Dave: CBC Radio's "This Morning" (Feb. 16th, 1998)

Avril: "The Kids in the Hall" has shown itself in the fullness of time, to be a genuine Canadian sketch comedy classic. Since ending their run on CBC 3 years ago - is it *that* long ago?! Kids have achieved the tv version of *immortality* - they're constantly in re-runs. And after leaving CBC, 3 of the 5 Kids were instantly snapped up by American tv shows, and possibly the most successful alumni of "Kids in the Hall", is Dave Foley, who's gone on to star in the critically acclaimed NBC sitcom: "NewsRadio"! And ah, having worked in private radio, I can assure you [laughs] it's *just* as nutty as that. And now he has a new movie out called "The Wrong Guy". Dave Foley *is* in Canada, he is in our Toronto studio. Good Morning!

Dave: Good morning, I'm exhausted just from *hearing* my credits! I had no idea I'd been working so hard!

Avril: There's probably more than that too..!

Dave: Eehheh, yeah..

Avril: What have I left out here?

Dave: All this.. stuff. [laughing. I played uh uh, Al Bean in the uh, "From the Earth to the Moon" series that uh Tom Hanks produced.

Avril: Uh huh, has it been shown yet?

Dave: It's coming out this spring.

Avril: Okay.

Dave: It's about the Apollo missions.

Avril: And you do the astronaut.

Dave: I played an astronaut from Texas.

Avril: Ha hah...! What else have I left out?

Dave: Ah, what else have I done...

Avril: I mean this must happen constantly.

Dave: I had a couple other movies and things.. Workin' on a movie now, while I'm doin' "NewsRadio"..

Avril: Really, what's the movie?

Dave: A thing called "Blast from the Past" with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone..and uh, and uh, Chris Walken and Sissy Spacek.

Avril: Is this one that you've written yourself?

Dave: No this one's, this one I had [stuttering :)] I just came in last minute as an actor, on it, and Hugh Wilson is directing it, the guy who created "WKRP".

Avril: A hah!

Dave: So it's, kinda fun.

Avril: Well it oughtta be..

Dave: Yep, but I'm here to promote my *own* motion picture--

Avril: Indeed--

Dave: Shot here in Toronto..

Avril: You've got 30 seconds, go!

Dave: For, yeah, "The Wrong Guy", my motion picture, starring *me*, written by *me* and [laughs] with 2 partners, Jake Hogan and Dave Higgins..

Avril: And why should we go see it? You've got about 20 seconds left.

Dave: 'Cause it's an extrordinarily funny film. And early studies show - that it lowers your cholesterol.

Avril: Laughing does.

Dave: No, just our movie. Don't just go see any comedy hoping to lower your cholesterol.

Avril: And yeah, well you have to be careful about these things, it can be bad for your health.

Dave: Yeah, if you watch our movie and drink green tea you'll live forever.

Avril: What is the movie about?

Dave: Oh, I still have time?

Avril: 5 seconds.

Dave: 5 seconds to what- It's about a guy, it's about an idiotic uhhh.. executive who's passed over a promotion, uh threatens his boss, and then later goes back and finds his boss murdered, and thinks he has horribly implicated himself, but of course, he's completely wrong.

Avril: Why don't we listen to a little bit from "The Wrong Guy" starring Dave Foley, uh this is the part when the poor wrong guy whose name is..

Dave: Uh, Nelson Hibbard..

Avril: ..ah, finds out that he didn't get the promotion.

[start movie clip]:

Boss: I don't know how to say it, anymore clearly. *Ken* is the new president.

Nelson: Okay, I *can* hear, I just can't believe *WHAT* I am hearing!

Boss: Now uh, can we move on?

Nelson: How is this possible, how how how how how I mean, I have done.. everything in my power to suck up to you to get this promotion. My *god* man I am *engaged* to your *daughter*!

Boss: Yes but Daley here is engaged to my favourite daughter, *Daphney*.

Nelson: [quietly] What kind of a man has a favourite daughter?!

Boss: Now, moving on..

Nelson: And if you DO HAVE A FAVOURITE, THEN YOU SHOULD *LABEL* THEM! *FAVOURITE*, AND *NOT* FAVOURITE!

[end movie clip]

Avril: Dave Foley starring in "The Wrong Guy", now, uh, is.. you have been quoted in your press *bumpth* [?!] that uh this character is actually very close to you.. That you are as ruthless and idiotic as this guy.

Dave: I'm certainly as idiotic. I'm certainly as confused [laughs] and unaware of my surroundings as Nelson Hibbard. Most of the time.

Avril: But you seem to have done well nonetheless.

Dave: OH yeah well idiocy has never been an impediment in showbuisness.

Avril: Is that right? Tell me about that!

Dave: No in fact, it can be a positive *boon*, you know, and if you're idiotic enough, you can you can, oh the heights you can rise to.

Avril: Can you give me examples, things you observe..

Dave: Well look at me!

Avril: Besides yourself. Talk about other people!

Dave: No, I can't slag other people..! I'll leave that to others.

Avril: That's a shame.

Dave: Ah I can't help it...

Avril: You've been back in Canada now since friday. How often do you come back?

Dave: I'm usually back here at least uh, I'm back here for about a week out of each month usually. 'Xcept when I'm workin'. Uh, which.. yeah. Which right now I'm in the middle of working so.. I can't get away that much.

Avril: Are you going out of your way then with these other projects outside of the sitcom you work on to find things in Toronto?

Dave: Uh, to wor- uh, I hope t-, I, I.. my-my-my plan was to always come up here and work during the summers. Uh and I managed to do that 2 summers in a row, I didn't manage to get anything in production up here last summer, but you know, one summer I was up here doing the, doing "Brain Candy" with the other Kids in the Hall, and the summer after that we were shooting "The Wrong Guy" up here. So, yeah I'd like to keep writing stuff, and getting it in production up here. So you can help me out by seeing this movie [laughs] so that I'm welcome back.

Avril: Uh well you have filled this particular film with Canadians.

Dave: Mm hmm.

Avril: And it's interesting 'cause-- we've seen what some of the other people from "Kids in The Hall" have gone on to do. Uh, can you, can you give us an idea quickly, where is everybody at this point.

Dave: Everybody? Well, uhhh.. Actually I think Kevin might be in town right now, I haven't had a chance to look him up, but I think he's in town doing a movie called "Boy Meets Girl" which uh, I read the script for and it's a really good script.. I think it'll be really good.. Bruce just uh directed his first feature uh called "Dog Park"..

Avril: Mm hmm and he was also in "Twitch City"

Dave: "Twitch City" yeah.. with Don McKellar and uh Bruce McDonald..! There see I'm staying in touch. And uh Scott of course is on the "Larry Sanders Show" down in the states, and Kevin lives down in L.A. as well, so I see those guys more often than the others, and Mark was of course on "Saturday Night Live" for a while..

Avril: He's not anymore?

Dave: Uh no he's left the show..And he was of course in *"SpiceWorld"*! As the uh writer. He played the writer in "SpiceWorld". Uhhm.. So he's now probably very popular with the under-12-year-old, ..you know, girl audience.

Avril: Well that's a smart investment in your future.

Dave: Oh *yeah*.. Especially if you're a pedophile..!

Avril: [laughs] Is that what he plays?

Dave: [laughing] No..

Avril: No nonono we will not talk that way..

Dave: No no no.. He's *not*! I *swear*!

Avril: My guest is Dave Foley we have to break for 90 seconds of local weather info et cetera and we'll be back on "This Morning" on CBC Radio 1.

[break]

Avril: Good morning I'm Avril Benoit with Dave Foley who is in town .. ah, from L.A. Now tell me what life.. what what what?

Dave: You know what I listen to this show in L.A.

Avril: You listen to *us*?

Dave: Yeah!

Avril: On Sundays.

Dave: No, I listen the uh, CBC on Real Audio on the internet.

Avril: That's excellent!

Dave: Oh yeah, I've got it wired up, I've got my computer hooked up to uh, radio, like a broadcast *box* that so I broadcast it to all the stereos in my house. So uh.. it's uh, like I said I have CBC radio all over the place. [laughs]

Avril: Why do you do that.

Dave: [little boy voice] 'Cause I... miss Canada.

Avril: Good answer!

Dave: I love it, I love the CBC

Avril: No but really. [laughs]

Dave: Yeah that's why, I tune in to listen to the show, listen to, you know, "As It Happens", and of course, one of my favourite shows for many many years, "Quirks and Quarks".

Avril: Well, every saturday, but what, are you finding that you miss Canada a lot? 'Cause if you were doing that, it would almost seem like home, wouldn't it?

Dave: I come back a *lot* well I have "CBC Newsworld" on the satellite dish, I get the international broadcast of "CBC Newsworld", I get uh, on the internet I get The Toronto Star, The Globe, uhhh The Sun, Eye Magazine, Now Magazine.. Get those all on the internet. Um, and uh, yeah and CBC radio off the Real Audio. So I stay in touch!

Avril: Do you stay in touch with other Canadians down there? I suppose this is the usual question..

Dave: Um, yeah some, I uh, you know, like the other Kids, that are down there

Avril: What they always say about L.A. that the comedy world in L.A. is so much made up of Canadians..

Dave: It's pretty thick with us yeah, yeah. I see a lot, um, I see Mike Myers fairly often, there's other guys down there, some of the guys who used to write for the "Kids in the Hall", so I see them every once in a while..

Avril: What's the, what's the impact of that on the tv buisness say.

Dave: On the Kids? Uh..

Avril: Well of all these Canadians down there.

Dave: It's, well yeah it's, I said, there's a sense you can't really expect to run a show without at least 1 Canadian on the staff. You know, and uh, you know Phil and I are both on "NewsRadio" which explains our *phoenominal* success [laughs]..

Avril: Phil Hartman.

Dave: Yeah, Phil Hartman. Well *he's* not really Canadian. I'm just gonna come right out with that. I mean I know we love to claim everybody from Max Senate you know and, Mary Pickford you know, but Phil left Canada when he was 9. Phil.. surfs. Canadians don't surf. You know. He's an American.

Avril: Do you surf yet?

Dave: No. I'm still Canadian.

Avril: Will your children surf?

Dave: No. No. They will be Canadians.

Avril: Okay. They will curl.

Dave: Besides I ca- well at least surfing you get to wear the wetsuits.. you don't get to see how flabby I'm getting.

Avril: Oh!

Dave: Maybe I should surf.

Avril: Uh your success in "NewsRadio" has come with the usual aggrivation of moving around from timeslot to timeslot. Uh and it's one of those stories and I'm not sure what happens when you go down to the United States and you've got great expectations of success and everybody's you know, telling you how wonderful you are, and then suddenly you get treated this way.

Dave: Yeah. I think, it's getting to the point where seeing our show is almost as difficult as seeing Halley's Comet. It's just, you never know when it's going to come around, and you know, maybe you'll see our show once in a generation. Ah, so yeah, they're actually moving us again.. Moving us off of tuesdays to wednesdays. Because we were doing well on tuesdays.

Avril: [laughs] Does that make you jaded?

Dave: It doe- well the fact is, the guy in charge of programming for NBC has [laughing] gone on the record as not liking our show..Not in charge of programming, in charge of scheduling. Uh, has on record said that he didn't like the show that he didn't think it was that funny, said the show lacked- had no testosterone. Was one of his statements to the press.

Avril: But last year it was ranked what in the overall standings of..

Dave: Oh last year we did horribly, we were really low.. This year we've been doing much better 'cause we were taken off of wednesdays but now we're going back to wednesdays. So I don't know. I *hope* we'll stay on the air. You know. I don't mean to *whine*.. I don't mean to come home and just whine. But the show has been doing really well inbetween like "Mad About You" and "Frasier".

Avril: But you're supposed to come home 'cause we'll give you a sympathetic ear. And we'll say 'OH you poor DEAR! All that *money* and *success*!' But we know it's lonely at the top.

Dave: No actually it's really nice. It's, it's really, it's actually really good to have a big American show. [laughs] I reccomend all Canadians..

Avril: What else do you have that's a big American.. Do you have a big American house?

Dave: I have a nice little house in the hills. Um, I have a giant tv..! Um, 61 inch tv.

Avril: But you would have that here.

Dave: Oh *yeah*.

Avril: You probably had that when you were in high school.

Dave: No. No no I had a little black and white tv in high school. But uh, but I love my big tv..

Avril: You don't have big hair though, your hair is still very very *flat* and short..

Dave: [laughing] Yeah I can't really grow big hair. You know, my hair gets too long I get ringlets in the front and it's just too pretty. You know.

Avril: I think it'd be very sweet..!

Dave: Oh, I used to have long hair..

Avril: Your character could evolve..

Dave: When I was a teenager I had long hair and straight guys used to hit on me all the time. You know I'd be in bars, and guys'd be trying to buy me drinks. You know, when I was, you know, like *19*.

Avril: Where where are you going to settle do you think, ultimatley. Is L.A. the place that uh, your final resting stop as an entertainer, as a performer..?

Dave: I will not settle until I am the ruler of hell. That is my ultimate goal, to displace Satan. That is..

Avril: Well he's in L.A...as far as we know..

Dave: I know! Why do you think I started there.. that's the beginning of my conquest of hell.

Avril: When you head down there though, do you see this as a final destination?

Dave: What, hell?

Avril: [sighs] When you're flying into the airport, do you say 'I'm home'? Or is it when you're returning to Toronto do you say 'I'm home'.

Dave: You know they both feel like home now. I mean I've been down there long enough and they both feel like home, and I have so many friends down there. But um, ultimately I'd like to be ah, I'd like to make more movies, I'd like to direct them eventually.. uh that's about it..

Avril: Why the preference for movies.

Dave: Uh.. pssssh, not really a preference, I hope to be doing tv for as long as I can too. But I'd like to do both. I mean I like getting up and performing in front of a live audience on tv. That, I think that I would miss.

Avril: 'Cause not all your experience in movie-making has been *positive*. "Brain Candy"-- wasn't the hit that you were hoping for..

Dave: No. It wasn't the hit anyone was hoping for. It *was* the failure that some people were hoping for though. So there's the positive side. Always look on the bright side I say. At least our failure pleased those who hated us.

Avril: Ah, after all of that and after all these years of *not* working together, are you still friends with the other Kids in the Hall?

Dave: Uh yeah yeah, I was out at a party just a couple weeks ago, he's off in New York now makin' a movie.... uh, and uh I see Kevin every once in a while.. yeah, and got some e-mail from Mark that I forgot to answer. [laughs] So I'll have to do that when I get home.

Avril: Well that's always the way though. You go away you forget your friends..!

Dave: Oh yeah. You *try*! Sometimes they track you down.

Avril: Thanks for coming in.

Dave: Oh I'm done. That's her saying I'm done. That's her saying 'That's it, you've failed. Get off our airwaves.'

Avril: Well, you know the cues, you listen enough to the CBC. Thank you for this.

Dave: Yeah. She's not just thanking me she's saying goodbye.

Avril: I confess. It's true. Our time is up. Our time together Dave is finished.

Dave: Thank you for having me on the show.

Avril: You go back now.

Dave: Okay. Remember I'll be listening.

Avril: And we'll watch your movie.

Dave: Please Canada, watch my movie?

Avril: Dave Foley, let's support our boy. No ah, his new movie is called "The Wrong Guy" and it opens -

Dave: On the 20th. Friday the 20th.

Avril: Great.

[closes with Odds' "Eat My Brain"]

Contributor

•  Sarah Newhouse