Matthias Walz - The Bad Man at the Piano

Matthias Walz is, at heart, a perfectly nice guy. It's just that when something gets under his skin, he can turn rather nasty. And plenty of things get under his skin - politics above all. As a star of "Fastnacht in Franken", the highest-rated show across all regional public broadcasters in Germany, Walz regularly gives the assembled political elite a piece of his mind. The result is collective breathlessness: politicians forced to grin and bear it, while the rest of the audience nearly falls off their chairs laughing.

Lounging casually at the piano in his green suit, he channels his sharp-witted thoughts into music, making audiences laugh with wit, charm and intelligence - and occasionally prompting them to think. No human failing is foreign to him, no truth too blunt. His keen eye for observation and razor-sharp eloquence can only be explained by a thorough education - years of self-taught study in pub culture, lovingly complemented by university courses in computer science, physics and linguistics.

Matthias Walz is a traveller between worlds - and an entertainer with a backbone. So it may well happen that the odd audience member finds the laughter catching in their throat. Because Walz wants to be like St. Nicholas: you look forward to him, but always with a slight unease about what he might bring. Though here's the reassuring part: Walz feels exactly the same way about you. And you're not really that bad either. Are you?