Month: November 2018

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Defeat Kings 112-104

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

If you watched Friday night’s home game against the Sacramento Kings, you know the first quarter was the Jaren Jackson show. On the first offensive possession of the game, the Grizzlies pitched it to Jackson in the low post, and he scored as easily as one pours syrup on a pancake.
Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies leapt out to a 15-2 run, fueled by Jackson’s nine points, including a made three-pointer and at-will scoring in the post. It helps when your post footwork is ahead of schedule and your touch is softer than an infant’s hair. Nemanja Bjelica couldn’t guard him for beans, and had a rough go while guarded by Jackson on the other end.

Grizzlies Defeat Kings 112-104 (2)

Memphis also benefited from 66.7 percent three-point shooting in the first quarter, with Jackson, Garrett Temple, Omri Casspi, and MarShon Brooks each sinking a three.

The Kings got going near the end of the first period, however, with help from a speedy and electric De’Aaron Fox. He converted on a buzzer-beater to get the Kings to within one point heading into the second quarter.

The second quarter was defined by two nasty Wayne Selden dunks. Selden attacked the rim three times from the arc, finishing with two jams and an and-one elevated lay-in.

Fans were also treated to more of Jackson versus the Kings’ number-two draft pick, Marvin Bagley, and Jackson dominated the matchup. In one sequence, Jackson blocked Bagley in the post (he ate his lunch y’all), and finished over him on the other end.

Did the Kings fumble the Bagley by not drafting Jaren Ja… *special ops shoots me in the neck with a tranquilizer.

The Kings took the lead briefly in the middle of the second quarter, but the Grizzlies battled back and went into halftime up 62-51, after Conley hit a floater with 3.4 seconds left. Fox got a shot off on the other end, but Jaren Jackson blocked it at the buzzer.
Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies never trailed in the second half. On one of the first possessions of the third quarter, Conley no-look deflected a pass that resulted in Marc Gasol getting fouled at the other end. The Grizzlies defense is scary good.

Memphis went back to their bread and butter to start the game in the second half, tossing the ball down low to Jackson and letting him feast. The Kings simply had no answer for him. He set his NBA career high in points (27), converting an alley-oop lob from MarShon Brooks. Jackson also finished the night with six boards (four of which came in the first quarter).

In his postgame press conference, Coach J.B. Bickerstaff lauded Jackson’s performance and potential, saying: “He’s just figuring it out. That’s the blessing of it, is that he doesn’t even understand how good he truly is yet.”

Bickerstaff didn’t finish the game with Jackson, however, opting to sit him in the final minutes, again. Familiar face Troy Williams made some clutch plays for the Kings and sank a couple triples down the stretch, and Sacramento got within three points in the final minutes of the game, but the Grizzlies managed to pull away just enough to close it out.

Two possessions at the end stood out. One featured the Kings’ Iman Shumpert getting a second-chance opportunity in the corner. He waved off his teammates and shot a turnaround three-point airball over Garrett Temple.

The other happened when the Kings trailed by three with 1:41 to go, and an ultra-aggressive Gasol drove through all sorts of contact and for an and-one finish. Gasol would end the night with 19 points and 15 rebounds, and set the Grizzlies’ franchise rebounding record (with former record-holder Zach Randolph in attendance, no less!).
Larry Kuzniewski

Conley had another solid scoring night, tallying 19 points on 7-16 shooting. He only hit 1-4 from three, but facilitated the offense well and notched six assists. It must be nice for both Conley and Gasol to be able to feed the rock to Jackson to start the game and the second half, and let him get his own buckets without either of the Grizzlies’ elder statesmen having to exert much energy.

De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield led the way for the Kings, combining for 35 points. Fox finished the game with a game-high 10 assists, and was the fiery engine for the Kings’ offense for most of the night. Their high level of play wasn’t enough to earn the win on this go against the Grizzlies, however.

The Grizzlies were back to their usual ways of protecting the rock in this game, turning the ball over only 13 times to the Kings’ 21. Memphis also won the battle in the paint 54-42.

One weak spot for the Grizzlies was their free throw shooting. Conley missed consecutive free throws for the second time this season, and the team shot only 62.5 percent on 24 shots from the charity stripe. The Grizzlies also continued to give up a hearty helping of open looks from deep, and are lucky that the Kings converted on just 12 of their 33 attempts.

While ZBo has yet to suit up for the Kings this season, nothing was going to stop him from seeing his daughter sing in the Lausanne choir at FedExForum Friday night. He also caught up with old teammates, coaches, and FedExForum employees.

Grizzlies Defeat Kings 112-104

The Grizzlies return to action when they take on the Jimmy Butler-less Timberwolves in Minnesota on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Zopita’s on the Square to open Nov. 19

CREDIT: Anna Palazola

Anna Palazola

Zopita’s on the Square opens Nov. 19 in Collierville.

Zopita’s on the Square will open at 11 a.m. November 19th, says owner/operator Anna Palazola.

The new restaurant, which will feature Italian as well as other dishes, is at 114 North Main on the town square in Collierville.

The idea of the restaurant is for people to pick up food to take home or eat at the restaurant, which will have seating for 26 people.

The restaurant, named after Palazola’s Italian grandmother Anna Zopita, will feature a variety of food, including Italian. She’ll offer homemade pastas, soups, specialty sandwiches, salads and good coffee. And she will carry baked goods, including hot croissants, pastries, cookies and cakes.

“It’s exactly a year since we found the building,” Palazola says. “I fell in love with the building. It’s an old building. It used to be a bank. We have the vault in here. The vault is so massive it cannot be taken out.”

As for the decor, Palazola says, “I went for the industrial look. The chairs are metal.”

The tables, which she had made, are built of repurposed wood.

Zopita’s on the Square will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

They will hold a soft opening the first week. “We may not have the full menu,” Palazola says.

Anna Palazola

Zopita’s on the Square

Anna Palazola

Zopita’s on the Square


Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Little Italy Opening Downtown

The third Little Italy will open in South Main Downtown sometime in December, according to owner Giovanni Caravello. It will be in the old Scoops site at 106 GE Patterson.

“It was a good opportunity,” says Caravello, noting the coming movie theater and hotel. “In that part of Downtown, there’s not really authentic pizza.”

By authentic, Caravello means New York-style, which is what he specializes in. He says what makes their pizza so good is their high quality ingredients — the best cheeses and finest flour. His lasagna, he swears, is “like my mom made it.”

Caravello says that the menu for the Downtown restaurant will be smaller. He’s thinking of offering fresh mussels with marinara sauce, imported cold cuts, and a cheese platter.

There will be seating for 35 to 40 inside, with an additional 20 to 25 seats outdoors. Caravello hopes to host games outside.

Ultimately, he’s feeling pretty confident about this latest venture.
“We’ve been in business 15 years,” he says. “People know what we can do.”

Categories
News News Blog

Seven Vie for Vacant District 1 Council Seat

Seven candidates interested in filling the vacant Memphis City Council seat left by Bill Morrison submitted applications before the Wednesday deadline.

After Morrison was elected Shelby County Probate Clerk in August and officially resigned from the District 1 council seat earlier this month, those looking to fill the vacancy were instructed to submit a qualifying packet to the council.

Seven candidates submitted applications and were certified by the Shelby County Election Commission. They include:

• Lonnie Treadway

• Tierra Holloway

• Paul Boyd

• Faye Morrison

• Danielle Schonbaum

• Rhonda Logan

• Mauricio Calvo

The full city council is set to hear a presentation from each candidate at its Tuesday, November 20th meeting before voting on a candidate.

Additionally, resignations of Council members Janis Fullilove of Super District 8-2 and Edmund Ford Jr. of District 6 become effective, November 23rd and 25th respectively.

Interested candidates have from Monday, November 26th until Thursday, December 13th at noon to submit an application, proof of residency, and signatures from 25 registered voters in their respective district. The council will choose the two candidates on Tuesday, December 18th.

Categories
News News Blog

Group of White Women Test Mall’s No Hoodie Policy

CREDIT: Facebook

Facebook

Shannon Arthur and others sport hoodies at Wolfchase Galleria

Last week, four white women wearing hoodies said they walked more than a mile in the same mall where — less than a week earlier — four black men were removed for wearing hoodies.

At Wolfchase Galleria earlier this month, Kevin McKenzie, a former Commercial Appeal reporter was arrested for recording the group of black men being escorted from the mall for violating the mall’s no hoodie policy.

One of the women, Shannon Arthur, who posted about their recent visit to the mall on Facebook, said she and three other white women went to mall wearing hoodies “just to see what would happen.”

The Commercial Appeal

Kevin McKenzie

“This is the same mall where several young black men were recently kicked out, roughed up, and/or arrested for allegedly violating an unposted no-hoodie policy, and a bystander was also arrested for documenting the injustice with his smartphone,” Arthur wrote.

Arthur said that she and the other women walked through the mall both with their hoods up and down, and that if a security guard saw them with their hoods up, they would “very politely asked us to take them down.”

“One guard said it was because they need to be able to identify everybody’s faces,” Arthur said. “So we said, ‘sure,’ took them down, walked on, and put the hoods back up a bit later. Repeat. No threats. Point made.”

Arthur also noted that she saw mall patrons wearing baseball caps covering their faces, but they weren’t asked to remove them.

“I respect law enforcement,” Arthur said. “And mall cops. But there’s no question that some members of our community are constantly harassed and traumatized where those with less melanin are given a pass. We must do better.”

When asked about the no hoodie policy, Wolfchase Galleria said it focuses on providing a safe environment for all customers and employees.

“We require customers to not conceal their identity while on mall property as a matter of public safety,” the statement read. “It is important that our security cameras and security personnel be able to see the faces of everyone on property.”

See the original video that led to McKenzie’s arrest below.
 

Group of White Women Test Mall’s No Hoodie Policy

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Post-Mortem, Pre-Birth

CREDIT: Laura Jean Hocking

A week and more since the election, the dust has settled, as they say, and the earth on which it rests looks, superficially, amazingly the same as it was before.

The landscape of Tennessee is still red-tinted, as it has been since the statewide elections of 2010 and 2014 and the post-census reapportionment of legislative seats, in-between. The state’s two Senate seats belong to the Republicans, as does the governorship, and a GOP supermajority will still be reigning in Nashville when the General Assembly reconvenes.  

But there are clear and obvious signs of change.

Politically speaking, there are two Nashvilles. The capital city’s name, used as a synecdoche for state government, or, alternatively, for the oft retrograde doings of the legislature, connotes all kinds of red-hued things. The actual city of Nashville, based on the voting habits of its electorate and the official acts of its public figures, is the most consistently blue spot in Tennessee; indeed, it is probably the last refuge on Planet Earth of the once-upon-a-time Solid Democratic South.

Laura Jean Hocking

Scene from Weekend Rally at Civic Center Plaza

Nashville is where not just blacks, who amount to 27 percent of the population, but politically ambitious whites find it worth their while to run as Democrats. Nashville’s legislators are still predominantly Democratic; the Congressman representing the city, Jim Cooper, is a Democrat, and so are its mayors; former Mayors Karl Dean, this year’s Democratic nominee for Governor and Phil Bredesen, the two-term Governor who carried the party’s banner in the 2018 U.S. Senate race being cases in point.

The cautious Micawber-like conservatism of Bredesen was on full display in the Senate race, as it had been during his gubernatorial tenure, and it was a source of continuing annoyance to a good many Democratic activists, who bridled at their nominee’s implicit and sometimes overt affinities for Trumpism, as when Bredesen, post-Senate hearings, embraced the Supreme Court candidacy of Brett Kavanaugh, or when, in a TV commercial, he seemed to relish the idea of working in tandem with the president (“a skilled negotiator”) to get pharmaceutical prices down.  

While these overtures might have seemed ill-considered cave-ins to many of Bredesen’s Democratic supporters, they might very well have represented the candidate’s actual views. Bredesen is, after all, the governor who drastically pruned the rolls of TennCare and, in his first year in office in 2003, imposed across-the-board budget cuts of 9 percent in state spending. (By comparison, his victorious ultra-right-wing Republican opponent in 2018, Marsha Blackburn, had only demanded an 8 percent omnibus cut back then, as a state senator.)

The root fact may be that Bredesen, an import from the Northeast who made a fortune in Nashville as a health-care entrepreneur, is, politically, the exception who proves the rule about Nashville — someone who, upon entering politics, branded himself a Democrat because that was the “right” label for someone running for office in Nashville.

Whatever the case, Bredesen got 71 percent of the votes this year in Nashville as compared to 66 percent in Memphis. The rest of the state went for Blackburn by a 70 to 30 ratio, percentage-wise.

It is difficult to imagine James Mackler, the youngish Nashville lawyer and Iraq War vet who was talked into bowing out of the race to accommodate Bredesen’s race, doing much worse, statewide. And the progressive ideas Mackler unfolded during his brief candidacy might well have proved as rousing as Beto O’Rourke’s similar approach did in Texas, making the Lone Star congressman’s race there a close-run thing and elevating him into national prominence. We’ll never know. It was assumed, probably correctly, that only Bredesen could raise the requisite amount of cash for a competitive statewide race in Tennessee.

Similar reasoning underlay the nice-try but no-cigar race by Karl Dean against the GOP’s new-look gubernatorial winner, Bill Lee.

The state Democratic Party, incidentally, did what it could financially to augment several of the legislative races in play on last week’s ballot, including races mounted in Shelby County’s most suburban corners against long-term Republicans thought to have an unbreakable hold on power.

There was Gabby Salinas, the Bolivian-born cancer survivor and research scientist who, running as a Democrat, pleaded the cause of Medicaid expansion against its chief antagonist, the supposedly entrenched Republican state senator and state Senate Judiciary Chairman Brian Kelsey, in District 31, a sprawling land mass extending from Midtown and East Memphis into the suburban hinterland of Bartlett, Germantown, and Collierville. Gabby, as she was everywhere known, came within 2 percent of ousting Kelsey, who squeaked out a win of 40,313 to 38,793.

Democrat Danielle Schonbaum made things look relatively close in her contest with the veteran Mark White in House District 83, another East Memphis-Germantown-Collierville amalgam where she polled 11,336 votes to White’s 15,129. Even closer was fellow Democratic newcomer Allan Creasy, who won 10,073 votes against incumbent Jim Coley‘s 12,298 in District 97, a somewhat gerrymandered slice of Bartlett and Eads.

And, of course, there was District 96 (Cordova, Germantown), where Democrat Dwayne Thompson, who managed to upset Republican incumbent Steve McManus in the Trump year of 2016, expanded his margin of victory from 14,710 to 10,493 over Republican warhorse Scott McCormick in a reelection bid.

If those outcomes on the suburban rim look familiar, they are the contemporary Democratic equivalents of the kinds of gains Republicans made in the period of the GOP’s ascendancy, beginning in the late 1960s. Just as the GOP did in its rise to power, the refurbished Democratic Party, led by Corey Strong, made a point of challenging every available position, an effort that Republicans could not or would not match.

Unmistakably, Shelby County’s Democratic totals were swelled enormously by the African-American voters who are the essence of the party’s base here. But this year the effort made by white Democrats, focused in the Germantown Democratic Party, whose president Dave Cambron doubled as the party’s chief recruiter of candidates, and by millennial-dominated groups like Indivisible and Future 90 and new leaders, like Emily Fulmer, was intensified to a point of fever pitch.

Fulmer and others were galvanized into action again on Saturday, in a rally on Civic Center Plaza of hundreds who braved cold weather to protest the prospect of a post-election move against the Robert Mueller investigation by President Trump.

Unmistakably, Democratic sentiment in Memphis and Shelby County is again on the rise, after a decade or two of slumber.

Categories
Music Music Features

Zuider Zee

CREDIT: Gary Simon Bertrand

As I speak with the songwriter on the other end of the phone, it’s a bit difficult to believe that he’s from Lafayette, Louisiana: His accent is colored with the rounded tones of the English midlands. “I bounce back and forth between the U.S. and the U.K., as you can hear in my voice,” explains Richard Orange, chief guitarist and songwriter of the long lost Memphis band Zuider Zee. Though he now lives in Orange County, California, to these ears, it’s proof positive that he is an artist committed to growth and change, just as he was in the early 1970s, when his group was poised to take the world by storm.

Memphis is already familiar with one tale of unsung power pop masters who cut marvelous tracks here in the early 1970s, only to languish in obscurity. So iconic is the Big Star story that it’s a shock to learn, with this year’s release of Zuider Zee’s Zeenith (Light in the Attic Records), that there was an even more obscure band woodshedding and recording in Memphis at the same time. Like Big Star, Zuider Zee (it rhymes with cider tea) was creating highly original music that holds up remarkably well today, but that is where all Big Star comparisons must end.

Gary Simon Bertrand

Zuider Zee (l-r, Richard Orange, Gary Simon Bertrand, John Bonar, Kim Foreman)

The greater adventurism in the songs, sounds, and arrangements of Zeenith are what make Zuider Zee unique, somehow redefining both power pop and prog rock simultaneously. Certainly, the band was drawing inspiration from the Beatles’ example of constant evolution, not to mention other sounds coming from across the pond. “What I liked at the time was mostly from England. I just adored King Crimson,” says Orange. Like those icons of prog, Zuider Zee was actively seeking novel sounds, textures, and harmonies (including a greater use of keyboards). But, unlike most prog, all innovations were in the service of concise songs that eschewed long flights of virtuosity.

Hearing the adventurism of Zuider Zee’s production and songcraft, it’s astounding that all of the tracks on Zeenith were previously unreleased, having been cut as demos at Memphis’ Trans Maximus International (TMI) studios. Those demos arose from still earlier demos the band cut in Louisiana under the name Thomas Edisun’s Electric Light Bulb Band [sic]. When Mississippi-based promoter and manager Leland Russell heard those, “he came and hunted me down in high school,” says Orange. Ultimately, Russell convinced them all to join him in a move to Memphis, where he set them up in a band house across from his new home on Raleigh LaGrange Road.

Once there, they relentlessly honed their material. “One thing I can say about that band is, I made them rehearse a lot,” recalls Orange. “We were very well rehearsed before we would go in and cut. So we could do a lot of those arrangements in real time.” The blend of turn-on-a-dime performances and imaginative production bells and whistles adds up to a kind of loose perfectionism in the tracks. While Orange’s voice has echoes of Paul McCartney or Freddie Mercury, things never get too glossy: The foibles give the record an earthy humanity that is sometimes missing from power pop.

Ultimately, Zuider Zee did get their big break with a major label, but that was years after these demos, and it was too little, too late. “The material on Zeenith wasn’t really an album. We just put that together for this release. Zuider Zee on Columbia Records in 1975 was a big deal. But they just completely dropped the ball. Probably no one’s heard of it because they never released a single. And in those days, radio wouldn’t play you unless you told them what to play.”

As if to refute the fickle logic of major labels like Columbia, the once-forgotten demos pre-dating Zuider Zee’s big break now add up to one of the best releases of 2018, or any year: a strange, inventive hybrid made by Louisiana boys stuck in the Bluff City, casting their eyes to England for a bit of transcendence.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

The Nine Now Open

The Nine, in the old Bangkok Alley space at 121 Union Downtown, opened November 1st. Owner Chalee Timrattana says the Burana family, Bangkok Alley owners, helped him by providing the space free of charge and have been nothing but supportive.

Timrattana worked for Bangkok Alley for 16 years and has served as kitchen manager for all the locations.

The nine of the Nine refers to the king of Thailand, who recently passed away. Timrattana is using it as a lucky number.

Construction and the upgrade took longer than expected. The inside looks much like it did before, with a bar at front with some seating and banquet seating along the walls.

Also similar is the menu with such Thai favorites as Pad Thai and Drunken noodle.

Timrattana says he doesn’t have a specialty, per se. “I can do it all good,” he says.

Drunken noodle with tofu

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis?

Kevin McDonald

If Monty Python are the Beatles of TV sketch comedy, The Kids in the Hall are Duran Duran. I borrowed that line from Kids co-founder Kevin McDonald, who’s been known to use it in his standup routine. It’s a great gag because it’s a terrible metaphor. If we’re being honest, The Kids are more like The Zit Remedy of comedy. Or maybe the Triumph of comedy. The point is, they were Canadian. Like Loverboy. They were also smart, savage, and over-the-top.

If the first season of SNL is the Citizen Kane of sketch comedy, Kids in the Hall is American Psycho (but Canadian); full of dark fantasy, cutting satire, satirical cutting. Etc.

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis?

Critics were mean to Brain Candy, but the Kids only feature film looks pretty good in hindsight. What’s not to appreciate about an evil Pharma company’s mad, mad, (mad, mad, mad) rush to commodify health, market an untested happy pill, and warehouse a nation? It’s a dark, borderline cynical fable of success and corruption that, for being implausibly white, pairs beautifully with Boots Riley’s surreal romp, Sorry to Bother You. Both are comic book-style journeys to the dark heart of the Winning class — A tour through the gilded rooms where the real party (inside the party) never stops and things are always weirder, dumber, and way more evil than you’d ever expect. But mostly dumber.

Local comedy fans have good reason to be excited. McDonald is on his way to town to lead a pair of workshops and perform an intimate program of comedy three ways: Standup, sketch, and an improv jam with Memphis’ own Bluff City Liars. Here’s what McDonald told The Flyer about being a Kid, teaching comedy to people who are terrible at comedy, and whether or not super dreamy TV host Darcy Pennell ever got to roll with The Hell Riders. (Spoiler alert: SHE DID!!!)

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis? (2)

Memphis Flyer: Okay, I’ve been waiting 25-years at least to ask this question.

Kevin McDonald: Okay.

MF: Darcy Pennell. Did she ever finally get to roll with The Hell Riders?

KM: Sure. It’s my imagination, sure she did. She did a story. It was supposed to be a story for one weekend but she fell in love with Ace, the second in command which was frustrating because his name was Ace, so you’d think he’d be in command. But he was second in command. And she fell in love with him and they stayed together a year and then he broke her heart and she went back to the TV business. There, I made that up.

MF: Fantastic. Good for Darcy.

KM: Darcy Pennell was based on a local Toronto host of a TV talk show named Dini Petty.

MF: I didn’t know the character was inspired by one person. I’d assumed it was an amalgamation.

KM: Well, the name was. She sort of acted kind of forceful and strong. I can never do impressions, so I took this one aspect of her show that I really found interesting and I put it in Darcy Pennell.

MF: Nice. Can you tell me a little about the thing you’re doing in Memphis with Bluff City Liars? They said you’d reached out and found them. Is this a thing you do regularly? Find regional improv groups and then do workshops and a show with area comics?

KM: Yeah. I’ve been going around North America and doing that for the past four or five years. I spend weekends and I go to theaters with improv troupes and I teach them the Kids in the Hall method during the day. When I’m not doing cartoons or shooting stuff or doing my big podcast Kevin McDonald’s Kevin McDonald Show — I’ve got one coming out with Weird Al Yankovic and Tim and Eric.

MF: Oh, cool. I just saw he’s on tour and coming to The Orpheum in Memphis. Weird Al. Not Tim or Eric.

KM: He won’t be there this weekend will he?

MF: No, I don’t think. I think that’s a 2019 date. I just saw the announcement.

KM: It would be amazing if he was. He’s the nicest guy in the world. He sorta looks like he’d be the nicest guy in the world, and he is the nicest guy in the world. Anyway, I spend my weekends teaching and performing like I will Sunday night.

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis? (3)

MF: It’s a cool thing. Gives comics and writers access to your process. To a Kids in the Hall experience. And also we get a chance to see you perform. What’s the origin story for this project.

KM: Well, I moved to Winnipeg. And I thought I wouldn’t get as much TV and film work as I’d been getting. I still get a lot, but I have to fly to places. So I had to think of something else. So, I have these boring theories about sketch comedy that I’ve been bring people for years with at cocktail parties. And I was performing at Toronto Comedy Fest with Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall, and they asked if I could teach. And I said I could throw something together. And I kinda liked it. And then I developed this thing. I guess it’s been six years, actually.

MF: I remember one time hearing you talk about the writing process with Kids in the Hall. About how you really thought the writing was the strong suit. Is that a focus of the workshops?

KM: Yeah. I think writing was sort of our strength. I think we’re all really good performers, so that gets into the writing. I teach the students writing through improv. So writing and performing are the same thing. But it all starts with the idea. And I think we were all very good with the idea. Then we learned how to go from an idea to a whole sketch through improv. Then when we got the TV show we had to actually write them down. Then we became like writer-writers. And we had to be performer-performers.

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis? (5)


MF: I don’t want to say dark, that’s kind of an attitude, but there was a tone. I was watching some old sketches today and thought they were funnier than I did the first go-round. And prescient.

KM: Funny you say that. There are some things about the show that if I watch today by accident I’ll be like, “Oh, why was I complaining about that scene? That’s a really good scene?”

MF: Funny that way. And the film Brain Candy, looking back from 2018 it’s like you were looking into a crystal ball. I know you were just responding to the advent of Prozac and drug marketing…

KM: Yeah, exactly, it was. It was Prozac, but that was like the beginning of all of it, wasn’t it?

MF: There’s that line after your character has been invited to the secret VIP party inside the VIP party and wakes up with two women in bed. They’re called over to sign legal waiver saying the night never happened.

KM: It’s nice of you to say that. I don’t know if it’s a fluke or…

MF: It’s anachronistic, I know…

KM: But I’m very proud of the movie. It’s not just a good comedy movie, it’s sort of a good movie movie. It is sketchy, but we wanted to do a movie that was a whole movie but had great parts because we were a sketch troupe. And by whole I mean W-H-O-L-E not H-O-L-E.

MF: Yeah, that would be awkward.

KM: Bad plan.

MF: When you go out and work with troupes are the ideas they bring in already kind of Kids in the Hally?

KM: I don’t think so. Maybe I’m to close to it. Sometimes it’s an idea that reminds me of an old idea of ours and they don’t know it. But a lot of times it’s more Saturday Night Live or Key and Peele. And a lot of times it’s just bad because a lot of them are just starting out on sketches and I know my first hundred were probably horrible.

MF: That’s the learning curve. But what do you do with that, just rip the Band Aid: “You’re horrible, let’s work on that.”

KM: At first I didn’t know what to do, but now I know how to work with lots of things. What we do is, on the first day I break everybody up into groups and we improvise. Then that afternoon we work on turning those improvs into sketches. But then they get homework. The have to bring in a comedy premise on Sunday. I pick my five favorites and we work on that all day. Sometimes there’s a lot of good ones.

What’s Kids in the Hall Co-Founder Kevin McDonald Doing in Memphis? (4)

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Shut Up, Phil.

So I’m sitting quietly at my neighborhood bar, nursing a beer, chatting with some of the regulars, when a new guy walks in.

“What’ll you have, pal?” says Ray, the bartender.

“What a stupid question,” the guy says. “But then, you ask a lot of stupid questions. Gimme a Diet Coke.”

“Okay, comin’ right up, sir,” says Ray, thinking to himself, “what an asshole.”

But Ray’s a congenial guy. He likes to keep the peace. So he slides a Diet Coke across the bar and tries to make conversation. Pointing to the TV, he says to the newcomer, “Helluva thing, those wildfires out in California, eh? Dozens of people killed, whole towns burned to the ground. Schools, houses, cars, everything. It’s pretty bad.”

“Nah, they got what they deserved,” says the new guy, loudly. “It’s just bad forest management. They ought to cut off federal funding to those people. Sad!”

At this point, the other customers in the bar are beginning to notice. There’s an awkward silence in the room, until a perky dishwater blonde at the right end of the bar speaks up.

“You know, I actually think you’re right,” she says. “The only way to stop a bad forest with a fire is a good forest with a fire.”

“That makes a lot of sense, Marsha,” says another customer. “In fact, that’s just the sort of creative bipartisan thinking I could work with, if I were given a chance.”

“Shut up, Phil,” says Marsha. “You’re boring the crap out of everybody. Nobody wants to hear it any more.”

“Yes, ma’am, I suspect you’re right,” says Phil. “I’m just trying to point how easy-going and inoffensive I am.”

“Yeah, shut up, Phil,” says the new guy. “I just met you, and even I can see you’re a loser. Think I’ll call you Flounderin’ Phil.”

“Hey, you don’t need to talk to Phil that way,” says Mario, another regular. “He’s totally harmless.”

The new guy turns to look at Mario. “You look kinda brown, Pedro,” he says. “You some kinda gang member? You come up here in a caravan? You MS-13?”

“No, I was born in Puerto Rico. I’m an American. I live here. What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

“Puerto Rico, eh?” says the new guy. “That was some really bad hurricane management you people had down there. All those fake death reports. Ridiculous. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Sad!”

“Wait a minute,” says Mario. “You think you can just come in here and start insulting everybody and get away with it?”

“Sure, I can. I’m a very stable genius. I have the best words. I could take you out and shoot you in the middle of Union Avenue and people would still love me.”

“Why, you son of …”

“You know,” says Phil, cordially interrupting, “you’re probably right, sir. And that’s just the kind of strong leadership I could work with, if given a chance …”

“Shut up, Phil!” says Mario.

“Yeah, shut up, Flounderin’ Phil,” says Marsha.

The new guy takes a sip of his Diet Coke and looks in the mirror behind the bar. “Looks like I’m having a bad hair day,” he says. “I’ll be right back. And you,” he says, pointing a tiny forefinger at Marsha, “I’ll need two cans of L’Oreal Ultra Freeze hairspray, stat. Follow me. And don’t make me grab you.”

“Yes, sir!” says Marsha, beaming, obviously smitten by the manly newcomer.

As they head to the men’s room,
Mario turns to Ray and says, “What could she possibly see in that guy?”

“What could anybody see in that guy?” says Ray. “He’s a total jerk.”

“I don’t know,” says Phil, cautiously. “He has the kind of hair I could work with, given the chance …”

“SHUT UP, PHIL,” says everyone.