About Us
Alchemy + Fortune was a new gift shop, vintage collective, and coffee stop with a brick and mortar in Clintonville – a favorite neighborhood of Cbus.
At the impetus, a+f designed and created the first “fortune vial” candle, a organic soy candle that reveals a vial with a handwritten fortune inside. The candle became very popular, and around 500 candles were handmade withint the first year. Within those 16 months of closure for places of assembly with no rent relief, all revenue from a+f was donated to save stages and performing arts communities. a+f's “fortune candles” (including the popular fortune vial, fortune stone, spell candles, and clearing minis) have been carried online for years, as well as housed at awesome stores like Wildcat & WitchLab. Since 2020, all revenue from those supplement grants and loans that assisted The Nest Theatre in coming back strong for the Cbus comedy community!
2024
Though we closed our brick & mortar location in 2025, alchemy + fortune is still focused on greater good (giving a percentage of profits away to charity partners) and currently has items for sale online AND in the lobby of The Nest Theatre.
Tara (td) is a professional performer known for her thousands of stage shows in Chicago and CBus, and was born here! she tours a popular show globally (HERE: The (Improvised) Musical), is a multi-show performer here in town, teaches improvisation/sketch/standup worldwide at well-known comedy theatres and collegiately, and artistic directs and helps produce 40+ shows right here at The Nest in CBus! you may have seen her in commercials/tv, heard her voice on the radio/in podcasts, or just know her as generally fun broad with a stupid Chicago accent. she’s good at buildout, curation, building community, and design. lover of dogs, meaningful connections, hearty laughs, and a good golden hour!
Rance is a tall-ass gentleman who makes people laugh, and tours the same show as tara worldwide (HERE, the (Improvised) Musical) and has been showcased in thousands of improv comedy shows. he’s a professional performer most known for his work on Chicago and Cbus stages, and is the Training Center Director at The Nest as well as a multi-show performer, teacher, and producer. you can catch him multiple times monthly in shows at the theatre only 3 blocks south of the store! he’s good at figuring out the graph-paper-how-tos of a shop, permits, electrics, things like that - but don’t let that fool you, he’s also a charming sonofagun. lover of games, uranium glass, puzzles, birds, and tinkering.
