Fraud Can Be Funny - Comedy Show Offers CPE Credit

Comedian and CPA Greg Kyte is taking Comedy CPE to Seattle. The two-hour fraud class, titled “Holy Mother of Fraud” will be held downtown at Comedy Underground, Seattle’s oldest comedy club.

“There’s something about an ‘education center’ at a state society that spreads the virus that starts the zombie apocalypse: when people arrive, they’re already spaced out. By holding a CPE event in an atypical location, like a comedy club, people show up with a curious and engaged mindset.”

Kyte is teaming up with CPE Suite, a Seattle-based CPE provider, for the event. The live class will be held on August 21 at 3:00 p.m., and it will be filmed and streamed as a webcast on Wednesday, August 26 at noon eastern time. CPE Suite will also edit the two-hour session down into a one-hour on-demand class that will be available through their website.

“This class will also be very different in that there will be a full bar available. Not only that, both Kashoo and Accountingfly have come on board as drink sponsors, so everyone who attends will get two free drinks.”

When asked if alcohol and CPE mix, Kyte replied, “Of course this has the potential to get out of hand, but so does your company Christmas party. Accountants are responsible people, and even more so when they’re in public, surrounded by their peers. The class is highly interactive, so I’m expecting the drinks to lower inhibitions to the point where it’s not a distraction, but rather it increases participation. I expect the bar to be one more thing, like the unexpected location and the humorous take on the content, that’s just different enough to break people out the mindset that CPE is a painful requirement that must be endured.”

The course’s nontraditional format has created some controversy, too. “I’ve been asked several times, ‘How can this be CPE?’ Here’s how. The content is solid and it’s central to the class. I’m not telling accounting knock knock jokes. The learning objectives that attendees are intended to absorb and retain – those become the setups, and the punchlines reinforce the content and make it ‘stickier.’”

Before becoming a CPA, Kyte served ten years as middle school and high school math teacher. “I think it’s pretty cool that all these different careers, different threads, can come together. My teaching background and my standup comedy experience gave me a lot of different and complementary tools to present information that specific to CPAs.”

For more information about the event or to register, go to SeattleComedyCPE.com.