(photo - Paul Bellini, writer, “Kids In The Hall”)
This story by Matt Sterling, a fellow denizen of the aspecialthing.com comedy fan community where Gene and I met, related a story about Canadian sketch troupe Kids In The Hall that was too good to leave unshared. It is reprinted with his permission. Check out his film and video editorial site at sterlingedits.com. -BFH
In 1993, when I was fifteen, Entertainment Weekly wrote a bad review of the Kids In The Hall, an affront I took so seriously and personally that I dashed off a scathing letter to the editor immediately! A truncated version of that letter was published in the next issue, and this was the greatest thing that had happened to me as an overly earnest journalism nerd. So sweetly pathetic.
The week after my letter issue hit the stands, I got a phone call at home from one Paul Bellini, who asked if I knew who he was. I reacted as if I was speaking with one of the Beatles, then proceeded to talk his ear off at a great pace and with many a girlish squeal for some time. He said that the Kids had all been very depressed about the review and having recently lost yet another Emmy for writing, and my letter had brightened spirits in the office and Scott (no surprise there) had even made a big, ridiculous speech about it. This, obviously, was the new greatest thing that had ever happened to me. Less sweetly pathetic.
A few years later, when the internet was a newish thing on college campuses, I was looking up what the Kids were doing post-TV. I stumbled upon a site for Paul Bellini, and there was a link to contact him. I sent him a brief email thanking him for the phone call I assumed he didn’t remember and told him that I was inspired by that show to pursue comedy, etc. He soon responded that the kind things he had said were true (Scott did grandstand about the whole thing), but that ultimately he had tracked me down to settle a bet with Thompson.
Apparently, I share a name with one of the most famous gay porn stars of the 80s, Matt Sterling (link absolutely NSFW), and Paul and Scott couldn’t believe that some random fan, from a cheesy-sounding town in the deep South no less (Franklin, TN) would have that name. They assumed it was a prank of some sort and had to know the truth. Naturally, he didn’t feel comfortable sharing this information with a wide-eyed, squeaky-voiced innocent, but now that I was a sullen college student, he was happy to fill me in.
I met Scott recently during his tour with Kevin McDonald, and I asked him if remembered that letter, and surprisingly, he did. He then shared a very funny story about calling the author of the review and yelling such profane insults that his manager had to intervene. When we discussed all this, my voice was of an acceptable register for an adult male.
