At last year's SketchFest Seattle, 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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