BANFF – Canadian comedy icon Bruce McCulloch is not returning to Banff to look for a pen or stolen bicycle – he’s back in town with “Tales of Bravery and Stupidity.”
The funnyman of the legendary troupe The Kids in the Hall and writer for Saturday Night Live is performing in a one-man show Saturday (Jan. 26) at 7:30 p.m. at the Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre.
Also on stage that evening will be Cathy Jones of Canadian political satire This Hour Has 22 Minutes, in her one-woman show “The Impossible Cathy Jones Rides Again!”
Admission is $35.
After living in showbiz hub Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, McCulloch, who grew up as a Flames-loving Calgarian, is moving back to Canada and bringing stories about his complicated love for people, being Canadian, and how we all approach life’s greatest mysteries and challenges.
McCulloch called doing his multiple one-man shows a “spiritual move,” as he enjoys connecting with an audience.
“We’re all in this together,” said McCulloch. “I use my experience and always have seemed to find myself in weird situations.”
Tales of Bravery and Stupidity is part standup, a bit of music, and at times it’s serious, but the natural storyteller McCulloch can’t wait to perform his uniquely bizarre brand of cult-hit comedy.
McCulloch’s pedigree speaks for itself having acted in recent television shows such as Workaholics and Netflix’s Arrested Development; directing films Superstar and Stealing Harvard; was a writer in the ’80s for SNL, and even has two albums out.
Not bad for a Young Drunk Punk – also his brainchild – from Calgary, who’d occasionally sneak off to Banff during his Mount Royal days for a little fun.
“That’s where I got to climb a lot. I can’t go rock climbing now because I have children,” said McCulloch. “Banff has a sweet place in my heart. We use to have a distain for hikers – we’d call them walkers.
“I was a prick when I was young.”
That side to McCulloch growing up though helped mold one of Canada’s finest sketch comedy programs, but admittedly, he’s unfamiliar with how much nicer comedians are today.
He observes a lot of this unfamiliar behaviour as the artist in residence for Humber College’s comedy program.
It’s good that the business is moving in this direction, McCulloch said.
“With Kids in the Hall, we were fearsome savages in an ugly little cage and somehow we made comedy and people nowadays are kind to each other and care if everyone has eaten and make sure everyone is heard,” McCulloch said.
When asked if that fiery competition brought out the best in his work:
“It might have made me made better. It made me more an asshole … we just didn’t know any better,” he said.
This year, the groundbreaking show that put McCulloch on the map turns 30. The Kids in the Hall ran for five seasons and released a movie called Brain Candy.
The show featured classic yet usually bizarre skits and characters such as an uptight office worker obsessively seeking his misplaced pen, a suburban teen dueling Satan in an electric guitar battle, and an open letter to a thief who stole a bike – and those are just McCulloch’s skits.
In 2018, the new book The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy, by Frank Myers, was released and tells the troupe’s story.
“I’m quite happy that something was written and it’s something people would be interested in,” said McCulloch.
Visit www.banffcentre.ca for more information or to purchase tickets.
