Seattle Times • Theater & Arts - click
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By Scott Moore
February 17, 2006
Don't stop them now: The Cody Rivers Show
At last year's Seattle Sketchfest, one of the
absolute standouts was Bellingham's The Cody Rivers
Show. This two-man group put on an astonishing
display of beautifully-crafted absurdist sketch
comedy, mixing in liberal amounts of impressive
choreography and physical dexterity to create a
very memorable performance.
I've seen them twice
since then, and they continue to demonstrate a
weirdly clever take on sketch comedy. In one piece,
grotesque masks and an almost kabuki-pace create
a build-up in which no one laughs for literally
minutes, until the situation is reversed in such
a surprising fashion that the payoff is impressively
funny. In another, shiny costumes and a dance set
to Queen's "Good
Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" produce over-the-top
laughs throughout the entire piece. And once
you see the spectacle of the duo's insane "water
puppetry," you will no doubt remember The
Cody Rivers Show for quite some time.
They're playing at Re-Bar for
three weekends starting February 23, and by all accounts,
this show is bound to be a breakout hit; earlier
appearances there were apparently very well-received.
See them while you can - and if a smaller venue sounds
more appealing, they're also competing in the next
installment of Xtreme Theater League a monthly event
at the CHAC Lower Level in which teams face off in
a series of comedic bouts to determine who is
the
theater-est.
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