Puddles Pity Party To Open Spa-Con V!

Puddles Pity Party | Spa-Con Hot Springs, AR

Puddles Pity Party, described as “The Clown With a Golden Voice” and “Pagliacci by way of Pee-Wee Herman and David Lynch,” will perform Friday, September 18, as the opening night concert at Spa-Con V in the Hot Springs Convention Center.

The show will begin at 7 p.m. in Horner Hall. Seating will be general admission and tickets are $30. Admission to the concert is not included in the special weekend pass, day pass or VIP pass price. Concert tickets are available at www.spa-con.org.

Spa-Con V, a multi-genre pop culture convention, will run from September 18 through September 20. Advance tickets are available at www.spa-con.org.

The show by the “Sad Clown with the Golden Voice” is not all sadness and longing. The show is peppered with a brilliant sense of the absurd, mixing lots of humor with the awkward, tender moments.

Described by The Atlanta Journal Constitution as a veritable “Pagliacci by way of Pee-Wee Herman and David Lynch,” Puddles Pity Party has more than 620,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 200 million views for indelible interpretations of classics by the likes of ABBA, David Bowie, Cheap Trick and Queen and his unforgettable mash-up of “Pinball Wizard/Folsom Prison Blues.”

You may recognize Puddles from his appearances on Season 12 of America’s Got Talent and Season 2 of America’s Got Talent Champions as well as viral video collaborations with Postmodern Jukebox. Puddles has toured extensively in the United States at legendary venues like the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Troubadour in Los Angeles. He has also performed many times in the United Kingdom at Soho Theatre London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other worldwide festival appearances include the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Perth Fringe World, Melbourne International Comedy Fest, Just for Laughs Montreal, Belgium’s Gent Festival, Festival Supreme (Los Angeles), Bumbershoot Festival (Seattle), Moontower Comedy Festival (Austin, Texas), and Bethlehem’s MusikFest.

The New York Times said, “His special effect is a textured voice laced with melancholy . . . what makes him transcend the trope is his vulnerability.”

LA Weekly said, “Clever and often hysterically funny . . . [Puddles] is ideally suited to songs popularized by belters old and new like Tom Jones, Sia and Celine Dion, all of which he performs with tearjerking bravura.”

Previously announced as a celebrity guest at Spa-Con V was Lori Petty, known to comics fans for her portrayal of Tank Girl in the movie of the same name and for her starring role more recently in the hit TV show, “Orange Is The New Black.”

“Lori appeals to comic book fans for her starring role as ‘Tank Girl’ and for her appearance in the ‘Gotham’ TV show,” said Bill Solleder, marketing director for Visit Hot Springs and one of the founders of Spa-Con, the multi-genre comics and pop culture convention that is marking its fifth year.

“Her role in ‘Orange Is The New Black’ makes her one of the more current guests Spa-Con has hosted,” Solleder said. “In addition, baseball fans can rejoice as her role in the movie, ‘A League of Their Own,’ is a fascinating link to Hot Springs’ international fame as The Birthplace of Major League Baseball Spring Training.”

Early-bird tickets are on sale for Spa-Con V at www.spa-con.org. Weekend passes good for the entire convention are $25; day passes are $20, and VIP passes are $100. The ticket prices will increase April 15, and will increase again September 1.

Solleder said, “Our celebration of pop culture and comics brings together a diverse audience that loves everything from Batman to ‘Stranger Things,’ Pac-Man to Mario Smash Bros, Dungeons and Dragons to Pokemon and everything in between.

He said Spa-Con provides “possibly the best people-watching fun in the state. It has hosted celebrities from ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Twin Peaks,’ ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ and ‘Stranger Things,’ not to mention, NASA scientists and 12-foot-tall robots.”

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