Kids In The Hall reminisce about overeager sound guy Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show

Before he was a giggly talk show host, Jimmy Fallon was a giggly sound guy, says Mark McKinney

By Matt Schimkowitz | May 11, 2022 | 6:23pm

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Kids In The Hall reminisce about overeager sound guy Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show

Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Dave Foley, and Jimmy Fallon Screenshot: NBC

One of the only good things to happen in the history of humanity is that The Kids In The Hall are back. With a brand new sketch show coming to Prime Video this weekend, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the gods of purely revolting and depressing sketch comedy are back to make light of the worst sides of humanity. It makes the struggle worth it.

This also means a new round of appearances from The Kids on late night television, which brought them to The Tonight Show last night. Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, and Bruce McCulloch were all on hand to remember their halcyon days spent on the dingy comedy stages in the Great White North.

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Thompson regaled Fallon with the time he threw donuts at the Kids In The Hall during a performance in hopes that he’d get their attention and they’d ask him to join the troupe (it worked). McCulloch remembers telling an SNL talent scout that they would not be admitted to their sold-out show without a ticket, and that maybe they could buy one on the street. “They have money,” McColloch justifies. Meanwhile, Dave Foley did one of the most original Lorne Michaels impressions as he recalled the time Michaels first came to see them, describing Michaels’ gasping laugh as “like an old-timey cowboy, like the chuckwagon cook.” Dave was just kidding, though.

“So, he didn’t laugh at all,” Fallon says in the clip. “No,” says Foley. “He looked bemused.”

But the most interesting story came from former SNL cast member Mark McKinney, who recalled a time when he shot a student film in Troy, New York, in the middle of winter, which is very cold. The sound guy on that shoot was none other than a young Jimmy Fallon, and wouldn’t you know it, he was apparently just as giggly and overeager as he is today.

“1996, I was on Saturday Night Live,” recalls McKinney. “Someone asked me to do a student film in Troy, New York, in the middle of winter, so, naturally, I said yes. And I went up there, and there was a sound guy doing the boom who had a lot of energy. Like way, way too much energy. And that was Jimmy Fallon.”

“I was excited, yeah,” says Fallon. “I remember I was laying under a coffee table for one scene or whatever, and I was holding a microphone, and you were doing a scene. And I go, ‘Hey Mark.’ And you’re doing your scene. I go, ‘I really want to be on Saturday Night Live.’ And you go, ‘Good luck, man. It’s going to be great.’”

“No, but we stayed in touch. Oh, by the way, the sound on that film, not great. But later you sent me a VHS tape and really sweet letter and asked if I could pass it on,” McKinney adds.

The whole interview is really sweet and ends with a clip of a new sketch of the Kids as 60-year-old strippers, which really adds a level of danger to exotic dancing that you wouldn’t expect.