Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are really
getting into the weeds on the career of Scott
Thompson, a truly essential Canadian comedic
voice. Absolutely. And for so many people, he's,
you know, instantly recognizable, a key member
of the Kids in the Hall, obviously. Right. Or
Brian from the Larry Sanders show, sort of perpetually
stressed out assistant. Exactly. But our mission
today really is to push past those iconic roles.
We're diving deep into this, this duality he
embodies. Duality. How so? Well, he's... this
brilliant almost anarchic sketch comedian on
one hand but on the other he's also become this
um quite profound chronicler of terror personal
terror political terror so his comedy isn't just
funny it's it's got this edge this resilience
born from some heavy stuff precisely we're digging
for the why you know why is this satire often
so sharp so complex what happens when like real
world horror slams into the world of sketch comedy.
OK, I see. So before we get into all that, let's
ground ourselves a bit. The basics. He was born
John Scott Thompson, June 12, 1959. Grew up in
Brampton, Ontario. Second oldest of five kids.
Right. And there's that little detail about his
name in the sources, which I think is actually
pretty telling. Oh, yeah. What's that? He was
named John after his uncle. But pretty early
on, he made this conscious choice to just drop
the John. Just Scott Thompson for the stage.
Simpler. Exactly. Pragmatic. Right. It's a small
thing, but it sort of hints at this clarity,
this efficiency he brought to his professional
persona, even when his characters were, you know,
pure chaos. Interesting. OK, so that pragmatic
artist. But the environment he grew up in wasn't
exactly straightforward, was it? No, not at all.
And we really have to start there if we want
to understand the darker currents in his work.
We need to talk about this foundational trauma
from when he was just a teenager in Brampton.
You're talking about 1975. Yeah, it's significant.
Thompson was attending Brampton Centennial Secondary
School, and he was actually there, a witness,
during the school shooting that happened that
year. God, that's heavy, especially for a kid.
And a school of all places, a place you're supposed
to feel safe. Right. It's an overwhelming thing.
You have to ask, how does that kind of early
visceral exposure to just random, unpredictable
violence shape the comedy that comes later? So
how do we connect those dots from witnessing
something like that to, well, to the kids in
the hall? Well, the connection based on the material
we have seems pretty direct. Thompson himself
apparently drew a clear line from that moment
in 75 to the themes he explored later in his
one man shows. OK. Think about the feel of Keith
comedy. It wasn't just silly sketches, right?
It often had this aggressive streak, this sort
of absurd violence, and definitely this deep
anxiety bubbling under the surface about, you
know, norms and repressed feelings. So you're
suggesting maybe the head -crushing sketch or
those sudden violent outbursts in some characters
that might actually stem from that early experience,
that feeling that violence can just erupt anywhere.
I think it's a strong possibility. Yeah, that
kind of event. Plants the seed of fundamental
vulnerability. If your school hallway isn't safe,
then what is? And maybe that fear of sudden rupture,
it gets channeled into the characters. Like,
look at Fran, the housewife character. Oh, yeah.
Fran. Always on the edge. Right. She often tips
into these moments of just desperate, almost
violent frustration with her whole suburban life.
That pressure cooker feeling. It seems connected
to some kind of underlying, unresolved anxiety.
becomes material, right? A way to process the
chaos by creating something absurd out of it.
Processing chaos. Yeah. That seems like a theme.
And speaking of disruption, the sources mentioned
his time at York University was brief. Yeah,
very brief. He got asked to leave in his third
year. And the reason they gave him... Disruptive.
You got it. Disruptive. Which, for someone about
to make their name in comedy based on upending
expectations, well, it's less a failure and more
like, you know, confirmation. Right. Proof he
was already on a different wavelength. Couldn't
fit the academic mold. He was already an iconoclast
in training, basically. So getting kicked out
actually pushed him towards comedy. Seems like
it. It led him right into the Toronto comedy
scene, which was really starting to bubble up
then. He joined this early troupe called the
Lovecats. The Lovecats. Never heard of them.
Yeah, they weren't the ones who hit it big. But
the crucial thing, the absolute game changer,
happened there. That's where he met Mark McKinney.
Ah, okay. The beginning of a legendary partnership.
Exactly. That connection, that collaboration.
It set the stage for, well, everything that came
next with the kids in the hall. Which paid off
pretty quickly, right? Yeah. By 1984, he's a
core member. Yep. And then the TV show launches
in 89. First on CBC and HBO, which was a huge
deal, getting that U .S. exposure. And later
moved to CBS for the last couple of seasons.
I remember that. Kate Heath was just massive.
Its influence is undeniable. And right at the
center of that influence, you have to talk about
one character in particular. Oh, absolutely.
You have to talk about Buddy Cole. The Alpha
Queen. He's arguably Thompson's masterpiece within
the sketch world. And, you know, Thompson being
openly gay himself, he poured so much into Buddy,
this flamboyant, incredibly witty socialite,
always on his barstool, martini in hand. Delivering
those monologues. Yeah. They were something else.
Venomous sometimes, but brilliant. Totally. And
Buddy wasn't just camp. You know, he wasn't just
for laughs. In the context of mainstream TV back
then, he was kind of revolutionary. How so? What
made him revolutionary? Well, think about it.
He took this figure who could have easily been
portrayed as marginalized, right? Flamboyant
gay man. And he imbued him with this ultimate
authority. But he spoke with this absolute unshakable
confidence. Yeah, he never doubted himself for
a second. Never. He used gossip and social commentary
like a weapon. It was like a Trojan horse smuggling
in really sharp political points and cultural
critiques disguised as bitchy observations. He
completely flipped the power dynamic. The ultimate
insider who is also an outsider telling truths
nobody else would. Exactly. The truth teller
in sequence. And what's amazing is how long that
character has lasted, how adaptable he is. The
sources mention he brought Buddy back in 2014
for the Colbert Report. Right. It was for the
Winter Olympics, wasn't it? In Sochi. Yes. And
the context there is everything. Colbert didn't
just bring him back for nostalgia. No, it was
pointed. Russia had just enacted those really
controversial anti -gay laws, the gay propaganda
laws. Precisely. So Thompson, as Buddy Cole,
goes on this major American late night show reporting
from Sochi and just unleashes these perfectly
crafted. acid -tongue takedowns of those repressive
policies. So Buddy became this tool for international
satire, using high camp to tackle human rights
issues. Absolutely. It proved the character wasn't
just about, you know, funny observations about
cheese or whatever. He was fully weaponized for
high -stakes political commentary. Still relevant.
And he keeps going. Thompson launched that one
-man show in 2018, up for the deluge the Buddy
Cole monologues. Still performs it. Yeah, tours
with it, performs at places like the Portland
Queer Comedy Festival. It's actually pretty rare
for a sketch character to stay that relevant
for, what, four decades? And to transition into
a successful solo stage show format. It says
a lot about the writing, the depth of the character.
For sure. Buddy's incredibly quotable, but he
also evolves. He stays current. But, you know,
we focus so much on Buddy Cole, and rightly so,
but it's easy to forget Thompson's sheer range
within Kith. He wasn't just Buddy. Oh, absolutely
not. He was a chameleon. He could disappear.
Yeah? The source is... lists this incredible
gallery of roles. Like who? Well, obviously Queen
Elizabeth II, which he also brought back later,
didn't he? On Conan. Yep. Hilarious. And then
totally different characters, like Secretary
Cathy. So uptight, always put upon. And Fran,
the suburban housewife. We talked about her anxiety.
Right. And the contrast between Fran and Buddy
is kind of fascinating, isn't it? It really is.
Buddy is all certainty, control, judging the
world from his perch. Fran is just... Drowning
in self -doubt and domestic chaos. And Thompson
nails both. The absolute confidence and the crippling
insecurity. It shows he understands the whole
spectrum. Total command of human reality from
the, yes, sublime to the utterly mundane and
desperate. And then there's Danny Husk. Ah, Danny
Husk. The businessman, always in a suit, completely
deadpan while the world around him goes absolutely
insane. He's the ultimate straight man to the
universe's absurdity. Trying to navigate some
bizarre office meeting or discovering his wife
is a demon, you know, just another Tuesday. And
Danny Husk is maybe the most interesting one
to think about long term because he's the character
Thompson chose for that graphic novel project,
The Hollow Planet. We should definitely circle
back to that. Good point. But sticking with Keith
for a sec, it wasn't just the show. They kept
working together, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely.
They toured pretty recently, 2014, I think it
was. And they did that miniseries project, Death
Comes to Town, in 2010. All five of them, Foley,
McCulloch, McDonald, McKinney, and Thompson.
So that collaborative spirit, that chemistry,
it really endured. Definitely. It wasn't just
a job for them, clearly. Okay, so Keith obviously
opens doors. But it also led to this parallel
career for Thompson in the U .S. in a really
different kind of show. You mean the Larry Sanders
show. Exactly. While Keith is still going, or
in its later seasons, he lands this recurring,
really defining role as Brian, Hank Kingsley's
assistant. Appeared in, what, 35 episodes? Yeah,
a significant run. And this is where you see
a major shift in his performance style. Oh, so.
Well, in Keith, so much relies on big physical
comedy, exaggerated characters, wigs, voices.
Right, sketch comedy tools. But on Larry Sanders,
he has to be completely grounded. It's that specific
type of cringe comedy, observational realism.
Brian is meticulous, super anxious, a bit repressed,
and totally indispensable to Hank's fragile ego.
It's all in the reaction shots with him. isn't
it? The subtle panic. Totally. He had to take
all that physical control he learned doing, you
know, Queen Elizabeth or some demented old man
and just internalize it completely. Create this
tiny, simmering ball of anxiety that is Brian.
It proved he could do restrained, realistic comedy
really well. And that skill, that subtlety, may
be paved the way for an even bigger shift later
on. You're thinking Hannibal. Yeah. Moving into
pure drama. That recurring role as Jimmy Price,
the FBI crime scene guy. 27 episodes. That's
a serious role in a very dark, very acclaimed
show. The leap from Buddy Cole or even Brian
to Jimmy Price. It's kind of hard to wrap your
head around. It really shows his depth as an
actor. I think he's not performing at reality
anymore, commenting on it. He's integrating himself
into this highly structured, often really gruesome
fictional world. Yeah. Playing in FBI tech requires
this specific grounded delivery, handling evidence
props, spitting out technical jargon. It's a
million miles from the beautiful anarchy of Keith's
sketches. And the fact that he pulled it off,
that he held his own in a show dominated by actors
like Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, it's just
proof of incredible versatility. He didn't seem
pigeonholed at all. His career just kept branching
out. Yeah, look at the range. He pops up in Star
Trek. Voyager playing Tommen. Did his sci -fi
duty. Right. Does voice work? Like for The Simpsons,
playing Grady in a few episodes? Hosted that
Canadian reality show, My Fabulous Gay Wedding.
Went on talk shows like Politically Incorrect.
And still working constantly. Recent roles in
shows like Sort of, playing Bryce, and that action
comedy Few Bar with Schwarzenegger, playing Dr.
Louis Pfeffer. He never really stopped. Yeah.
But let's pause on one project that really screams
disruptive, going back to that word. Mouth Congress.
Mouth Congress. His queer core punk band with
Paul Bellini. Right in the mid 90s, when Keith
and Larry Sanders were making him pretty mainstream
famous. Yeah, this is such a crucial piece of
the puzzle. It shows this commitment to raw,
like completely uncompromised expression and
queer core punk. We need to understand what that
means. Right. It's not just punk rock. No, it's
inherently political, aggressive, anti -establishment,
super DIY, confrontational, focused squarely
on queer identity, anger, social commentary.
So picture this. He's on network TV. playing
Hank Kingsley's nervous assistant. And then maybe
later that night, he's in some basement screaming
these aggressive punk anthems with Bellini. It's
an amazing duality, isn't it? It's like this
necessary release valve, the absolute opposite
energy of the polished K -I -th world. Did anything
come of it back then? Not commercially, really.
It was very underground. But what's cool is how
they brought it back. In 2015, they just uploaded
all their old recordings onto Bandcamp. Just
put it out there for anyone. Yeah. More about
archiving it, sharing that history, then making
money. A real digital pioneer move in a way.
And that led to actual reunion shows. It did.
They started playing live again in 2016. And
then they used Kickstarter, that independent
funding route, to finance a whole documentary
about the band. Mouth Congress, the film. Premiered
in 2021. Right. So it shows he's comfortable
not just making raw stuff, but also using these
modern direct -to -fan ways to get it out there.
And that digital savvy wasn't new for him either,
was it? Scotland. Ah, Scotland. Yeah, back in
the mid -90s, developed with his younger brother,
Craig. This was really early days for the interactive
web. What was it exactly? Just a fan site? No,
it was way more ambitious than most celebrity
sites back then, which were usually just static
bios. Scotland apparently had live chat fan voting.
Some weird thing called comedy espionage. Comedy
espionage. I don't know. But crucially, it was
also an early form of e -commerce. They were
selling Buddy Cole merch, T -shirts, tapes directly
to fans online. In the mid -90s. Yeah. Pretty
forward thinking. Before secure payments were
even common. Exactly. Shows he was already thinking
about self -distribution and engaging directly
with his audience way back then. He really did
embrace every platform. The website, the band,
TV, film, and books too. You get the Buddy Babylon
autobiography with Bellini. Yep. And as we mentioned,
that graphic novel, The Hollow Planet, based
on Danny Husk, he's truly a multi -format creator,
never felt confined. Okay, so we've covered this
huge creative output, but now we need to shift
gears, like you said earlier, and talk about
the personal history that seems to fuel so much
of it. Right. And this is where things get intense,
because his creative life is completely tangled
up with these incredibly traumatic, politically
charged events, events that forced him to confront
terror head on. This is the raw material. We
already discussed the first one, the 1975 school
shooting he witnessed. But then 25 years later
came something much more targeted. The firebombing
incident in 2000. Yes. He was living in West
Hollywood then with his boyfriend at the time,
Joel Soleil, who's a French documentarian. And
the context around this attack. Yeah. It's crucial,
isn't it? It wasn't random. Not at all. It was
directly linked to Soler's work. So Soler had
made this satirical documentary called Uncle
Saddam. About Saddam Hussein's homeland. Exactly.
Apparently using footage, Soler had somehow smuggled
out of Iraq. It painted this picture of the dictator's
bizarre, sometimes mundane, private world. And
Thompson got involved. He wrote the narration
for the film, which was read by Wallace Langham,
another actor. So they were essentially mocking
one of the most dangerous dictators on the planet.
And that didn't go unnoticed. The attack happened
November 1st, 2000. Thompson's description of
it is chilling. It sounds truly terrifying. Pure
malice. He said they didn't just throw something
small. They took the big plastic garbage cans
from the front of the house. Told them the gasoline.
And set them ablaze right there on the front
lawn like this huge, slow -burning pyre aimed
right at them. But it was more than just fire.
The paint. The paint. They apparently drenched
the front of the house in red paint. Buckets
of it. Thompson said it was deliberate, made
to look like the house itself was bleeding. Just
pure psychological terror. Visual intimidation.
Absolutely. And then there was the note they
left. Yeah. What does it say? It was explicit.
Thompson kept it. It read, in the name of Allah,
the merciful and compassionate, burn this satanic
film or you will be dead. And the word dead was
underlined. Wow. So this wasn't just some crackpot.
This was a direct terrorist threat tied to Islamic
extremism, targeting artists for making political
satire. It brought global conflict right to his
doorstep. Exactly. Into his private life, his
home. And you take that direct targeted terror
and you combine it with the memory of that random
senseless terror from the school shooting years
earlier. And that potent combination leads to
his next major creative project. The lowest show
on earth. His one man show. He explicitly designed
it as a way to grapple with all this. He called
it processing incidents of terror on micro and
macrocosmic level. Micro being the school shooting
random close up violence. Right. And macro being
the firebombing global political violence targeted
threat. The show was meant to be this aggressive,
provocative, satirical dive into fear itself.
A powerful idea. Yeah. But the timing, the timing
was just brutal. He was set to open it off Broadway
in New York. In September 2001. The irony is
almost unbearable. The posters went up around
the city on September 10th, 2001. And the posters
themselves were designed to provoke, weren't
they? Oh, incredibly so. The sources described
the main image. It was Thompson lying on the
ground looking up. Well, with what was described
as a big wad of semen dripping down the side
of his face. Okay. So, deliberately shocking.
Using sexual imagery, confronting darkness. Exactly.
Comedy designed to jolt people awake. And then...
The very next day, 9 -11 happens. September 11th,
the World Trade Center, the Pentagon. And suddenly
this show created to dissect and satirize terror
using shock tactics and dark humor. It just becomes
impossible. The real thing, the scale of the
real world terror completely overshadowed it.
Thompson said the material became impossible
to talk about. Yeah, how could it not? His very
personal satirical exploration of fear was silenced
by this monumental collective trauma. His creative
coping mechanism just got swamped by reality.
It's such a profound, tragic collision of events.
To survive a targeted attack, make art about
it, and then have that art effectively canceled
by an even bigger act of terror. It really underscores
that theme of resilience we keep coming back
to. Because he did keep going. That setback didn't
stop him creating. No. He launched another show
later, Scatastrophe, in 2006, still exploring
dark themes. Right. And that same year, he took
part in Canada Reads, the literary debate show.
He championed Mordecai Richler's novel, Cockshire.
Which is itself a controversial, satirical book.
Exactly. So he was still engaging in that challenging,
vital cultural conversation, never shied away
from the difficult stuff. That resilience, that
refusal to shy away. Yeah. It was tested again,
wasn't it? This time physically. Yeah. The final
big challenge we know about came in 2009. A serious
health crisis. He was diagnosed with cancer.
B -cell non -Hodgkin's gastric lymphoma. Diagnosed
in March 2009. And considering everything else,
he'd already survived the external traumas facing
this internal battle. It's incredibly poignant.
But he fought it. The sources mention the treatment.
He did. Head on. Six rounds of chemotherapy followed
by a month of radiation, a really intensive regimen.
And the outcome? Fortunately successful. He's
confirmed to be cancer -free now. He went through
that whole ordeal quite publicly and came out
the other side. Surviving cancer after surviving
a firebombing. it really cements that idea of
resilience being his driving force. It wasn't
just about getting through it, was it? It was
about getting back to work. Absolutely. And he
returned with real energy. Look at his activity
since then. He's continued doing voice work like
playing Thistle in that kids show, Pinecone and
Pony. He was part of the KI3 revival series on
Amazon Prime. Yep. And showing up in contemporary
live action series like Few Bar, it just proves
that all those battles, personal and physical,
they didn't diminish his drive. He just seems
to process the disruption and keep making things.
So wrapping this up, we look back over our deep
dive. Yeah. We started with the familiar sketch
comedy, The Genius of Buddy Cole. Right. Then
we saw that unexpected pivot into serious drama
with Hannibal. Uncovered the punk rock spirit
of mouth Congress, the early web vision of Scotland.
But the real core narrative, the thread tying
it all together, is this incredible transformation
of disruption into art. Witnessing violence,
getting kicked out of school, surviving a terrorist.
attack battling cancer. He took all of it. All
of it. and channeled it into this powerful, necessary,
sometimes really dark, but always compelling
body of work. He's the artist who just refused
to be silenced, even when the world, quite literally
on 9 -11, made his message feel impossible. He
really demonstrated how personal trauma isn't
just background noise for an artist. It can actively
shape the work, dictate its texture, its tone.
It forces the comedy to be sharper, maybe more
aggressive, but ultimately more truthful. couldn't
agree more and as we finish up we wanted to leave
you the listener with maybe one last thing to
chew on something that circles back to that theme
of duality of artistic choice okay we spent a
good chunk of time on buddy cole right the flamboyant
alpha queen thompson's primary voice for political
satire yeah his most famous creation probably
but the source material notes that when thompson
decided to do a big standalone project outside
kate that graphic novel the hollow planet he
didn't base it on buddy cole no he based it on
danny husk The straight -laced, suit -wearing,
perpetually bewildered businessman. Huh. That
is an interesting choice. Buddy's the commentator,
the satirist, Ganny Husk is the guy things happen
to. The vehicle for absurdist sci -fi, not direct
commentary. Exactly. So the question to ponder
is... Why? Why did this comedian, celebrated
for embodying these radical, outspoken queer
personas like Buddy, choose his most unassuming,
almost repressed, straight character to anchor
his first big fictional narrative outside the
troupe? Does Danny Husk represent something different?
A different kind of anxiety, maybe? Not political,
but... Existential. Mundane. Perhaps. Maybe Buddy
Cole confronts the chaos of the world head on
while Danny Husk just tries and usually fails
to find some logic or order within it. It suggests
different ways artists process things. So something
to think about. What does that choice tell us
about Scott Thompson's range, his inner world,
his motivations, giving the quiet businessman
Danny Husk this whole separate, weird, fictional
life in the hollow planet? Definitely something
to mull over as you explore the incredible, diverse,
and deeply resilient work of Scott Thompson.