When has there been a night at the Rio that wasn’t fun?
The Rio, a treasured Vancouver landmark and all-around badass indie theatre, plays host to a quirky homegrown game show titled Story Story Lie. The show features six comedians who each share a strange, embarrassing or in the case of last night’s theme (d-d-d-danger zone), unbelievably dangerous story with the audience. The twist, or rather where the name of the game comes from, is that one of these brilliant comedians is a filthy, filthy liar.
The audience is then given the task to interrogate each comedian by asking them questions related to their story to see if they trip up. By the end of the show, you text in who you think is the liar and you may win a prize put together by the Rio.
The show was hosted by the hilarious Jo Dworschak, who with her assistant host Matt Loeb made the evening incredibly entertaining and remained engaged with the audience throughout.
Before the start of the show, the audience was encouraged by Loeb to write down a moment in their life where they may of told a teensy (or not) lie on a small slip of paper and stuff it into a box near the front. After the intermission, Loeb then picked out the most scandalous lies from the box and read them out loud. The audience member whose lie was read out had the opportunity to admit their sins to a theatre full of strangers for the chance to win a prize. An example from a previous show featured one audience member bringing a vibrator to church by mistake.
The comedians featured that night shared stories that ranged from first-time storyteller Lorna Dawna’s tale about being nearly butt-naked in a standoff with a feral monkey to Patrick Maliha’s story about being peed on by a red-headed hottie hailing from Esquimalt. I swear, there’s something about Maliha’s comedic delivery that just gets me roaring, and it’s absolutely something worth seeing in-person.
Overall, I didn’t know what to expect; each story had me up in arms, and in one case I was taken on an emotional rollercoaster by pro-wrestler/comedian Ravenous Randy Myers.
Make no mistake, this is an absolutely spicy show and it’s definitely worth the $10 fee to enter.