WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are really 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:06.139 getting into the weeds on the career of Scott 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:08.839 Thompson, a truly essential Canadian comedic 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.560 voice. Absolutely. And for so many people, he's, 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:13.320 you know, instantly recognizable, a key member 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:14.939 of the Kids in the Hall, obviously. Right. Or 00:00:14.939 --> 00:00:17.660 Brian from the Larry Sanders show, sort of perpetually 00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:20.320 stressed out assistant. Exactly. But our mission 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.879 today really is to push past those iconic roles. 00:00:23.940 --> 00:00:26.920 We're diving deep into this, this duality he 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.410 embodies. Duality. How so? Well, he's... this 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:32.509 brilliant almost anarchic sketch comedian on 00:00:32.509 --> 00:00:35.130 one hand but on the other he's also become this 00:00:35.130 --> 00:00:39.549 um quite profound chronicler of terror personal 00:00:39.549 --> 00:00:42.770 terror political terror so his comedy isn't just 00:00:42.770 --> 00:00:45.130 funny it's it's got this edge this resilience 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:48.030 born from some heavy stuff precisely we're digging 00:00:48.030 --> 00:00:50.729 for the why you know why is this satire often 00:00:50.729 --> 00:00:53.689 so sharp so complex what happens when like real 00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:56.329 world horror slams into the world of sketch comedy. 00:00:56.469 --> 00:00:58.649 OK, I see. So before we get into all that, let's 00:00:58.649 --> 00:01:01.009 ground ourselves a bit. The basics. He was born 00:01:01.009 --> 00:01:04.310 John Scott Thompson, June 12, 1959. Grew up in 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:06.769 Brampton, Ontario. Second oldest of five kids. 00:01:06.969 --> 00:01:09.209 Right. And there's that little detail about his 00:01:09.209 --> 00:01:10.769 name in the sources, which I think is actually 00:01:10.769 --> 00:01:12.930 pretty telling. Oh, yeah. What's that? He was 00:01:12.930 --> 00:01:15.250 named John after his uncle. But pretty early 00:01:15.250 --> 00:01:18.150 on, he made this conscious choice to just drop 00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.450 the John. Just Scott Thompson for the stage. 00:01:20.810 --> 00:01:23.849 Simpler. Exactly. Pragmatic. Right. It's a small 00:01:23.849 --> 00:01:26.109 thing, but it sort of hints at this clarity, 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:28.769 this efficiency he brought to his professional 00:01:28.769 --> 00:01:31.510 persona, even when his characters were, you know, 00:01:31.510 --> 00:01:35.049 pure chaos. Interesting. OK, so that pragmatic 00:01:35.049 --> 00:01:38.829 artist. But the environment he grew up in wasn't 00:01:38.829 --> 00:01:42.109 exactly straightforward, was it? No, not at all. 00:01:42.349 --> 00:01:44.390 And we really have to start there if we want 00:01:44.390 --> 00:01:46.510 to understand the darker currents in his work. 00:01:46.609 --> 00:01:48.709 We need to talk about this foundational trauma 00:01:48.709 --> 00:01:51.150 from when he was just a teenager in Brampton. 00:01:51.370 --> 00:01:54.170 You're talking about 1975. Yeah, it's significant. 00:01:54.810 --> 00:01:57.510 Thompson was attending Brampton Centennial Secondary 00:01:57.510 --> 00:02:00.090 School, and he was actually there, a witness, 00:02:00.230 --> 00:02:01.849 during the school shooting that happened that 00:02:01.849 --> 00:02:05.370 year. God, that's heavy, especially for a kid. 00:02:05.930 --> 00:02:08.689 And a school of all places, a place you're supposed 00:02:08.689 --> 00:02:11.370 to feel safe. Right. It's an overwhelming thing. 00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:14.250 You have to ask, how does that kind of early 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:17.430 visceral exposure to just random, unpredictable 00:02:17.430 --> 00:02:20.469 violence shape the comedy that comes later? So 00:02:20.469 --> 00:02:23.569 how do we connect those dots from witnessing 00:02:23.569 --> 00:02:26.969 something like that to, well, to the kids in 00:02:26.969 --> 00:02:29.889 the hall? Well, the connection based on the material 00:02:29.889 --> 00:02:32.449 we have seems pretty direct. Thompson himself 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:35.509 apparently drew a clear line from that moment 00:02:35.509 --> 00:02:38.210 in 75 to the themes he explored later in his 00:02:38.210 --> 00:02:41.009 one man shows. OK. Think about the feel of Keith 00:02:41.009 --> 00:02:43.699 comedy. It wasn't just silly sketches, right? 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:46.560 It often had this aggressive streak, this sort 00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:49.180 of absurd violence, and definitely this deep 00:02:49.180 --> 00:02:51.300 anxiety bubbling under the surface about, you 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:53.500 know, norms and repressed feelings. So you're 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:55.259 suggesting maybe the head -crushing sketch or 00:02:55.259 --> 00:02:57.740 those sudden violent outbursts in some characters 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:00.099 that might actually stem from that early experience, 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.120 that feeling that violence can just erupt anywhere. 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:04.400 I think it's a strong possibility. Yeah, that 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.650 kind of event. Plants the seed of fundamental 00:03:07.650 --> 00:03:10.349 vulnerability. If your school hallway isn't safe, 00:03:10.490 --> 00:03:13.870 then what is? And maybe that fear of sudden rupture, 00:03:13.909 --> 00:03:15.909 it gets channeled into the characters. Like, 00:03:15.930 --> 00:03:17.990 look at Fran, the housewife character. Oh, yeah. 00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:21.250 Fran. Always on the edge. Right. She often tips 00:03:21.250 --> 00:03:23.889 into these moments of just desperate, almost 00:03:23.889 --> 00:03:26.530 violent frustration with her whole suburban life. 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:30.050 That pressure cooker feeling. It seems connected 00:03:30.050 --> 00:03:32.509 to some kind of underlying, unresolved anxiety. 00:03:33.849 --> 00:03:36.509 becomes material, right? A way to process the 00:03:36.509 --> 00:03:39.069 chaos by creating something absurd out of it. 00:03:39.229 --> 00:03:41.689 Processing chaos. Yeah. That seems like a theme. 00:03:42.169 --> 00:03:44.930 And speaking of disruption, the sources mentioned 00:03:44.930 --> 00:03:47.949 his time at York University was brief. Yeah, 00:03:47.969 --> 00:03:49.650 very brief. He got asked to leave in his third 00:03:49.650 --> 00:03:53.289 year. And the reason they gave him... Disruptive. 00:03:53.289 --> 00:03:55.870 You got it. Disruptive. Which, for someone about 00:03:55.870 --> 00:03:57.750 to make their name in comedy based on upending 00:03:57.750 --> 00:04:00.030 expectations, well, it's less a failure and more 00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:02.110 like, you know, confirmation. Right. Proof he 00:04:02.110 --> 00:04:04.099 was already on a different wavelength. Couldn't 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:06.620 fit the academic mold. He was already an iconoclast 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:09.360 in training, basically. So getting kicked out 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:12.099 actually pushed him towards comedy. Seems like 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:15.000 it. It led him right into the Toronto comedy 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.060 scene, which was really starting to bubble up 00:04:17.060 --> 00:04:19.740 then. He joined this early troupe called the 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:22.079 Lovecats. The Lovecats. Never heard of them. 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:24.439 Yeah, they weren't the ones who hit it big. But 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:27.279 the crucial thing, the absolute game changer, 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:29.860 happened there. That's where he met Mark McKinney. 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:33.879 Ah, okay. The beginning of a legendary partnership. 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:36.160 Exactly. That connection, that collaboration. 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:40.279 It set the stage for, well, everything that came 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:42.060 next with the kids in the hall. Which paid off 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:44.040 pretty quickly, right? Yeah. By 1984, he's a 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.339 core member. Yep. And then the TV show launches 00:04:46.339 --> 00:04:50.000 in 89. First on CBC and HBO, which was a huge 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.759 deal, getting that U .S. exposure. And later 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:54.420 moved to CBS for the last couple of seasons. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:56.660 I remember that. Kate Heath was just massive. 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.540 Its influence is undeniable. And right at the 00:04:59.540 --> 00:05:01.019 center of that influence, you have to talk about 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:02.819 one character in particular. Oh, absolutely. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:04.779 You have to talk about Buddy Cole. The Alpha 00:05:04.779 --> 00:05:08.040 Queen. He's arguably Thompson's masterpiece within 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.660 the sketch world. And, you know, Thompson being 00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:14.040 openly gay himself, he poured so much into Buddy, 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:16.600 this flamboyant, incredibly witty socialite, 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:19.339 always on his barstool, martini in hand. Delivering 00:05:19.339 --> 00:05:21.259 those monologues. Yeah. They were something else. 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:24.579 Venomous sometimes, but brilliant. Totally. And 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:26.699 Buddy wasn't just camp. You know, he wasn't just 00:05:26.699 --> 00:05:29.620 for laughs. In the context of mainstream TV back 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:32.839 then, he was kind of revolutionary. How so? What 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:34.779 made him revolutionary? Well, think about it. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.480 He took this figure who could have easily been 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.540 portrayed as marginalized, right? Flamboyant 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:43.480 gay man. And he imbued him with this ultimate 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:47.629 authority. But he spoke with this absolute unshakable 00:05:47.629 --> 00:05:49.750 confidence. Yeah, he never doubted himself for 00:05:49.750 --> 00:05:52.189 a second. Never. He used gossip and social commentary 00:05:52.189 --> 00:05:54.970 like a weapon. It was like a Trojan horse smuggling 00:05:54.970 --> 00:05:57.230 in really sharp political points and cultural 00:05:57.230 --> 00:06:00.449 critiques disguised as bitchy observations. He 00:06:00.449 --> 00:06:03.069 completely flipped the power dynamic. The ultimate 00:06:03.069 --> 00:06:05.069 insider who is also an outsider telling truths 00:06:05.069 --> 00:06:07.800 nobody else would. Exactly. The truth teller 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:10.720 in sequence. And what's amazing is how long that 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.379 character has lasted, how adaptable he is. The 00:06:13.379 --> 00:06:15.360 sources mention he brought Buddy back in 2014 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:17.600 for the Colbert Report. Right. It was for the 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:19.860 Winter Olympics, wasn't it? In Sochi. Yes. And 00:06:19.860 --> 00:06:22.800 the context there is everything. Colbert didn't 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:25.060 just bring him back for nostalgia. No, it was 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:27.420 pointed. Russia had just enacted those really 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:30.439 controversial anti -gay laws, the gay propaganda 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:34.100 laws. Precisely. So Thompson, as Buddy Cole, 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:37.819 goes on this major American late night show reporting 00:06:37.819 --> 00:06:40.699 from Sochi and just unleashes these perfectly 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:44.120 crafted. acid -tongue takedowns of those repressive 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:47.079 policies. So Buddy became this tool for international 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:50.060 satire, using high camp to tackle human rights 00:06:50.060 --> 00:06:52.420 issues. Absolutely. It proved the character wasn't 00:06:52.420 --> 00:06:54.180 just about, you know, funny observations about 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.180 cheese or whatever. He was fully weaponized for 00:06:56.180 --> 00:06:58.939 high -stakes political commentary. Still relevant. 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.800 And he keeps going. Thompson launched that one 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.819 -man show in 2018, up for the deluge the Buddy 00:07:04.819 --> 00:07:07.649 Cole monologues. Still performs it. Yeah, tours 00:07:07.649 --> 00:07:10.089 with it, performs at places like the Portland 00:07:10.089 --> 00:07:12.870 Queer Comedy Festival. It's actually pretty rare 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:14.550 for a sketch character to stay that relevant 00:07:14.550 --> 00:07:17.589 for, what, four decades? And to transition into 00:07:17.589 --> 00:07:21.509 a successful solo stage show format. It says 00:07:21.509 --> 00:07:23.449 a lot about the writing, the depth of the character. 00:07:23.689 --> 00:07:26.329 For sure. Buddy's incredibly quotable, but he 00:07:26.329 --> 00:07:28.910 also evolves. He stays current. But, you know, 00:07:28.910 --> 00:07:31.250 we focus so much on Buddy Cole, and rightly so, 00:07:31.389 --> 00:07:34.250 but it's easy to forget Thompson's sheer range 00:07:34.250 --> 00:07:36.769 within Kith. He wasn't just Buddy. Oh, absolutely 00:07:36.769 --> 00:07:38.310 not. He was a chameleon. He could disappear. 00:07:38.550 --> 00:07:41.379 Yeah? The source is... lists this incredible 00:07:41.379 --> 00:07:44.279 gallery of roles. Like who? Well, obviously Queen 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:46.459 Elizabeth II, which he also brought back later, 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.600 didn't he? On Conan. Yep. Hilarious. And then 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:51.379 totally different characters, like Secretary 00:07:51.379 --> 00:07:54.839 Cathy. So uptight, always put upon. And Fran, 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:57.079 the suburban housewife. We talked about her anxiety. 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.100 Right. And the contrast between Fran and Buddy 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:02.319 is kind of fascinating, isn't it? It really is. 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.459 Buddy is all certainty, control, judging the 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:09.060 world from his perch. Fran is just... Drowning 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:11.759 in self -doubt and domestic chaos. And Thompson 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.819 nails both. The absolute confidence and the crippling 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:19.660 insecurity. It shows he understands the whole 00:08:19.660 --> 00:08:22.439 spectrum. Total command of human reality from 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.500 the, yes, sublime to the utterly mundane and 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:29.019 desperate. And then there's Danny Husk. Ah, Danny 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:32.980 Husk. The businessman, always in a suit, completely 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.419 deadpan while the world around him goes absolutely 00:08:35.419 --> 00:08:37.519 insane. He's the ultimate straight man to the 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:39.980 universe's absurdity. Trying to navigate some 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:42.559 bizarre office meeting or discovering his wife 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:45.480 is a demon, you know, just another Tuesday. And 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:47.320 Danny Husk is maybe the most interesting one 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.240 to think about long term because he's the character 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:51.500 Thompson chose for that graphic novel project, 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:53.519 The Hollow Planet. We should definitely circle 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:55.940 back to that. Good point. But sticking with Keith 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:58.039 for a sec, it wasn't just the show. They kept 00:08:58.039 --> 00:08:59.440 working together, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. 00:08:59.559 --> 00:09:01.960 They toured pretty recently, 2014, I think it 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:04.399 was. And they did that miniseries project, Death 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.559 Comes to Town, in 2010. All five of them, Foley, 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:09.919 McCulloch, McDonald, McKinney, and Thompson. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:12.539 So that collaborative spirit, that chemistry, 00:09:12.620 --> 00:09:15.080 it really endured. Definitely. It wasn't just 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:17.620 a job for them, clearly. Okay, so Keith obviously 00:09:17.620 --> 00:09:20.820 opens doors. But it also led to this parallel 00:09:20.820 --> 00:09:23.139 career for Thompson in the U .S. in a really 00:09:23.139 --> 00:09:25.139 different kind of show. You mean the Larry Sanders 00:09:25.139 --> 00:09:28.539 show. Exactly. While Keith is still going, or 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:31.240 in its later seasons, he lands this recurring, 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:34.639 really defining role as Brian, Hank Kingsley's 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:37.509 assistant. Appeared in, what, 35 episodes? Yeah, 00:09:37.570 --> 00:09:39.610 a significant run. And this is where you see 00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:41.990 a major shift in his performance style. Oh, so. 00:09:42.190 --> 00:09:46.029 Well, in Keith, so much relies on big physical 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.730 comedy, exaggerated characters, wigs, voices. 00:09:49.049 --> 00:09:50.990 Right, sketch comedy tools. But on Larry Sanders, 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:53.610 he has to be completely grounded. It's that specific 00:09:53.610 --> 00:09:56.090 type of cringe comedy, observational realism. 00:09:56.570 --> 00:10:00.029 Brian is meticulous, super anxious, a bit repressed, 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.970 and totally indispensable to Hank's fragile ego. 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:04.750 It's all in the reaction shots with him. isn't 00:10:04.750 --> 00:10:06.389 it? The subtle panic. Totally. He had to take 00:10:06.389 --> 00:10:08.470 all that physical control he learned doing, you 00:10:08.470 --> 00:10:10.529 know, Queen Elizabeth or some demented old man 00:10:10.529 --> 00:10:13.309 and just internalize it completely. Create this 00:10:13.309 --> 00:10:16.250 tiny, simmering ball of anxiety that is Brian. 00:10:16.470 --> 00:10:19.370 It proved he could do restrained, realistic comedy 00:10:19.370 --> 00:10:23.370 really well. And that skill, that subtlety, may 00:10:23.370 --> 00:10:25.669 be paved the way for an even bigger shift later 00:10:25.669 --> 00:10:29.070 on. You're thinking Hannibal. Yeah. Moving into 00:10:29.070 --> 00:10:32.809 pure drama. That recurring role as Jimmy Price, 00:10:33.029 --> 00:10:36.169 the FBI crime scene guy. 27 episodes. That's 00:10:36.169 --> 00:10:39.490 a serious role in a very dark, very acclaimed 00:10:39.490 --> 00:10:42.929 show. The leap from Buddy Cole or even Brian 00:10:42.929 --> 00:10:45.889 to Jimmy Price. It's kind of hard to wrap your 00:10:45.889 --> 00:10:48.110 head around. It really shows his depth as an 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:50.409 actor. I think he's not performing at reality 00:10:50.409 --> 00:10:53.549 anymore, commenting on it. He's integrating himself 00:10:53.549 --> 00:10:56.929 into this highly structured, often really gruesome 00:10:56.929 --> 00:10:59.740 fictional world. Yeah. Playing in FBI tech requires 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:02.720 this specific grounded delivery, handling evidence 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:05.279 props, spitting out technical jargon. It's a 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:07.480 million miles from the beautiful anarchy of Keith's 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:09.679 sketches. And the fact that he pulled it off, 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:12.360 that he held his own in a show dominated by actors 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:15.000 like Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy, it's just 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.019 proof of incredible versatility. He didn't seem 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:18.919 pigeonholed at all. His career just kept branching 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:21.179 out. Yeah, look at the range. He pops up in Star 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:23.720 Trek. Voyager playing Tommen. Did his sci -fi 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.639 duty. Right. Does voice work? Like for The Simpsons, 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:29.039 playing Grady in a few episodes? Hosted that 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:31.779 Canadian reality show, My Fabulous Gay Wedding. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:34.759 Went on talk shows like Politically Incorrect. 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:37.360 And still working constantly. Recent roles in 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:41.320 shows like Sort of, playing Bryce, and that action 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:43.679 comedy Few Bar with Schwarzenegger, playing Dr. 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:45.620 Louis Pfeffer. He never really stopped. Yeah. 00:11:45.779 --> 00:11:48.159 But let's pause on one project that really screams 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:50.440 disruptive, going back to that word. Mouth Congress. 00:11:50.779 --> 00:11:53.679 Mouth Congress. His queer core punk band with 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.720 Paul Bellini. Right in the mid 90s, when Keith 00:11:56.720 --> 00:11:58.879 and Larry Sanders were making him pretty mainstream 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:00.879 famous. Yeah, this is such a crucial piece of 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:03.039 the puzzle. It shows this commitment to raw, 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:06.500 like completely uncompromised expression and 00:12:06.500 --> 00:12:08.419 queer core punk. We need to understand what that 00:12:08.419 --> 00:12:11.100 means. Right. It's not just punk rock. No, it's 00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:14.740 inherently political, aggressive, anti -establishment, 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.879 super DIY, confrontational, focused squarely 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:20.179 on queer identity, anger, social commentary. 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:24.509 So picture this. He's on network TV. playing 00:12:24.509 --> 00:12:26.649 Hank Kingsley's nervous assistant. And then maybe 00:12:26.649 --> 00:12:28.750 later that night, he's in some basement screaming 00:12:28.750 --> 00:12:31.769 these aggressive punk anthems with Bellini. It's 00:12:31.769 --> 00:12:33.929 an amazing duality, isn't it? It's like this 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:37.529 necessary release valve, the absolute opposite 00:12:37.529 --> 00:12:40.970 energy of the polished K -I -th world. Did anything 00:12:40.970 --> 00:12:43.289 come of it back then? Not commercially, really. 00:12:43.409 --> 00:12:46.169 It was very underground. But what's cool is how 00:12:46.169 --> 00:12:49.110 they brought it back. In 2015, they just uploaded 00:12:49.110 --> 00:12:51.580 all their old recordings onto Bandcamp. Just 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:53.379 put it out there for anyone. Yeah. More about 00:12:53.379 --> 00:12:55.899 archiving it, sharing that history, then making 00:12:55.899 --> 00:12:59.440 money. A real digital pioneer move in a way. 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.000 And that led to actual reunion shows. It did. 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:05.340 They started playing live again in 2016. And 00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:07.179 then they used Kickstarter, that independent 00:13:07.179 --> 00:13:09.740 funding route, to finance a whole documentary 00:13:09.740 --> 00:13:12.919 about the band. Mouth Congress, the film. Premiered 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:15.379 in 2021. Right. So it shows he's comfortable 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:17.960 not just making raw stuff, but also using these 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:20.700 modern direct -to -fan ways to get it out there. 00:13:20.899 --> 00:13:22.840 And that digital savvy wasn't new for him either, 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:26.399 was it? Scotland. Ah, Scotland. Yeah, back in 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:28.259 the mid -90s, developed with his younger brother, 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:30.460 Craig. This was really early days for the interactive 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:33.279 web. What was it exactly? Just a fan site? No, 00:13:33.340 --> 00:13:35.600 it was way more ambitious than most celebrity 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:37.860 sites back then, which were usually just static 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:41.759 bios. Scotland apparently had live chat fan voting. 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:45.500 Some weird thing called comedy espionage. Comedy 00:13:45.500 --> 00:13:47.940 espionage. I don't know. But crucially, it was 00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:50.460 also an early form of e -commerce. They were 00:13:50.460 --> 00:13:53.659 selling Buddy Cole merch, T -shirts, tapes directly 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:56.600 to fans online. In the mid -90s. Yeah. Pretty 00:13:56.600 --> 00:13:58.399 forward thinking. Before secure payments were 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.019 even common. Exactly. Shows he was already thinking 00:14:01.019 --> 00:14:03.279 about self -distribution and engaging directly 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.799 with his audience way back then. He really did 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:08.480 embrace every platform. The website, the band, 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:12.000 TV, film, and books too. You get the Buddy Babylon 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.960 autobiography with Bellini. Yep. And as we mentioned, 00:14:15.059 --> 00:14:17.100 that graphic novel, The Hollow Planet, based 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:20.200 on Danny Husk, he's truly a multi -format creator, 00:14:20.460 --> 00:14:22.919 never felt confined. Okay, so we've covered this 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:25.399 huge creative output, but now we need to shift 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:27.039 gears, like you said earlier, and talk about 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:30.159 the personal history that seems to fuel so much 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:32.620 of it. Right. And this is where things get intense, 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.399 because his creative life is completely tangled 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:38.240 up with these incredibly traumatic, politically 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.299 charged events, events that forced him to confront 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:44.240 terror head on. This is the raw material. We 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:46.539 already discussed the first one, the 1975 school 00:14:46.539 --> 00:14:49.639 shooting he witnessed. But then 25 years later 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:52.539 came something much more targeted. The firebombing 00:14:52.539 --> 00:14:55.080 incident in 2000. Yes. He was living in West 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:57.019 Hollywood then with his boyfriend at the time, 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.200 Joel Soleil, who's a French documentarian. And 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:04.049 the context around this attack. Yeah. It's crucial, 00:15:04.169 --> 00:15:05.950 isn't it? It wasn't random. Not at all. It was 00:15:05.950 --> 00:15:08.210 directly linked to Soler's work. So Soler had 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:10.610 made this satirical documentary called Uncle 00:15:10.610 --> 00:15:13.129 Saddam. About Saddam Hussein's homeland. Exactly. 00:15:13.549 --> 00:15:16.429 Apparently using footage, Soler had somehow smuggled 00:15:16.429 --> 00:15:18.909 out of Iraq. It painted this picture of the dictator's 00:15:18.909 --> 00:15:22.330 bizarre, sometimes mundane, private world. And 00:15:22.330 --> 00:15:24.950 Thompson got involved. He wrote the narration 00:15:24.950 --> 00:15:27.190 for the film, which was read by Wallace Langham, 00:15:27.210 --> 00:15:29.750 another actor. So they were essentially mocking 00:15:29.750 --> 00:15:31.929 one of the most dangerous dictators on the planet. 00:15:32.330 --> 00:15:35.490 And that didn't go unnoticed. The attack happened 00:15:35.490 --> 00:15:39.090 November 1st, 2000. Thompson's description of 00:15:39.090 --> 00:15:42.710 it is chilling. It sounds truly terrifying. Pure 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:45.029 malice. He said they didn't just throw something 00:15:45.029 --> 00:15:47.190 small. They took the big plastic garbage cans 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:48.889 from the front of the house. Told them the gasoline. 00:15:49.029 --> 00:15:51.210 And set them ablaze right there on the front 00:15:51.210 --> 00:15:54.830 lawn like this huge, slow -burning pyre aimed 00:15:54.830 --> 00:15:57.429 right at them. But it was more than just fire. 00:15:57.610 --> 00:15:59.870 The paint. The paint. They apparently drenched 00:15:59.870 --> 00:16:02.440 the front of the house in red paint. Buckets 00:16:02.440 --> 00:16:04.840 of it. Thompson said it was deliberate, made 00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:06.820 to look like the house itself was bleeding. Just 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:10.259 pure psychological terror. Visual intimidation. 00:16:10.299 --> 00:16:11.919 Absolutely. And then there was the note they 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:14.279 left. Yeah. What does it say? It was explicit. 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:16.759 Thompson kept it. It read, in the name of Allah, 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:19.559 the merciful and compassionate, burn this satanic 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:22.240 film or you will be dead. And the word dead was 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.700 underlined. Wow. So this wasn't just some crackpot. 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:27.919 This was a direct terrorist threat tied to Islamic 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:30.919 extremism, targeting artists for making political 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:33.840 satire. It brought global conflict right to his 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.529 doorstep. Exactly. Into his private life, his 00:16:36.529 --> 00:16:39.409 home. And you take that direct targeted terror 00:16:39.409 --> 00:16:42.289 and you combine it with the memory of that random 00:16:42.289 --> 00:16:44.450 senseless terror from the school shooting years 00:16:44.450 --> 00:16:47.490 earlier. And that potent combination leads to 00:16:47.490 --> 00:16:50.610 his next major creative project. The lowest show 00:16:50.610 --> 00:16:54.220 on earth. His one man show. He explicitly designed 00:16:54.220 --> 00:16:56.519 it as a way to grapple with all this. He called 00:16:56.519 --> 00:16:59.399 it processing incidents of terror on micro and 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:02.379 macrocosmic level. Micro being the school shooting 00:17:02.379 --> 00:17:05.220 random close up violence. Right. And macro being 00:17:05.220 --> 00:17:07.900 the firebombing global political violence targeted 00:17:07.900 --> 00:17:10.799 threat. The show was meant to be this aggressive, 00:17:10.980 --> 00:17:14.079 provocative, satirical dive into fear itself. 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:17.920 A powerful idea. Yeah. But the timing, the timing 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:20.339 was just brutal. He was set to open it off Broadway 00:17:20.339 --> 00:17:23.509 in New York. In September 2001. The irony is 00:17:23.509 --> 00:17:25.829 almost unbearable. The posters went up around 00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:28.650 the city on September 10th, 2001. And the posters 00:17:28.650 --> 00:17:30.130 themselves were designed to provoke, weren't 00:17:30.130 --> 00:17:32.430 they? Oh, incredibly so. The sources described 00:17:32.430 --> 00:17:34.789 the main image. It was Thompson lying on the 00:17:34.789 --> 00:17:37.369 ground looking up. Well, with what was described 00:17:37.369 --> 00:17:40.369 as a big wad of semen dripping down the side 00:17:40.369 --> 00:17:43.630 of his face. Okay. So, deliberately shocking. 00:17:43.910 --> 00:17:47.190 Using sexual imagery, confronting darkness. Exactly. 00:17:47.190 --> 00:17:50.470 Comedy designed to jolt people awake. And then... 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:54.259 The very next day, 9 -11 happens. September 11th, 00:17:54.259 --> 00:17:57.400 the World Trade Center, the Pentagon. And suddenly 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.500 this show created to dissect and satirize terror 00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:04.059 using shock tactics and dark humor. It just becomes 00:18:04.059 --> 00:18:06.299 impossible. The real thing, the scale of the 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:09.319 real world terror completely overshadowed it. 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.400 Thompson said the material became impossible 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.160 to talk about. Yeah, how could it not? His very 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:17.519 personal satirical exploration of fear was silenced 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:20.859 by this monumental collective trauma. His creative 00:18:20.859 --> 00:18:23.299 coping mechanism just got swamped by reality. 00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:25.940 It's such a profound, tragic collision of events. 00:18:26.099 --> 00:18:28.559 To survive a targeted attack, make art about 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.519 it, and then have that art effectively canceled 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.039 by an even bigger act of terror. It really underscores 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:34.920 that theme of resilience we keep coming back 00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:37.740 to. Because he did keep going. That setback didn't 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:39.839 stop him creating. No. He launched another show 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:43.019 later, Scatastrophe, in 2006, still exploring 00:18:43.019 --> 00:18:45.900 dark themes. Right. And that same year, he took 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:48.920 part in Canada Reads, the literary debate show. 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:52.200 He championed Mordecai Richler's novel, Cockshire. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.400 Which is itself a controversial, satirical book. 00:18:55.619 --> 00:18:58.359 Exactly. So he was still engaging in that challenging, 00:18:58.440 --> 00:19:01.539 vital cultural conversation, never shied away 00:19:01.539 --> 00:19:03.740 from the difficult stuff. That resilience, that 00:19:03.740 --> 00:19:06.740 refusal to shy away. Yeah. It was tested again, 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:09.839 wasn't it? This time physically. Yeah. The final 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:12.779 big challenge we know about came in 2009. A serious 00:19:12.779 --> 00:19:14.799 health crisis. He was diagnosed with cancer. 00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:17.940 B -cell non -Hodgkin's gastric lymphoma. Diagnosed 00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:20.700 in March 2009. And considering everything else, 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:22.819 he'd already survived the external traumas facing 00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:25.660 this internal battle. It's incredibly poignant. 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:28.500 But he fought it. The sources mention the treatment. 00:19:28.779 --> 00:19:32.490 He did. Head on. Six rounds of chemotherapy followed 00:19:32.490 --> 00:19:35.250 by a month of radiation, a really intensive regimen. 00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:37.589 And the outcome? Fortunately successful. He's 00:19:37.589 --> 00:19:39.890 confirmed to be cancer -free now. He went through 00:19:39.890 --> 00:19:42.130 that whole ordeal quite publicly and came out 00:19:42.130 --> 00:19:44.930 the other side. Surviving cancer after surviving 00:19:44.930 --> 00:19:49.259 a firebombing. it really cements that idea of 00:19:49.259 --> 00:19:52.059 resilience being his driving force. It wasn't 00:19:52.059 --> 00:19:53.980 just about getting through it, was it? It was 00:19:53.980 --> 00:19:56.519 about getting back to work. Absolutely. And he 00:19:56.519 --> 00:19:58.839 returned with real energy. Look at his activity 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:00.900 since then. He's continued doing voice work like 00:20:00.900 --> 00:20:02.940 playing Thistle in that kids show, Pinecone and 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:05.500 Pony. He was part of the KI3 revival series on 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:08.460 Amazon Prime. Yep. And showing up in contemporary 00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:11.700 live action series like Few Bar, it just proves 00:20:11.700 --> 00:20:13.839 that all those battles, personal and physical, 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:16.470 they didn't diminish his drive. He just seems 00:20:16.470 --> 00:20:18.809 to process the disruption and keep making things. 00:20:19.049 --> 00:20:21.329 So wrapping this up, we look back over our deep 00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:23.369 dive. Yeah. We started with the familiar sketch 00:20:23.369 --> 00:20:26.529 comedy, The Genius of Buddy Cole. Right. Then 00:20:26.529 --> 00:20:29.150 we saw that unexpected pivot into serious drama 00:20:29.150 --> 00:20:32.130 with Hannibal. Uncovered the punk rock spirit 00:20:32.130 --> 00:20:34.670 of mouth Congress, the early web vision of Scotland. 00:20:34.849 --> 00:20:37.289 But the real core narrative, the thread tying 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:39.549 it all together, is this incredible transformation 00:20:39.549 --> 00:20:42.829 of disruption into art. Witnessing violence, 00:20:43.029 --> 00:20:45.130 getting kicked out of school, surviving a terrorist. 00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:47.960 attack battling cancer. He took all of it. All 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:51.839 of it. and channeled it into this powerful, necessary, 00:20:52.339 --> 00:20:54.380 sometimes really dark, but always compelling 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.420 body of work. He's the artist who just refused 00:20:57.420 --> 00:21:01.059 to be silenced, even when the world, quite literally 00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:04.319 on 9 -11, made his message feel impossible. He 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:06.579 really demonstrated how personal trauma isn't 00:21:06.579 --> 00:21:09.339 just background noise for an artist. It can actively 00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:12.359 shape the work, dictate its texture, its tone. 00:21:12.579 --> 00:21:15.759 It forces the comedy to be sharper, maybe more 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:18.700 aggressive, but ultimately more truthful. couldn't 00:21:18.700 --> 00:21:21.660 agree more and as we finish up we wanted to leave 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:23.779 you the listener with maybe one last thing to 00:21:23.779 --> 00:21:25.980 chew on something that circles back to that theme 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:29.000 of duality of artistic choice okay we spent a 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.140 good chunk of time on buddy cole right the flamboyant 00:21:32.140 --> 00:21:35.240 alpha queen thompson's primary voice for political 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:37.680 satire yeah his most famous creation probably 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:39.599 but the source material notes that when thompson 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:41.839 decided to do a big standalone project outside 00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:44.000 kate that graphic novel the hollow planet he 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:46.119 didn't base it on buddy cole no he based it on 00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:49.109 danny husk The straight -laced, suit -wearing, 00:21:49.109 --> 00:21:53.009 perpetually bewildered businessman. Huh. That 00:21:53.009 --> 00:21:55.890 is an interesting choice. Buddy's the commentator, 00:21:55.950 --> 00:21:59.250 the satirist, Ganny Husk is the guy things happen 00:21:59.250 --> 00:22:02.970 to. The vehicle for absurdist sci -fi, not direct 00:22:02.970 --> 00:22:05.509 commentary. Exactly. So the question to ponder 00:22:05.509 --> 00:22:09.170 is... Why? Why did this comedian, celebrated 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:12.150 for embodying these radical, outspoken queer 00:22:12.150 --> 00:22:15.450 personas like Buddy, choose his most unassuming, 00:22:15.450 --> 00:22:18.349 almost repressed, straight character to anchor 00:22:18.349 --> 00:22:21.250 his first big fictional narrative outside the 00:22:21.250 --> 00:22:23.769 troupe? Does Danny Husk represent something different? 00:22:23.890 --> 00:22:26.849 A different kind of anxiety, maybe? Not political, 00:22:26.930 --> 00:22:30.839 but... Existential. Mundane. Perhaps. Maybe Buddy 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:32.819 Cole confronts the chaos of the world head on 00:22:32.819 --> 00:22:35.039 while Danny Husk just tries and usually fails 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.519 to find some logic or order within it. It suggests 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:39.980 different ways artists process things. So something 00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:41.980 to think about. What does that choice tell us 00:22:41.980 --> 00:22:44.160 about Scott Thompson's range, his inner world, 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:46.440 his motivations, giving the quiet businessman 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.400 Danny Husk this whole separate, weird, fictional 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:51.259 life in the hollow planet? Definitely something 00:22:51.259 --> 00:22:54.000 to mull over as you explore the incredible, diverse, 00:22:54.180 --> 00:22:56.240 and deeply resilient work of Scott Thompson.