Something Fishy Seafood Restaurant.

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Pam Schwartz and I went to a media tasting at Something Fishy (2107 E Semorian Blvd, Apopka, Fl 32703) organized by Ilene Lieber of Passion PR. This small restaurant is a family affair organized by the team of chef Terence Phillips and his wife Patrice Phillips. Their niece created the logo and handles the marketing. The chef grew up in New York and used to travel often to the Hampton’s and Montauk where he got the idea for the theme for the restaurant. The restaurant is celebrating its two year anniversary and the staff that started on day one is still helping the restaurant grow today. There will be a block party at the restaurant this weekend Saturday, February 24th from noon to 4PM in celebration and all are welcome!

The evening started off with a cup of red wine as we waited for the appetizer to arrive. The opening course was a light and subtle Lobster Bisque. There were a few chunks of lobster on top. I happen to be a fan of bisque so I sampled it as I started the sketch. Patrice kindly offered Pam a vegetarian taco since she is not a fan of sea food or cilantro (both prevalent in the menu). The second course was a fried fish slider with cilantro mayo, hush puppies, and fries. The sandwich was light and crispy. The hush puppies were sweet and delicious with actual sweet corn inside, some of the best Pam said she had ever had. I let Pam eat most of the hush puppies and fries since her main course hadn’t come out yet.

The next course was a pan seared shrimp taco with house slaw, back beans, corn salsa and avocado aioli. This was my favorite item from the night. I sampled a couple of the shrimp separately and they were delicious. Tthen I ate the soft shell taco as it should be eaten and the flavors blended nicely. The next item was a mini crab cake with slaw. They offered wasabi slaw but I didn’t want the heat, so they substituted a more tame slaw. The crab cake was sweet and flavorful. Pam’s spicy cauliflower taco with aleppo pepper arrived and she let me have the avocado slices that were on top. This was her favorite item from the night. The cauliflower tasted perfectly spicy, adding a nice warm crunch to the taco.

The one item that I didn’t manage to finish eating was a seared Ahi tuna bowl over a bed of jasmine cilantro lime rice. The tuna was spicier than I can handle so I let the dish sit. The evening was capped off with cupcakes which came in carrot, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I sampled the carrot and got a surprise when I bit into it. The center was hollowed out and filled with a light cool frosting. Apparently there were, in fact, carrots and even raisins in the cupcake, but I ate it so fast I didn’t see them.

The bottom line is that Something Fishy is a restaurant that I would return to.

Passion PR Five-Year Anniversary Bash.

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Pam Schwartz and I arrived early to Gilt Nightclub (740 Bennett Rd, Orlando, Florida 32803) for the Passion PR Five-Year Anniversary Bash which was founded by Ilene Lieber. The evening was an Explosion of Live Entertainment All Night. There were complimentary cocktails Light Bites, Fun Photos, Swag Bags, DJ Music and more no cover optional donation to Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando.

Makeup and body painting were happening near the bar before the event began. Celebrity impersonators Mariah Carey and Austin Powers. arrived and hugged their hellos.  Soon an aerialist was spinning from a hoop  from the ceiling. I never landed a complimentary cocktail but did order  round of beers. Most of the evening for me was spent sketching the five card stud table. Pam was working the table and winning the whole time. I sat in for one hand while she went to the bathroom. She was excited to be in the stall next to Mariah Carey. While she was gone, I lost every hand.

Passion PR Five-Year Anniversary Bash!

Posted on by Thor

I went with Pam Schwartz to Gilt Nightclub (740 Bennett Rd, Orlando, Florida 32803) for the Passion PR Five Year Anniversary Bash. Ilene Lieber who runs Passion PR has always been great about helping me promote events.

The evening promised to be an Explosion of Live Entertainment All Night. There were complimentary cocktails and light bites from 7 pm to 8 pm, photo opportunities, swag bags, DJ music and more. Celebrity look alikes were everywhere. Mariah Carey got on stage and did an admirable lip sync performance. Austin Powers worked his smarmy British charm on all the ladies.

I decided to sketch the poker table. Pam kept winning and placed some huge bets that brought back amazing returns. I took her place when she went to the bathroom and kept loosing. The guy next to Pam had a few too many drinks and was boisterous and a bit obnoxious each time he won a hand. Michelle Jones who founded the Violectric String band was also on a winning streak. There really wasn’t any payout for winning (other than Mardi Gras beads and candy), so there was no harm in taking chances. When it was time to go, Pam tried to bet all her chips and loose but she kept winning, stacking up a mountain of chips. All the money earned at the event went towards supporting Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando.

The Sunburst Convention For Professional Celebrity Impersonators featured a Love Boat themed party.

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The Sunburst Convention For Professional Celebrity Impersonators is being held in the Florida Hotel in the Florida Mall, 1500 Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL.  The Convention’s website explained, “The Sunburst Convention is a great and
friendly environment helping promote the careers of Professional
Celebrity Impersonators and Look  A Likes. This is a rather unique
profession and we take it seriously.
You
can NOW see what it’s about on NETFLIX!  Look for the movie/documentary
“Just About Famous” and you will see what we are about!

I went to a Love Boat themed party on the second night of the convention. Greg showed up dressed up as Captain Stubing and all the attendees were encouraged to come in costume. Ginny Soskey a Hubspot section editor came to the convention from Boston. Before we were let in to the Hospitality suite she explained that there are 3 tiers in the celebrity look alike field. The first tier are the look alikes, they don’t necessarily need costumes to resemble a celebrity. then there are the Celebrity impersonators. They research their celebrity’s every mannerism and they often create their own costumes. The final tier are the tribute artists, they have the look, the costumes and they develop a complete act that they perform on stage.

One whole meeting room in the hotel had rows of tables with celebrity impersonators cards and promotional materials. Agents show up to the convention to scout for talent and Ilene Lieber who does PR for the convention told me that there were more agents than ever this year. Colonal Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame arrived and shook my hand. I thought his presence was appropriate since KFC is running ads now that have a Saturday Night Live comedian doubling as the Colonal. The actor didn’t look like the Colonal so I suddenly lost faith in the brand. It was like they stole my belief in Santa Claus. Another look alike showed up is a stunning outfit with jewels and a fur lined hood. Her lips sparkled orange. I thought she was Lady Gaga but it turned out she was Cher. Captain Jack Sparrow staggered about with some thick brown swill in a bottle. It wasn’t beer, perhaps it was a thick fermented cider.

The party was a blast. A tropical billboard was against one wall with a rail so celebrities could take a photo in an exotic island setting. As the room filled, people took selfies together.   The Blues Brothers hung out at the corner table. Dolly Parton later sat at the table to check her phone. The whole fun in attending the convention was trying to guess who was being impersonated. Yet this is a skill set I haven’t developed. The last thing I wanted to do was walk up to someone and say “So, who are you supposed to be?” I kept my guesses private

Apparently Charo had appeared quite a few times on the Love Boat, so there was a rather hilarious hoochie coochie contest. On stage, The Ladies of Soul performed along with the L.O.S. Band from Vero Beach. They definitely got the attendees out on the dance floor. This was a rare instance where I didn’t sketch the stage. Instead, I had to focus on the celebrity audience.

Violectric Debut Revolutionary LED Instrument Lighting “Violuminescence” at Bite.

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Bite Night, hosted by the Orlando Weekly was held at The Orchid Garden and Ballroom at Church Street in Downtown Orlando from 7pm-10pm on June 29th.   I went to the event specifically to sketch the premiere performance of Violuminence. 

Michelle Jones the founder of Violectric asked her husband, Jerry Jones, the groups technical director to design the diodes along the rims of the instruments which made them glow like souped up Harley Davidson motorcycles. Violuminescence produces unique, lighted string instruments that can be remote controlled to enhance any performance in an unrivaled manner.

When I arrived, the event was just getting started but there were already long lines for food. I immediately started hunting for my sketch opportunity. I ran into Ilene Lieber the groups pleasant and hard working PR representative and she let me know that the Violuminence performance would start at 9pm in front of the DJs table on the main floor. That gave me several hours to sketch in the Orchid Room’s magical turn of the century decor. When Violumenence began, I added color starting with the blue glow of the instruments. The instruments glowed in every color of the rainbow as if celebrating the recent Supreme Court decision allowing everyone to share the rights of marriage.

“We are beyond excited to finally unveil Violuminescence to the public later the month,” said founder of Violectric and Fretless Rock, Michelle Jones.  “This will be the first opportunity for public audiences to experience Violuminescence and revel in this truly spectacular and awe-inspiring musical innovation.  We are known for getting audiences up out of their seats and dancing along with us as we play, and we look forward to blowing away all our loyal fans with Violuminescence and hopefully gaining many more new ones worldwide.”

When the violins performed Journey‘s Don’t Stop Believing, everyone in the room started singing along. “Shadows searching in the night”. It was really a magical moment. The crowd was hooked and I sang along as I sketched. The violinists weren’t passive. They began moving around the room finding their way through the crowd.  By the time my sketch was done, the crowd was starting to thin out. All the food vendors had packed up. Darn it. I hadn’t tasted a bite so I can’t report on how good the food was. Genevieve Bernard and Seth Kubersky told me that the food directly across the room from me was absolutely delicious. I am pleased by the rich warm and cool colors that I could catch with my digital sketch.  For more information on Violectric contact 407-434-1261 and for more information on Fretless Rock by Strings Etc visit their web page.

Magic and Mayhem brings laughter and amazement to resort guests.

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Ilene Lieber  made me aware of Magic and Mayhem which is an award winning dinner show at Sheraton Vistana Resort in Lake Buena Vista (8800 Vistana Centre Drive, Orlando, FL 32821). The Resort was just one block away from where Disney
put me up when I first came to Orlando as an animation intern. The show is in a new venue, the Fountains Recreation Center, home of the Tacky Tiki Grill and Bar. The magic happens in  the Fountains Room just inside the main doors. I arrived about half an hour early to get a jump on the sketch. James Songster, the show’s founder and director was at the door to welcome me. Performing with James that night was Art Thomas the managing producer of Magic and Mayhem. 0n some nights James’s son Joshua performs in Art’s place. Both James and Art worked at Disney and that background inspires the family friendly show.

James founded Magic and Mayhem in 1997. Each year, Magic and Mayhem Productions presents over 400 performances
of engaging, family-friendly and theatrical comedy magic at a variety of
venues including festivals, special events and banquets. In addition,
they also offer corporate workshops and seminars where they provide
custom magic-based team building exercises. Before the show, James and I had a talk about how magic is experiencing a bit of a revival on TV. The winner of last season’s “America’s Got Talent” was a magician. He didn’t do lavish show stopping tricks but rather interacted one on one with the judges. In an age of constant social media, I think people are hungry for more direct and intimate forms of entertainment. This is exactly what Magic and Mayhem offers.

Just before the doors opened, someone wished James,”Good luck.” A waitress was putting out large pitchers of drinks on the tables. She set a tray on a table and lifted the pitcher which was keeping the tray in balance. Drinks, glasses and ice cubes crashed to the floor. This was clearly the Mayhem portion of the show. Never tell a performer “good luck” the results can be disastrous. Tell them “break a leg” or “merde” instead. Broken glass was still being swept up as guests arrived.

The show itself went off without a hitch. Art worked as James’s straight man and at times a doubting Thomas. One particularly humorous act involved James recreating a vaudeville act his father used to do. It involved two yellow cylinders. Inside one cylinder James placed a wine bottle and in the other he placed a cup. After shouting a magical invocation, he glanced in the cylinders and dramatically announced that the glass and bottle had switched places. He took a dramatic bow. Art however, pointed out that the audience had never seen the items after the switch. As they argued about it, the magic became real.

One act involved the participation of a beautiful female volunteer. It was essentially a card trick in which James guessed which card his volunteer had picked. What astonished me was that a clear balloon was blown up and somehow the card appeared inside the balloon. Little kids in the audience would shout with delight. I was just as swept away. It is the little things that amaze me.

For more information on Magic and Mayhem’s comedy magic show offerings,
appearances, workshops and for booking inquiries to be a part of your
next special event, call 407-222-4412 or visit www.MagicandMayhemShow.com. Sadly, only guests who are staying at the Sheraton are able to see the Dinner show. It would be nice if there was a venue where locals could experience some magic for themselves.

Magic And Mayhem was named #1 Dinner Show By Orlando A-List.