Cap City Comedy Club Anoints 2024 Funniest Person in Austin

Liz Splatt earns the cape and crown

By Valerie Lopez, 2:02PM, Thu. Sep. 19, 2024

The 2024 Cap City Comedy Club Funniest Person in Austin (FPIA) contest wrapped up its June to September run, whittling down more than 200 contestants to the final 10 on Sunday, Sept. 8.

The evening was hosted by 2023 FPIA winner Dylan Carlino. Liz Splatt was crowned the 2024 winner, with Mitch Burrow and Matt Ross placing as first and second runners-up, respectively. During her acceptance speech, Splatt played with the crowd, joking about some anxiety-induced digestive issues that plagued her all day, before announcing with a wink and a nod, "this makes sense."

After 18 preliminary rounds and five semifinal rounds, the finalists represented a cross-section of comics – some of whom began their comedy careers in Austin before the pandemic and others (including each of the top three) who had transplanted from other cities. The top three finishers' jokes ranged from ingenious ways to get a replacement stove (Splatt) to dirty bedroom talk with his wife (Burrow) to fighting off burglars with interpretive dance (Ross). Other finalists joked about everything from Fiji water to clowns with fetishes, showcasing incredible ingenuity in the evening’s joke-telling.

Splatt became one of only seven women to win in the contest’s 37-year history. The last woman crowned was the late Lashonda Lester in 2016 (and before that, Martha Kelly in 2000). Splatt began performing standup in late 2019 in Dallas and has made a big splash in a relatively short amount of time. Although she has only been in Austin three years, she has credits like Skankfest, a no-holds-barred annual festival, and she hosts a weekly showcase at the Creek and the Cave (whose owner, Rebecca Trent, co-founded Skankfest). Splatt's performance on finals night was a high-energy, in-your-face celebration of topics that would require an 18-and-up label if we put them in print.

This year marked the second consecutive year where no finalist from the previous year made it past semifinals. The quickly evolving tastes of Austin seem to be saying, "Just because you got to finals last year, doesn't mean you're guaranteed a return." This makes the annual event a fascinating and unpredictable follow.

Judges for the event included the cast of Mornings with Matt and Bob on KLBJ-FM; Lietza Brass, chief programming officer of Paramount Theatre; and representatives from Helium Comedy Club (owner of Cap City Comedy Club) and Pasadena's Ice House.

As last year's winner handed off his crown and cape to the new champion, he thanked Cap City for the incredible year he'd had. Carlino shared with the delighted crowd, "I've never done more standup in my life [than in the past year]." It was a nice, brief reflection on the year that was and a prophetic description of the potential ahead for Splatt as she enters the record books of the FPIA contest.

As the sold-out crowd poured out of Cap City Comedy Club, the energy of having watched one of the best showcase nights of Austin comedy lingered in the air. It makes you eagerly anticipate sitting through another summer's worth of prelims and semifinals for it to happen all over again in 2025.

Valerie Lopez is the executive producer of the Comedy Wham podcast. comedywham.com.