Meet the Cast

ERIK ADAMS

Erik AdamsErik Adams is driven by the modest desire to be the world's greatest rock critic. If that doesn't work out, he's fine with continued employment with The Onion, America's finest news source. Love brought Erik to Texas, but a failed audition for a campus sketch show brought him to improv. After four years of performing short-form with Michigan State University's Your Mom Improv (they're quite aware it's an awful name, thanks), Erik is now regularly stretching his make 'em up muscles in The Starter Kit. He's graced the comedy stages of Austin with Tiger Beat, Golden Eagle, and Skipfield, and appeared in the improvised superhero adventures of Ka-Baam!!  

Erik is a huge fan of pizza, Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland 1945", Abraham Lincoln, good typography, bad beer and bears. He counts Chuck Klosterman, J.D. Salinger, Lou Reed, Stephen Malkmus, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, the brains behind "Mystery Science Theater 3000", Monty Python, Tiffany Weber and Shawn Adams among his greatest influences. He was born in 1985, and is currently unsure if that makes him too old or too young.

 

JUSTIN DAVIS

Justin DavisJustin Davis comes from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and compares the Gulf Coast to the rest of Mississippi in the same way that Austin is compared to the rest of Texas. Not everyone is exactly sure what that means. He taught English to middle school students for just under three years. This may have driven him insane or it could be one of his most cherished memories. He moved to Austin not long after Hurricane Katrina flattened most of the MS Gulf Coast.

Other than The Starter Kit, he is also a regular player in, and sometimes director of, Austin's longest-running improv show and  The Hideout Theatre's weekly Saturday show Maestro, a cast member of 2008 and 2009's Ka-Baam!! (named in multiple top 10 lists by the Austin Chronicle), performed in the 2008 and 2009 runs of Start Trekkin' at The Hideout, and a cast membre of Salvage Vanguard Theater's Apocalypse. He's studied with Asaf Ronen, Matt Walsh, Bill Arnett, Dave Razowsky, and others. He may also have an obsessive compulsion to buy comic books and prose novels. Plus, he might talk about food an inordinate amount of the time.

 

ZACH PALMER

Zach PalmerZach Palmer was born in the snowy North, within spitting distance of Lake Michigan. He did well in school, but mostly enjoyed goofing around and making ski videos with his friends. A theater elective at Kalamazoo college was his first exposure to improv and he quickly realized, "Here is something that actually rewards all the things I was getting yelled at for in middle school!" He went on to become a founding member of Kalamazoo's still running improv troupe Monkapult. After school, he veered away from improv to pursue his dreams of becoming a ski bum, living abroad, and acquiring no tangible possessions. A year and a half ago, he rejoined the ranks of improvisers as part of the Austin Improv Collective. He participates in Maestros and is a member of The Starter Kit. His other interests include playing the tuba and bringing people steaks in exchange for money.

 

BRAD TEMPLE

Brad TempleBrad Temple is brief. Sometimes, he's also funny.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Alumni

ERIC GARCIA (alumnus)

Eric Garcia currently produces The Late Night Lunch Show airing Tuesdays at 11 P.M. on Time Warner Cable Channel 10.

 

ADEN KIRSCHNER (alumnus)

Aden Kirschner performs in numerous improv shows in Austin, is a member of Girls Girls Girls improvised musicals, and co-hosts The Late Night Lunch Show.

 

ANN WILSON (alumnus)

Ann "with no plan" Wilson is in L.A. wowing the people there with her wacky antics. Or, in her own, words "My credentials are yo face."