Metro Center 

IN THE 1990s, three words scrawled across television screens indicated viewers were in for a half- hour of top-notch ensemble comedy: "Lorne Michaels Presents."

This wasn't that other Michaels production, the one that was live on Saturday night. This was "The Kids in the Hall," a Canadian male quintet of kooks who trafficked in absurd, biting and gaspingly funny sketch comedy and understood that when the going gets tough, the tough put on dresses.

We spoke with Scott Thompson, who, along with Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney formed the group in Toronto in the late 1980s. For the Kids' comeback tour, hitting the Warner Theatre on Saturday, they've got all new material but some familiar faces.

"You'll see the Kathys are back," said Thompson from inside the Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas. (True. The troupe tour stopped in Texas, where they decided to sightsee.) He was referring to catty secretaries Cathy (Thompson) and Kathie (McCulloch). "But they're not doing so well. ... Chicken Lady is back" — that's McKinney's infamous half-woman/half-chicken whose chief attribute is her desire to, uh, lay eggs with hot men. "And Buddy's back, and the head-crushers are back. But they're saying new things."

For KITH fans, these characters are indelible, not only because of their extreme — and extremely amusing — oddity, but also because they are always deeply, fundamentally human, from McCulloch's tormented living-for-rock teen Bobby Terrance to McKinney's clueless, pretentious Darill (pronounced da-RILL) to Thompson's most famous creation, the divine Buddy Cole.

The megastar of a show unfolding in his head, Buddy Cole is so gay he virtually loops back to being hetero and moves beyond into previously undiscovered realms of fabulousness. The drive to revive Buddy, Thompson said, is partly spurred by the current, supposedly gay-friendly TV landscape.

"Certainly, TV is groaning under the weight of queens," he said. "And they're all neutered. People say, 'Oh, aren't you thrilled about all the gays on TV?' I'm, like, 'Yeah, but they're like little fairies that live to make other people's lives better. But Buddy's going, 'Wait a minute. I'm the star of this; I'm not a sidekick.' He's bringing the noise, I tell ya."

And fans are ready to hear it. "They have no idea how silly and perverted middle-aged men can be. People will go, 'Wow! Those guys are in their 40s, and look how childish they are!"

» Warner Theatre, 513 13th St. NW; Sat., 8 p.m., $40-$45; 800-551-7328. (Metro Center)

Photos courtesy Dan Dion

Posted by Arion Berger at 12:02 AM on May 1, 2008
Tagged in Comedy , Entertainment , Television , The District , Top Stories