Cody Dove

About Cody Dove

Born to a father who was a rodeo announcer and a mother who worked providing state assistance to those without home energy; Cody Dove came into the world on February 14, 1974. His early years were spent traveling the rodeo circuit with his family where he would often help the specialty act performers in the arena (appearing as the animated bottom half of a saw-in-half clown act gone wrong, playing seesaw with a trained Appaloosa horse). When Cody was nine, he witnessed a magician performing miracles behind a shop counter in Canby, Oregon (where the family was traveling doing rodeos at the time). Becoming a magician led him to create his own business (complete with checking account) which he would cultivate over the next nine years. From living rooms to packed school auditoriums to libraries, Cody traveled through the Four Corners area of northern New Mexico and Arizona performing for audiences of all ages. Drawn to the comedy aspect of his style of magic shows, and inspired by Jonathan Winters and Johnny Carson, Cody "retired" from magic at eighteen - the same year he would replace an actor in local college production of "Roosters" (a play by Milcha Sanchez Scott about a Hispanic family torn apart by cockfighting). While a member of his high school Speech and Debate team, he had also begun improvising in a category of competition offered at many of the regional tournaments.While attending San Juan College, he would not only appear in several other theater productions, but begin his radio broadcasting career with KISZ FM, originally a Top Forty station which would gradually become Alternative at the height of that genre's popularity. Initially, Cody worked weekends inserting local commercials into syndicated programs, but was shortly promoted to afternoons before ending his tenure with the station as part of a popular morning show. He would leave KISZ to work briefly as a Classic Rock personality at KDAG Big Dog Radio before leaving radio for other pursuits. While on the air, he began opening up for stand-up comedians which would appear at the college and other local venues around town. While stand-up comedy was challenging, he knew his first love was improvisation, and - based on the advice of Keith Stubbs - a touring comedian he had befriended - set off to study with The Groundlings in Los Angeles.While repeating the first level of his instruction at The Groundlings, a fellow improviser, David Shore (who would later join the main stage cast of The Second City Toronto) recommended another program in town facilitated by a west coast branch of Chicago's ImprovOlympic. After his first two levels of instruction, Cody was placed on a long-form Harold team comprised of both new members and veterans (Michael Stoyanov, who played Mayim Bialik's older alcoholic brother on the television program "Blossom" was on the team - along with James Grace, the current producer of iO West). Cody had not been with the group very long when, upon learning The Second City would be building a new theater in the same city as his long-distance girlfriend at the time, he left Los Angeles for Cleveland, Ohio.After completing several levels of a conservatory program of instruction offered by The Second City, Cody left northeast Ohio to travel with his parents on the rodeo circuit of the Pacific Northwest - the same circuit, years earlier, he had first tried his hand at steer riding (a precursor to bull riding). After discovering The Second City had regrouped its effo...

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