[ATTENDED: February 10, 2024] Scott Thompson as Buddy Cole in King
The last time Scott Thompson came to Philly I missed the whole event, so I was really excited to see that he was back in town. I don’t really know how to keep up with comedians. Is there a songkick for comedy?
Well, somehow I saw this announcement and I immediately grabbed a ticket.
The crazy thing about this show for me is that I was already going to a show in the day–a matinee with Nels Cline. I was really excited to go to a matinee show and be home at night. Whoops. But two shows in a day isn’t too exhausting if they are both seated and they are each around 90 minutes.
I’ve always loved Scott Thompson and his Buddy Cole character is hilariously inappropriate.
I’d never been to City Winery before. It’s a weird setup if you’re solo. I wound up sitting in the fourth of four seats that were already claimed by a family of three. I arrived plenty early and ate a delicious meal before they showed up. But wow, the table was the size of two tray tables. It was really cozy. And this family was not chatty. With me or with themselves. Awkward. The other problem is that I had my back to the stage, so I had to turn in a weird way to see. But whatever.
Scott was hilarious.
I had forgotten how much Buddy is, as Scott put it “an offensive stereotype.”
He started off by referencing the “Amazon Debacle.” I don’t really know what happened, but several times he talked about cancelling Amazon.
Ah, well, here’s some context from Brooklyn magazine.
Buddy was supposed to have a bigger role in The Kids in the Hall revival, but Amazon didn’t like his take on the LGBTQI+ community. So Thompson used the snub as fodder and turned his frustration (and unused material) into a new show for Buddy. He’s bringing his show “King” to New York this weekend.
But the Buddy stories are fantastic. He was there at Stonewall and hung out with Marsha P. Johnson. The story is funny and at one point he says, I have to look this up because this part is new.
He was hanging out with Margaret Atwood and Dustin Hoffman at the first Burning Man. He was on a ship sailing towards the Middle East.
And who is he going to offend? Everyone!
He even made a Polish joke! (If homophobia and racism are coming back, then so should Polish jokes). Hilarious.
He began the night by talking about circumcision, of course. And how the popularization of circumcision in America was the fault of those who were too lazy to teach their kids how to clean themselves. He cites Kellogg as being pro-circumcision (maybe true) but it works for the perfect punchline set up about Corn Flakes–why do you think there’s a cock on the box?
He talks about going to a bris and being visible upset by what is happening. Someone at the ritual says the baby won’t remember any of it. Buddy noted that pedophiles say the same thing.
He talked about transgender children (so much more chic than a sissy). He has a funny bit about pronouns, a friend called Gratitude goes by ze/zir. He said, if you say “ze” and I’m Canadian, I should say “zed.” They were not amused. Their friend has a friend called Circle of Fear who also identifies as irritating.
He talks about the #metoo movement and how its a good thing we don’t still call # a pound sign or else we’d say poundmetoo.
The end of the show revealed the origin of the title of the show King.
He ended the night with an encore performance of his first ever monologue as Buddy from The Kids in the Hall.
It was pretty crazy being in the same room as Buddy Cole. He interacted a lot with the people in the front seats (including drinking their champagne), but I was happy being a little far back. It was a really fun night. And it ended early enough that I was home at a reasonable hour too!
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