Paul Bellini (born September 12, 1959) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

comedy writer and television actor best known for his work on the comedy series '' The Kids in the Hall'' and ''

This Hour Has 22 Minutes ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' (commonly shortened to ''22 Minutes'' since 2009) is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics wi ...

''. He has worked on several projects with Josh Levy and Scott Thompson, and has appeared in small parts on television shows and films.

The Kids in the Hall

Paul Bellini attended York University in 1978, where he met Scott Thompson, later to become a member of The Kids in the Hall. For the troupe's eponymous TV series, which ran from 1988 to 1995, Bellini served as Thompson's writing partner. He received several

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's English-language television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in t ...

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

and CableACE Award nominations as part of the show's writing team.Andrew Matte, "Is there one last chance to touch Paul Bellini?: Helping out the kids: Gemini-winning writer pitching ideas in Toronto". ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', January 22, 2000. During the same era, Bellini and Thompson also collaborated in a

queercore Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically ...

band called Mouth Congress.Mike Vanderbilt
"Now you can listen to Scott Thompson’s pre-Kids In The Hall band online"
''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'', September 28, 2015. Bellini's on-screen presence in ''The Kids in the Hall'' began when

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

suggested that the troupe conduct some form of sweepstakes in order to determine the makeup of the show's fanbase. Turning down such conventional ideas as a free show taping or a cash prize, the members of KITH decided that the "prize" would be Paul Bellini in a towel. Thus the "Touch Paul Bellini" contest was born, wherein the winner was granted the chance to gently poke the betoweled Bellini with a stick. This sweepstakes would be recreated by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, the show's American broadcaster, with winner Rebecca Klatka of

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

, poking Bellini with a kitchen utensil. During the fourth season, Mike Szabo won a breakfast with him at the Ottawa airport after winning the "Spot Bellini" contest: to win, a viewer had to draw how Bellini appeared in a particular sketch (namely, emerging from a box of condoms). During these and other appearances on the show, Bellini would wander into a sketch wearing nothing but a towel and never speaking, thus himself becoming an absurd character in the show. At the end of the final episode, however, after the cast is buried alive during the end credits, Bellini approaches their grave, turns to the camera, and intones, "Thank God that's finally over." He then picks up a flower and proceeds to dance on their grave. Founded in 1989, the Paul Bellini Fan Club quickly outgrew the Kids in the Hall fan club. The Paul Bellini Fan Club was based in Montreal, with smaller chapters in Winnipeg, Kitchener, Toronto, Abbotsford, Halifax, New York, Utah and parts of Europe. His fans travelled to Toronto to attend tapings of the Kids in the Hall with homemade "We Love Paul Bellini" signs. When the

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are a Juno Award-winning Canadians, Canadian instrumental rock band, formed in 1984. They remain best known for the track "Having an Average Weekend", of which an alternate version was used as the theme music, the ...

(the band who recorded the show's theme song) came to play in cities where the Bellini fans lived, they brought gifts or home baking for the band members to deliver back to him in Toronto. The club also recorded more than 20 covers of popular songs with modified lyrics that were distributed among members and sung at the Paul Bellini music festival in 1993. The group hosted a Bellini Bratwurst Bar-be-que, produced regular newsletters, and a video depicting a fanciful re-enactment of Bellini's early life. At one event, Bellini brought a bag full of Timmins souvenirs as thank you gifts for his loyal fan club. He was subsequently a writer for ''

'', winning two Gemini Awards and a

Writers Guild of Canada The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) is a trade union representing professional writers working in film, television, radio, and digital media production in Canada. Members of the WGC write dramatic TV series, feature films, Movies of the Week, do ...

award for his work with that show's writing team, and was one of the writers of the 1997 film '' Hayseed''. In 1998, Bellini made an autobiographical documentary, ''Bellini's Drive'', which among other things explained his thoughts on being the second-most famous person from Timmins—the first being

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

. In the same year, he and Thompson coauthored ''Buddy Babylon'', the comedic autobiography of Thompson's Kids in the Hall character Buddy Cole. Bellini, who is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

, was later a columnist for ''

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'', a gay magazine in

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. In 2012 he self-published ''The Fab Columns'', a compilation of his writing for the magazine,. He also appeared in nonsexual roles as "Paul" on the defunct website hisfirsthugecock.com at least 15 times, sometimes as a priest or minister, and performed at Awkward, a storytelling event about embarrassing experiences at Buddies in Bad Times which also featured

Maggie Cassella Maggie Cassella is an American-Canadian actress, comedian and writer, best known for hosting the Canadian television talk show '' Because I Said So'' and founding the ''We're Funny That Way!'' comedy festival. Biography Cassella's double degre ...

, Marco Bernardi, Andrew Johnston, Rob Salerno, Dawn Whitwell, Shawn Hitchins and

Gavin Crawford Gavin Crawford (born 2 April 1971) is a Canadian comedian and actor, best known for ''The Gavin Crawford Show'' and ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes''. He currently hosts the panel show, ''Because News'', on CBC Radio One. Early life Crawford was bo ...

. In the same era, he was also a radio host on Toronto's

CIRR-FM CIRR-FM (103.9 Hertz, MHz, ''103.9 Proud FM'') was a radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned by Evanov Communications, it broadcast a rhythmic contemporary format with a focus on the area's LGBT community. Launching on April 16, 2007, it was th ...

. In 2015, Bellini and Thompson uploaded all of their Mouth Congress recordings to

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, and they reunited the following year for several live shows to promote the release. They launched a successful

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campaign to fund a documentary film about the band; the film, '' Mouth Congress'', premiered at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival in 2021.Norman Wilner
"Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini resurrect a gay punk band you’ve never heard of"
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

'', March 2, 2021. In October 2019, Bellini was admitted to

intensive care Intensive care medicine, usually called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes p ...

after suffering complications from

hernia A hernia (: hernias or herniae, from Latin, meaning 'rupture') is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. The term is also used for the normal Devel ...

surgery.Vish Khanna
"Kids in the Hall Help Raise $30,000 for Ailing Comedian Paul Bellini"
''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', November 1, 2019. A crowdfunding campaign was launched to assist with his medical costs, which reached the $30,000 goal in just two days after it was promoted on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

by all of the Kids in the Hall. He was in intensive care but did recover.

Writing credits

* '' The Kids in the Hall'', writer for four seasons; also featured on several episodes (clad in a towel) * ''Out There in Hollywood'' on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

* Writer for ''

'' 1994-1997 * ''Buddy Babylon, The Autobiography of Buddy Cole'', a 1998 humor novel written with Scott Thompson, * ''LockerRoom'' on PrideVision, a gay sketch comedy series: co-producer and writer, and host of the segment ''Coach's Corner''. * Writer for television specials ''Jest in Time for Halloween'' and ''Out There in TV'' * ''

Yvon of the Yukon ''Yvon of the Yukon'' is a Canadian animated television series produced by Studio B Productions (now "WildBrain") and Corus Entertainment in association with Alliance Atlantis Communications for seasons 1–2. It was produced with the participa ...

'', 2000, staff writer * '' Made in Canada'', 1998, writer * ''Hayseed'', writer * '' DoUlike2watch.com'', 2003, writer * ''

Futz! ''Futz!'' is a Canadian short-form animated television series created by Vadim Kapridov and produced by 9 Story Entertainment for Teletoon. The series revolves around the eponymous main character and his zany adventures. Eschewing verbal dialogue ...

'', story editor

Film and television appearances

*''Candles, Snow, Mistletoe'' - by Sharon, Lois and Bram *''Behind the Scenes'' -

The Comedy Network CTV Comedy Channel (often shortened to CTV Comedy) is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media which focuses primarily on comedy programming and operates two time-shifted feeds, runni ...

*'' Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy'' (1996) *''

Hustler White ''Hustler White'' is a 1996 Satire (film and television), satirical black comedy film written and directed by Rick Castro and Bruce LaBruce. Starring Tony Ward (entertainer), Tony Ward and LaBruce, the film follows a group of Male prostitution, h ...

'' (1996) *''Hayseed'' (1997)-- independent film *''Bellini's Drive'' (1998) *'' Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town'' (2010)

Awards

* Won

in 1996, 1997 - writer for ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' * Won Writer's Guide of Canada for Excellence in Writing in 1997 for ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' * Nominated

1993, 1994, 1995 - writer for ''The Kids in the Hall'' * Nominated Cable ACE award 1992 - writer for ''The Kids in the Hall''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellini, Paul 1959 births 20th-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people Living people Male actors from Ontario Canadian humour columnists Canadian punk rock musicians Canadian television personalities Canadian radio hosts Canadian gay actors Canadian gay writers Canadian gay musicians Canadian LGBTQ broadcasters Gay comedians Canadian sketch comedians Writers from Timmins Canadian male television writers Canadian television writers Canadian Screen Award winning writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Canadian male screenwriters Comedians from Toronto Canadian LGBTQ comedians Gay screenwriters Screenwriters from Toronto