NYCC 2026: Balls the Pokémon Parody Musical is Coming to YouTube on October 25th

This past week at New York Comic Con, Balls returned. That’s right, after a filled up panel at last year’s event, the Pokémon parody musical took to the stage at the Javits Center to release more chaos. This time, Balls showed off a few clips from the show highlighting the musical numbers. The team also announced that Balls: The Monster Catchin’ Musical Comedy will stream on YouTube on October 25th.

But it wouldn’t be Balls without some zany audience interactions to take advantage of the large crowd that showed up at the con. Stuart Zagnit, the original voice of Professor Oak, pulled up a “ten year old” from the audience. Zagnit, who here plays the copyright-friendly role of “The Professor,” invited the participant to pick a ball and name their rival. Gesturing to the character played by Teresa Attridge, Zagnit explained, “You two have been rivals since you were fetuses.”

This got a big laugh from the crowd, as did a follow up when the audience volunteer tried to name the rival Ash, prompting Zagnit to smile and intervene with, “Let’s not choose that.” So the rival became Matt instead.

Throughout the evening, some of the best-landing jokes delt with licensing. For example, certain words got bleeped out. Profanity? Nope, that you could hear in all its glory.

Mike Liscio appeared as a special guest. Liscio voices Clement in Pokémon the Series: XY in addition to “countless copyrighted monsters” that were naturally blurred out on screen. To his fans, Liscio said “Splish splishy splish splish splishy,” after playing the role of Splishy, evocative of a certain carp.

The panel had clips from the “bootleg” of the show play as the cast performed live, Rocky Horror-style. Warlordturtle, a puppet operated and voiced by co-creator Harrison Bryan, would “fast-forward” through scenes. Liscio wasn’t the only special guest appearing live. Haven Burton, voice of Serena in Pokémon the Series: XY, joined as well to shout “Viva La Turtles!”

The grand finale arrived with, of course, a battle between Pokémon collectabuddies. Attacks came from audience suggestions written on sticky notes. “Burger attack” was followed up by “the Covid-conscious lesbian bar.”

The fight ended with the audience, including yours truly, covered in silly string, doused with water guns (thanks, Haven Burton), and surrounded by turtle squeaky toys. It’s wet. It’s wild. It’s Balls!

Balls: The Monster Catchin’ Musical Comedy frequently plays at Caveat in New York City. However, you can soon experience it from anywhere (minus the silly string) here on YouTube on October 25th.

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