Weekend Top 6 Picks for September 2nd and 3rd.

Posted on by Thor

Saturday September 2, 2017

1PM to 4:30PM $25 at the door. The 15th Anniversary Sunburst Convention Of Celebrity Impersonators Public Showcases. The Florida Hotel & Conference Center located at The Florida Mall at 1500 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, 32809. Imagine Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Neil Diamond, Elvis, Cher, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, Lady Gaga, Barbra Streisand, Tiger Woods, Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers, Frank Sinatra and numerous other icons of the past and present all gathered together to perform and be seen.  No, it’s not another reality show.

This year, all are invited to attend special talent showcases open to the public on Friday, September 1 and Saturday, September 2 from 1pm-4:30pm where impersonators will perform, delight and entertain the masses, featuring a special Sunburst edition of “Celebrity Match Game” and “The Tonight Show”.  Plus, guests can get their picture taken with their favorite “celebrity” during intermission and following the showcases. 

Each year, over 100 of the world’s best professional celebrity impersonators, lookalikes and tribute artists fly, drive and cruise into Orlando for the Sunburst Convention to gather, mingle, network, educate themselves and have an unforgettable time.  They are joined by numerous talent buyers, talent agents, producers and meeting planners from all over the country who are invited to watch the imitators perform live and make a lasting impression.  Sunburst features performance showcases, themed parties, an awards banquet, promotional room and tons of photo opportunities.  The general public is also invited to attend and rub elbows with the “Just About Famous” stars, and with special public access again this year, now even more spectators can enjoy the unique, fun and one-of-a-kind entertainment Sunburst has to offer.

1PM to 4PM. $35. 4th of 10 Orlando Urban Sketching Workshops. The Florida Hotel & Conference Center located at The Florida Mall at 1500 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, 32809. This workshop held at the 15th Anniversary Sunburst Convention Of Celebrity Impersonators Public Showcase will cover basic human body and facial proportions. Attendees will then sketch the Celebrity Impersonator’s Convention as illustrative journalists. Artist Thomas Thorspecken (Thor) from Analog Artist Digital World is the instructor.

In 2017 Urban Sketchers celebrates its 10 year anniversary and we want to commemorate by introducing the first year long USk program ever!
We invite all sketchers around the world to attend 10 on-location
classes with USk official instructors in a city near you to learn or
improve the core value of Urban Sketching: sketch the world, one drawing
at a time.

The program will take place in 10 classes covering three themes:

1. little stories

2. medium stories

3. great stories

 

10:30PM to 12:30AM Get food and or drink. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL. Hot blooded flamenco dancers to acoustic guitar. 

Sunday September 3, 2017

10Am to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. http://heartfulness.org.

 

Noon to 1PM Free. Yoga. Lake Eola Park near the red gazebo. 

10PM to Midnight. Free but get some coffee. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Just About Famous at the Sunburst Convention

Posted on by Thor

I went to the Welcome Party at the Sunburst Convention For Professional Celebrity Impersonators, Tribute Artists and Look Alikes at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center (1500 Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL). The hotel was right in the Florida Mall so it took me some time to locate the place. I asked the concierge where I could find the Celebrity Convention and he said, “All the celebrities are down the hall to the right. There was a large empty room and I was about to look around some more to search other rooms. Paula Dean walked in and asked where everyone was. Just then we both heard laughter from behind a door. Inside people were watching a documentary titled “Just About Famous” about celebrity look alikes. “When fans cannot get close to the real thing, these professionals step
in to fill the void. As the old adage goes, ‘imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery.’ From a celebrity impersonator convention to their
lives across the country, JUST ABOUT FAMOUS chronicles the few who have
had the fortune, or curse, of looking like the most recognizable people
on the planet.” 

This wasn’t a great sketch opportunity, but I began to realize that I as surrounded by celebrity look alikes. Right next to me was Gene Simmons, a band member from Kiss. What do you do when you discover you are sitting next to Gene Simmons? You sketch him of course. Also in the room was Johnny Depp, Barack Obama, and George Bush. Only a few were in full costume, but it was fun trying to figure out which celebrities I might be sketching. The film turned out to be much longer than expected so I had plenty of time to sketch.  I was pleased to see that a local pink haired actress who I only know as Barbie Rhinestone, had a prominent role in the film which is now on Netflix. It turns out she can become Marilyn Monroe and Katy Perry. She probably had the funniest moment in the film when she demonstrated a voice warm up exercise in which she screeched and flexed her fingers like cat talons. She made a cupcake bra for her Katie Perry persona that is hilarious. In the film she pointed out that she sort of hoped people would be impersonating her, but this was the next best thing.

Celebrity impersonators discussed how people react when they think they are in the presence of a celebrity. For some reason people feel the need to reach out and touch. One celebrity Look alike at the conference had a stalker. The guy drove four hours to cause trouble. Greg, one of the organizers of the event asked the trouble maker to step outside and the guy was escorted out of the hotel for trespassing. This is a community of people who look after each other. It also became clear from the documentary that this was a fun group of people to be around. The convention runs through Sunday September 27th.