen.’ Then he hits you with something that’s pretty smart and he’s actually kind of tough and aggressive in a way. His femininity I find very alpha—an alpha queen. That’s basically how I see him.
     
    Corey: What kind of advice would Buddy have for someone coming out of the closet?
     
    Scott: One step at a time and, you know, just remember what you see now. In the future, you’re gonna look back upon it and be mighty embarrassed by a lot of it, but don’t be ashamed. I mean, you get a little older and go ‘Wow, was I ever a hard-ass.’ You know, everybody has their