Piranha Is Cap City's Shark Tank

April 6, 2016

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By Lara Smith

Piran­ha. Is it a vicious fish found in the Ama­zon? Is it a series of campy hor­ror films? Yes, and it’s also the lat­est genius com­e­dy show­case cre­ation from Austin’s leg­endary come­di­an, Matt Bear­den. Slat­ed as a ​“game show style-up event,” Bear­den self-describes it as a ​“rip off” of the tele­vi­sion show Shark Tank.

How it Works

A pan­el con­sist­ing of Matt Bear­den and two oth­er sea­soned come­di­ans serve as judges and investors. Pre­vi­ous pan­el mem­bers have includ­ed Chris Cubas, Mike MacRae, Bri­an Gaar and John­ny Hard­wick. A line­up of some of the best up-and-com­ing come­di­ans per­form jokes that they are will­ing to part with… for the right price. The pan­el is giv­en a bud­get for the night to bid on jokes they would like to pur­chase for their own. These are the basic mechan­ics of Piran­ha. What actu­al­ly hap­pens is an absolute­ly unique com­e­dy experience.

What You Get

On top of get­ting sev­er­al great sets from the per­form­ers, audi­ences are treat­ed to cross-talk between the judges, inter­ac­tions with the per­form­ers and pan­el, bid­ding wars, and a whole lot of ball-bust­ing! What this show­case offers that oth­ers don’t, is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to see the nuances of com­e­dy and joke writ­ing. Bits get bro­ken down and some­times even reworked in front of the audience.

(Cred­it: Punch! Com­e­dy)

Judges offer feed­back on what jokes they love and some­times what jokes to reject entire­ly. Often, mem­bers of the pan­el shell out large chunks of their bud­get just for the rights to a sin­gle phrase. You get to see behind the cur­tain at a part of com­e­dy that often takes place at 3 AM in liv­ing rooms after a show. The crowd feels like it’s part of the bid­ding war as its cheers and shouts of sug­gest­ed offers go fly­ing around the room. It is tru­ly one of the most ener­giz­ing com­e­dy events that Austin has to offer.

If you haven’t got­ten to see an edi­tion of Piran­ha, don’t wor­ry, the show­case is com­ing to Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy & Odd­i­ty Fest April 23rd 10:30 PM at The Townsend. If you can’t make it to that, fol­low Matt Bear­den’s pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny, Punch! Com­e­dy on Face­book, Twit­ter, or vis­it its web­site for upcom­ing shows. Also, Matt Bear­den hint­ed that there may be pod­cast ver­sion of Piran­ha com­ing soon. Stay tuned to Com­e­dy Wham for updates. You can also hear Matt Bear­den week­days, 6am — 10am on 93.7 KLBJ FM’s Dud­ley and Bob With Matt Morn­ing Show.