Plenty of Pokémon fans crammed into a panel at New York Comic Con this Friday. But they weren’t there for a Pokémon panel—at least not ostensibly. They were present for Balls: The Monster Catchin’ Musical Comedy. Definitely not licensed by Nintendo or the Pokémon Company, the show is a fair use spoof of the iconic franchise. It’s also a wildly chaotic good time.
But it does have some surprising cred. Professor Oak voice actor Stuart Zagnit stars in the stage show, which performs at Caveat in New York City. It has recently enjoyed several sold out performances. And that’s easy to imagine, as it caught a standing room only crowd for the NYCC panel.
Veronica Taylor, who isn’t normally in the stage show but is the original voice of Ash Ketchum, joined the panel as well. The cast of Balls performed the opening number of the musical before sitting down to chat with Taylor about looking back on the phenomenon that started it all. “I’m still 10!” Taylor joked. “None of us ever age, because you never see our faces.” Pokémon will soon celebrate its 30th anniversary in February.
BALLS Production Photo Credit (Right): Arin Sang-urai / @Photojuice
“More generations are discovering the show all over again,” Zagnit said, mentioning how people who grew up with Pokémon now tell him about their kids watching the show. Zagnit, a Broadway star as well, is also coming up on the 25th anniversary of Seussical. He played the Mayor of Whoville, and will reprise the role in a special concert next Monday.
But back to Pokémon. Do Taylor and Zagnit have a favorite episode? Yes. Coincidentally it’s the very first episode for both of them.
Taylor and Zagnit were joined onstage by Harrison Bryan and Brandon Zelman, the co-creators of Balls. Zelman mentioned a supposed “lost deleted episode” they “found at the bottom of a bag.” The dubious lost episode revealed what we’ve all expected, that Mr. Mime is Ash’s biological father. Fans laughed as Taylor and Zagnit acted out the scene in their respective character’s voices.
The rest of the panel consisted of interviews interspersed with scenes from Balls the Musical. The most memorable one being the battle with Taylor and performer Teresa Attridge using Zagnit’s Professor as a fighter against Bryan’s Warlordturtle (the “collectabuddy” spoof of Wartortle). As for attacks? They acted out audience suggestions collected by performer Rachel Parker. The most outrageous suggestion being “release the Epstein files!” Zagnit acted out the attack with Attridge saying “We’re 10 and 11, we don’t have them. Wait, why do you have them?”
But it wasn’t all raunchy. The panel also had some wholesome moments during an audience Q and A. People asked the Balls crew about their first musicals, how they made the puppets, how Zagnit joined the cast, and their favorite Pokémon. Both Taylor and Zagnit said Pikachu. “Pikachu is the only monster I could trust to take Ash on his journey,” Zagnit said fondly.
Another segment involved trading random items, with one attendee getting the final ticket to the final show of Balls for 2025. It’s next Friday. But if I know Balls (and I know Balls) they’ll be back for more pop up performances. So you’ll very likely have more opportunities to catch them.
