There’s a brashness with Nick Cody. He seems like the friendliest person that you could meet your friend’s BBQ and just chat to about all manner of things. But at the other end, he seems like someone who could evaporate you with a flick of his pointy finger if you piss him off.
This was a little bit like the case when some loutish audience members decided to pipe up in the middle of his set to shout some sort of nonsense.Nick didn’t tell them to fudge off, but instead spent a small amount of time to strongly set them straight. Cody is no bullshit and has a quip of ensuring that his laughs are well timed in his show On Fire.
The show focuses mainly on his relationship with his partner (Looch? Luch? Luce?) and the ideological differences that keep them together. While hugely lighthearted, Cody doesn’t shy away from the manliest of manly man-ness that is his whole being. A devotion to Conor McGregor only one of many testosterone fuelled obsessions which stir through his mind.
But under all that Cody has a sweet demeanour and is able to twirl anecdotes with a nice wit. He seems well travelled and is willing to open himself up to the world of toughness. He is someone open to exploration of ideas, questioning himself. It makes for a show that isn’t about telling the audience what he thinks but to consider and look at why things that we think are right can be wrong.
In saying all that Cody will probably think that bit of writing is a paragraph of airy-fairy bulldust. Which in all honesty is totally fine, really. On Fire is a show that simply and plainly gives us a set niceties with a bunch of rough edges. GO see it to question yourself, or be amongst the boisterous tough nuts of the festival.
Nick Cody’s On Fire on at The Melbourne Town Hall Supper Room until April 23rd. More info here.
The reviewer attended the show on April 6th.
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