Cast and Crew Bios

A Pacific Northwest native, Alaina Hoffman grew tired of mild weather, strapped on her crazy hat, and moved to the Midwest for college. After receiving her BA in Theatre Arts from Bethel University and performing with MILETE Women’s Art Collective, The Minnesota Fringe Festival, and Comedy Sportz Minneapolis, Alaina left the angry winters of Minnesota for the angry winters of Chicago. A conservatory graduate of the Second City Training Center, Alaina has had the honor of performing improvisational comedy with pH Productions, Comedy Sportz Battleprov, and independent teams Makeshift Robot and The Thunder Thieves. In addition, she has numerous sketch comedy credits and played the role of Catherine in Red Ink Productions’ Proof. Alaina is excited to be a part of the talented and fun cast at Laugh Out Loud Theater. She also likes shiny things.

Becky Eldridge is thrilled to be performing at Laugh Out Loud theatre. Becky has been performing improv since college, and has performed as part of the Second City at Sea on two cruise ships, with IO, The Playground and Improv Acadia (in Maine!). Becky has also co-written and performed in two original comedy musicals, Little House on the Parody and Band Geeks: A Halftime Musical, both of which appeared at the NYFringe. She grew up in Ohio, loves Chicago, and is grateful to Lillie for opening such a terrific theatre. Enjoy the show!

Chris Day has spent much of the past two decades performing around Chicago at theatres such as iO, The Playground, and The Annoyance with such illustrious ensembles as Bad Touch, Georgia Pacific, Inside Vladimir, and The Pat Shay Dancers. During the day he is a librarian helping art students become better people, but please don’t ask him questions about the Dewey Decimal System (he is also an Eagle Scout but please don’t ask him to tie any knots).

Chris McConnell is far too busy to write his bio, but he’s from PA and has two lovely parents.

Corey Rittmaster began performing improv and sketch comedy a long time ago in Kansas City with groups like ComedySportz and Der Monkenpickle before packing up and moving to Chicago in January 2004. Yeah, January. He knows. Since moving to Chicago, Corey has performed at such places as iO, The Playground, Act One, and the backrooms of bars too numerous to list. Corey is thrilled to be part of the cast of Laugh Out Loud, mostly due to its proximity to a Chipotle. You no-doubtedly recognize Corey from his numerous appearances in Missouri Lottery commercials during the late 1990’s.

Fuzzy Gerdes started improvising in a small town in Indiana and he’s not quite done yet. Fuzzy has had formal training at the iO theater (then the ImprovOlympic), at the Annoyance Theater, and with improv legends Keith Johnstone and Del Close. His two-man improv group Bare has toured several (well, three) countries and countless (about twelve) comedy festivals. He directed and acted in the critically-acclaimed Chicago Neutrino Project — a film/theater hybrid that creates an improvised movie while the audience is watching it. He currently performs at Chicago’s improv co-op The Playground with Pastor of Muppets, a swell group of fellows, and makes short films in his copious free time. He loves his wife, Erica, and thinks she deserves a “shout out” or “props” or whatever it’s called these days. Far too much information about his life and work can be found at fuzzyco.com.

Garin T. Jones couldn’t be more thankful for the chance to perform at Laugh Out Loud with such a great cast and crew. As Garin is still wet behind the ears, you will not have seen him anywhere else. He wants to thank the heck out of his family and friends for supporting him constantly and laughing politely.

Gillian Bellinger was an ensemble member with The Second City Musical House Ensemble, Minneapolis ComedySportz, Chicago ComedySportz, Improv Kitchen and was an Acme Comedy Club’s Twin Cities Funniest Stand-up Semi-finalist. Gillian currently performs with Laugh Out Loud, Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, and at the Playground Theater. She has done a variety of commercials, short films, and industrials. So if you’re up late and think, “Hey, was that…” Probably.

Greg Guiliano is a California transplant unused to the arctic North of the Midwest. Currently a student of Columbia College, he has also taken several classes at Second City in various programs. He’s stage managed around town and performed here and there. His bios, unlike his underwear, he prefers to keep brief.

Guy Wicke is very excited to be working with such a fantastic group of people here at Laugh Out Loud. Guy fell in love with improv at the turn of the century and has been performing ever since. He is a founding member of pH Productions, a Chicago improv and comedy company now in its sixth year, and has appeared in a variety of shows and comedy festivals. He often dabbles in sketch and stand-up comedy as well. Guy is a graduate of the Low Sodium Entertainment Improv Comedy and Performance Conservatory, the most prestigious training center in Chicago.

Israel Pederson is honored to be performing with Laugh Out Loud. Israel graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Agribusiness Management in 2007 and decided to use it to pursue comedy in Chicago – it’s very applicable. He has trained at Comedysportz Chicago and the Second City Music Conservatory and can be seen around town performing with the Second City music house ensemble Infinite Sundaes, the Cupid Players, and his improvised rock band – Reset List. Lots of love to his number one fan, Sarah.

J. Ben Parker is originally from Louisville, KY. After touring the country performing children’s theatre, he moved to Chicago in 2002 to study improv. He has trained at The Annoyance and iO theatres. He performs at iO with The Confessional and at The Playground with International Stinger. Ben is very excited to play at Laugh Out Loud and help bring the funny to the people. He would like to thank his wife Carrie for her love and support.

Jamie Buell is excited to be playing with the super-funny folks at Laugh Out Loud Theater. He’s been seen at some other places around town, some of which can be mentioned in polite company. Among them are: The Lakeshore Theater with Blewt! productions’ “Impress These Apes”; The Playground Theater Chicago with The Fling; IO Chicago; at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival with Booper; and in Wildwood, NJ opening for B-Mo’ Honey. TimeOut Chicago has called his past performances fearless and “the funniest thing we’ve ever witnessed” (that’s true – google it!); The Chicago Tribune has called his writing silly, satirical and acerbic (once he looked that word up, he realized it’s a compliment); and the Chicago Reader has called him mediocre and misguided (meh, what do you expect from a paper that just lays around in coffee shops all the time).

Jeremy Schaefer started doing improv comedy as a child because he couldn’t read or write. After becoming literate he continued to improvise with pH Productions, Storybox, the Improv Playhouse and several other companies. He’s performed at both the Chicago Improv Festival as well as The Out of Bounds Festival in Austin. He’s also an ensemble member with Imagination Theater and he’s performed stand up in various venues around Chicago and London. In his spare time he’s become an avid reader who occasionally struggles with cursive.

Jin Kim once played a virtuous young woodcutter in a school play and has never looked back. The UNC graduate has performed with several companies over the years, including iO (formerly ImprovOlympic), the Chicago Neutrino Project, Second City, the Playground, ComedySportz, WNEP, the Chicago Comedy Company, and the Cornservatory. Most recently, you may have caught Jin as the show-stealing foreign exchange student, FEUNG SCHWEY, in The Awesome 80s Prom. Jin’s voice has also been featured in video games such as Mortal Kombat, John Woo’s Stranglehold, and NFL Blitz. Many thanks to Lillie for keeping the popcorn machine, and for the opportunity to make others laugh at Laugh Out Loud Theater.

Joe Burton has been improvising for the better part of 16 years. The lesser parts of those years were spent thinking about improvising. Since moving to Chicago, Joe has worked with various sketch and improv groups at various theaters. The current list includes the The Improvised Shakespeare Company, The Fowler Family Radio Hour, Hogwash and Bughouse Theater. Joe is especially pleased to be able to add Laugh Out Loud to that list. He would like to thank his friends and family including but not limited to, Kevin C. Frankenstein and Shelby J. Burton.

Joey Cranford has been a professional actor/comedian for almost 5 years. He has toured the country for 3 years with an improv group called Mission Improvable, performing at comedy clubs, colleges, and venues with up to several hundred people in attendance including the 2006, and 2007’s Lollapalooza. He has been a featured guest of the Second City, performing in their improv set after several shows. He currently performs on a Harold team at I.O. (Improv Olympic), and of course, right here with Laugh Out Loud. In his off time, he is a double decker tour guide in Chicago. There has actually not been a time in the past 5 years when he wasn’t in front of somebody, somewhere, doing something.

John Loos is thrilled to be a part of Laugh Out Loud. He has studied improv at the iO Chicago, iO West, and in the Second City music improv conservatory. He currently performs at the Playground with All Skate and is an original cast member of Skinprov at The Annoyance. He’s also an artistic associate with GayCo Productions, appearing in several of their recent sketch shows, and has written and directed two one-act plays, LadyWrath and Arrangements. John began his improv career at the University of Illinois in 2001, and secretly considered it his unofficial major. He got his real degree in something much more bland and office-y.

Josh Chamberlin is so excited to be performing at Laugh Out Loud. He plays regularly with the musical improv group, the DelTones, at ImprovOlympic and is a former member of the world famous Baby Wants Candy. He has trained at the Second City, the Annoyance Theater, and the iO Theater. A regional winner of Kelsey Grammer’s World Cup Comedy, Josh has also written and performed corporate comedy for Fortune 500 clients, community organizations, and even PTAs. He performs, teaches, and directs all over the place so if you see him, say hello Schaumburg.

Kate Cohen has been improvising in Chicago for 4 years, and is delighted to be a new addition to Laugh Out Loud! Kate is from beautiful Bethesda, Maryland and has a very useful BA in Theatre from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory, and has studied improv at iO, The Annoyance, and ComedySportz. Kate has performed with The Second City Educational Touring Company, pH productions, ComedySportz Battleprov, and in many other great and almost-great improv and sketch shows all over the city. Kate thanks, loves, and would be a total wreck without all 4 of her parents, Alexis, Grams, The Piece, and Drew.

Lillian Frances began acting, improvising, and directing at Northwestern University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Theater. She has performed with improv ensembles at iO (formerly Improvolympic) and other venues in Chicago, and assistant directed and performed at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. Directing credits also include a Second City National Touring Company, the all women’s improv groups Jane and Sirens, the critically acclaimed sketch groups GayCo and Stir Friday Night, and various ensembles at iO and The Playground. She worked for several years as a lead facilitator for Second City Business Communications where she designed and facilitated training programs for Fortune 500 companies and worked as a Core Faculty Member for the Second City Training Center. She currently teaches at Columbia College, owns and runs Laugh Out Loud, and gets very little sleep. She is thankful every day that she gets to say “I love what I do,” and for her husband Scott who helps her do it.

Madeline (Maddy) Wager was born and raised in Oklahoma City. She moved to Chicago 5 years ago because there’s only one comedy club in OKC. But for real, she moved to Chicago to pursue a theatre degree at The Theatre School of DePaul University and focus on comedy. She has completed the i.O. training center and is currently finishing up at The Annoyance. She keeps herself busy with improv activities, stand up, and arts & crafts. You can also see her perform funny make-em-ups at Chemically Imbalanced Theatre and pH Productions.

Matthew Mages came all the way out here from Colorado just to be a part of Laugh Out Loud Theater. A graduate of Second City’s Conservatory, iO Chicago’s training center, and Colorado State University’s Zoology program, Matthew also performs at The Playground Theater with The Senate and at Stage Left Theater with pH Productions. He is an instructor with pH’s training center, and coaches Droppin’ Science at Columbia College. He can be also seen in some really great short films, a couple bad commercials, and really cheesy online advertisements.

Michael Girts is thrilled to play with the fine folks at Laugh Out Loud. Chicago credits include Infinite Sundaes, Best* Church of God, Forte, the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival and ComedySportz’s Battleprov. His two-person improvised musical Kate & Mike:The Musical earned critical praise and won gold at the 2009 ComedySportz Dual Duel Championship. Michael earned his BFA in Acting from Syracuse University. When he’s not on stage, Michael enjoys watching Pittsburgh sports and taking naps on his Big Red Couch.

Monique Madrid loves performing and teaching at Laugh Out Loud. Originally from Kansas City, she moved to Chicago six years ago and has enjoyed performing with Comedy Sportz, The Annoyance, iO and The Playgroud. She is one half of the comedy due “The Union” where she writes and performs sketch comedy with her husband Corey (yep, from Laugh Out Loud). They have appeared at The Annoyance and Second City’s Donny’s Skybox as well as in the Milwaukee Comedy Festival and Chicago Sketchfest. She also enjoys writing for various groups such as “Big News,” and the critically acclaimed “Best Church of God” as well as several short films. When she’s not writing or performing, she’s a hair and makeup artist to stars and non stars alike.

As if woven from a fine silk, this delicate flower blossoms under the bright lights of legitimate theatre. To define a Patrick Kent is to hold a rainbow in the palm of your hand. A large rainbow.

Patrick Walsh wants to thank everyone, his family, his friends, his girlfriend, and his two cats. Aw shucks, he wants to thank you too.

Rich Baker began performing improv at TCU (go frogs!) in 2002 with Senseless Acts of Comedy and trained with Fort Worth’s Four Day Weekend. Since then he’s performed with ComedySportz Dallas, iO Chicago, The Playground, ComedySportz Chicago, The Comedy Shrine, Improvacadia, Mission Improvable, Dave & Co., WNEP Theatre and many other great organizations. In addition, Rich teaches improv with ComedySportz Chicago, The Comedy Shrine, and Second City. When he has precious rare free time he loves to play basketball and watch WAY too much TV.

Robert Reid hails from Jacksonville, Florida where he was an ensemble member of MadCowford Improv. Before joining MadCowford, Robert briefly trained with Theater Strike Force at the University of Florida. Robert moved to Chicago in the fall of November (bad timing right?). Since his arrival, Robert has performed with pH and trained with iO, Second City and The Annoyance. Robert is extremely excited to have the opportunity to perform with Laugh Out Loud and loves every stinkin’ minute of it.

Ross Foti has performed improv on the stages of ImprovOlympic, The Playground Theater (where he currently performs with Homey Loves Chachi), ComedySportz, and The Second City. He has appeared at the New York and Miami improv festivals, the New York Fringe Festival, and Chicago Sketchfest. Ross is particularly proud of his work with both Single Box Turn Productions (“Little House on the Parody” and “Band Geeks: A Halftime Musical”) and The Free Associates Theatre Co. (“Frodo-a-GoGo” and “Whose West Wing Is It Anyway?!”).

Sayjal Joshi is wicked excited to be performing with Laugh Out Loud. Hailing from North Carolina she earned her BA in Theater from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2001 she co-founded and performed for three years with Greensboro’s first and only improv club, The Idiot Box. Past Chicago credits include ComedySportz, The Beatbox, and improv competition Battlejam Amsterdam 2006 winners, The Chicago Bobs, at Boom Chicago. Current Chicago credits include iO Chicago’s Hot Pocket, the critically acclaimed Asian-American Sketch group Stir-Friday Night!, and understudying with The Second City National Touring Company. You might also see her on TV stuffing her face with a Cookie Dough Blast for Sonic Drive-In. Love, love, love to Mom, Dad, Jay, and Demian.

Shana Martin loves being a part of such a fantastic group of people. She is a graduate of Marquette University, where she studied Theatre and French. Outside of Laugh Out Loud, she can be seen both in the city and the suburbs working as a lighting designer and a stage manager, and especially enjoys working with high school theatre students. She has been working the performing arts scene for over ten years, and can now say “whew, I’m glad I decided to work on the play instead of trying out for the freshman volleyball team!”

Shaun Himmerick has been performing and teaching improvised theatre since 1993. In the past he has performed with National Velveeta, Crazy Monkeys, and Denver TheatreSports. Also while in Denver Shaun was the Executive Director of the Denver Civic Theatre, among many other projects in the Denver theatre community. Shaun has done lots of scripted theatre including his favorite, the opportunity to play Tom Joad. Besides performing at colleges and corporations around the country with Chicago Comedy Company, Shaun is always taking his 2-man show, BARE, all over and loving the freedom that brings. Doing The Neutrino Project, the improvised movie, is awesome and a great way to experiment with movie making, (which we all love to do). When not making movies, doing Improv, or acting, Shaun works hard to make video games, bringing games like Mortal Kombat to the game playing people of the world.

Shelby Jennings graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Theatre Education. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Theatre, Media, and Communications from Northeastern Illinois University. During the day she teaches drama in Evanston public schools and in the evenings you can see her performing with Cowlick (The Playground Theater), AIRBOURNE (iO Theater), and The Fowler Family Radio Hour. She would like to thank her friends, family, and new hubby Joe for their love and support.

Tony Lentino is a graduate of Elmhurst College where he studied music business and theater with a focus on Improv comedy. Tony was a four year member of the college’s Wasteful Thinking Improv Troupe where he spent the last two years as student director. Tony has spent much time on stage in Schaumburg as well, where he has had lead roles in several musicals. Tony has studied with the Second City and Laugh Out Loud Training Centers and has led several workshops at the Illinois High School Theater Festival. Tony is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Improv to his hometown of Schaumburg.

Vincent Kracht, thrilled to be performing with Laugh Out Loud, has also performed with Chicago ComedySportz, The Free Associates, GayCo, The Comedy Shrine, and ImprovAcadia in Bar Harbor, ME. Vincent was an original (and continuing) member of the improvised play, Cast on a Hot Tin Roof. He is also proud to have coached the ladies of Chick Schtick. Recently, Vincent was in the sketch comedy show “The Audacity of Nope”. He also teaches and performs at The Comedy Shrine in Naperville.

Past Performers