Kevin McDonald

I've had the opportunity to meet and talk to some pretty cool people in my life. I don't ask for pictures because of some combination of not wanting to bother them and also wanting to keep a professional relationship (as unlikely as whatever that might be) open instead of a fan relationship. Kevin McDonald and pretty much any Kid in the Hall are on the list.

A local improv theater, Highwire (highwireimprov.com), invited Kevin to come do some workshops and shows in Baltimore. Sadly, this was during the weekend of DCM, so I had to miss most of what Kevin was offering. That said, I was perfectly fine taking a redeye train ride from New York City (while that city was

Who Kevin Is:

Some people who were born a decade or two after me might not know who Kevin McDonald is or even who the Kids in the Hall were. Here are some videos of my favorite sketches.

What I learned from Kevin

When you take a class with someone like Kevin McDonald, you don't know what you're going to get. What I got was a small guy with one of the biggest hearts I've ever experienced. He was kind, thoughtful, and gentle. He was so excited about any comedic idea. The workshop I took was all about pitching premises, and he worked with each person to write their comedic idea. It was amazing. Let me tell you that this was as close to the dream of being in a room with the rest of the kids as I will ever likely get. He talked in detail about how they wrote this sketch and illustrated the process the Kids used.

When it came time for me to pitch my premise, it was fascinating to watch his brain snap into sketch mode up close. Excitedly saying, "I know just how to write it!" Then, working through the beats and casting, I could see a fully formed Kids in the Hall-like sketch in my mind. One added bonus of the class is that if you write your sketch, you can send it to the host theater and he'll give you notes! Now there's some motivation to write.

I'll end by saying that I can understand the skepticism about writing a Kids in the Hall-type sketch. Humor goes stale quickly, and what worked thirty (yikes)—almost forty (double-yikes) — years ago won't work now; however, the fundamentals of sketch-to-improv and pitching are still used today, and people like Kevin are masters of the craft of comedy.