Kids In The Hall reminisce about overeager sound guy Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show
Before he was a giggly talk show host, Jimmy Fallon was a giggly sound guy, says Mark McKinney
Aux News Jimmy Fallon
One of the only good things to happen in the history of humanity is that The Kids In The Hall are back. With a brand new sketch show coming to Prime Video this weekend, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the gods of purely revolting and depressing sketch comedy are back to make light of the worst sides of humanity. It makes the struggle worth it.
This also means a new round of appearances from The Kids on late night television, which brought them to The Tonight Show last night. Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, and Bruce McCulloch were all on hand to remember their halcyon days spent on the dingy comedy stages in the Great White North.
Thompson regaled Fallon with the time he threw donuts at the Kids In The Hall during a performance in hopes that he’d get their attention and they’d ask him to join the troupe (it worked). McCulloch remembers telling an SNL talent scout that they would not be admitted to their sold-out show without a ticket, and that maybe they could buy one on the street. “They have money,” McColloch justifies. Meanwhile, Dave Foley did one of the most original Lorne Michaels impressions as he recalled the time Michaels first came to see them, describing Michaels’ gasping laugh as “like an old-timey cowboy, like the chuckwagon cook.” Dave was just kidding, though.
“So, he didn’t laugh at all,” Fallon says in the clip. “No,” says Foley. “He looked bemused.”
But the most interesting story came from former SNL cast member Mark McKinney, who recalled a time when he shot a student film in Troy, New York, in the middle of winter, which is very cold. The sound guy on that shoot was none other than a young Jimmy Fallon, and wouldn’t you know it, he was apparently just as giggly and overeager as he is today.
“1996, I was on Saturday Night Live,” recalls McKinney. “Someone asked me to do a student film in Troy, New York, in the middle of winter, so, naturally, I said yes. And I went up there, and there was a sound guy doing the boom who had a lot of energy. Like way, way too much energy. And that was Jimmy Fallon.”
“I was excited, yeah,” says Fallon. “I remember I was laying under a coffee table for one scene or whatever, and I was holding a microphone, and you were doing a scene. And I go, ‘Hey Mark.’ And you’re doing your scene. I go, ‘I really want to be on Saturday Night Live.’ And you go, ‘Good luck, man. It’s going to be great.’”
“No, but we stayed in touch. Oh, by the way, the sound on that film, not great. But later you sent me a VHS tape and really sweet letter and asked if I could pass it on,” McKinney adds.
The whole interview is really sweet and ends with a clip of a new sketch of the Kids as 60-year-old strippers, which really adds a level of danger to exotic dancing that you wouldn’t expect.
23 Comments
I want a cut of this interview where it’s just silent whenever Fallon opens his mouth.
I bet it’d be just like Garfield Minus Garfield except not funny or interesting.
I’ve seen other attempts at the G – G format with other comic strips and they just don’t work as well.
Garfield minus Garfield and Nietzsche Family Circus are deceptively simple concepts.
I’ve seen other attempts at the G – G format with other comic strips and they just don’t work as well.3eanuts has the occasional real gem to it, but GMG comes out on top for the consistent nihilistic torturing of poor Jon.
G minus G is something that I find funny once every five years. Which is about how often I’m reminded it’s still a thing. Kinda like Fallon. Personality goes a long way, and I’ve never, ever understood how Fallon got the Tonight Show. I’m not the biggest fan of Seth Meyers, but at least he’s got persona and (some) wit to him. And he’s about the best thing late night talk shows have going for them anymore, seeing how both Letterman and even O’Brian hung up the towel. I wondered why I turned to UK panel shows, and I think it’s because I like to laugh.
I grew up watching Carson during his final years on the Tonight Show, and of course watching Letterman after, but seriously, Fallon is a schmuck. Leno did O’Brian bad, but I’ll still take Leno over Fallon any day.That said, I still don’t know why I loved watching these guys so many decades ago, but I still find them hilarious and honestly, don’t we need a bit of laughter these days?? And Dave Foley is still my comedian man crush. I know NewsRadio crashed and burned as soon as Phil Hartman was killed, but that show should have run for 12 years and spun off two movies. At least two movies. If not three subsequent series as well.
Sometimes you’ll see documentaries/interviews on Blu Ray special features or whatever where the interviewer’s questions are presented as just onscreen text for whatever reason (interviewer wasn’t properly mic’d, sometimes when you’re dealing with a language barrier that requires a translator and you don’t want to pad the length of waiting for the translator to translate the questions). That seems like it would be perfect for any Jimmy Fallon interview.
I don’t watch Jimmy but does he always do that thing where he just repeats the joke the guest just told and then giggles afterward?
He doesn’t just repeat jokes, he stutters thru em too
I can’t stand to watch Fallon but I like the Kids fine. Luckily he’s not a part of the new show even as a sound guy.
almost makes me want to sign up for prime video…almost.
It’s included with Prime.
i don’t have prime. way too expensive for me.
Can I interest you in sub-Prime?
And if I can, are you also perhaps a distinguished ape art connoisseur?
almost makes me want to watch a Jimmy Fallon clip…almost.
30 Helens agree: the original theme song was a banger.
The album it’s on (Savvy Show Stoppers — I think it’s technically a collection of EPs, but whatever) is great all the way through.
still hard to believe that music videos for Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet would play fairly regularly on Much Music back then, just surf music set to paper cutouts bouncing across the screen on string.
Jimmy Fallon interviews are such a fucking rice cake.
Something tells me the New AV Club is going to have plenty of not-so-fawning stuff to say about the new KITH series.
Absolutely loving the new episodes. Decrepit kids are fantastic.