The Kids in the Hall on putting the fun in dysfunctional

The Kids in the Hall will be coming soon to a hall near you.

The renowned Canadian comedy troupe kicks off its first large tour in seven years this Thursday night in Toronto, the same city where the group first formed back in 1984.

Other Canadian stops are Hamilton, London, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa.

• The Kids In The Hall to launch comeback tour in Toronto

"The Kids" Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompsonall have busy and successful solo careers acting, writing and producing.

Finding a large chunk of time to get back together to write and rehearse was challenging.

Like a bunch of brothers

"It becomes a kind of a family that you are kind of happy to have a reunion with," McKinney told CBC, "although there's always a tightening of the stomach walking into a Kids in the Hall reunion."

"We just make fun of each other," McCullochchimed. "That's part of the joy of being in this weird dysfunctional family."

McKinney described the atmosphere in the rehearsal hall as akin to sibling rivalry: "It's like a bunch of brothers who grew up fighting and now know what's going on," he said.

"It's like a family when you go home for Christmas and you feel like you are a full person and you find yourself being the person you were when you were 9 or 11," McCulloch added.

"It's humiliating but great,"agreedMcKinney.

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The touring show combines new material with old sketches and new routines that revisit favourite old characters such as the Chicken Lady and the Head Crusher.

McKinney and McCulloch said since The Kids only get back together occasionally they haven't got tired of doing the old gags.

"I'm crushing your head," said McKinney, peering through histhumb and fore finger."See? Didn't hurt, felt pretty good actually. You're now a flathead."

The pair also revealed they hope the new tour could lead to an idea for a TV series, or another type of project.

Their 2008 tour sparked the idea for Death Comes to Town, theCanadian mini-series that aired on CBC-TV.

Tickets and dates for the Kids in the Hall2015 tour can be found on their official website.