Julia Corral is a Latina comic from Portland, OR. She has been described as the friendliest-caustic person you will ever meet. The Alt Weekly papers have named her Funniest 5 comics (WW) and Undisputed Genius of Comedy (Portland Mercury). She has performed at Limestone, All Jane, Treefort,Upper Left and Savage Henry Comedy Fest. She host Of Helium’s Cooch Street, Kickstand’s Comedy in the Park and many more shows in town. She has been featured on NPR.

(They / Them)

Randy Smith is a Portland-based improviser and writer who's been performing for over ten years. They studied and taught at BATS improv in San Francisco and later came up through classes right here at Kickstand. They've performed internationally and nationally in improv festivals with their team HONK, who you can see in their monthly show, Honk If You're Horny. They also perform regularly in The Dinner Party, Improvised Slasher, Improvised Real Housewives, Secret Aardvark, and Small Fruits Queer Improv, and have guested with LA's Holy Sh*t. 

When they aren't completely improvmaxxing their schedule, they're taking a nightclub dance fitness class at PulsePDX or watching reality tv with their cat, Cheddar Gorgeous. 

Adam Trabka has been improvising since 2009, training at Austin, TX's ColdTowne Theater and studied under alums of Chicago improv institutions such as iO, the Annoyance Theater and the Second City. While in Austin, Adam hosted and performed in a weekly improv showcase with his locally award winning troupe Bad Boys.

In addition to performing, Adam served in writing, producing and directing roles for a number of productions in Austin, most notably as Technical Producer of Austin Sketch Fest.

Adam moved to Portland in 2014 and has been teaching, directing and performing around town since his arrival. He was a founding faculty member of the Kickstand Training Center, and is excited to be back teaching after a recent hiatus.

A cast member of Mr. Show once told a mutual friend that Adam "gets it," "it" referring to comedy.

(She/Her) 
Naomi Dixon is an Okinawan-American comedian, writer, and teaching artist located in Portland, Oregon. Naomi has been performing improv for over ten years and has studied short and long form improv under instructors from Second City Chicago, UCB LA, World's Greatest Improv School, and Kickstand Comedy. Naomi is passionate about encouraging her students to develop their own unique comedic style and is incredibly enthusiastic about facilitating affinity spaces, most notably as an instructor for students enrolled in Kickstand’s BIPOC Comedy Program. Naomi has performed with Holy Shit! Improv (LA), Mosaic Improv (Portland), Small Fruits (Portland), & is making her international debut this spring at The London Improv Festival with homegrown indie team Ooh La La (Portland). She’s also the co-creator, co-producer, and co-host of The Astrolo-show with fellow Kickstand Comedy instructor Diana Kolsky.

Eric Simons is a writer, improviser, teacher, and producer originally from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, who has been swimming in Portland rivers since 2015. He has gathered over 20 years of comedy experience from all corners of the contiguous United States (and THREE CANADIAN PROVINCES). He currently uses all that worldweary experience with his group Broke Gravy and as a teacher with Kickstand’s BIPOC Comedy Program.

Diana Kolsky is one of those actor-writer-comedian-designer-improviser-artist types. A life-long creator, she cut her longform improv teeth at the Upright Citizens Brigade NY. She's performed at many comedy festivals across these continental United States, made some forgettable media cameos, dabbled in stand-up, pitched myriad undeveloped TV shows to multiple networks, and her path to hell is surely paved in the unshot screenplays that paper the walls of her brain. She loves performing and teaching comedy right here in her hometown of Portland, OR, where she resides with two humans and one oversized dog. Headshot © Emily Ulsh, 2026

Mariah Mercedes Muñoz is an artist, performer, and producer based in Portland. With over 15 years of experience on stage and in the classroom, she works to expand people’s perception of what improv can be, encouraging students to bring their whole selves to the stage and cultivating a space where real growth and discovery can flourish.

Mariah is the co-producer of Small Fruits, a monthly queer comedy show at Kickstand Comedy. Improvisational theatre has been a joyful throughline of her life and career. She is also a Lead Facilitator at On Your Feet, a creative consultancy that uses applied improv to spark creativity, collaboration, and better results in business and life.

Dylan co-founded Kickstand Comedy in 2014, and has performed at The Bridgetown Comedy Fest (Portland, OR), Bumbershoot (Seattle, WA), the Del Close Marathon (New York City), Out of Bounds Comedy Fest (Austin, TX), The Stumptown Improv Festival (Portland, OR), and later this year in the show MONDO at the Vancouver International Improv Festival (BC).

In 2016 Kara co-founded the Kickstand Improv Comedy Training Center. She has performed all over the US at festivals such as: The Del Close Marathon in NYC, Out of Bounds in Austin, TX, Stumptown Improv Festival, and at Vancouver International Improv Festival in Vancouver, BC. Currently you can catch Kara improvising in Secret Aardvark and performing in her comedy character shorts “Impressions of Human Beings” @kaymocomedy on Tik Tok.

Paul Stein has directed and produced world premiere plays, comedy events and one-person shows in theaters and festivals across the United States, Canada and Europe. Formerly an Executive Producer for Comedy Central, he supervised over 1,600 live presentations at the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood and worked with such noted performers as W. Kamau Bell, Russell Brand, Wyatt Cenac, Chris Garcia, Nikki Glaser, Ken Jeong, Marc Maron, Randall Park, Jill Soloway, Sarah Silverman, Daniel Tosh, Reggie Watts, and Kristina Wong, to name a few.

Kristen Schier is an actor, improviser, teacher, and clown. She has extensive improv teaching, directing, and performing experience. She holds a BFA in Performing Arts from the University of the Arts where she taught Acting for Non-Majors, Improvisation for the Actor, and first-year Acting Studio. She has toured all over the country teaching and performing at various festivals such as the Seattle Festival of Improvised Theater, Chicago Improv Festival, Vancouver International Improv Festival, Boom Chicago Comedy Festival in Amsterdam, and more. Kristen is the former Co-Artistic Director of Curious Comedy in Portland Oregon and former Improv Producer at the Philly Improv Theater. She has studied improv at Second City, Magnet Theater, and Annoyance. Kristen has also studied Physical Theater, clown, extensively with Pig Iron Theater company and Movement Theater Studio.

Rachel Rosenthal is a professional performer and improv instructor with over 23 years of experience. A recent transplant to Portland from NYC, she has taught at numerous comedy theaters throughout the USA, including Reckless Theatre, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, & The PIT in NYC, where she was awarded Teacher of the Year for her work with 101 improv students. She is a 11+ year cast member of both free-form improv team, Big Bang, and free-style rapping Hip Hop comedy group, North Coast (“Top 10 Comedy Show” -- Time Out NY).

Brad Fortier, MA, is an anthropologist, author, educator and entertainer. He has been teaching and training adults in a variety of settings for more than 20 years. He combines two fields of applied work in his research and training background: applied anthropology and applied improvisation. Brad has been working in the inclusion, diversity, equity and access space since creating Spontaneous Village. It’s a trauma-informed game and play-based community-building intervention for refugees used in 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and Berlin, Germany, in 2016. He had an advisory role with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 2016 for incorporating interactive and experiential training methods in their work.

Brad is the author of “Long-Form Improvisation: Collaboration, Comedy, Communion”; “A Culture of Play: Essays on the Origins, Effects, and Applications of Improvised Theatre”; and a chapter in “Applied Improvisation: Leading, Collaborating and Creating Beyond the Theatre” published by Bloomsbury London in 2018. His thinking, scholarship and field research on applying improvisation are foundational for this emerging field of training.

Brad was the coordinator for Portland Community College’s Illumination Project, a student leadership program that uses interactive theater to teach about social justice issues.

Roland Mechanik (he/him) has been teaching improv at Kickstand for almost 5 years! Roland graduated with a theater degree from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC before moving to Portland and joining up with Kickstand Comedy. Roland has performed at the Stumptown Improv Festival, the Vancouver Improv Festival, and every theater around Portland. In addition to improv, you can catch Roland doing stand-up and weird bits with his mannequin, Muriel. He’s proud to have been the first out trans masc improviser in Portland (as far as he knows)!

You will rarely see Chris wearing a suit. He has always been more interested in “the who” than “the what.” The power of story has influenced his life from a very young age and Chris has incorporated storytelling into the work he does. He earned a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University and currently works in the Student Services Department for Portland Public Schools.

Michael Zimmer is an actor, writer, sketch comedian, and improviser born and raised in Portland, OR. His first improv class was at Northwest Children's Theater around 2000, and he continued his training 12 years later at the UCB in NYC. He found the Kickstand community in 2016 and has been performing and creating shows ever since. He currently produces the improv show "The Big One," performs with his improv team "Fuckos," and tours his two person sketch show "Dog People." He makes an appearance in the final season of Aidy Bryant's Hulu show "Shrill" as George in a very NSFW episode. Find all his stuff on michaelzimmer.net

Wendy isn't just a gorgeous model, they’re also an incredibly talented comedian! Follow Wendy on Twitter!

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