Friday night’s event at the Palladium Theater is an outreach concert of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary.th Anniversary in October.
The Palladium show (in the main auditorium of Hough Hall) features Miami-based, timbale-playing Latin jazz bandleader Tito Puente Jr. (son of you-know-who), Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo and Grammy-winning flutist Jose Valentino.
This extraordinary program also includes Bay Area jazz singer Fred Johnson, singer, composer and musician Ona K and the fearless, incomparable trio La Lucha.
The Sokolowski Trombone Project gives a “preview performance” downstairs at the Side Door.
Information and tickets for “Jazz & the World” are available here.
The high price of fame
The idea of celebrity as a commodity is in full bloom this weekend Comic Convention in Tampa Bay.
Held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Tampa Convention Center, it’s a celebration of pop culture with panel discussions, a merchandise marketplace, artists and authors, cosplay, contests and all kinds of fan-mania stuff that comes with comics, anime, superhero and fantasy movies.
For $300 you can have your photo taken with Billy Dee Williams, the star Wars Movies. Elijah Wood from The Lord of the Rings costs you $100. Have your photo taken next to Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in the original Little Mermaidcosts $90, while former child star Miko Hughes (Full house) is a bargain at $50.
However, this is in addition to the festival tickets.
You’re warned not to talk to the celebrities and you’re not allowed to use your own camera. You go in, a staff member takes your photo, you go out again. You get a printout and you get a link to your photo.
Autographs also have their price. To get a signature from star Wars Veteran Hayden Christiansen, you will have to shell out between $175 and $275.
From the website: “Celebrity autographs will be sold on-site at Celebrity Row and are cash only.”
Also on the list are Denise Crosby and John DeLancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica), actress Priscilla Presley, singer/songwriter Paul Williams, Andy Serkis (he is motion capture Gollum in The Lord of the Rings), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), John Schneider (A Duke rarely comes alone) and Vincent D’Onofrio (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”).
Answers to all questions and information on purchasing tickets can be found on the convention website.
In freeFall Theater’s “Fable”: Heather Baird, left, Liz Power and Melissa Minyard. Image: Thee Photo Ninja.
On theatre stages
It’s a big weekend for Tampa’s ThinkTank Theatre: The TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) 2024 Games Festival highlights a production by Dan Caffey The amphibians, a coming-of-age story, recommended for ages 13 and up. Performances are tonight (previews), Saturday and Sunday at the JCC on the Cohn Campus, 13009 Community Campus Drive, Tampa.
The readings on Saturday are The House of Flightless Birds (by Baylee Shlichtman), In flower (by Gwyneth Strope) and A Kreutzer Sonata (by Larry Rinkel).
All performance details can be found here.
The fascinating Three times to mea one-woman show based on historical events, written by and starring Roxanne Fay, enters its final weekend as a Jobsite Theater production at the Straz Center’s Shimberg Playhouse. Find tickets here; check out our Living art! Podcast with Fay here.
fable is on stage at the freeFall Theater until September 8. It is a sort of “backstage Broadway” story in which Gypsy Rose Lee, Ethel Merman, Jerome Robbins and Lee’s sister June Havoc argue about how to structure the 1959 musical. Gypsies, with a little help from real and imagined ghosts. Tickets can be found here.
More concerts
We don’t include tribute bands or tribute shows in this column, but it’s different when the “tribute” is conceptual (no costumes and no pretending to be the artist). That’s Saturday Watkins Glen Summer Jam in the Tampa Theater, where three bands from the region will pay tribute to the legendary 1973 rock festival in New York in a relaxed manner. Have Gun Will Travel will play the music of The Band, Steeln’ Peaches will play a set of songs by the Allman Brothers Band and Unlimited Devotion will be dedicated to the music of the Grateful Dead. Tickets are available here.
Funny magician Michael Carbonaro is back in town tonight, this time at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center. Tickets.
Country music Daniel + Shay play Friday at the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater, with opening sets by Jake Owens (from Vero Beach, Florida) and Dylan Marlowe. Tickets.
Author, actor and stand-up comedian Michael Ian Black (Wet hot American summer; Stella) performs a comedy show at Coastal Creative in St. Petersburg on Friday and Saturday. Find info and tickets here.
Saturday night performance of the 17-year-old rapper at the Mahaffey Theater The girl lay and lay was cancelled.
Bay Area-born rapper Rod shaft is hosting its second consecutive “And Friends” birthday party at the Amalie Arena on Saturday. Tickets.
Rising blues guitar star Selwyn Birchwoodanother Bay Area native, is back on stage at his home venue – the Palladium Theater’s Hough Hall – on Saturday. Tickets.
Saturday the band Thirty seconds to Mars to the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre. The Californian ensemble consists of the brothers Jared Leto (the actor) and Shannon Leto. The opening act is AFI, Poppy and Kenny Hoopla. Tickets.
Singer/Songwriter John Legend will be giving a solo concert on Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Event Center. It is called “A Night Full of Songs and Stories”. Tickets.
Troubled reggae star from Jamaica Buju Banton will be on stage with Frydayy in the Amalie Arena on Sunday. Tickets.
Your art forecast for the weekend appears every Thursday in catalyst.
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