2026 Fest Headliners
Wow! What an incrdible lineup of sheer performing and teaching talent we have lined up for you this year! We are SO EXCITED to be able to bring a diverse array of improv masters to the 828!
Baby Wants Candy
Dan O’Connor
Logan Square Improv
Greg Tavares
Baby Wants Candy is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy ensembles in the world. The group proves time and again that the best stuff is spontaneous. The group has performed over 9,000 completely improvised musicals around the world to thousands of fans from Chicago to New York to Singapore to Scotland. Entirely based on audience suggestion and accompanied by a full band, the show is a roller-coaster ride of spontaneously choreographed dance numbers, rhyming verses and witty, jaw-dropping comedy. BWC has performing casts in Chicago (Apollo Theater), Los Angeles (UCB) and New York (UCB) and tours internationally.
Baby Wants Candy has helped launch the careers of some of the top comedic talent in the US. BWC cast & alumni include Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live), Jack McBrayer (30 Rock), Peter Gwinn (Colbert Report), Thomas Middleditch (HBO's Silicon Valley), Lauren Conlan Adams (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Jessica McKenna (Party Over Here), Nicole Parker (Elephaba in Wicked on Broadway) and many more.
Baby Wants Candy Show
A Baby Wants Candy (BWC) show begins with the cast asking the audience for suggestions of a musical title that has never been performed before. The audience votes on the title they want to see that night and BWC, accompanied by a full band, creates that musical on the spot. Each performance is its own opening and closing night, and by design every show is completely unique and a once in a lifetime premiere. Some favorite titles include, Jesus Christ Superstore, Phantom of the Oprah and Dogs (the obvious sequel to Cats). Start thinking of your title now!
Shamilton
Ever heard of this show "Hamilton"? Shamilton is just like that, but (ahem) better! Expect the same level of hip hop, incredible songs, stunning choreography and powerhouse singing... except made up on the spot!
Studded with 5-star reviews at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, followed by packed houses and more rave reviews on a UK tour, Shamilton! An Improvised Hip-Hop Musical has been wowing audiences the world over.
Featuring the top improvisors, rappers and musicians in Chicago, Shamilton thrills audiences with completely unchoreographed choreography, unrehearsed hip hop delights and hilarious spontaneous storytelling in a show that often opens nightly to endless queues and closes to standing ovations.
Once a historical figure/celebrity has been suggested by the audience, the whip-smart cast and phenomenal band The Shamiltones entirely improvise an epic musical; the songs, the dialogue, the plot… even the choreography! Every night is a new musical; tonight it could be Guy Fieri, tomorrow Kamala Harris, the day after basketball playing superdog Air Bud.
This smash hit phenomenon will make you “talk less. Smile more”. Don’t miss your shot… to see Shamilton!
Baby Wants Candy’s Asheville Improv Festival cast includes:
Katy Berry is a comedian, writer, and musical improviser from Long Island, NY and has been a cast member with Baby Wants Candy and Shamilton since 2016. She's been part of multiple sold-out runs for Baby Wants Candy and Shamilton at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at The Kennedy Center (R.I.P.) and for multiple sold out Edinburgh Fringe Fest runs. Katy studied writing at The New School in New York City, improv at The Magnet Theater, and sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Her feature script, POPCORN, earned her a place in The Black List X Women in Film’s 2020 Feature Lab and Residency. Her live performances, videos and writing have been featured on Vulture, Studio360, Bustle, Bushwick Daily, and more.
Nikita Burdein was born in Ukraine, raised in Chicago, and currently resides in New York City. He's a filmmaker, theater creator, video editor, podcast producer, ad man, animator, writer, musical improviser, comedian, teacher, tech bro — though very bad at sports. As a comedian, he has performed comedy all around NYC & beyond, including with Baby Wants Candy, Shamilton at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and BrooklynComedy Collective, as well as with Premiere at the Magnet Theater and Shitzprobe. He is currently a performer and a teacher of Musical Improv at the Magnet Theater in New York. An avid theme park enthusiast, Nikita is excited to perform in Asheville, then make a beeline to Dollywood.
Allen Lucas is a comedian, musician, and educator who has been performing all around Chicago, Illinois since 2015. He is part of BWC and Shamilton’s Chicago cast’s open runs at Second City in Chicago, and has been part of the cast for both shows at the 2024 and 2025 sold-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Allen is a curriculum designer at the iO Theater. and has degrees in Comedy Writing and Performance and Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago. He thanks his family, friends, and all those close to him, as well as his enemies, who he keeps even closer.
Adam Payne and his trusty lozenges have been performing and coaching musical improv for over a decade. And now he’s thrilled to have joined the legendary team Baby Wants Candy, a troupe he’s always found both hilarious and very well-dressed, and their spinoff show Shamilton, who are even better dressed. Coming from New York, he performs regularly at the Magnet Theater as part of Musical Megawatt, and across the city with North Coast. When he’s not performing, he’s coding, which is a boring note to end on.
Raquel Palmas originally hails from New York. She’s an improviser, actress, and musical comedian. She has been a BWC and Shamilton cast member since 2019 and performs in the NY cast at UCB and Brooklyn Comedy Collective. Raquel began doing improv as most do in her front yard, with her grandma yelling short-form game instructions. After 12 years of performing in New York's most iconic basements, she joined international comedy theater Boom Chicago in Amsterdam as a mainstage cast member for two years. Some of her favorite improv credits include: The Kennedy Center (before it was evil), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Baby Wants Candy, Shamilton and Thrones! The Musical Parody) Adelaide Fringe Festival (Baby Wants Candy), and Dumb and Fun Festival (BCC)
Adrien Pellerin (Musical Director) is a musical comedian based in NYC. He has music-directed for Baby Wants Candy and Shamilton at multiple runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in their runs at UCB and BCC in New York and the Kennedy Center, and Shamilton’s UK tours in 2024 and 2025, as well as BWC’s runs at multiple Adelaide Fringe Festivals. He’s MDed for Blank! The Musical at Green Room 42 and produces Shitzprobe, a monthly show that invites Broadway stars to improvise musicals for their first time. His digital series, Night Crew, was released by Comedy Central in 2019, and Adult Swim released his short, STAYDIUM, in 2020. He's written and performed in multiple musical sketch comedy shows, and created Stupid Music Videos, a Rizzle Original Series. His work has also been featured by Funny Or Die, Vulture, Mashable, UCB, The PIT, and NYC Public Access TV.
Michael Crisol, aka Doctor Brick, is a beatboxer, born and raised in the Bronx. As of 2022, Doctor Brick is ranked as the 16th best beatboxer in the US. Brick performs with BWC and Shamilton’s NYC runs at UCBNY and has been competitively beatboxing since 2016 in cities all over North America, including Boston, Atlanta, New York, and Toronto. Some of these battles include the American Beatbox Championships, East Coast Beatbox Battle, and the Great North Beatbox Battle. In a number of these competitions, he tackles the tag team division with his partner, Alex P, as the duo known as Snakes and Ladders. Outside of the competitive scene,He can also be seen jamming all over NYC with his band: Molly, for Now.
Dan O’Connor is an actor, improviser, writer, director, and the founder and former Producing Artistic Director of Los Angeles’ acclaimed Impro Theatre. A pioneer of West Coast improv, he co-founded BATS Improv in San Francisco and LA Theatresports.
Dan began improvising and acting at age nine at ACT’s Young Conservatory, later training in London at the Webber Douglas Academy. After returning to the U.S., he joined the first Theatresports workshop in San Francisco and studied extensively with Keith Johnstone. His work in unscripted narrative improvisation led to the creation of Impro Theatre in 2003, known for full-length improvised plays inspired by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Chekhov, Dickens, Film Noir, The Twilight Zone, and many other literary and film genres.
He has taught and directed worldwide — at festivals, universities, and Fortune 500 companies — and performed in venues including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Pasadena Playhouse, South Coast Rep, and Off-Broadway in Improbable Theatre’s Lifegame, created by Keith Johnstone, as well as in the television series of the same name. His stage, improv, and television credits include Seinfeld, Malcolm in the Middle, Raising Hope, NCIS, The Righteous Gemstones, Emily in Paris, and over 100 commercials.
Dan co-created and starred in NBC/PAX’s World Cup Comedy, produced Quick Witz, directed the sitcoms Sons & Daughters and Campus Ladies, and wrote for The Wayne Brady Show, Payne, and Disney’s The Weekenders. He also co-created, with Stephen Kearin, “Living Story Board,” a real-time collaborative improvisation method for developing animated features at DreamWorks and Disney Animation.
A frequent consultant for major corporations, Dan has worked with DreamWorks, Disney, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, Cirque du Soleil productions, and more. He is the co-author, with Jeff Katzman, of two books on applying improvisation to everyday life — UnScripted and Ensemble! — published by North Atlantic Books/Penguin Random House.
Dan lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actor Edi Patterson.
Logan Square Improv (LSI) is a non-profit improv theater on the corner of Diversey & Mozart in Chicago, IL. We showcase the best improvisers in Chicago at an accessible price for the community. LSI is represented by the following performers:
Daniela Aguilar is a writer, improviser, and teaching artist based in Chicago, IL. Recent comedy credits include the 47th e.t.c Second City Revue “Oh! The Places You’ll Glow” (u/s) and the 48th e.t.c. Second City Revue “Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone!” (u/s). Daniela also works as an improv facilitator for Logan Square Improv and Laughing Together.
Elim Almedom is a performer, writer and teaching artist from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. She moved to Chicago in 2018, started taking improv classes at iO and has been performing ever since. In 2021, she participated in NBC's Bob Curry Fellowship at Second City. She has performed in venues across the city (iO Chicago, Annoyance, Raven Theatre, The Den Theatre) and currently performs weekly at Logan Square Improv with Women of a Certain Age. She is also a company member with PlayMakers Laboratory, an arts education theater ensemble teaching and performing in Chicago Public Schools.
Dylan Doetch has been improvising around Chicago for the past 13 years and loves it even more now than when he started. When he’s not improvising, he makes music under the name Deathlove, which you can find on all streaming platforms.
Rudy Mendoza is the founder of Bilingual Improv School, whose mission is to make improv accessible. He’s also the founder and producer of Antojitos Fest: Chicago's Only Bilingual Improv Festival, showcasing the best Latino improvisers from Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He is an on-call understudy for The Second City performing in the etc Theater’s 49th revue “Chaos Theory of Everything” and 48th revue “Best Kept Secret: Tell Everyone”. He’s a teaching artist with Laughing Together, a non-profit that brings improvisation to school-based mental health programming. He also teaches improv and sketch comedy at CIC Theater and Mudlark Theater.
Andrew Lemna is an improviser and teaching artist based in Chicago, IL. He is the co-founder of Logan Square Improv, a non-profit theater focused on building community through long form improv.
Alex Prichodko is an improviser and comedy filmmaker originally from Indiana. He is a Co-Founder and regular performer at Logan Square Improv in Chicago. You can catch him playing on Thursdays and Sundays with his team Little Heroes.
Greg Tavares acts, teaches, and directs in Charleston, South Carolina. He did his first improv show in 1985 and has never stopped. He cofounded Theatre 99 in Charleston in 2000. He wrote the curriculum taught in Theatre 99's training program and gets as much out of teaching as he does from being on stage.
He performs and teaches at improv festivals all over the country. He has written two books about improv: Improv for Everyone and Improv for Couples, both available on Amazon. Even though he has BFA in acting from the University of South Carolina and an MFA in directing from the University of Nebraska he still has nightmares that he never finished high school.
