FEBRUARY 13th, 2016
By LANA CARBON & JOHN LILIES
[John] I’ve never thought myself a particularly funny person. I honestly don’t think I have a sense of humour. Lana disagrees and other people tell me I’m funny. Sometimes I think sarcasm can be easily confused with funny. Maybe sarcasm can itself be funny and perhaps that’s how I make people laugh but more often than not if I’m trying to be funny I’m just being silly and the rest of the time I’m just quiet and intense. I don’t usually laugh when others do and I don’t typically understand common humour. I enjoy stand up comedy… sometimes. I don’t know most of the popular comics and the ones I laugh with seem to be unknown to many or too old school for others.
[Lana] Don’t believe her at all. John has a wonderful sense of humour and is often laughing and making me laugh. Just because she doesn’t find every type of humour equally funny doesn’t mean the humour is non-existent.
[John] Thank you – and I still don’t believe you. (Lana himself is actually very funny)
There is common ground, however… enter The Kids in the Hall.
Image courtesy Google Images
Bruce McCulloch, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson. Five people who never fail to make me (and many others) laugh (and no matter how years and projects go by, they will forever be in my heart as The Kids in the Hall). On February 12th Lana and I had the privilege to see Scott Thompson live on stage… in Whitby, Ontario.
[Lana] The Kids in the Hall brought such diversity with their unique brand of humour that they became a staple for Canadian youth in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Lines from their sketches are often still quoted to this day.
[John] We aren’t from Whitby but we are very familiar with it and thankfully so as much of the night was poking some fun at the non-Toronto nature of Whitby. Opening act Robby Hoffman elicited the identification of one Jewish audience member and did well to warm us up before Scott Thompson prompted the two gay men at the back of the room to identify themselves. Much to Lana’s chagrin I was not willing to raise my hand when Mr. Thompson asked if there was anyone in the room who was not white. Those of you who know our blog know we use pseudonyms, which should be indication of the fact we don’t much enjoy the spotlight. I could not bring myself to identify as the one not-completely-white-person in the room (could I honestly have been the only one?) especially considering we were only in the second row and easily visible at the side – much too apparent for my comfort level.
[Lana] Anyone who has been to a comedy show knows that many comics enjoy a “friendly repartee” with targets (I mean crowd members) close to the stage. I have no idea why John didn’t want to stand up and become a participant in the show for the evening. Hee hee!
[John] Cue nausea.
Having established the lack of diversity in the room, the show forged ahead with a frantic deluge of hilarious and pointed life stories and admissions that had us laughing so hard I was crying and my lungs were actually hurting. We had both been very much looking forward to this show (thank you Brother Carbon for the tickets!) and we knew we wouldn’t be disappointed but we had no idea just how happy we would really be.
[Lana] My cheeks are still sore for the near constant laughing and wide-faced grin that consumed my features throughout the entire performance.
[John] I was so aware of the volume of my laugh but I couldn’t control it and decided to stop trying; loud laughter and happy tears… an okay combination, yes?
[Lana] YES!
[John] To say that I’m grateful for the endorphin release would be a severe understatement. Thank you sincerely Robby Hoffman and Scott Thompson, for the desperately needed laughs and break from intense life realities. I’m still not sure that I have a sense of humour but I’m happy I have the ability to laugh with truly funny people. I will forever be grateful for The Kids in the Hall because they brought to our attention the bright talents that continue to provide us with viscerally resonating hilarity that make the tough times seem easier to navigate and remind us that there are some authentically funny people in our world.
