IT ISN’T LIKELY that many people would be surprised to hear Rosedale’s Scott Thompson will be spending part of the winter performing in women’s clothing.
He is, after all, a member of iconic Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, and if it even needs to be said, their challenging, sometimes controversial satirical themes include frequent portrayals of women (and in Thompson’s case, aggressively effeminate gay men, like one of his most popular characters: Buddy Cole).
But this time it’s a bit different. Starting Dec. 2, he’ll be playing the role of the Dame in Ross Petty’s Beauty and the Beast: A Savagely Silly Family Musical, a different take on the tale penned by Nicholas Hune-Brown and Lorna Wright. Thompson will star alongside Degrassi alumni Jake Epstein (who also starred in Petty’s Cinderella), former Canadian Idol Melissa O’Neil and, of course, Petty himself.
Petty’s traditional holiday pantomime at the Elgin Theatre is celebrating its 15th year, and despite Thompson’s proclivity for mature content, he’s not too worried about adapting to a kid-friendly environment.
“Oh, I won’t scare the horses too much!” he says, laughing. “But I think part of the fun of these productions is that there is a little bit of stuff that goes over the kids’ heads. I can handle double entendre, for sure.”
It’s Thompson’s first Petty show and, in fact, his first play since his York University days. But the show’s director, Ted Dykstra, helmed Thompson’s one-man show The Lowest Show on Earth in 2001, and the two worked together on the animated children’s series Roboroach.
Together, Thompson says, they’ve explored both sides of what he hopes to bring to the new stage show. “I am looking forward to [having] all those young people around. It’s going to be a blast.”
The show is the latest in a wave of momentum for Thompson: a new Kids in the Hall era was ushered into palpable buzz when their series Death Comes to Town premiered on CBC in January 2010. The eight-part murdermystery miniseries was rife with eccentric gags and odd, complex characters. In short, it was classic Kids.
“It’s the greatest collective I’ve ever been a part of,” Thompson says over the phone from his Rosedale home. He is clearly grateful, even reverential, when speaking of his Kids peers.
With a U.S. premiere on the Independent Film Channel this past summer and other sales around the world, Thompson is hopeful it will continue.
“Why wouldn’t I want to do something [again] that allows me to express myself in the most perfect manner, every day. I was in the wilderness for years trying to find that kind of chemistry. It doesn’t exist.”
Late November will also see the release of his “big, epic, comic fantasy” graphic novel Husk: The Hollow Planet, centred on a well-known KITH character: Danny Husk; his regular Scott Free podcast continues to grow; he’s diving headfirst back into standup, including ongoing sets at the Queen Street East club Clandestiny; and he’s in the midst of ongoing original screenplay revisions and other top-secret projects that he’s trying to keep mysterious.
A busy man, but the urgency fuelling Thompson isn’t without grounds: just prior to starting Death Comes to Town, Thompson was diagnosed with gastric cancer.
He started the first of six rounds of chemotherapy a week later and the day after the series wrapped shooting went straight into a month of radiation. Suffice it to say, his character Dusty Diamond, the town coroner with alopecia, didn’t need a bald cap.
“Between action and cut, I was never so focused in my entire life. Watching it is very strange. I’m in the middle of a very big battle, and it’s sometimes hard.
“Everything in my life, everything in my power, when I was doing that series, went toward making this great. I had no idea what would happen. I had no idea what my outcome would be until the end of the series. So for me, I’m acting like my life depends on it.”
In the same way his illness injected an authentic weight into a show about death, the emotional effects have become even more tangible after the fact.
“The last few years I started getting a little leery of myself, tired of people always getting upset at the things I say. And then the cancer came, and I came out of it, and I’m almost unrepentant. Like, ‘No! I’ve been doing the right thing!’ I have nothing to apologize for. I’m serving humanity the way that I’m supposed to. And so I’ve rededicated myself to that.”
Part of his focus today is the current local comedy circuit and lending his hard-won wisdom to a healthy crop of rising talent. Thompson names sketchbased material by the Imponderables and the Boom Show crew, as well as local ladies Katie Crown and current Second City mainstage actor (and Death Comes to Town co-star) Inessa Frantowski, as some of his favourites.
“Once I was well enough to start performing again, I started hanging around with a lot of the young comedians. I hope I can help mentor them. I have to say, ‘You have to accept that your joy is going to come in the doing of it’” — words that have never rung truer for Thompson himself.
Thompson also cites the Comedy Bar as an important venue for the city’s comedians. He, of course, got his start with Kids in different venues in the same scene many years ago, and though he still splits his time between here and L.A., Toronto will always be home.
“It is, it’s home. I think it’s that simple,” he says warmly, before breaking out that trademark selfdeprecating charm, “and I live near Eugene Levy, so I get to see him occasionally on the street. I see him around and think, ‘Eugene Levy can live here and still have an international career! Why can’t I.’”
“I love where I live. I love Toronto. I do. My favourite part of the city would probably be down by the water, in the east end. The Leslie Spit and all that. It’s nice what they’re going to do with the waterfront, but I like it now. I like it rundown and overgrown.”
Seeing Thompson back onstage and screen feels almost like a homecoming.
He’s glad to be here, to spend some time reconnecting with his city, taking the time to revisit his old favourite stomping grounds, places such as Yonge Street and the Village. He is proud to be playing a part in reexploring and fostering the live comedy community that did so much for him.
And Thompson is grateful to have a full calendar, and, of course, his health.
“I just have to keep doing what I do. That’s what this cancer battle has given me, I think: a renewed sense of purpose. I’m very happy, and I hate to say ‘reborn,’ but it feels like it.”
