The Laughing Skull Presents Kevin McDonald from KIDS IN THE HALL, Now thru 12/9

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The Laughing Skull welcomes Kevin McDonald from the Kids in the Hall in a special event, running tonight, December 6, through the 9th.

Kevin McDonald May have opted for a movie career in the mid-'90s after their TV series ended, but he is still best known as a member of the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Born in Montreal, McDonald moved to Los Angeles at age seven and to Toronto as a teen. After taking acting classes in high school, McDonald studied drama in college, but ran into academic problems because he reportedly only had talent for comedy.

McDonald's career began to take shape when he enrolled in a Second City improv class in Toronto and met like-minded actor Dave Foley. Together, the two formed The Kids in the Hall in the early '80s. Often compared to Britain's Monty Python, the five-man Kids in the Hall attracted a devoted following for their gender- and age-spanning array of nuttily inspired characters, including McDonald's Apathetic Cop and "Nobody Likes Us" Guy.

After the series ended in 1994, McDonald earned a role in National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995) before reuniting with the Kids for their film debut (as a troupe) in Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996). A send-up of contemporary pharmaceutical culture, McDonald's several roles included the hapless researcher forced to prematurely put his new miracle anti-depressant on the market. Dividing his time between movies and TV in the late '90s, McDonald played guest-starring roles on several series, including Seinfeld, Friends, That '70s Show, and Foley's series News Radio.

Less successful on the big screen, McDonald starred in the little-seen Canadian comedy Dinner at Fred's (1997), the Mafia spoof The Godson (1998), and The Wrong Guy (1998), a send-up of The Fugitive (1993) that originated as a Kids in the Hall bit. McDonald scored a moderate movie hit with his cameo appearance in Galaxy Quest (1999). McDonald and the other Kids in the Hall reunited for a tour in 2000.