The surreal life

Mike Mathieu and Andrew Connor bring their
absurd sketch comedy to Just for Laughs with
The Cody Rivers Show: Stick to Glue

HYPER-PACED HILARITY: Connor and Mathieu

By NEIL BOYCE

Mike Mathieu and Andrew Connor are two nice boys from Ohio (Mathieu grew up in a town called Beavercreek) who began and still perform The Cody Rivers Show out of Bellingham, Washington. Named after a mythical country singer, they spit out absurd, machinegun delivery sketch comedy that has been stunning audiences into submission and collecting slathering praise everywhere they go.

Hyper-paced dialogue alternates with slick song and dance numbers about an unnatural love of tennis, an unambiguously gay cardio workout, or the humiliation of the King of the Maizeville Corn Festival. Leaps of logic punctuate random situations at breakneck speed—all of which masks how painstakingly the sketches are put together.

Having won Best Comedy Award at the Fringe, the pair return triumphant to the Just for Laughs fest with their newest Cody Rivers creation, Stick to Glue. Montreal’s own talented comedy troupe Uncalled For were runners up with Blastback Babyzap (the highest-selling show of the Fringe this year), and follow The Cody Rivers Show each night.

During a pause in their North American tour, Mathieu and Connor spoke to the Mirror about the work and their return to Montreal:

Mirror: You’ve been getting some great reactions—real raves about the shows—from people who saw you at the Montreal Fringe. Is it like this everywhere you perform?

Mike Mathieu: We’ve been to about 10 cities on the East Coast this summer and I don’t remember as many out-of-town experiences feeling this good in the past—all I can say is I’m grateful and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.

Andrew Connor: Every once in a while, we go to a city where the show really seems to resonate with people and has a certain electricity that makes the run there really special. Montreal was one of those places.

M: How long does it take to put a sketch together?

MM: A single sketch can take anywhere from two hours to two weeks to write. Some ideas we can’t figure out, so we keep them alive and poke at them till we’re happy, or ditch it. But we don’t give up easily.

M: What does the impending Just for Laughs gig mean for you?

MM: It means we get to return to Montreal, which is now one of my favourite places. I think what we hope to gain from the possible “industry” attention is access to a few bigger gigs a year. There’s a lot I like about the intimate nature of our career—small venues, personal relationship with producers, couch-surfing at friends’ houses—but a couple higher-paying performances each year would calm the nerves.

M: When do you start branching out into sitcoms, movie deals and sweatband merchandising?

AC: Ah man, maybe never. We are in love with and pretty focused on keeping it live and real and personal.

M: Beavercreek?

MM: Real town, not quite as quaint as it sounds. I spent half my life there, so I can’t help but feel fond.

AC: Mike neglected to mention that the school mascot in Beavercreek is The Fighting Beavers. I want that in the article!

Also of Note

Fantasia’s foray into horror theatre Infection, July 19 at D.B. Clarke Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve W.). Info: fantasiafest.com

Repercussion Theatre launches its season at the Old Port with La tempête and The Tempest, July 22–23. Tickets: (514) 916-7275, repercussiontheatre.com.

The Cody Rivers Show: Stick to
Glue to July 19, 8 p.m. at Mainline
Theatre (3997 St-Laurent). Tickets
at the theatre or via
(514) 849-3378