A little laughter, A little change with Greg Martiello part 2

Part 2 with Greg Martiello, the man of many voices....

What a few weeks I've had. I can't wait to get to part 2 of this post yet first let me say that A little laughter and a little change go a long way.....

I'm going to change my posts to Wednesday's and see how that goes. It's been a long time for a change and considering it's HUMP DAY of the week and I'm usually home in my office that day, I thought a little change would be good.

 This past week, my husband was in a terrible car accident. I believe my 2018 Miracle was my husband coming out of this with only minor injuries. The car was totally destroyed and crunched. They had to cut my husband out of the roof to get him out. He was in the hospital all last week and now I'm playing double car duty until we can get another car. Been a little out of the loop lately... That said, I'm so thankful, grateful and happy..... On to a little Laughter.... 

When Greg Martiello walks on stage, you know you are in for a treat. When he is doing his voices, a little laughter is in order and when he is singing in his special way, he lights up the stage....

At the US Stage Door Canteen we got to see the best of them....Holly Faris as Phyllis Diller and Marilyn Monroe.... and the beautiful voices of  Donnah Lisa Campbell and  Danielle Spence.

Not sure who took these great photos.... mine were light obstructed for the most part. Grabbed these from the FB page of the amazing Holly Faris !

Of course everyone went crazy when John Monforto showed up as "Elvis" 

He always brings the house down !

Other great performances included Kenny Jeremiah, Greg Armstrong , Michael Jones. James Lee and more. All performances were AMAZING.... so mark your calendars for the next US Canteen Special Event. 

Above James Lee

Above Kenny Jeremiah

So many people made this event great.... from on stage to off stage.... front to back,  Left to Right.... everyone was so awesome.....Thank you all for your hard work . You made us all feel special....

I know thsre were more of you involved than I could get photos of....know you were all fabulous and I know who to reach out to when needed. Thank you all !

Visit our web pages

www.4astar.com

www.avaseyebagz.com

Meet the man of many voices.... Part 1

Hey all. So this is blog post # 2 this week. Should be back to a Sunday routine  unless we have something special going on.... thanks for all of your support.  Stay tuned as we will be adding some promo items for you to check out down the road.... They will be at the end of each blog post when warranted.  For now, let's meet one of the greats in the Biz. THE MAN OF MANY VOICES....

Greg Martiello

I met Greg some years ago. Then met him again at a Patti Lattanzi event. ( stay tuned for a Patti Blog in the near future.....great stuff !)

Greg seen here with Patti Lattanzi, Billy Carlucci, Tom Delcorio and more..... 

If you are in the Swell area, of N.J. .... join us on Friday Evening for a great show of talent !

Other talents performing this evening that we know and love are Holly Faris and John Monforto.... I'm so excited to meet some of the others..... 

Getting back to Greg..... his voice is so incredible to be able to sound like so many of the great entertainers we know and love in the industry. Many of them have unique voices and not everyone can imitate that. Greg puts his heart and soul into each "voice" he portrays.... including his own. Check him out in this short clip....

Greg considers himself a singing impersonator yet he does a fabulous Rodney Dangerfield and is known for that impression as well.  Greg started at a young age. He always had music around him. Greg's brother was confined to a wheelchair due to an accident. Music was what kept his spirits high and Greg listened to music with him much of the time. In listening to music, Greg realized that he could actually sound like some of the greats he would listen to.  He says that some voices take a little more practice than others yet he is able to catch onto them pretty quickly.

Today, Greg has traveled the Country doing impersonations of some of our best beloved singers....

We will follow up with Greg after the show this week....so again, if you are in the area, stop in.
If not , catch the follow up in a couple of weeks.  Thanks, Greg for making us smile ! See you soonB
Find Greg on Face Book and You tube.... more to come !

Visit Our Web Pages

www.4astar.com

www.avaseyebagz.com

Part 2.... Game a con and more...

Hello all,

Wow ! so backed up on stories and projects.... We will be making 2 blog posts today so grab a cup of Joe, glass of tea,  warm cider, or your favorite beverage and catch up with me, your Balcony Blogger, Ava Holly....

So let's go to the event in Atlantic City, NJ a couple of weeks ago.... part one, introduced us to another year of Game A Con... part 2 takes us on the journey at the event inside Ocean Resort Casino....

Start by walking in and registering for the Game A Con experience. I had a chance to talk with founders Ari and Ben and got a real clear vision of what they see for Game A Con in the future. I'm so excited to be on this journey following them and learning about all the cool things coming up in the Gaming World.

Once you get on the floor, there are  booths set up for your adventures. From Racing cars to jumping off cliffs in virtual games, to collectibles, traditional board games and Cos Play. The whole staging area , up a few stairs, wa set up for competition play with live stream and live interviews going on. Amazing !!!!

Here are some of the people/ exhibits, and parts of the Gaming World I fell in love with while there....

1st, meet Terence....Artist both digital and media art . (Another great Terrence in the Art World)
Terrence Kingg- the King of Urban Design
and now Terence Leonard . You can email Terrence at tterenceleonard@gmail.com

Next we move on to local Cos Play talent and filmmaker: Carter Cosplay
Find her on FB at Carter Cosplay 007/ Insta at Carter Cosplay or send her a note at
cartercosplay@gmail.com

Carter encourages you to try out a character or create your own....
www.cartercosplay.com

I was fascinated by the Philly Avengers- working with non profits in the area ( all me, right?)
philadelphia.avengers.assemble@gmail.com

Wood Carving/ metalic carving....Amazing !

..... Even go my Artie into a brain game.....

 Stay tuned for more as we embark on an adventure with  Shamar Armstrong at Avolve Innovations !

Ocean Odyssey here we come .......

In speaking with co founder Ari Fox, I found out what love and determination for what you believe in does.... it creates magic ! So never give up on your dreams..... 

Starting out in AC as a small meet up, Now Game A Con comes back to AC/ Vegas/ NY with a strong presence and also adds fortnite experiences and esports to the mix.... 

Catch Game A Con on Nov. 17th in Queens NY for more fun.... 

Find them on Face Book Too !

Enjoy !

 Visit our Web Pages

www.4astar.com

www.avaseyebagz.com

Get your GAME on with GAME-A-CON back in Atlantic City !!!!.

Wow ! I don't even know where to start as I was blown away with Game a Con last year here in Atlantic City. I am now building a great relationship with some of the staff and I am looking forward to a great weekend coming up..... Oct 20th and 21st right here in AC at
 the New    Ocean Resort Casino,
 500 Boardwalk Ave.
Atlantic City, New Jersey

Hours: 10am-8pm Sat; 10am-6pm Sun

Now let's go back into the history of this awesome event. With the Gaming World Trendig so much these days, it's exciting to see this event come out to AC...... again..... With this event starting in AC, it is now gaining its momentum and broadening....2017 saw the first Game A Con event in Las Vegas. They expect to be back in 2019 .... and this year they will offer the first Game A Con in NYC at Resorts World Casino in Queens.....  In speaking with one of the executives at Game A Con, she gave me some good insight for me to pass along about the Company itself......

"Gameacon got it’s start 4 years ago.  Brainstorming with our advisory board - Coray Seifert, Dex Smither, Sean R. Scott and Edmar Mendizabal - a group of successful game developers with decades of game industry experience - partners Ben and Ari Fox decided that what was missing in the world was a convention for independent game developers.  The idea was to create a place to celebrate the artistry of game development.  We wanted to give indie devs a place to show off their work, network with other developers, learn from experts, and recognize outstanding work with awards.  Simultaneously, we wanted to provide a place for fans to playtest games, cosplay, find cool merch to buy, meet YouTube Celebs, LARP, watch fan films, listening to music and comedy and generally have a great time appreciating all things games.  We even have a giant laser tag room set up each year, just for the fun of it.

Ben and Ari had been working with casinos for some time, and decided that Atlantic City would be a great place to have a convention like Gameacon.  They envisioned holding a convention in a place nicer than the normal giant warehouse venue.  They thought that putting Gameacon in Atlantic City, at a casino hotel, would make it easy for people to come from all the surrounding metropolitan areas and have a nice place to stay with plenty of amenities like restaurants and nightlife, while giving the hosting venue an influx of people who may never have visited a casino hotel before and who may potentially become future customers.  

Ben and Ari, besides producing Gameacon, also are on a mission to help casino hotels move beyond the old model of slot machines and table games which are more attractive to the older generation than of the new, and to embrace up-and-coming entertainment models which include eSports and the more skill-based gaming that people now prefer.  To that end, every Gameacon has eSport tournaments built in.  In years past Gameacon had only Smash tournaments, at times professional major events.  This year, the eSport tournaments will be amateur so that everyone can try their hand and winning some money or swag or just bragging rights.  The titles available for competition has swelled to include  Fortnite ($1250 prize pool!), Call of Duty 4 Black Ops, Smash, Tekken DX, MarioKart Deluxe, WindJammers, ARMs and Madden.  Also, because Microsoft is running the Fortnite Tournament, they are bringing along  Minecraft educational edition and Gears of War for fun friendly play.

Even though it is in a casino resort, Gameacon is very family friendly.  Every year we have a middle school who brings their game coding students to display their work and learn for gaming professionals.  This year Rutgers eSports will be there recruiting for their program. We expect to have a lot of kids wanting to have a chance to compete in the Fortnite tournament.

This year the Virtual Reality section of Gameacon has exploded.  Saber VR is bringing a whole host of fun games; we will have a racing simulator and many devs bringing VR games.  VR games which will be there will run from Boxing to cleaning up the oceans in a submarine submersible to an updated classic arcade shooter to a game the uses motion dynamics to capture movement to music.  I think the VR Village is one of the most exciting areas we have to offer, as it is still something which is too expensive to allow everyone to have it at home as of yet."

From Cos play to Vendors, awards ceremonies,  and all sorts of interactive activity.... checking out Game A Con is worth the trip. You can even just sit and watch the happenings unfold and that itself is so interesting. Last year, I got to play some cool new games from some of the inventors, watch some of the competition and enjoy a great panel discussion with the Cos Play artists..... Even had live music from Nerd Surge. It was really awesome and I'm so looking forward to attending this year as Press ! 

Stay tuned for the follow up story right here.... and if you are in the AC area, come check out 

                                                GAME  A  CON !!

            You can find Game A Con on Face Book  too !

Enjoy !

Visit Our Web Pages

www.4astar.com 

www.avasyeybagz.com