- October 21, 2016

Watch An Austin Comedian Dissect Income Inequality On ‘Chris Cubas Gets Money’

Austinite Chris Cubas is many things to many people. To those looking for a fun night out, he’s the gatekeeper to one of Austin’s most popular bars. To those looking to get some great laughs he’s the guy who tells painfully funny jokes, from Cap City Comedy Club (and basically every other comedy venue in Austin) to Comedy Central specials. To those looking to meet fellow comedian Reggie Watts, well, they’re not the same guy, so stop asking.

To others (4,999 to be specific) on his Facebook friends list, as well as his nearly 14,000 Twitter followers, he is not only someone who makes them laugh, but someone who is a font of biting social commentary. Cubas helps to make up for the fact that George Carlin and Bill Hicks are unfortunately not around for social media’s communications boom. And this week, thanks to FUSION, we all get to see Cubas extend his social commentary to the documentary film realm.

“Chris Gets Money” is a documentary about income inequality, wherein Cubas gets the chance to do whatever he wants with $30,000 in 30 days.

From FUSION’s announcement:

Comedian Chris Cubas has always been poor, until now… Chris Cubas is a comic and one of the working poor in Austin, TX – one of the most wealth-segregated cities in the country.  As the divide between rich and poor continues to grow, Chris sets out to learn more about the income gap by becoming a part of the 1% he knows nothing about for a month. He has $30,000 and 30 days to infiltrate the elusive super-wealthy and explore why the poor stay poor and the rich keep getting richer.

Splitsider.com goes a little more into Cubas’ motivations for doing the documentary with a quote from Cubas:

“The point I wanted to make with this film is that income inequality isn’t an abstract idea — it is a real, tangible problem with real world implications for regular Americans. I’ve never had money in any real way,” Cubas said. “My father worked for the post office, my mother was a stay at home mom and we got by, but it was never easy. And now people might think “Oh he’s broke because he decided to try and being a comedian,” but the fact is I work more than 40 hours a week and still barely make ends meet. I think it’s important for people to realize that it’s not just homeless people or jobless people that this is a problem for.

“Chris Gets Money” premieres this Friday, October 21 at 8 p.m. on FUSION TV and simultaneously airs on Facebook. Here’s a little sneak peek for those who just can’t wait.


Featured photo courtesy of  FUSION