About Us

Democracy Burlesque has been performing political theatre for the politically active since 2006. We exist to be a gathering place for those trying to change the world a little bit at a time while raising awareness, supplies and money for worthy nonprofit grassroots organizations.  We produce a quarterly variety show featuring top-notch original political satire from our Actors of Evil and playing host to some of the best performing artists and musical acts in Chicago.

Democracy Burlesque: Where Only the Politics are Naked

 

The Company

Aaron Benham
Member since Spring 2009
Music Director, Writer, Actor of Evil & "Resident Liberace"

Aaron got involved with DB the second he moved to Chicago.  He is originally from Des Moines via Kansas City and Boston and New York City and Charlotte.  He plays the cabaret scene around Chicago and works as an actor and music director.  During the day he teaches music and theatre at a preschool.  Oh yeah, and he sings with the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus too. Aaron was also the musical director for the Promethean Theatre Ensemble production of The Fantasticks .

Brittny Congleton
Member Since April 2010
Actor of Evil, Writer

Once upon a time, amid an explosion of flowers, carbohydrates, eye makeup and quite a few sparkles, Brittny Congleton was created.  Shooting from the womb, with the grace of a flying squirrel, holding a picket sign in one hand and a can of hair spray in the other, she began her big haired journey into the world of theatre, activism, and improv, with a brassy song in her heart and a feather in her hair.  You can find the down right crazy ginger residing in her Roger's Park flat, with fellow actor of evil Tyshaun, creating bombs of brilliance, rockets of randomness and lots and lots of pasta!!! She is thoroughly thrilled to be here in the big city, after her incredible adventures in Kentucky, and the magical land ofTransylvania University! She would like to remind you all to do your part and put something silly in the world!

 

Regina Buccola
Founding Member 2006
Poet/Actor of Evil/Writer/Vampire Assassin

Born in Kentucky, Buccola's first word as a child was "schadenfreude," which is weird, because her family is Italian.  She was raised Catholic, which she thinks explains her affinity for dressing up in costumes, memorizing long texts, and getting up in front of people to repeat them back -- with emphasis!  Her first pet was a parakeet named Tweety, and the first place that she lived was on Lansing.  You figure it out.  When she is not performing on a stage, she is performing at the front of a classroom at Roosevelt University.

 

Sandra Bykowski
Founding Member 2006
Actor Of Evil, Producer, Director

Sandra Bykowski is a founding member of Democracy Burlesque, having worked with Joe Fedorko since they were young, idealist college pups. Now that they are cynical, wizened and middle aged, they still have yet to give up their youthful idealistic dreams of saving the world through comedy (she still votes for the Green Party)! As a comedy performer, Sandy feels grateful to have moved to Illinois, where the fodder for political comedy is always in season. Sandy personally implores each and every one of you to attend DB shows, laugh and learn and muckrake with us and make this a success, so that she won't be forced to sell her 2 children to medical experiments. Please help us. The American Lung Association is already making an attractive offer...

 

Cameron Comstock
Member since Fall 2009
Actor of Evil 

Cameron Comstock is in his first season with Democracy Burlesque and Chicago. He hails from Louisville, KY and has never been to the Derby. Don’t knock him for it though, he’s not alone. Cameron has a liberal arts degree and thus is pretty good at a lot of things. Cameron loves cars, especially cars that crash. That’s not ill-wishing it’s just an awkward way of saying that he loves demolition derbies. This is starting to feel like an “I Saw You” post isn’t it? Cameron thinks those are hilarious and is about to fire his bio writer.

Joseph Fedorko
Founder 2006
Executive Producer & Head Writer - "This is all HIS idea, officer!"

The initial idea for DB hatched in Joe's fevered brain after first co-producing a multi-artistic benefit for Howard Dean in 2003. When that made Dean scream he moved on to a MoveOn meeting and, with other conspiratorial artists, hatched Chicago Artists for Democracy - a tiny PAC that produced five events and raised $3,000 - which they donated to, among others, an up-and-comer named Obama. After that came the idea that, in 2006, became DEMOCRACY BURLESQUE!  When not producing, writing, running lights, or cooking for this brood, Joe can be found at Chicago Dramatists (Resident Playwright), Columbia College and Roosevelt University (paying the mortgage), with the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization (unionizing like a mofo), and keeping his activist chops up via Amnesty International, Northside Democracy for America, and anything else that briefly catches his obviously overindulged ADD. Thanks for coming!

 

Greta M. Frank
Member since 2008 
Choreographer/Actor of Evil

Greta joined DB on a whim and never looked back. She currently is a Supervisor at Whole Foods Market in Lincoln Park to pay those bills. Besides Democracy Burlesque, she choreographs for the Celebration Singers at Lincoln Middle School in Mount Prospect, IL. She also is a Free Lance Choreographer/Teacher around the Chicagoland area. "They may not know what I'm doing, but they know I'm doing something!" - Bob Fosse

 

Tyshaun Lang (aka Titian)
Member since 2009
Actor of Evil

Tyshaun is a native of Versailles, Kentucky (pronounced Ver-Sales..the French are quite disgusted by this).  His Alma Mater is Centre College where he received a B.S. in Mathematics.  He is also a proud member of Phi Kappa
Tau. You may have seen Tyshaun frolicking across the Bluegrass state with his beloved pet snail, Meredith Bell.  He holds this snail quite dear to him, since Meredith often likes to massage his funny bone.  Tyshaun hates the word chunk, so please do not say it around him.  Lastly, if Tyshaun could transform into anything, he'd choose to be the taste bud umami. Enough said.

 

Nicole Marquardt,
Member Since Summer 2010
Stage Manager *to the stars*

She has never lived anywhere outside of the Chicagoland area, but has lived in a political black hole most of her life.  After growing up in the northside ghetto of Belmont Central, Nikki moved to the suburban sprawl of Mundelein to enjoy the wonders of needing a car and the mega mall.  While attending Barat College, a very small liberal arts college in Lake Forest,  it was discovered that the school was bankrupt and would close before her matriculation period was up if they were not purchased by a larger school quickly.  Even though the campus did eventually close due to a lacking enrollment, Nikki was able to earn her theatre studies degree in 2004 from DePaul University.  After two years of the standard 9-5 worker drone living, she could stand no more and Nikki struck out to the big city to find her way in the theater business.  Shortly thereafter she found Quest Theatre Ensemble and was on her way to making no money in storefront theatre, which brought her to where she is today working on the next exciting and funny DB production, Eat Me!

 

Erik "With-a-K" Parsons
Member Since 2006
Artistic Director, Writer & Actor of Evil

A nomad since birth, Erik has lived in 15 cities and 10 states. Having lived in so many places, Erik has been privy to just about every level of political craziness to be found in this country and in turn developed what he calls an equal-opportunity sense of Snark. Hoping to end his nomadic existence among good people and cold weather, Erik moved to Chicago in 2006. Shortly thereafter, he met Joe Fedorko and was introduced to Democracy Burlesque, where he could rant, rave and laugh rather than relying on sedatives to cope with living under the Bush regime. After directing a couple sketches for the Holiday show, Erik was promptly named Time magazine's 'Person of The Year.'   He has continued his work with Democracy Burlesque hoping to receive an Ig Nobel prize  for research on what makes Illinois politics so ridiculous. After all, Lincoln invented the emoticon .

Schlocko Putzberger (born Paul Moulton)
Member Since 2006 (A.D.)
Writer of Wrongs

After graduating from Northwestern, Paul turned down offers to write for "Saturday Night Live" and "Seinfeld" so he could pursue his first love, medical billing.  During a chance encounter with a tarot-card reader in a Y2K bomb shelter, Paul learned that he is actually the reincarnation of Schlocko Putzberger, a failed vaudevillian who died of a cream-pie overdose on October 24, 1929.  Since realizing that show business is his destiny, Schlocko/Paul has written for "Democracy Burlesque," appeared on the little-seen public access cable show "We're Geniuses in France," and portrayed one of the "Three Little Maids from School" in a Japanese production of "The Mikado."

Jamie Winger
Member Since 2009
Writer

Jamie Winger is a child of the corn. He is from Iowa and grew up in a funeral home. His first job was digging graves, and he thinks this is probably why he thinks horrible things are funny. When you're five and riding to school in a hearse with your dad, and he hands you a little box and asks you to hold "Bob" for a minute, your sense of what is appropriate gets a bit distorted. If a piece of comedy doesn't have a zombie, or an alien, or a talking bear, or an old prospector, or an evil reindeer, or Santa getting shot, Jamie doesn't really see the point. Jamie's favorite things include burritos, riding his bike, and new wave dance clubs!