Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Scott Thompson

Episode Date: November 6, 2020

Sketch comedy icon Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall) talks with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about the return of The Kids in the Hall, playing Tonya Harding in a sketch for Late Night with Conan, how his many appearances on Conan made Garry Shandling hire him on The Larry Sanders Show, and his remote with Conan exploring Toronto. Plus, Mike and Jessie answer a listener question about Late Night characters who might have bombed over the years. Scott Thompson Gives Conan A Tour of Toronto: https://classic.teamcoco.com/node/106574 Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now, it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Yes. What's more important than Hollywood right now? I am Jesse Gaskell, and I'm a writer on The Conan Show. This is Mike Sweeney. I coincidentally am also a writer on The Conan Show, which works out well. And today we have a great guest, Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall, who we'll be talking to in a few minutes. Yes, a Canadian, which I'm very jealous of right now. Because full disclosure, we are recording this on Wednesday, November 4th. So we still do

not have a decision in our presidential election at this point. A lot of the writers predicted exactly what's happening today. Yeah, it is. I have to say, as someone who has had to write a comedy sketch today, it's very difficult to be writing comedy during this. I just want everyone in our country to get along. You and The Gap. That's right. The Gap tweeted about the election today, right? Yeah. Did you discover that? I did. And it was a sweatshirt, a hoodie that was half blue and half red and it just said something like you know no matter what your beliefs we can all come together today and move forward and it was like and then the writers were joking that if you wore that both sides would beat

the shit out of you yes anyway by the time this podcast comes out everything will be great everything will be resolved i'll be fixed yes we'll all be wearing gap sweatshirts exactly everyone will be freed up to listen to this podcast where we talk to someone from canada uh we do it is fun to talk to scott though um the kids in the hall obviously are comedy icons yes comedy icons and they're coming back for a revival of their series. And also, a producer on our show,

Jeff Ross, our executive producer, was a producer on the original Kids in the Hall. Yeah, I had no idea. When that wrapped,

he came to work on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a brand new show at the time. That's so cool. Anyway, we had a fun time

talking to Scott Thompson. Here's our interview with Scott. Hello, Scott. Hey, how you doing? Hi, good. Thanks for doing the show. Our first big question is, where are you? I'm in my little office in Toronto. I've been here ever since this all began. I came here back home in February. I had a feeling things might go a little sideways. You had information our president didn't have. Well, in a way, I had a dream. And I went, this is a bad one. I had my apartment rented out for

years. And then I thought, I'm going to come back for a bit because the kids in the hall were rebooted. And we're going to do it all here. So I came back in February. Wait, so I'm about to give you extra credit for being that prescient to know to go back. Did you go back because of COVID? You had a hunch? Or was it because of kids in the hall? It was before.

It was about the kids in the hall. It was a coincidence. Kids in the hall is coming back, which is super exciting. Oh, that's so exciting. It is. It's unbelievable. I've waited. Honestly, I've been waiting for this since the end of The Kids in the Hall.

When are we going to reboot, guys? It would never have ended. Right. Yeah. You know, it's when you're young, you kind of think, oh, I'll find this over and over and over again. We all know that doesn't happen. It almost never happens once. So, you know, now I look back on it and I would say to any youngster, hang on.

Well past, you know, well past the best due date. Oh, hang on until your fingertips are bleeding. Overstay your welcome. Yes. And then never your hands to the wall. Never let go. You don't need your hand, but you need the spotlight. That sounds like really great advice.

Well, no, I love to hear that, though, because a lot of people start out with a group of peers and, you know, they're just making stuff. And it's sort of your most pure creative form at that time because you're not hindered by like, OK, we're self-editing or we're worried about what, you know, a network wants or something. And so, and you, you had that really early on. Yeah. And when you think of the world we're in today, this is the world of self-editing 20. Yes. Seven. Wow. It's a difficult world for people without too many, you know, limits. It's difficult. When you thought that your job as a comedian was to say the unsayable and make it funny, and then you discover, no, those aren't jokes.

Those are microaggressions. Then you go, oh, it's time to study philosophers. Right. Well, but now you have to take, I mean, obviously you're writing tons of new stuff, but all of those comedy pieces you guys established in the early nineties, you have to look at through the prism of 2020. That's got to be like, hmm. It's really mostly other people who say you can't do that. Right. So.

We never say that. Good. Did you have to hire a real chicken lady to play the chicken yes yes absolutely and you can't crush people's heads that's murder it's um for anybody in comedy it's difficult but we're also blessed because i feel like we're our entire career in many ways is blessed and cursed at the same time. Like it's like that old saying, you know, may you live in interesting times, a blessing and a curse. And that's like us. Like we thought, wow, how we're allowed to have a say again.

And then, boom, it all falls apart. But imagine as comedians, like us, to be allowed to comment during this time. That's really a gift. Yeah, that's great. It's a gift. And I tell myself that when I think, wow, I'm so cursed. You know, because I realize the only thing I can control is my reaction to it. Right.

I am now just trying to control my reaction to things and go, it's just how you look at it. And also it, it sounds like an actual fun challenge to kind of reinvent stuff you already established for the present day. Yes. And, you know, and to bring characters from then into now and to create new characters and just to,

you know, to be able to be, to be able to go into all the things that really upset people and all the things that confuse and bedevil people and to be allowed to make comic hay with that is all I've ever wanted to do. Well, I'm curious about in Canada. Yes. Does the sense of what you can get away with, does it seem much different than the United States? It's much worse. Oh.

Much worse. Oh, no, no. We're much further along. Much more advanced. You're well on your way to becoming Canada. That's a relief. No, no. Canada is a very different country.

Yes. If you are kind of a person like me who's kind of a, I wouldn't say a contrarian, but someone that kind of who likes to push back. A provocateur. Yeah. And never accepts the status quo or, or do you know what I mean? As that, I come from a socialist country. So if I'm going to push, I'm not an American. Like if I was an American comedian, I would push back differently. Like some of the things that we push back on people will go, wow, they're not what we thought. But that's because we're not Americans. And so often the people that are trying to stop us here say a holy kind of, but I would. I'd say it's like it's a battle, a holy battle. So the people that are trying to hold us back look very differently here. Does that make sense? Yes. Because I've also discovered that there will

always be a certain subset of people that are uncomfortable with comedians. And they can come from the left, they can come from the right, they can come from the left they can come from the right they can come from anywhere and you just have to always have your eyes open we just go back and forth back and forth and the comedian's job is to kind of try to to not be caught up in what you i don't know what the word is your own agenda does that make sense right yeah should we uh talk about scott's first appearances on late night yeah Yeah. Yes, sure. Because, you know, technically we like to tie things into the Conan show. And you started appearing right when Late Night with Conan O'Brien started, which was back in the fall of 93.

You were a guest. Had you ever been on a talk show before? No, that was my first time on a talk show. Oh, wow. That's great. Like, do you remember, like, oh, God, do I need to prepare for it? Do I have to have material? I don't remember. I just remember talking to Frank Smiley endlessly. That's what everyone remembers. Yeah. I just can't wait to see this guy in real life.

Oh, cause you taught you, were you up in Canada at the time? And frank smiley yeah he was uh and he still is a guest producer on our show so he he does pre-interviews with guests he did michelle obama uh last week yeah oh my god that's amazing yes uh say hi to him for me i will tell him he said hi i just didn't quite realize how much preparation went into a talk show appearance. Right. Because I was used to Canadian talk shows where there's no prep. Oh, really? Is that true? You just kind of show up?

Not like you guys know. Nothing's like that. Yeah. We don't really have a talk show any longer. Haven't for many years. We have 48. I know. We should send 20 of them north.

And here's the sad part is, I don't host any of them. Yeah, that's a crime. That's crazy. Can you sing karaoke? That would be perfect. Of course I can sing karaoke. So I just remember how much fun it was. I think I did Tonya Harding, right?

The first time? Was that the first time or not? Oh, wow. Right. Because one of the early bits on the show was Conan and Andy would kind of make a made for TV movie. Yeah. About a big story in the news. And back then it was Nancy Kerrigan and the Tonya Harding controversy.

I think they did the whole sketch live. Did you play Tonya Harding? I played Tonya Harding, of course. Yeah. I'm not sure if that was my first, but it might have been the very first. Okay. The first time on it was in a sketch. And then later on,

he said he might be a good guest as well. Right. Cause maybe I was chatty. And he can balance on skates. I always remember your entrance, right? Where you teeter tottering on. I definitely can walk on skates. Yeah.

Oh, of course. We have to skate. You can't graduate from high school. No, no, no.. We have to skate. Yeah, you can't graduate from high school. No, no, no. Absolutely not. You're killed in the crib if you can't skate. If you don't have the right feet. If you're not born with skates.

Got a club foot here. So then you started being a guest on the show, and you were on a lot. So that had to be... I had a wonderful time doing the Conan show. Actually, that was always my goal as a child. I wanted to be a dramatic actor. Uh-huh. I wanted to appear on talk shows and be a very funny guest.

Uh-huh. I never wanted to be a comedian. I thought that would be the perfect balance. So I got one right. Well, it's not too late to be a dramatic actor. That could happen. No, it's not. I mean, you've done some dramatic acting.

You were on Hannibal. Oh, that's true. Hannibal is arguably a comedy. Kind of a black comedy. It's definitely a dramatic show. And also, I mean, another comedy, but still it required great acting

was the Larry Sanders show. Yes. That was absolutely, that was a real acting workshop for me. Yeah, I would think. Gary was very skilled at coaxing a comedian into acting. Yeah, because would he be very hands-on in terms of directing? Very.

I mean, there was wonderful directors. Right. But there was one where Gary actually directed my character, Brian, in an episode that sort of focused on brian a bit uh he was great that way but no he would definitely at the beginning i mean i wanted to be an actor from day one right it wasn't like i didn't know how to act it's just that i i'd been a comedian for so long and with the kids that i i overemphasized everything and i stepped right you had to reign it in a bit for these parts and his basically he his number one thing was just say it uh-huh don't just say it don't make it funny what don't i have to give it

you let me do it my way so lose the tap You know, it's interesting while you were doing that show, you were appearing as a guest because they were kind of happening contemporaneously. But I got that gig because of Conan. Oh, oh, well, I mean, it was the kids in the hall as well, because Gary was a fan of the kids in the hall. But it was really, Gary said it was when he saw me on Conan that he thought i could act like and be myself oh it was the conan appearances that made gary hire me for larry sanders i kind of love that like it's interesting he saw young kids in the hall playing these you know big characters characters yeah but it's almost like you had to do this separate audition which you didn't even realize

you were doing by being just yourself and it's like oh yeah yeah and brian isn't like me i mean right he isn't like me um the only thing we have really in common is we're both gay and both canadian canadian right we're really not that alike it was him and judd apatow the book the two of them and they both had seen it and they both that so they decided that they decided to do it. There was no audition that the audition was Conan, as you said, and they just brought me in and they found me in Turkey. And I beg your pardon. You were in Turkey when you got the call. You were trying not to be found.

I was in a hamam, like a Turkish bath. Oh, I was. Guy came up to me and I'm like, that's what i'm sorry there's a phone call phone call yes for mr scott mr scott mr scott so that's what happened that's a great showbiz story it is i mean i was vacationing but my vacation wasn't over but i thought well i'm this this would be cool because i was obsessed with larry sanders i really couldn't believe believe they would want me on the show. It was incredibly easy.

I didn't do anything. And the truth is, everything I've ever gotten, nothing I've auditioned for I've ever gotten. Right. Yeah. So often it's just through people you know who are making something. And word of mouth. Yeah.

And, yeah, they just feel like they know you and they've seen what you've done. So it's like, oh, you'd be perfect for this. That was a fun, fun time. But yeah, it was definitely you guys that got me that job. Thank you. Oh, I wish I could take credit.

Wow, so you guys are writing for this new Kids in the Hall. I'm guessing, are you doing it over Zoom? Are the members spread all over the place? Are some of them still in the United States? When it all fell apart, we had been together for almost three weeks. So we'd already gotten a real good head start on it. And then we didn't we didn't of course like everybody when we left the office that day we thought we didn't quite realize we wouldn't see each other for a year we continued to write all through it we wrote for like three months right so we've overwritten that's great you know if things go well we have a lot of stuff written if there would be a second season and one of the things was it was a it was a very difficult time for many reasons. But the upside is that we have all this material, and we were writing it during an incredibly intense period. Yeah. I think about the Kisnah Hall when we began.

The world was going through enormous changes at the end of the 80s, early 90s. Right. The AIDS crisis and Tiananmen Square and the end of the Soviet Union. Massive, massive changes that were shaking the world. And also political correctness was really beginning its stranglehold. And I mean, now it's a stranglehold. Then it was just a choke. So we're kind of suited for it, you know.

Yeah. I think we really are suited for this kind of thing it also is great to have something to keep you that engaged oh god during a pandemic it's like okay i feel like my life has some purpose you know yeah i need i could use some deadlines couldn't you like right now i'm trying very hard to try to figure out how to get through this winter. Right. I have to set myself deadlines and goals or I'm going to, it's going to be tough. Right. Well, what's the next step? So you wrote all these sketches.

Are you going to be able to start shooting them in Canada soon or? Yeah, but not until April. Not till April. Wow. Yeah. So that's the tentative date for us to start up. All right. That's because of COVID, but it's also the fact that Bruce is directing a series here called Tallboy.

Bruce McCullough. And Mark is on Superstore. So they will have to play out now. We couldn't start up now anyways. I mean... It's winter. Yeah, it's winter. Well, the business...

Yeah, we shot in the wintertime, and that wouldn't be so bad. Like, Hannibal was always shot in the wintertime, and that wouldn't be so bad. Like, Hannibal was always shot in the winter. I just watched before this the remote that you did with Conan when the show went to Toronto in 2004, I think, and I was stunned by how cold it looked. It was dramatic. I was on that remote with you guys. Oh, were you? Yeah.

You guys spent quite a week. We did. I think Conan, like, he likes that. Like, we've talked Yeah. You guys picked quite a week. We did. I think Conan likes that. We've talked about, oh, we should go to back when you could travel. Do a travel show to Russia. And he's like, yes, but only when it's negative 28

degrees because he wants to lean into it. Conan was thrilled, I remember. Oh, yeah. By the blizzard we were in. Mike, it was a blizzard yeah it was brutal yeah that was a crazy day yeah well it looked like you filmed all day long because it was like we did we went to the tower we went to the baddest shoe museum we went to the uh nhl the stanley cup nhl museum The ice skating rink by City Hall.

Didn't they, had they just made gay marriage? Yes. I think you went in and got, we got a license, I think. Let's be honest. It was, Conan can say what he likes, but it was a date. Well, I was going to say that Conan, I mean. I was a chaperone. Having done a lot of remotes with him where he,

he can tend to be like, all right, let's wrap this up. If he's not having fun with the person, but it sounds like he was having a great time with you. Oh, yeah. I know it's a date because it ended up with me in nothing but a jockstrap holding up a Stanley Cup. That's right. And he still didn't have sex with me.

That's how straight he is. We ended up at a gay bar. We ended up at a gay bar! Yeah, and then we called it a wrap and then we just hung out there for a few hours so it was a date although being at a gay bar maybe we all had wandering eyes you know so we couldn't that might have been it oh my god we got a lot in that day yeah we got a lot in and uh we got a good road out of it yeah we did that was a lot of fun yeah that was really that week you guys chose was a tough week here well with with your show with the kids in the

hall would you guys have to the first time around like would you write stuff that you thought everyone in all 10 provinces would enjoy or well our show from day one was a show that went all over right and we were writing for americans as well i absolutely think that we were at a time quite flabbergasted at the different things that people censored in different countries and uh i think that kind of i think it kind of threw us when we realized how sensitive americans are over religious things um yes also the difference in terms of sexual things. Right.

It's not that Canadians are like all libertarian, you know, they're all like wild orgies in the snow. America's is an oddly, strangely enough, puritanical nation at its heart. And religion has never been separated. You talk a good game, it's written in the Constitution, but it's never really been real. It's only real on paper.

Yeah. That's the only part of the Constitution we ignore. All the rest is like, buy the letter. Buy the letter. Yeah. No. Were there other countries besides America where you're like, wow. Like, how about in England, I would imagine? Well, this is the real tragedy of us. We never really took off in England. Huh. We never really took off in the whole United Kingdom. We were convinced that we'd be big there.

That's what I just, watching some old sketches, I was like, oh, this seems like a natural. Lots of Americans thought we were British. So, like, what is it? Because they couldn't quite figure out what it was. Like, what is it? It can was like, it's what is it can't be American, right? Must be British or Australian. Right. What is that? What is that accent? It's driving me crazy.

We never really had the right platform in England. Right. We were on Channel 4 very briefly, like in the morning. Oh, that doesn't help. But we did take off in many other places, very odd places. We are big in some surprisingly strange places. Oh, like where? That's always fun to find where you're simpatico with.

Greece, Turkey, again, Chile, like South America a lot, Brazil, Peru. Very big in South America. I don't think we're big in Australia. Another weird thing, like what? But they also like to make fun of the queen. I think that what will happen when Amazon, because they bought our entire library, I think we will suddenly be known in a lot of different, in those places. And I'm very excited about that.

That is exciting. It's exciting to rev things back up. It really is. Because the truth is, the kids in the hall have not really been available. We haven't been on any network or television or streaming anywhere. Yeah, it's like you have to buy the DVD collection, basically. So I think we're actually now practically unknown again. So I think when we come back, it'll be like, where did they come from? Yeah, look at these underdogs.

I'm rooting for those kids. Exactly. It's the new K-pop boys. Their clothes seem dated. Yeah, their clothes seem dated. They didn't age well, but they still got it. Or they're not dated because now everything old is new again.

I think it's a great plan. It's almost like, hey, let's put this in a vault. And when it comes out again, it's going to be exciting. It'll feel fresh. Yeah. And also, it'll come out into a time where people go, you can't do that. That's right. You can't.

They did what? People are going to lose their minds. Just keep flashing the year underneath, like 1993, 1993. I don't even care. I welcome it. I can't wait. Well, it's all buzz. Here he goes.

That's right. No bad press. I think the other part of our master plan was we all agreed, don't any of us get too big. And we've done it. Good foresight, yeah. Because we were like, if we don't get too successful, we'll still be hungry when the spotlight comes back and all of our other rich and famous friends

will be bloated corpses sitting in their mansions. Well, Scott, it's time for us to wrap up with you. But we always like to ask our guests at the end for a piece of advice you might offer to a young'un out there who's trying to get their comedy career started. Well, this is a very, it's a practical one. Yeah.

But one of the things I've learned that, you know, it's great to be first at something, but there's no money in it. The money only comes from being third. Okay. That's my advice. And actually, second's the worst. I was going to ask about second place.

Yeah. Then you're being compared to the first one. Yeah. And you won't have the money and you won't have the credit. So it's either first or third. You have to make a choice of what are you going to do. Well, thank you so much, Scott.

This was such a pleasure. Thanks, Scott. It was great chatting. Can't wait to see the new kids in the hall. Yeah. Oh, yeah, we'll say hi to Frank. That's great. Bye-bye.

All right, that was Scott Thompson. That was Scott. He's safely tucked away in Toronto. Yes, and nice and cozy in his home. We can't even visit him. I looked into it. We can't visit him. I am marrying him, though.

Okay. Does he know about it? He doesn't need to know. No, he doesn't. We've got a fan question. We do. It's a voicemail. Hi, Jesse and Mike.

This is Jeff from Milwaukee. I've been a huge fan since the early days of Old Elfin and Joel Goddard, and the show was really influential to me during my formative years. I have two questions. One, were there ever any bits or characters you were sure would bomb that ended up being successful or recurring, or any you were sure would kill but ended up bombing? And second, I'd love to see some behind-the-scenes features or outtakes of Conan during COVID. Are you guys planning on doing any scraps pieces for the show during quarantine?

Thanks so much. Love you guys. And thank you for keeping us all entertained during the pandemic and providing a little glimmer of light during these dark times. Thanks again and take care. Love you guys. Oh, Jeff. Is it weird to say I love you too? Jeff, thank you for that great question from the great city of Milwaukee.

In the great state of Wisconsin. Well, what are scraps usually? We should explain what that is. They're outtakes from the Conan show. Because usually we rehearse everything and that gets filmed and sometimes things go off the rails. Yeah, we started putting them online. They're usually blooper outtakes from rehearsals. Yeah, and it's very loose and Conan and Andy usually riff about things and make fun of the writers a lot.

That is a very accurate insight into how rehearsal goes. The thumping of the writers continuously. But Jeff was asking if we're going to post any scraps from the quarantimes. I'm confused because I sort of think our whole show is a scrap right now. We don't really do a rehearsal. So it's just... It's true. Yeah, like the other day he came in and the set had been burglarized and it's like, okay, that's the top of the show today that normally would have been a scrap maybe on the old show but not now jeff also mentioned he said he loved the uh oldie olsen and joel goddard and those are references to two gentlemen from the late night with conan o'brien years oldie olsen was in a lot of comedy

sketches and joel goddard was the announcer for the show yeah uh the entire time the show was in new york city up till 2008 they were both hilarious but he asked about characters that were can you think of any any that you thought were going to be that i thought hilarious and then bombed or well there's probably a lot of those but I think I've probably blocked them out of my memory. Can you think of anything? Oh, there were some characters that the writers really liked. And I don't even remember if they did well the first time, but we brought them back anyway,

because Conan liked them and the writers liked them. The FedEx Pope comes to mind. Oh, yeah. That's a character Brian McCann started doing late at night in the writer's room. Because there's an empty FedEx box in the head writer's room. So he just put it on his head and goes, look, guys, I'm the FedEx Pope. And we're like, oh, my God. We've got to do that on the show. But no, he just walked out in a bathrobe and he'd shove a FedEx hat on his head

as if it were the Pope's miter. And I think Conan would go, here he is, our new character, the always disappointing FedEx Pope. And he would just walk through and it was just a quick visual. He didn't say anything. And I think the crowd just loved it. I don't know if they loved it.

It doesn't matter if they did or not. I can't remember. But we brought it back. It seemed bulletproof to us. It was just very, very funny. Those were our favorite things. Because he probably did the FedEx Pope in the writer's room for like a month yeah before it ended up on the show i mean conan string dance you know that string dance he did did that for a couple of years in the writer's room oh really yeah and then and he was doing it was like bad on purpose yeah someone goaded him to do it and so he snuck it into a monologue one night and the crowd, we were all like, oh God, the crowd loved it. Yeah.

It never went away. Well, that's really the ultimate answer to this question. Yes. The character of Conan, we all thought was going to bomb, but then it killed. Exactly. Thank you, Jeff. If anyone else wants to call in, it's so fun when you do. Our voicemail is 323-209-5303.

Thanks, Jeff. You can also email us at InsideConanPod at gmail.com. And that's the show for the week. Bye. Bye. We like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell.

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