Swipe right on ‘The Tinder Show’

Local area comedians Eddie Finn and Max Barth have turned today’s passive and shallow dating culture on its head with their unique comedy offering — “The Tinder Show.” As its name suggests, the show is inspired by Tinder which, if you are unaware, is an app that allows users to connect with people in their area and decide if they are worthy of “swiping right” (I like you) or the dreaded “swiping left” (Don’t speak to me). When two users have swiped right on each other, they can then … and only then … communicate with each other, getting to know one another outside of the few photos and descriptions that appear on their respective profiles.

On Friday, June 24 at 8:30 p.m., Finn and Barth will bring “The Tinder Show” to the Plays and Players Theatre in Rittenhouse Square.

“There aren’t any other comedy shows in Philly specifically about online dating,” Finn and Barth said. “We frame the show around the Tinder app but it ís basically a show about relationships and sex and occasionally ice cream. We don’t concentrate on being single, specifically, so practically everyone can relate to it. Whether you’re single or dating or anywhere in between, you’ll have a good time. It is actually a fun show to bring a date to and if your date doesn’t laugh, you know something is fundamentally wrong with them and can promptly end things.”

In 2014, the show began as part of Five Dollar Comedy Week, a week’s worth of experimental comedy shows spearheaded by area comedians Kate Banford and Aaron Nevins. When reaction to Five Dollar Comedy Week exploded both within and outside of the local comedy community, Banford and Nevins expanded it and created Good Good Comedy, which now produces shows at multiple venues throughout the city each and every month.

“We’ve sold out every show, people have had sit on the stage to make room,” Finn and Barth said. “We have a great rapport as co-hosts of the show and our guests are the funniest comedians we know.”

With Finn and Barth at the helm, the show also features three guest comedians. The June show will showcase the talents of Ryan Shaner, Elise Thompson-Hohl and Christian Manguel. Together, all five entertainers take turns poking fun at truly ridiculous Tinder photos, descriptions and exchanges. In preparation for the show, the participants may even engage in actual Tinder messages as part of a challenge. Past shows have included comedians answering every question they got with a Wikipedia fact, while another forced the comic to speak only in emojis.

Of course, the show couldn’t have gotten to the audience-pleasing heights that it enjoys today without some inspiration from the source material.

“I matched with a princess once! Well, really just a hairstylist from Jersey who called herself a princess,” Barth revealed.

“I once went on a Tinder date and she hired me to dogsit the next weekend,” Finn said.

If your weekend plans include swiping right on the Tinder Show, be sure to get your tickets before they sell out! Tickets can be purchased at goodgoodcomedy.com/tinder.