Buddy Cole—the barfly raconteur/provocateur portrayed by gay Canadian performer Scott Thompson for several years on the comedy show Kids in the Hall, is a character who's never been afraid to say what's on his mind. And for that matter, Thompson has never been afraid to say what's on his mind either.
Thompson, who last year rejoined his Kids in the Hall castmates for another season broadcast on Prime Video (the original series ran for various periods on CBC in Canada, and HBO and CBS in the US), has taken some unused Buddy Cole monologues and combined them with new material to create the one-man show KING. Thompson brings that show to Chicago on Thursday, Jan. 11 at City Winery Chicago, 1200 W. Randolph St., at 6:30 p.m.
"Basically it's Buddy weighing in on the world today," Thompson said of KING.
During his appearances on Kids in the Hall, Buddy was usually in his favorite watering spot opining about life. In his more enterprising moments, Buddy proved himself to be a man of many talents, managing both a lesbian softball team and the burgeoning career of the vapid pop singer Tammy (Bruce McCulloch). Buddy additionally advised Queen Elizabeth (also Thompson) on navigating through her questions about Prince Edward's sexual orientation.
Buddy never sugar-coated his perspectives. Thompson's website sums up Buddy with a quote from the character: "My goal is not to shock and horrify, but to tell the truth. And if that truth shocks and horrifies, well…maybe you should get out more."
"I'm always writing for him," Thompson said of his character. "Sometimes I perform as myself, and sometimes as Buddy. [KING] is the kind of show where what I thought was, 'This is a mission for Buddy. He can handle this better than I can."'
KING was inspired by the revival of Kids in the Hall—or, rather, Thompson's inability to work any of Buddy's monologues into that revival. "I thought, 'Well, if that's what it's like with legacy media right now, you can't stop me on the stage.' The stage show developed as a way to be heard."
Ultimately those unused monologues were the spark for an exploration of deeper themes as Thompson began to write additional material. KING, he said, "kind of morphed into something else. It continues as another kind of journey. At the end of it, Buddy Cole comes to a conclusion that's pretty dramatic."
Thompson sees the stage as the only appropriate medium for this performance, given the number of cultural gatekeepers he said are negatively impacting the entertainment industry and diminishing creative expression for comedians.
"You may not agree, but comedy is under fire," he said. "A lot of people are afraid of it—and they should be, because comedy is dangerous, and comedians are supposed to speak truth to power."
Thompson was already out of the closet at a time when few if any television performers were openly gay. Buddy was not his only gay character on Kids in the Hall; among his other gay roles were Butch, a prototypical but dimwitted '90s club-clone, and Wally Terzinsky, a deeply repressed husband and father he played in the 1996 film Brain Candy. Thompson and his all-male castmates never shied away from performing female roles either.
Buddy "has never been embraced by any group," Thompson said, adding that that includes gay audiences. "People continue to be nervous around him, and that's kind of exciting."
That nervousness, he suggested, is "100% different" than the nervousness that grew around Buddy during Kids in the Halls's original incarnations.
"That was from the religious right and was aimed at me; it was very homophobic," Thompson said. "Now, if you are doing anything in television or streaming, all the censorship comes from the secular left—that's the key difference. … There's always just a certain group of people who can't handle the truth. I think those people should go off and have a pity-party on their own."
Thompson has steadily worked outside Kids in the Hall. He appeared in the films The Pacifier and Another Gay Movie, among others, and had acclaimed roles on The Larry Sanders Show and Hannibal, in addition to numerous guest-appearances, on television. He has a new album coming out (he is in a punk band, Mouth Congress, with his writing partner, Paul Bellini), as well as a screenplay, Dance with My Bones, in development.
"It's a film I've been writing for 22 years," Thompson said. "I realized last year that it's ready. People are liking it and now it's got some producers and moving into the next phase. … It's an autobiographical coming-of-age movie."
Thompson sees his Kids in the Hall castmates (who also include Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney) frequently. He said, "The Kids in the Hall have never really been apart—we're always together. We saw each other two weeks ago. When we get together to write sketch comedy, it's like nothing changes. It's everything outside our specific bubble that changes."
For information on Thompson's performance of KING at City Winery Chicago, see tinyurl.com/2p9fk397 or newscottlandland.com .
