The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks

Last updated
The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks
Comedy Punks poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Reginald Harkema
Produced byKim Creelman
Nick McKinney
Starring
CinematographyChristina Ienna
Michelle McCabe
Edited byPeter Denes
Production
company
Distributed by Amazon Prime Video
Release date
  • March 15, 2022 (2022-03-15)(SXSW)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks is a 2022 Canadian documentary film, directed by Reginald Harkema. [1] Released to coincide with Amazon Prime's relaunch of the influential Canadian sketch comedy series The Kids in the Hall and based partially on Paul Myers's 2018 book The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy, [2] the film documents the history of the troupe through both archival footage and contemporary interviews with the members, largely filmed at The Rivoli, the Toronto club where the troupe got their start on stage. [3]

The film also includes segments with other actors and comedians commenting on the troupe's influence, including Fred Armisen, Jay Baruchel, Lewis Black, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Mae Martin, Mike Myers, Eric McCormack and Lorne Michaels. [4]

The film premiered on March 15, 2022 at the SXSW festival, [4] and had its Canadian premiere at the 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, [1] in advance of its launch on Amazon on May 20 as a companion to the new season of the series. [3]

The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Kids in the Hall</span> Canadian comedy group

The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in Canada. It also appeared on CBS, HBO and Comedy Central, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Myers</span> Canadian-American actor, comedian, director, producer and screenwriter (born 1963)

Michael John Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, director, producer and screenwriter. His accolades include seven MTV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for "his extensive and acclaimed body of comedic work as an actor, writer, and producer."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Thompson (actor)</span> Canadian comedian and actor

John Scott Thompson, known professionally as Scott Thompson, is a Canadian actor and comedian, best known as member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall and for playing Brian on The Larry Sanders Show.

<i>Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy</i> 1996 Canadian comedy film by Kelly Makin

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy is a 1996 Canadian comedy film written by and starring the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Directed by Kelly Makin and filmed in Toronto, it followed the five-season run of their television series The Kids in the Hall, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce McCulloch</span> Canadian comedian, actor, writer

Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, musician and film director. McCulloch is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, including starring in the TV series of the same name. He was also a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has appeared on other series including Twitch City and Gilmore Girls. He directed the films Dog Park, Stealing Harvard and Superstar.

Paul Myers is a Canadian author, journalist, musician and songwriter. Until 2006, Myers worked as a musician and journalist in Toronto and Vancouver, where he became a television and radio personality. He is the older brother of actor and comedian Mike Myers.

Paul Bellini is a Canadian comedy writer and television actor best known for his work on the comedy series The Kids in the Hall and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. He has worked on several projects with Josh Levy and Scott Thompson, and has appeared in small parts on television shows and films.

South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ondi Timoner</span> American film director

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and chief executive officer of Interloper Films, a production company located in Pasadena, California.

<i>The Case Against 8</i> 2014 American film

The Case Against 8 is an American documentary film, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. Directed and produced by Ben Cotner and Ryan White, the film documents the legal battle to overturn California's Proposition 8, focusing in particular on behind-the-scenes footage of David Boies and Theodore Olson during the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case.

Reginald Harkema is a Canadian film editor and director. He is a three-time Genie Award nominee for Best Editing at the 17th Genie Awards in 1996 for Hard Core Logo, at the 19th Genie Awards in 1998 for Last Night and at the 25th Genie Awards in 2004 for Childstar. The 2014 film Super Duper Alice Cooper, which he codirected with Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Greenbaum</span> American film director

Josh Greenbaum is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has won an MTV Movie Award, CINE Golden Eagle and Emmy Award. He directed the feature documentary The Short Game, winner of the SXSW Audience Award, which was acquired by Netflix to launch their Originals film division. He also directed Becoming Bond, a documentary about George Lazenby, which won SXSW's Audience Award in the Visions category, as well as the critically acclaimed Too Funny to Fail, a documentary about The Dana Carvey Show. He is also the creator, director and executive producer of Behind the Mask, which earned Hulu its first ever Emmy nomination. He made his narrative feature debut with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mae Martin</span> Canadian comedian and actor

Mae Pearl Martin is a Canadian comedian, actor, and screenwriter. They co-created, co-wrote and starred in the Channel 4/Netflix comedy series Feel Good. They received a nomination for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for their work on Feel Good.

Hot Docs at Home is a Canadian television programming block, which premiered April 16, 2020 on CBC Television. Introduced as a special series during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the series aired several feature documentary films that had been scheduled to premiere at the 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival before its postponement. The films aired on CBC Television at 8 p.m. EST on Thursdays and on the CBC's Documentary Channel later the same evening, and were made available for streaming on the CBC Gem platform.

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, also known as the TOSketchfest, is an annual comedy festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, devoted to sketch comedy. Held over 12 days in March, the festival presents performances by both established and emerging sketch comedy troupes from Canada and the United States.

<i>The Kids in the Hall</i> (season 6) Season of television series

The sixth season of Canadian sketch comedy series The Kids in the Hall aired in 2022; it was a revival, after 27 years, of the original series, which aired for five seasons from 1988 to 1995. Unlike the first five seasons, which aired on CBC in Canada and HBO, then CBS, in the United States, the sixth season aired on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service. It was greenlit and produced by Amazon Prime Video Canada, and was that subsidiary's first original series. The revival was announced in early 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming did not commence until mid-2021.

The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Maya Gallus and released in 2018. The film profiles several women chefs, exploring the sexist double standards in the restaurant industry that get women sidelined, or stigmatized as "difficult", if they are as ambitious or assertive as their male peers.

Belle River is a 2022 Canadian short documentary film directed by Guillaume Fournier, Samuel Matteau and Yannick Nolin. The third film in a trilogy about Cajun culture in Louisiana following the films Let the Good Times Roll in 2017 and Acadiana in 2019, the film profiles the residents of Pierre Part as they cope with the threat of their community being flooded by the possible but ultimately averted opening of the Morganza Spillway during the Mississippi River floods of 2019.

References