LOL Tent: Line-up & Open Mic

Stop by the LOL Tent for a rip-roaring good time! Local comedians and improv troupes bring laughter and levity to the Decatur Arts Festival. Take your turn at the mic; sign up for the Open Mic segment on Saturday at 1:30 pm to share your silliest thoughts or humorous observations.

Saturday Line-Up:
12:30 pm • Casey Navarro
1 pm • Gabe Haynes
1:30 pm • Open Mic Comedy Competition
2:30 pm • Paula Gilchrist
3 pm • Simon Huebner
3:30 pm • Krystle Pierce
4 pm • Whole World Improv Theater

Sunday Line-Up:
1 pm • Dom Smith
1:30 pm • Terri Thornton – Open Mic winner from 2019
2:30 pm • Tim Chirikalov
3 pm • Andrew Stanley
3:30 pm • Sam Gordon
4 pm • Whole World Improv Theater

More About the Comedians

Casey Navarro

Originally from Beavercreek Ohio, Casey is a seasoned stand-up, sketch, and improv comedy performer/writer. She spent the last 5 years touring with Second City Chicago, has also been head joke writer for three separate party games and was recently waitlisted for SNL writer. She has worked at The Groundlings school in LA and is also a playwright, joining artists like Lily Tomlin and Sigourney Weaver as an Artist in Residency at Saint Mary’s College where she wrote and directed her first full-length, multi-media dark comedy play about violence against women called LUCKY LIAR LOSER. She has also written for Chicago’s Redeye, Harness Magazine, and is a freelance copywriter and commercial comedy Consultant with Brontosaurus LA. Before God pressed the pause button, Casey had just completed a stand-up tour in Europe and spent four months at sea performing comedy on NCL’s Breakaway. You can also see her on TV in an Ally Bank Commercial.

Instagram: @caseysbits

Gabe Haynes

Gabe Haynes is a young, up-and-coming comedian from Atlanta, Georgia. He got his start in stand-up comedy in Savannah, and now you can catch him on stages all over the Southeast.

Paula Gilchrist

Paula’s dynamic comedy, energy, and disarming southern charm is a mixture of bourgeois and ratchet: something that she likes to call “bi-ratchet”. Known for her sarcastic take on current events and pop culture, Paula hilariously articulates the trials of parenthood, marriage, weight-loss, and other issues of life. She just plows her way through this politically correct and slightly off world.

Simon Huebner

Simon Huebner started writing his stories and jokes because he was delusional enough to think he’d be the first person who publicly found the humor in Asperger’s and he started performing to have something to do in the evenings. It quickly became apparent to him that with a wide range of life experiences and opinions his comedy had plenty more to say than just his diagnosis. His material is informed by being a misfit Jew, an undermotivated bookworm, extended solitude in his mom’s basement while languishing towards a geology degree, a former oilfield worker, and a Special Ed teacher of a home bound study program…many of which have overlapped with each other.

Krystle Pierce

Krystle Pierce is a comical force who uses her love of anime, music festivals, good food and Harry Potter to draw you into her hilarious, real-life story lines. She has shared her comedy on popular stages nationwide.

Dom Smith

Born and raised in Springfield, MA, Dom Smith began stand-up comedy in Boston at Nick’s Comedy Stop. Dom currently lives in Atlanta, performing around the city making audiences laugh with observations on race, relationships, and pop culture, while working as a writer and correspondent for Comedy Hype.

Terri Thornton

Terri Thornton – winner of the 2019 Decatur Arts Festival LOL Tent Comedy Contest – finds the funny in Decatur life, Ya’llywood, Southern accents and whatever weirdness happens to be on social media today. A native Atlantan – one of the rarest of birds – she has been a writer and performer with political satire groups in Georgia and Florida. One half of the clever duo Throckmorton Ukulele Band, she owns a business just outside Decatur. Words to live by: “Just ‘cause it’s petty and judgmental don’t mean it ain’t true.”

Tim Chirikalov

Published two books, written and directed several feature films, and nominated for the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award, are just a few of the things Tim Chirikalov has not accomplished. Instead, he performs stand-up comedy.

Andrew Stanley

Homeschooled preacher’s kids with finance degrees don’t usually quit their Budget Analyst jobs that provide health insurance to be stand-up comedians, but Andrew Stanley didn’t know that. He is now touring all over the country (as well as internationally) performing at clubs, festivals, fundraisers, churches, corporate events, bars with 4 people in them that “didn’t know there would be comedy tonight…” Andrew possesses a unique perspective that pairs well with his dry delivery and observational nature. He was the winner of the 2017 Search for the South’s Funniest Accountant and in 2019, he was selected as a New Face of Comedy at Montreal’s prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. Andrew’s parents are still alive so he works clean.

Sam Gordon

Born in Chicago and traditionally raised on a steady diet of hot dogs, most of Sam’s youth was spent performing in local theater, usually in the role of someone’s evil stepmother. She spent six years hosting at Jstreet Radio on WRLR before cutting her comedy teeth in The Second City sketch program. Sam has featured for comedians such as Michael Ian Black and Shane Mauss at venues all over the country. Sam now lives in Atlanta, where she teaches comedy writing with Highwire Comedy Co. and runs Windy Peach Comedy, a producer of comedic content and live shows.