CHOO CHOO
/tʃuːtʃuː/ noun
The sound a train makes. Used by young children, or adults speaking to young children, or by adults on overseas holiday asking other adults where the train station is.
CHOO CHOO TROUPE
/tʃuːtʃuː truːp/ collective noun
We make comedy shows that suspend your grown-up restraint, and dopey videos we think are funny.  We celebrate play in all it’s messy, joyous and chaotic glory.
Choo Choo Troupe is led by Generalissimo Extraordinaire Alicia Gonzalez and Her Lordship Debbie Zukerman.
Debbie Zukerman is Her Lordship and Highness at Choo Choo Troupe.  On top of performing with, and producing for Choo Choo, Debbie is a founding member of Post Its Improv and works regularly with The Kvetch Set. She has performed her solo shows at Fringe and Comedy Festivals all over Australia, and thinks the Darwin Fringe is the best. Debbie appears periodically in TV, film, and, despite her commie tendencies, ads for Mega-Corp and it’s subsidiaries. Debbie studied clown in Paris, Meisner in NYC, and improv in Sydney. She was once quite a serious actor and co-founded Melbourne indie feminist theatre company The Honeytrap.
Alicia Gonzalez is Generalissimo Extraordinaire at Choo Choo Troupe. She has worked with many many companies you've definitely heard of, like Milk Crate Theatre, Matriark Theatre, and Clockfire Theatre where she is an Associate Director. She has taught clown at many performance schools around Sydney, perhaps most importantly The Clown Institute. Alicia works as Dr. Ding Dong, Idiot Specialist, for Clown Doctors Australia. She pretended to be a tree for two years at Jacques Lecoq (Paris), but didn't quite master it, so did it for a shorter periods at Eric De Bont’s Clown School (Spain) and with Virginia Scott (NYC). Alicia makes her own muesli and eats breakfast every day.
Steve Meagher is a Sydney based renaissance man. He plays the guitar even better than he did in high school, did a maths PhD about doughnuts, and once replaced the smashed headlight of a Toyota Echo. He is also a comedian, and has done solo stand-up and alt-comedy shows at fringe and comedy festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin. Steve is a founding member of Post Its Improv, works with sketch troupe The Kvetch Set, and is currently making sketch videos with Comedy on Edge. Steve is the musical genius behind Choo Choo Troupe’s shows.
Josipa Draisma is a theatre maker/performer/director/writer/singer/producer. She has toured Australian festivals many times, often bringing the laughs (Josipa Draisma is Jean Claude Van Damme) and sometimes bringing the tears (Ljubicica - Wild Violet). She was dubbed the Best Emerging Comedian by the Sydney Comedy Festival and awarded The Sydney Fringe Best Music Show Award. Which has an ungrammatical name but is a high honour nonetheless. Josipa is one of the OG Choo Choo Troupers and is so committed she even emceed a 2.5 hour show while 6 months pregnant.
Ali Gordon co-founded Choo Choo Troupe back in 2015, she even stepped in last minute with no rehearsal to save our 2016 Adelaide Fringe show a few weeks after giving birth. Ali has made shows that have been performed at museums, festivals, the interwebs and on international stages. She co-founded Drop Bear Theatre who create performance experiences that connect children and their adults. Ali also works as a therapeutic clown, she is one of a handful in Australia who specialise in aged care and dementia.
Mads Clove is a multidisciplinary artist - she paints, sculpts, and video arts, as well as performs with and without Choo Choo Troupe. Her detailed costumes render her unrecognisable from one show to the next - one day she’s a whale (silver blue body paint), the next she’s a sex therapist (high waisted pants, curly blond wig). Mads also works regularly with Milk Crate Theatre and Self Help Arts, theatre companies whose work address mental health and social issues.
Alison Eaton
Joel Anderson aka "The King" aka "The Dancing Penguin", aka "Bowser Boy", aka "Joely-Poley", aka "etc man" is a tradesman by day, idiot by night. Perhaps an idiot during the day. He enjoys a shake-up. He is a plumber by trade, welder at a hot air balloon factory, and rolls in the muck on Saturdays. In his spare time, you may see him on the stage doing various things, be it stand-up comedy, playing an instrument or dog impersonations. He also produces death metal as a side-hustle. Arguably irrelevant in this scenario. But that's what gives Joel his goog (pronounced with a soft "g"). Indeed Joel is not French, but if he was, he would know their words and how to spell them.
Jeromaia Detto is a tall and gangly theatremaker who has been performing since 2013 in fringe festivals and independant shows across the globe. He specialises in both clown and improv having trained widely in both forms. He graduated in the second ever class at Improv Theatre Sydney in 2016 and has completed all five levels at the iO theatre in Chicago. In clown, Jeromaia has studied with the Norway Clown Camp and completed the entire two year theatre course with Master Clown Philippe Gaulier. 
Choo Choo Troupe was founded in 2015 by Josipa Draisma, Ben Draisma, Ali Gordon, Madeleine Love, Steve Meagher, Sharnema Nougar, and Debbie Zukerman
Troupe members who aren't founders and aren't currently involved, but we love and always welcome back are David Tieck and Roel Voorbij.
The Troupe currently is Joel Anderson, Mads Clove, Jeromaia Detto, Josipa Draisma, Alison Eaton, Alicia Gonzalez, Ali Gordon, Steve Meagher, and Debbie Zukerman.