I’m a Portland, Oregon based performance artist.

My work combines social commentary with comedy and often incorporate audience interaction and the lecture format.

My current projects include Kids These Days, Life Coach, and 50 Things I’ve Learned and I have a few new projects in development. I also love to create site or event specific work. 

I’d love to bring my work or a lecture to your theater, gallery, festival, school or community.


Photo credit: Adam Garcia
Photo in photo credit: Chris Hornbecker 


I am also an emcee and auctioneer, and particuarly enjoy working with arts organizations. Clients include The Moth, PICA, Converge45, Disjecta (now Oregon Contemporary), and IPRC. 


Photo credit: Mario Gallucci 

My Story

I grew up in Garrett Park, Maryland and graduated with a film degree from Wesleyan University with credits from Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art and Chautauqua.

I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1995 to make films and play music, drawn by the work of Gus Van Sant and the music and DIY ethos coming out of the Pacific Northwest.

My early creative career was focused on filmmaking. I wrote and directed the 16mm feature film Good Grief, which toured festivals and theaters across North America and created short films like Autographhss.com, Hunter Dawson, and My Name is Bradlee which I also acted in and were regularly screened at underground film festivals.

In 2002 I was asked to participate in a group show called 30 Days Notice and decided to perform as a character instead of make a film.

An Evening With Bradlee was an interactive performance where I played a dot com refugee from the Bay Area who moved to Portland for the cheap real estate. I loved how performing allowed me to interact with my audience and evolve the show with each performance.  

I was invited to bring the piece to the very first PICA TBA festival as part of a regional showcase, and found my people. Afterwards I immediately began work on my first full length show.

AC Dickson: eBay PowerSeller premiered at the 2004 PICA TBA festival.  Combining lecture, PowerPoint, audience participation and even a little dance it was created and performed with my partner Susan Beal.

The show was invited to come to Victoria, BC, New York and Europe on three different occasions. It also helped me become a finalist for a Creative Capital grant and it inspired advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy to invite me to create a character for a Nike campaign.

In 2007 I premiered the show Sell Out at the PICA TBA festival. Cataloging the 27 steps necessary to become a “sell out” the show was timed for the weekend before the Monday I took my first full-time job working as creative at Wieden+Kennedy.

Working a day job and starting a family gave me less time for creating my own work, but I began working as an auctioneer and emcee helping non-profit’s like PICA and Disjecta (now Oregon Contemporary) raise money and build community.

In 2012 I premiered Life Coach at the 2012 PICA TBA festival, and traveled to Kansas City and S.A.D. Park in Portland’s Pioneer Square.

And I was invited to be the first host of The Moth for the Portland StorySlam monthly show, and have since participated in over 100 live storytelling shows.

For several years I was part of the New Shit Show, creating a new 10 minute performance piece every month. And in the fall of 2019 I premiered Kids These Days at the Mission Theater.

During the pandemic I contemplated the possibility of never being on stage again. But as we have returned to theaters and festivals and events I have found performing my own work or supporting other storytellers or a worthwhile organization even more fulfilling than before. I’m so glad to be back.

Please reach out to discuss a project, program one of my current projects to inquire about commissioning new work.