But in the beginning, he was a 7,000-year-old vampire. This is according to Thompson, who made Buddy a fixture on Kids in the Hall, the cult sketch comedy show that debuted in 1989 and ran on Canadian and American television stations.
“Buddy Cole was born in front of Paul Bellini’s video camera,” Thompson tells Pittsburgh City Paper, referring to his longtime friend, collaborator, and sometimes KITH co-star. While Thompson dropped the vampire angle, he kept other aspects of Buddy, mainly his “overtly gay voice,” despite some reservations at the time.
“I was afraid that, oh my god, if I do this all day, that's what I'll become, I'll become Buddy Cole,” Thompson explains. “And at the time, I was so full of self-loathing, I thought, that’s the last thing I want to be, because I was always fighting to hide.”
Thompson returns as Buddy for a tour that promises all-new material about the life, times, and candid thoughts of the proudly gay gadfly. The show debuts on Tue., Jan. 9 in Pittsburgh, where audiences at City Winery will be among the first to hear Buddy's latest signature monologues.
The tour continues Buddy's legacy as a controversial gay character who, over the past few decades, has managed to rile both right-leaning and liberal audiences. Known for delivering unabashed opinions while sipping martinis, Buddy, as Thompson explains, has drawn ire from his LGBTQ peers for being what they view as too stereotypically effeminate, for “not being the right kind of gay,” and for giving away the community’s secrets.
Despite criticism, a devoted KITH fanbase embraced Buddy’s outrageous antics, including claims of being friends with the now-late Queen Elizabeth II, whom Thompson also played in various episodes.
Thompson says Buddy not only gave him an outlet to express himself as a gay man but to address some of the issues he saw in his own community. He views Buddy — who, not coincidentally, was brought into existence at the height of the 1980s AIDS crisis — as being a brave, outspoken figure at a time when being openly gay was difficult at best, and dangerous at worst.
Thompson recalls the homophobic rhetoric he endured in his early days as a stand-up act, which ended after he confronted an audience member for calling him a gay slur. After joining KITH — a group that includes fellow members Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, and Mark McKinney — Thompson saw a mission in performing as Buddy.
“Gay men were dying like flies,” says Thompson. “We were in the middle of a plague and we were demonized everywhere. I thought it was something I had to do. I gave Buddy the courage and then I kind of borrowed the courage from him … I just decided to jump off the cliff and see what happens.”
Thompson says much of the new material — which he performed and developed into a show at various Toronto clubs “very stealthily over the last year and a half” — was originally written for the KITH reunion show that released last year on Amazon Prime, but that the streaming service rejected them (an event description even deems the new monologues “TOO HOT FOR AMAZON”).
“There was so much censorship, particularly towards me and Buddy Cole,” Thompson says of his experience with Amazon. “And so I went back to the stage. I thought, they can't really stop you on stage. You can be angry, you can yell at me, you could say boo, you can even complain, but you can't really stop me.”
The tour will also coincide with the filming of a Buddy Cole documentary executive produced by McCulloch, who Thompson says “couldn't believe that Buddy was being silenced” at Amazon.
“So Bruce said, ‘I don't want Buddy to be silenced anymore, I'm gonna make a documentary about him,’” Thompson continues.
In terms of what to expect, Thompson says the show offers 10 monologues that “lead Buddy Cole, inexorably, to a staggering conclusion.” He teases that the ending made previous audiences “freak out” and “leap to their feet.”
“It's probably got more jokes per square inch than I've ever written,” says Thompson. “I can't leave any air in the show for people to really think about where they are, where we've been, and where we're going.”
The tour also marks a last hurrah for Buddy, as Thompson plans to retire the character for the foreseeable future.
“I'm very excited about this tour because I'm gonna put [Buddy] away for a while because I don't really need them the same way I did,” says Thompson. “I mean, I need him for this show. But there are lots of Buddy Coles today. But they're not as funny as Buddy.”Scott Thompson as Buddy Cole in King. 8 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m. Tue., Jan. 9. City Winery. 1627 Smallman St., Strip District. $20-39. Waitlist only. citywinery.com/pittsburgh/events
