No Ordinary Balloon Man

Hello everybody!

I reached a new milestone for Universal Orlando Resort this week...I officially earned my 1 year pin! Throughout the year I encountered many highs and lows, I got to know my amazing team, I got to assist numerous memorable visitors to the parks, be a part of both Halloween Horror Nights - Universal Orlando and Mardi Gras... and even learn of many epic oppertunities in the future. I was not the only one celebrating a service anniversary, and getting to meet so many fantastic Team Members truly brought a smile to my face (I should have the complete picture available soon). I especially loved the chance to hang out with my friend Sean who was also recieving his service pin.

I love my little Minion Pin, my golden 1 year symbol of awesomeness! I loved it so much that I made a golden balloon Minion, my way of saying thank you to my exceedingly helpful team. You could even say, my fellow Team Members set the Universal Gold Standard for keeping everything in Citywalk looking its best and they indeed, "One in a Minion"!

My fellow Team Members, Leads, Team Captains and Supervisors, thank you for all you do to make my job a universe of phenominal experiences.

Hello everybody!

A few days ago an fantastic new announcement was made by for Epic Universe...they fully revealed Dark Universe! This new expansive themed area will breathe new life into the classic Universal Monsters including Frankenstein's Monster, The Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera and of course...Dracula! I loved the new look of his redesign so much that I wanted to make him in balloon form. As you can tell, I am exceedingly excited about this new land (especially the new Monster's Unchained Ride and getting to see the original characters, including Dr. Victoria Frankenstein) and I am looking forward to hearing more amazing announcements from Universal!

Also I had a wonderful time at the Universal Resource Day they had for me and my fellow Team Members! I met a lot of new contacts from Career Networks and I was even given some help with applying for various new positions opening for Epic Universe next year. I also got to see Safety Man, our back of house Safety Mascot!

So I will definitely say, there is a lot to be excited about in the future and I cannot wait to see all that will be coming to our Universe!

Hello everybody!

I can honestly say that I have had a few weeks of fantastic guest interaction, cool gifts and even the making of unique balloons for my Team! Since I made Safety Man (one of the Park Services mascots) I decided to make their newest Mascot, Ren the Recycling Ben. He was a lot of fun to make and my Team really liked him a lot, especially since he matched the stickers! Along with this, I finally got to make a balloon for one of the most helpful people to me (especially from last year when I started my Universal Adventure). It was a pleasure to make Mr. Rory, Sir Pentious one of our favorite characters from Hazbin Hotel (he really is best snek, just look up the song "It Starts with Sorry" and you'll know why).

In addition, I whilst I always love to interact with guests and help them in any way that I can, I was suprised when I recieved two sets of gifts from guests that I helped! The first set of guests gave me a 3D printed tag and a hilarious Horror Movie Make Up Show button (which is tied with Bounre Stuntacular for my favorite live show at Universal). I also recieved a set of handmade wands from a set of guests who were mega fans of Harry Potter and gave me two wands (one for me and my wifey ) for telling a Harry Potter Dad joke! I also got to try the Pride Cookie, which was very cute and 100% helped LGBT+ organizations in the Orlando Area!

So my friends and fellow Team Members... with all of the unique and exciting oppertunities coming up for Epic Universe next year, there are a lot of awesome oppertunities to let people know about the future! However, it is important to remember to show kindness to not only guests at Universal...but in everyday life. Strive to help people you meet, strive to greet people and strive to find things that can make your day and the day of others around you...just a bit more Epic!

Hello everybody!

I can honestly say that I have had a few weeks of fantastic guest interaction, cool gifts and even the making of unique balloons for my Team! Since I made Safety Man (one of the Park Services mascots) I decided to make their newest Mascot, Ren the Recycling Ben. He was a lot of fun to make and my Team really liked him a lot, especially since he matched the stickers! Along with this, I finally got to make a balloon for one of the most helpful people to me (especially from last year when I started my Universal Adventure). It was a pleasure to make Mr. Rory, Sir Pentious one of our favorite characters from Hazbin Hotel (he really is best snek, just look up the song "It Starts with Sorry" and you'll know why).

In addition, I whilst I always love to interact with guests and help them in any way that I can, I was suprised when I recieved two sets of gifts from guests that I helped! The first set of guests gave me a 3D printed tag and a hilarious Horror Movie Make Up Show button (which is tied with Bounre Stuntacular for my favorite live show at Universal). I also recieved a set of handmade wands from a set of guests who were mega fans of Harry Potter and gave me two wands (one for me and my wifey ) for telling a Harry Potter Dad joke!

So my friends and fellow Team Members... with all of the unique and exciting oppertunities coming up for Epic Universe next year, there are a lot of awesome oppertunities to let people know about the future! However, it is important to remember to show kindness to not only guests at Universal...but in everyday life. Strive to help people you meet, strive to greet people and strive to find things that can make your day and the day of others around you...just a bit more Epic!

Hello everybody!

I had a rare occassion where instead of performing at a birthday party, my babes of cuteness was invited to one! She had an excellent time at her friend's party (which was Spiderman themed) and I ended up making a deluxe Spiderman for the birthday gentleman as well! Along with this, they had an adorable make shift splash pad and they even had a snow cone machine (which we made our own version of Kakigori or Japanese shaved ice for). My babes of cuteness had a lot of fun (as did I with ) and my babes even got to make her own adoable vinyl art!

In a way, getting to spend time at the party was almost like an early Father's Day gift for me because Lily got to have such a good time! It really was..."Amazing"!

Hello everybody!

I am happy to say that the Epic Universe Preview Center at is absolutely fantastic! To mark the occasion I made a balloon Kronos (the entrance portal to the new park) and it came out really well! I also got to try out the incredible AR feature with their App and see the model of the park, which was beautiful! Along with this, I got to see some old friends of mine including and I got to get some of the exclusive merch for the park (my daughter loved her Light Furry, and I will especially be getting more Super Nintendo World and Dark Universe in the future)!

I cannot wait until the new park opens and I am thankful to be a Team Member for such a literal "epic" company!

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Hello Everyone! A new video is out on the main Shaded Scythe Studios website. It's about the Delorean Sculpture I made for SyFy 2024.

The Delorean Balloon Sculpture (SYFY BARTOW 2024) - NOBM | Shaded Scythe Studios Back again at SyFy Bartow where the theme this year is Time Travel. So it's time to go 88 miles per hour and build the famous car from Back to the Future to go back in time.

Hello everybody!

just announced the newest land for Epic Universe coming in 2025...Super Nintendo World!! While this land already exists in both Japan and California, this is still one of the two lands that I am most excited about (you'll have to guess the other one)!

When finished it will have the Mario Kart Bowser's Challenge ride, the Yoshi's Island Ride, a Donkey Kong Roller Coaster (I cannot wait to ride this) and a plethora of side games and mini attractions!

I look forward to seeing all of you there and also feel free to see several of my favorite Mario Brothers Balloons and some of my absolute favorite people including my lovely wifey , my business partner and one of four fundamental brothers .i.am.green , my videograph and another fundamental brother , the original and still best Mario and the Bowser I grew up with and love from all the games !

Have a wonderful day, Wa-hooooooo!!!

Did I break a world record with my Balloon Costume of AKU?...I won't know for a while but check out the video anyway.

Aku Balloon Sculpture (TupeloCon 2024) - NOBM | Shaded Scythe Studios This is the big one guys. I attended TupeloCon in Tupelo, Mississippi again this year and I wanted to pull off the Guinness World Record for the Worlds Biggest Balloon Costume. And What better to make then the shape shifting master of Darkness himself.

Hello everybody!

During the weekend I was a part of a wonderful event with one of my absolute favorite oraganizations PALS -Providing Autism Links & Support ! The event took place at the Senses Park in Kissimmee, a park specifically made for kids on the Autism Spectrum like myself (although all kids were welcome)!

I got meet a lot of wonderful families, share my story, make my first ever balloon Autism Infinity Symbol and made many fantastic balloon designs for the families who came to the event.

I hope that all of you have a amazing day of awesomeness and know that wheather you arr neurodivergent or not, you are capable of doing anything you set your mind to!

Hello Everybody!

I've had an exceptionally Fun few weeks back at Universal Orlando Resort Since my two big events!

I got to ride The Men in Black: Alien Attack dark ride With my team in the morning! Along with this, I was able to do a tour of the Men in Black Headquarters, For the first time (my favorite part was seeing the twins Neenerneener and Bob up close)!

Along with this, Universal Is made A new announcement pertaining to, Umiversal's newst theme park Epic Universe... There was a video demonstrating demonstrating the incredible scale of How to Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk. The single land, will have 4 attractions, A gigantic dining hall And 30 dragon scattered throughout the land! To celebrate the reveal of this land, There was a big Team Member event event Where they were giving out small prizes related to The new land and Epic universe! It was an "Epic" amount of fun!

Although to finish everything off, there was one last incredible thing that happened...I was voted Team Member of the Month for the first time! I was so incredibly happy to recieve the award, along with my friend Kevon aka Sweetness (yes that is what everyone calls him and he is wonderful to work with) who recieved a Bravo Award! Along with this, my two trainers Danny and Juan were there and I could not have been happier!

I feel so blessed to be with a company that I has allowed me to be the best that I can be, help me with anything I might need, respect my differences as an individual on the Spectrum and working with my schedule as an entertainer and a Daddy!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and Epic Day!

Hello everybody!

Well...it has been two years in the making...but at Tupelo Con this past weekend...I broke the current record for the Guiness World Record for largest balloon cosplay (Tom Kent at 11 feet, 7 inches) with my balloon Aku Cosplay from Samurai Jack! The balloon cosplay's final size was 12.9 feet with me outside of the creation and 13.2 feet whilst wearing it. The fabricated balloon costume took 20 hours and took 663 balloons to create including the use of 350, 260, 646 and 16 inch round Qualatex balloons. The balloon also had 4 officals (Tina, John, David and Danny) watch the entire build to prevent and tampering with the balloons.

Whilst I had to build the balloon 100% by myself in order to follow the rules established by Guiness, I have to thank my friends Shaded Scythe Studios for documenting my attempt and William the entertainer for providing world class entertainment whilst I created the balloon "Shape Shifting Master of Darkness"!

Speaking of the Shape Shifting Master of Darkness, Mr. Greg Baldwin, the voice of Aku and Uncle Iroh from Avatar the Last Air Bender got to see my balloon cosplay in action and was able to take a picture and do a testimonal! I have been a fan of Samurai Jack for many years and hearing the man who carried on Mako's legacy was truly incredible! Mr. Baldwin was an exceptionally kind and friendly gentleman to talk with and he even said one of my favorite Aku lines, "Extra Thicc"!

Along with making the large scale balloon cosplay, I also got to make many fun balloon commissions for the patrons of Tupelo Con as well! These balloons included a Link balloon cosplay, a Porunga from Dragon Ball Z, a Steam Punk Style wearable balloon and a Yellow Guy from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (I was to make many people smile)!

After the event I also got to celebrate with my friends (especially since it was St. Patrick's Day)! We got to see a Tupelo Con hosted wrestling event (where I met the WWE legend Butterbean), have Creamy Mint Old Smokey Whiskey and eat at Elvis's favorite restaurant as a boy, Johnnie's Drive-In!

Now that I am heading home I still have some work to do as I now have a limited time to submit the evidence and then wait four to six months for Guiness to approve the attempt or not. Wish me luck my friends!

I just want to say...thank you all for supporting me throughout all of these years. Thank you for allowing me to bring smiles to your faces and thus make me smile as well. Thank you for joining me on my journey as an entertainer and thank you for all the kindness you have all shown me. And also...thank you Jamey, TC and Sabrina of Tupelo Con for having me back at the con over and over...for treating me like family...

Thank you everyone...and I hope that all of you continue to do your best in anything you do. There is definitely more things in the future coming up for me so please stay tuned and stay awesome my nerdy friends!

Day 2 of building today.

Building AKU live and attempting to break the Guiness world Record for largest balloon costume. Come on in and root me on.

ShadedScytheStudios - Twitch Another Nerdy Talk Show

As a long time fan of Dragon Ball Z, I was shocked to find out about the sudden passing of Akira Toriyama...the creator of such a well loved series.

I remember watching the series growing up and feeling an almost instant connection to anyone who I found out was a fan of the series. I have had many incredible experiences involving anime and conventions (many of them done professionally as an entertainer)...but if it had not been for my first anime experience...my first kamehameha...I honestly do not know where I would be today...so thank you Toriyama San for being my first step into otaku culture.

You will be missed.

Hello Everybody!

I am happy to say that the balloon display for Honk! The Musical at the Savannah Children's Theatre was a success, as was the show itself! It took 18 hours to make everything from the large balloon wall (over 13 feet) and the Pond with Ugly and his family, to making 100 ducklings and cygnets for the cast and patrons!

However...more tham just being a large scale balloon creation...this sculpture represents something truly special for me. I was the character "Ugly" 20 years ago and this incredible company is still giving oppertunities to people all throughout Savannah to this day. Kelly, one of the main founders took a chance with me, a gentleman on the Autism Spectrum and helped me begin my road to becoming an entertainer. The shared this same love of diversity and inclusion with thousands of people resulting in a community that truly builds everyone up. I am proud to have been a part of such a beauriful company...and being back for the 20th anniversary fills my heart with joy.

Although I also need to thank my Mom Rhonda Landry Martinez and my step father Moe for all the assistance they gave me throughout the weekend. Ranging from balloon inflations, to help with equipment and even food runs, they assisted with everything I needed! I also got to fully talk with them during the weekend! In addition,I also got to see Jenn and have her guide my plan on making the large balloon creation. I also loved getting to work with the show director Jeremy, the exceptionally awesome Emily who unlocked the door when I accidently locked myself out whilst building and the entire cast of Honk!

I am so happy that I was able to come back to my home theatre and I honestly look forward to coming back in the future and have my daughter get to experience quality children's theatre!

P.S. Mr. Ryan and his family were delightful to meet and I am so happy that my story broufht joy and insparation to a fellow incredible neurodivergent gentleman like myself. You truly are awesome Ryan!

Hello everybody!

I am excited to be going back to Savannah, Georgia in a few days to create an amazing balloon for the 20th Anniversary of the Savannah Children's Theatre ! I will be there making a large display and handing out balloon ducks and swans to the patrons! But more so than that...I will be getting to see the amazing company that gave me my first real break 20 years ago!

I cannot wait to see one of the best musicals ever performed once more!

I'll see you all soon...HONK!!!

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Hello everybody!

The second part of my amazing Mardi Gras experience actually began at Suess Landing with visiting the newly reopened Circus McGercus. My wifey and I took our daughter for lunch and were exceptionally impressed by the majority of our food (the Roast Beast was especially wonderful), the newly remade theming and the incredible service of Mr. Murk! He brought everything we needed, greeted us with a Dr. Suess Greeting, offered to take multiple pictures and even waved at people in the Trollies above!

We also got to have Lily ride her first ever semi big kids ride (she really enjoyed Cat in the Hat), she rode the Trolly in the Sky, she had some fun at Camp Jurassic and she made out like a bandit at the Mardi Gras parade (she ended up with 32 bead necklaces and a nod from the Mardi Gras icon Baron Ton Ton).

Along with all of this, we were even able to use the extra discounts given to Team Members this week for Team Member Appriciation Week...to get multiple items including a new favorite hoodie...a red, white and blue Jaws jacket, which was indeed "fintastic!"

I wish all of you an enjoyable and safe Mardi Gras this year and I look forward to seeing you all at , and in the Future!

Hello Everybody!

I had a truly amazing time this weekend, not only did I get to see in concert for Mardi Gras (they were truly incredible), but I got to experience some of the booths, meet new friends (Mr. Tyler was especially awesome) and I got to make a balloon King Gator! King Gator has been one of the icons for Mardi Gras for many years and his new adorble design had to be replicated in balloon form!

Along with this, I also got to go to the Tribute Store (meeting the other Icon for the year Baron Ton Ton was really cool and the theming in the store was astonishing) but also seeing the was especially fun since it was turned into the Cursed Coconut Club! I also want to give a big to David who made me is own unique cocktail, whilst providing magnificent service!

I hope that all of you get the chance to go to Mardi Gras at Universal this year, it is so much fun! In fact, I had such a good time that I have a second post with my wifey and baby girl enjoying some of the festivities with me!

Happy Mardi Gras!!

Hello everybody!

I had an incredible time at over this past weekend in Bartow, FL! Due to the theming being Time Travel, I decided that making a Delorean from ! The process of attempting to get the details messured just right made making the balloon take 16 hours, but it was worth it! I loved getting to see all of the wonderful families that came to visit and I need to give a special shout out to three awesome people! First, I must thank for staying with me the whole time to film me and to ensure that I was able to briefly take a break to eat, even when it was busy. I need to thank for taking such wonderful pictures of my Delorean with her amazing Marty Cosplay! And finally I need to thank for adopting the creation at the end of the event!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful "88 MPH" Day!

Hello Everybody!

Not many people know this, but I am a huge fan of Bob Marley and his music. As a huge fan of Bob Marley, one of my absolute favorite restaurants located at is Bob Marley's Tribute to Freedom. This incredible venue has amazing food from the Caribbean, a Live Reggae Band (they are magnificent) and the building itself is a recreation of Bob Marley's actual house. Thus, since the was released today, I decided to make a gift to celebrate both the movie and the venue which pays homage to one of the most influental singers of the 20th century.

The outfit that Balloon Bob Marley is wearing is also very speical to me. My favorite Bob Marley song...the one that I personally believe is his most beautiful and thought provoking is "Redemption Song". He debuted this haunting, yet gorgeous song in 1980, at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London. He donned this attire at one of the most famous venues in the world and inspired all of us to "...free our minds!"

So thank you and the Tribute to Freedom Team Members for taking good care of such a amazing venue to honor Bob Marley. A venue that reminds me of my goal of one day visiting Jamaica and the Caribbean with my family.

Have a wonderful night everyone, and while the world can be chaotic, remember to always look for the "Three Little Birds" in every situation!

Hello everybody!

I can definitely say that I have had a lot of exciting things happen with me at the first of which is...

I just became full time!!!

I am so happy to be a part of this amazing company and now I will have the consistancy and benifits that my family needs. I adore working with my amazing team and getting to make people smile everyday.

I also got to have an exceptionally fun day with friends and at Universal! We ate at the Minions Cafe, Rode Villian-Con, Escape from Gringotts, The Mummy and Velocicoaster and I got to genuinely hang out with two of my absolute best friends...my actual groomsmen!

In addition to this, I also recieved some awesome gifts from my good friend Daniel (the Silver Mr. L aka Luigi is incredible) and I got to help during the concert and was given a poster for helping retrieve a Hard Rock Cafe glass!

So I will say that I have a lot of amazing things that has happened to me with Universal lately and I know that there are many Epic oppertunities in the future!