The list of influential ’80s/’90s sketch comedy shows runs surprisingly long—The State, The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show, a season or two of Saturday Night Live—but nothing comes close to the influence and surreal timelessness of The Kids In The Hall. The Canadian troupe of Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson produced five seasons of delightfully deranged comedy from 1988-95, introducing a small but devoted fan base to characters like Thompson’s Buddy Cole and McKinney’s Chicken Lady, and sketches like that head-crushing guy and the ones where McCulloch plays that “Gavin” kid who rambles on about celebrity haircuts and eating things for money. The love-it-or-hate-it feature film Brain Candy followed in 1996, as did a number of live tours that found the Kids revisiting some of their most famous sketches and basking in the adulation of a generation that still couldn’t get “Daves I Know” out of its head.
Now, for the first time since 2008, The Kids In The Hall will bring their live show—featuring old and new material—to Milwaukee. On Friday, May 15, prepare to lose your mind when the surf-y sounds of that Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet song are pumped through the Riverside Theater’s sound system and Foley, McDonald, McCulloch, McKinney, and Thompson take the stage. Reserved seating tickets are $39.50 and $49.50, and go on sale Friday, March 6 at noon. Godspeed through Milwaukee, Kids!