Kat Harlton
Lead Photo: Michael Pool
Bruce McCulloch – best known as a founding member of the legendary sketch troupe The Kids in the Hall – will take his acclaimed one-person show Dark Purple Slice on a cross-Canada tour beginning February 2026, visiting theatres nationwide and continues into April.
Dark Purple Slice moves brilliantly between funny, relatable, and surprisingly poignant. Blending music, stand-up, and storytelling, McCulloch takes audiences on a poetic flyover of his life, offering equal parts humour and heart. With his trademark wit and offbeat sensibility, he invites audiences to laugh, reflect, and contemplate the absurdities of being human. Bruce mixes his dark sense of humour with grace and humanity. So many people are saying this is the show we need right now.
Weaving together gallows humour, humanistic yearnings, and razor-sharp observations, Dark Purple Slice showcases McCulloch’s singular ability to find light in the dark. The show explores his lifelong habit of looking at the world as an outsider – reaching outward and inward, confronting pessimism with perspective, and celebrating the messy contradictions of life.
A celebrated writer, performer, and director, Bruce McCulloch first rose to prominence as one-fifth of the iconic Kids in the Hall, whose most recent season aired on Amazon Prime Video. Over his multifaceted career, he’s written and directed several films including Dog Park (starring Luke Wilson), Superstar (Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell), Stealing Harvard (Jason Lee, Leslie Mann), and Comeback Season (Ray Liotta). On television, he’s created, written, and performed in Young Drunk Punk, Death Comes to Town, and This Blows for CBC, as well as the ABC series Carpoolers.
McCulloch has also been behind the camera for acclaimed shows, directing Saturday Night Live, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Schitt’s Creek, and Trailer Park Boys, and recently produced and directed three seasons of the CBC sketch series TallBoyz and The Dessert for Crave. As an actor, he’s appeared in Arrested Development, Gilmore Girls, Children Ruin Everything, and even Anne of Green Gables. McCulloch has also released two spoken word/comedy/music albums (Shame-Based Man and The Drunk Baby Project) and is currently at work on his next comedy album based on the Dark Purple Slice show.
I had the opportunity to chat with Bruce about career highlights, how he continues to find inspiration and the creation of ‘Dark Purple Slice’.
Kat: What sparked the creation of Dark Purple Slice? Can you talk about the inspiration behind the show and how its blend of humour, music, and storytelling came together?
Bruce: Dark Purple Slice refers to a time I was called the “Dark Purple Slice” of the Kids in the Hall. And I am! I have a dark streak. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve nurtured my humanist streak too. This album is about how we all use gallows humour in these dark times to make it through. Truthfully, in the dark times, humour may be all we have. I’ve always wanted to mix music in my shows and of course I love songs, because it makes the audience go, “Oh my god, he’s singing now?” It’s fun to have a little bit of a dark story and then a happy song as a counterpoint.
Kat: This show is described as equal parts humour and heart. What do you hope audiences take away from the experience when they see Dark Purple Slicelive?
Bruce: Well, I’ve been told by audiences that they really needed this show right now. They’ll share a story of how hard their lives have been lately, and it makes me think we’re connected way more in our vulnerability than in our success. I want audiences to get to know me a little bit better, but the most important part is that we’re all beautiful weirdos in this together and we can lean on each other.
Kat: You move between stand-up, storytelling, and musical elements throughout the show. What do you find is the most challenging or surprising part of crafting a one-person production like this?
Bruce: Someone said a really nice compliment recently about the show, which is that it seems like a magic trick. It starts out like a standup show and then before you know it becomes a more complex, theatrical show that is quite touching. Truly there’s nothing so challenging, it’s more that I find new joy in different parts of the show when I move things around or add in new stories.
One fun thing I’ve been doing is bringing some of the tartan journals that I used to write my thoughts and ideas in over the years – I have about 70 – and I read things at random to the audience. Some of them are weird, some of them are funny and some of them turned into seminal sketches or songs. It’s nice to share my abstract brain with people and it’s never the same twice.
Kat: You’ve had such a varied career – as a writer, director, actor, and member of The Kids in the Hall. Looking back, what stands out as a defining highlight for you, and what lessons continue to inspire the work you’re making today?
Bruce: It’s my ideas that keep me warm, whether it’s hiring 30 women named Helen to stand in a field as a surrealistic joke or just a weird one-liner that I watch move across the audience during a live show. I think I’m just a person that has weird ideas that I need to get out; that’s been my obsession. And for that reason, performing live with an audience is the most heroin-pure version of that. I can say something weird and watch them laugh. Or I can tell a story and if they yelp at the twist, it’s a real joy, and that’s why I think I’ll do it forever.
The most defining moment is all of them. I feel like I’ve been working in comedy every day since I walked into Loose Moose theatre and learned improv, and I don’t think I’ve taken a day off since.
Kat: With this tour kicking off and a new comedy album in the works, what’s next for you after Dark Purple Slice hits the road across Canada?
Bruce: These are precarious times in television. I have several shows in development and hopefully one will be in production by the time you’re reading this. Chances are quite high that I’ll be shooting something in Hamilton this summer…
For ticket information, visit bruciomcculloch.com
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