By day, Kristen works for big oil in downtown Calgary. By night, she hones her improv skills by jumping on stage with the Armadillos. She can also be found making absurd short films including a YouTube-acclaimed Igor Maid infomercial.
She has attended a spattering of acting classes in her day, but feels most comfortable on stage making it up as she goes along.
One of the few born and bred Calgarians actually living in Calgary, Jessica improvises everyday as part of the morning radio show on XL103. She loves to perform and when the chance to learn improv and then use it to make people laugh came along, well you just don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
With a few acting classes under her belt, a love of theatre and all things comedy, she relishes the unknown path and adventure that improv takes her on. Having never been to the arctic or space, improv is providing Jessica with an expedition to a new frontier.
Montreal born and proudly Canadian, April is an experienced radio
broadcaster, singer, dancer & passionate traveler. She's always up for
the opportunity of creating anything from scratch, with the exception
of cooking, but that may be due to her not being able to sit still for
too long.
Having played many characters in musical theatre, dinner
theatre and on television, her favorite role is on stage with the
Armadillos playing multiple characters - long form improv grants one
the pleasure of being absolutely anything or anyone. Always looking to
get involved with projects she believes in has led her to great places & people, hence 'Armadillo Armadillo'.
It was a dark and stormy night in October 2008 when Mike walked into his first improv class, oblivious to the psychological carnage that this one decision would unleash. Up until this point, Mike's life had been a normal one. He accounted for things; he wrote and sang songs; and he volunteered with the Calgary Search and Rescue association.
But now Mike finds himself on a long and treacherous expedition into a world so secret, Area 51 has been retasked to uncover all of its intricacies. And this...the search for the ancient "Black Skills" that some kill for: Long-Form Improvisation.
The Kinkonauts are in improvisational theatre troupe in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They were sprung from the loins of two Calgarian improv duos: Rock Awesome (comprised of Lauren Cochrane and Mandy Sellers) and The Patriarchy (comprised of Owen Chan and Jason Lewis) in early 2007. We got our start performing in competitions hosted by the Curiously Canadian Improv Guild and moved on to hosting our own shows in early 2007.
Owen Chan cut his improvisor's teeth with the University of British Columbia's Varsity Improv Team, where they wore matching baseball shirts with a team logo and everything. He went on to proudly coach the team's Junior Varsity Improv Team, which took the improvised pendant for that year.
Owen has studied with Instant Improv in Vancouver, and is lucky to have studied extensively with New York-based improvisor Louie Pearlman.
When he is not improvising, he's ensuring the future of our planet by teaching high school.
She is a graduate of the Comedy: Writing and Performance program at Humber College in Toronto and is member of the Impatient Theatre company(Toronto) where she was a founding member of the all girl improv troupe "Ladystache". She has studied and performed in Chicago with Improv Olympic, New york at the UCB Del Close Marathon and Los Angeles with the Actors Boot Camp, and L.A comedy festival.
When not performing, she is probably working in a totally unrelated yet equally hilarious field of work ie. window washer, snack machine filler or Olive Garden server. She enjoys quick jaunty walks on the beach, deep meaningful song lyrics and carbohydrates in the taste, shape and smell of donuts.
Jason is an experienced improv comedy performer who has performed in hundreds of shows in the United States and Canada, and is proud to play currently with The Kinkonauts.
He received his Master's degree in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University in June 2007. His thesis investigates the impact of Improvisational theater techniques on team performance. He has been published in Training and Development magazine and Training Media Review.
His clients include the US Navy, US Steel, GlaxoSmithKline, The Carlson School of Business (Minnesota) and The Rady School of Business at UCSD.
Mandy has studied with Asaf Ronen, Keith Johnstone and Betsy Stover and Ari Voukydis of The Upright Citizens Brigade. Most recently she completed the iO Chicago Summer Intensive, where she studied with Alex Fendrich, Bill Arnett, Shad Kunkle, Jet Eveleth and Jason Chin.
When Mandy is not performing with The Kinkonauts, she is one half of the improv/sketch duo Rock Awesome. She also likes to make money to support her dirty performing habits.
Louie loves teaching teens the arts of improvisation and sketch comedy and has done so at Buck's Rock Arts Camp in New Milford, Connecticut, since the summer of 2000. He is also the director of Uncle Dad, a teenage improv ensemble from NYC and has taught many comedy workshops across the tri-state area. He has also been a teacher and performer at The Vancouver International Improv Festival and the Del Close Marathon in New York City. You can see Louie perform at the Magnet Theatre (New York) with his group, the Yes Andersens and with his musical improv duo The After School Music Club.
Meags is currently earning her credentials to eventually become an Art Historian. She collects photobooth pictures and is pretty fond of most cats.
- The Loose Moose (Calgary)
- Dirty Laundry (Calgary)
- The Improv Guild (Calgary)
- Rapid Fire Theatre (Edmonton)
- Impatient Theatre Co. (Toronto)
- The Sunday Service (Vancouver)
- Triple Play Improv (Vancouver)
- UBC Improv (Vancouver)
- Outside Joke (Winnipeg)
- The Magnet (New York)
The Kinkonauts
Currently on Summer Hiatus
Check back in September for our upcoming shows!
(Almost) free workshops all summer and into the fall.
Please email classes@kinkonauts.com to get on the list. Click here for more details.