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Five languages. Six octaves. Matteo Lane’s range seems effortlessly deep.
The standup comedian has been up to quite a bit since his last Portland appearance at Revolution Hall in 2023. So much has changed, in fact, that Lane is taking to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Feb. 27 to regale the Rose City on his We Gotta Catch Up! tour with opener River Butcher.
“It’s like a catch-up at brunch,” Lane, 39, tells WW of what to expect from him this year. “It’s an hour of things that have happened in my life, personal things that I’ve experienced and just trying to make everyone forget their problems and have a good laugh.”
Since we last saw him, Lane’s star has only risen. Last year saw the release of Matteo Lane: The Al Dente Special on Hulu, along with an appearance on Abbott Elementary and a headlining stint at Radio City Music Hall. He published the humorous cookbook Your Pasta Sucks (Chronicle Books, 176 pages, $29.95), a nod to his Mexican and Italian heritage, which he memorably promoted on The Drew Barrymore Show. Lane co-hosts the podcast I Never Liked You with fellow gay comedian Nick Smith. They sport a bickering banter that falls between brotherly and best frenemy territory. For instance, Smith cannot wrap his mind around the idea that lakes have beaches, which is hilarious to Lane, who was born in Illinois. They bicker about it whenever the topic comes up, which is surprisingly often.
MTV’s Girl Code provided one of Lane’s earliest television platforms in 2015, where he and other artists and entertainers commented on women’s relationships (he also appeared on Guy Code in a similar capacity). He now roasts the channel’s golden-era aughts programming like Date My Mom, My Super Sweet 16 and Next with sarcastic reverie, praising TV and all its problematic hangups as “better back then.” MTV’s unscripted reality dramas and dating series may have aged like boxed wine, but Lane’s approach is as relatable to anyone who saw those shows originally broadcast as it is to those learning about them through online nostalgia reviewers like him.
Lane’s comedy centers on his knack for accents (or, in his own case, mocking how he speaks Spanish with an Italian accent), operatic solos and observational comedy about life as a gay man. Viral bits capture Lane’s storytelling ability to inject hilarity into the most commonplace scenarios, like gaming adventures playing Call of Duty, and having his first name confused with “potato” by a Starbucks employee. He’s also known to offer advice to his audiences, opening up the floor and making his audiences feel comfortable enough to divulge some outrageous storytelling, like notes on dating sexually curious married men in New Jersey.
Lane began training in opera at the age of 15 and developed a six-octave range. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied oil painting in Italy. By 2009, at the age of 22, he began moonlighting as a comedian. Lane maintained a professional career in the arts as a storyboard illustrator for TV, commercial and fashion ads, which led him to New York City in 2012: drawing by day, gigging standup by night.
“It wasn’t glamorous,” he says. “I was living in an attic and eating ramen every day, but it was a great learning experience and allowed me to live in New York.”
The now-defunct Bridgetown Comedy Festival marked Lane’s first appearance in Portland in 2014, around the time that he started to make it big in his standup career. Lane reminisces about the festival, which wound down after its 10th iteration in 2017, as “a big deal” at the time. That gig broadened his horizon into the world of food trucks on every corner.
“I love Portland,” Lane says. “The vibe is very chill and the people are very open.”
Like Lane, opener River Butcher is also no stranger to Portland. His debut comedy album, Butcher, was filmed and recorded at Mississippi Studios 10 years ago when he was signed to the legendary Pacific Northwest record label Kill Rock Stars. He came out as trans in 2021, with his jokes also pulling from everyday experiences and storytelling. They can range from ripping on his childhood dream of being an assistant manager to coming to peace with how much he and Joe Rogan have in common.
Lane’s delivery is warm and familiar, but playfully far from judgment free. He knows when to play up the most outrageous details in his stories and jokes, whether everyone can personally relate to them or not. One shouldn’t throw around the label “gay best friend,” but Lane’s humor endears him to his fans (and nearly 2 million Instagram followers). Whether Portland will factor into his routine remains to be seen—he and Smith think of us as bisexual—but catching up with Lane will likely feel like picking back up with a busy friend.
“Portland has its own vibe,” he says in a recent I’ve Never Liked You episode ranking the gayness of American cities. “Definitely not straight, but undet—queer, queerish. Seattle is queer-adjacent but predominantly straight.”
SEE IT: Matteo Lane and River Butcher at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5.com. 8 pm Friday, Feb. 27. $57.79–$218.90.
