Creativity in Captivity

Leaving Dublin, Ireland where he was born and raised until the age of 22, David Nihill got drunk on travel and never quite hit sobriety of it. He has lived and worked in twelve countries and visited over seventy. His storytelling and comedy shows draw on his wide travels, cultural observations, attempts at language study, (occasional) international drinking session(s) and being a mildly confused immigrant. David is a former winner of the prestigious annual San Francisco Comedy Competition and a runner up in The Moths largest US Grandslam storytelling competition. He recorded his debut special Documented for Dry Bar Comedy in 2019 and his follow up Cultural Appreciation in 2023 which is available on Youtube. He has been featured on TED.com, Amazon Prime Video, The Irish Independent, Inc, JFL, Sirius XM, NPR, Ireland AM, and the Huffington Post. A festival favorite, David's videos have also gone viral with over 400 million views and a social following of over 1.5 million people. He is also a bestselling author and the founder of FunnyBizz Conferences, Comedy for a Spinal Cause and The Real Irish Comedy Tour. Mr. Nihill calls California home (away from home) when immigration officials permit. 

Lisa Pelto, founder and CEO of Concierge Marketing Inc. Publishing Services, has been working with authors and small publishers as a publishing consultant and author services provider for over three decades. Her career in books began with an architect firm in 1980, then to an ad agency in 1986, purchasing printing and graphic design. From there, she went to Boys Town Press, where she fell head over heels in love with authors and their passion for sharing their stories. After Boys Town Press, she moved on to a dot com, where she learned how much there was to learn about online marketing. She continued working in a freelance capacity with a few authors, until one of them told her they would be her first customer if she made it a full-time business. She did just that in 2004, and has helped bring nearly 1000 books into the marketplace since.

Mario "the Maker Magician" Marchese is a first generation Italian-American, New York-based touring performer, author, and maker, known for his unique brand of Robot Magic. He infuses DIY electronics and robotics into his work and uses magic to inspire kids and families to make and create without limitation. Mario has appeared on Sesame Street, NBC's Universal Kids, HGTV, and live on tour opening for David Blaine's 2018 North American tour. Mario is also the author of two step-by-step magic books: The Maker Magician's Handbook and Robot Magic. During the pandemic, Mario created the robot magic social media sensation, Automabot. This ever-endearing Arduino-driven cardboard magician became an internet sensation and even made TV appearances in the US and Japan. It's a family business, through and through. The "Mario the Maker Magician" brand is a collaborative effort between Mario, his wife, Katie, and their two children, Gigi and Bear (the real bosses.) They tour together, invent together, learn together, and dream together, always.

Micah Christian is an artist passionate about storytelling, composing, and performing music that supports, enhances, and creates "moments." He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of America's Got Talent Finalist, Sons of Serendip. Career Highlights include collaborations with the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, Cynthia Erivo, performing for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Oprah Winfrey's 2020 Vision Tour closing celebration. Most recently, Sons of Serendip was selected as one of the artists to represent the United States at the Dubai Expo 2020. Micah is currently the Vice President of NAPAMA (North American Performing Arts Agents and Managers). Micah has a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology. Through music, he hopes to spread love and help build a better world.

A professor and head of the Department of Graphic Design, Apparel Design, Retail Merchandising, and Product Design at the University of Minnesota. He received his PhD from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), studying humor, creativity, and idea generation. Dr. Kudrowitz is interested in how creativity is perceived, evaluated and learned. He has years of experience working with the toy industry and has taught toy design for over a decade. Dr. Kudrowitz co-designed a Nerf toy, an elevator simulator that is in operation at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., and a ketchup-dispensing robot that was featured on the Martha Stewart Show. He is also the associate editor of the Journal of Food Design. 

Engineer turned comedienne, Amy Barnes, started her stand-up career in Seattle, appearing at comedy clubs while working days in the aerospace industry. When faced with a choice between the two career paths, in a striking blow to the Girls In STEM Movement, she chose comedy. In a move to Los Angeles she began working as a comedy writer. Contributing material to the likes of Nancy Travis, Bonnie Hunt, Jack Black and Morgan Freeman. She appeared on Comedy Central and the National Lampoon Network. Amy is now a nationally touring act with over 60 dates a year and performs regularly to capacity crowds at performing arts centers, churches and conference events.

Jason Ma (馬智培) is the son of an immigrant family and a grateful descendant of a long line of those who were able to persist, overcome, and succeed on their way to becoming Americans. In addition to writing, he's an actor who has performed extensively on Broadway and Off-Broadway stages, in regional theaters, and in many international venues. Jason is the ASCAP Foundation’s 2017 recipient of the Cole Porter Award for his work as a composer/lyricist and the 2021 recipient of the Harold Adamson Award for his work as a lyricist. He wrote the book, music and lyrics for Gold Mountain, which received its world premiere production in the fall of 2021, presented by the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The Utah State Legislature awarded a special citation to the production, honoring “its portrayal of the dreams and daily lives of the Chinese railroad workers” and "increasing the appreciation of what it means to be American.” Gold Mountain was also performed as a key commemorative event for Utah's 2019 Spike 150 anniversary celebrations, presented in a 2017 concert at The Times Center in New York City by the National Asian Artists Project in partnership with Prospect Theater Company, and selected for the 2016 ASCAP/ DreamWorks Musical Theatre Workshop in Los Angeles. Recently, Jason wrote original music for Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Twelfth Night, creating songs and sounds based on the cultural, racial, and ethnic identities of the performing company. He's currently working on music and lyrics for a new, original musical Broken Ground with librettist/co-lyricist Christine Toy Johnson, a work commissioned by Village Theatre, now in development.

A dynamic standup comic & actor with an original blend of storytelling and improvised rock-n-roll comedy. Jen was the 2017 Winner of NPR's Snap Judgement Comedic Performance of the Year for her Girl Scout Cookie Caper story. Kober received the 2018 Comedic Performance of the Year for her story titled Nana Vs. OJ. She appeared on Netflix in 2019 as she joined the casts of RuPaul's sitcom AJ & The Queen and Dead to Me. Jen has also appeared on The Righteous Gemstones on HBO, played a no-nonsense detective in The Purge on USA Network, and was a wacky science teacher in Diary of a Future President on Disney+. Jen has enjoyed a recurring role on American Horror Story, a guest starring role on Showtime's Black Monday, and has been a regular on Apple TV's new queer sitcom, The Browns. Jen is also featured in Audible's Pride Special, Owning It and she booked a hilarious guest starring role on the CBS sitcom How We Roll starring Pete Holmes and Katie Lowes, as well as a quick appearance with Jean Smart on the HBO series Hacks. Keep your eye out for Jen as Sheriff Linda Lawless on Disney Channel’s series Bunk’d and on Disney+ as she joins the Star Wars universe on the epic series The Mandalorian. 

A world-class juggler and visual artist who has performed in 45 different countries, touring solo work and collaborating with companies such as Spiegelworld, The Gandini Juggling Project, Cie Jérôme Thomas, Les 7 doigts de la main, Cirkus Cirkör, Cie Ea Eo, and Cirque du Soleil. Jay is the former head teacher of juggling at the Dans och Cirkushögskolan in Stockholm , Sweden (2000-2019), and has published a book about contemporary juggling titled 5 Catches. He co-hosts a podcast published by the International Jugglers' Association titled Object Episodes, with 3 seasons dedicated to the philosophy of juggling. His current solo Off-Broadway show in New York City is titled REFLEX: Unraveling 4000 Years of Juggling. It is his magnum opus that pays homage to a lifetime of looking at juggling as art, and weaves the history of juggling together with stories about the space program and space travel. Jay Gilligan also runs his own contemporary circus company in Stockholm, called Kapsel along with an internationally touring company named Shaking the Sky.

At the age of 15 while growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lois knew she was destined to be producer/director. What she didn’t know was that over the next 40 years she would stay in Milwaukee and produce and direct content in every industry sector: corporate, non-profit, education, healthcare, and her favorite, broadcast TV. For the past 15 years she teamed up with comedian/actor John McGivern and created the number one local PBS show in the country, and was awarded two Emmy's for her effort. (Yes, regional Emmy's still count!) She is currently producing and directing John McGivern's Main Streets, a Midwest travel show, airing on PBS. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and kids, and works with a great production company in Milwaukee, Plum Media.