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: from the politicians, who have to grin and bear it, and from the rest of the audience, who nearly fall off their chairs laughing.

Slumped casually at the piano in his green suit, he channels his sharp-witted thoughts into music, entertaining the crowd with humour, charm and intelligence - and occasionally even prompting a moment of genuine reflection. 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 supplemented by university courses in computer science, physics and linguistics.

Matthias Walz is a wanderer between worlds, then - and a performer with a backbone. Which means the odd audience member may find 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: Matthias Walz feels exactly the same way about you. And you're not really all that bad either. Are you?