Hometown fighter Jonny “Magic” Mansour punched and danced his way to victory Saturday
night in his professional boxing debut at Pechanga Arena.

Mansour, from La Mesa, won a unanimous decision in a four-round, lightweight bout against Bosnian Anel Dudo, who fell to 3-6 with 1 KO.

“I’m excited,” said Mansour, after the fight. “This is the first of many.”

Mansour, 23, has been training as a boxer since he was 8 years old and that work paid off in a
confident, aggressive performance.

Wearing white and gold trunks, he pressed the action from the first round, throwing
combinations and moving forward, pushing Dudo against the ropes.

The second round brought more of the same and in round three he kept moving and sticking,
dodging Dudo’s attacks.

By round four, he was well on his way to victory, with hometown fans chanting his name.

Mansour has taken great pride in his Iraqi heritage and dozens of fans in the arena wore white T-shirts adorned with his name.

“The fans were deep,” he said. “The Chaldean community, the Middle Eastern support is very
heavy.”

For Mansour, the fight capped a whirlwind week that saw him stage a public workout in El Cajon and a talk for about two dozen young boys and girls who were training at the CYAC
Gym in National City.

As someone who started training as a young boy, Mansour encouraged the youth to keep at it, saying many people told him to give up.

On Saturday night, he proved those doubters wrong.

“I just want to do more inside that ring,” he said. “I’m ready to get back inside that gym next
week.”

Mansour’s fight was on the undercard of an evening that includes a championship bout between Emanuel Navarrete and Denys Berincyk and a a 12-round welterweight clash between unbeatens – San Diegan Giovani Santillan (30-0, 17 KOs) and Brian Norman (25-0, 19 KOs).

Two San Diego boxers. One driven by a quest for a championship. The other by a mission to represent his Middle Eastern heritage and community.

Both will take the next step in their journeys this Saturday night at Pechanga Arena in the Midway District as part of the undercard of the championship bout between Emanuel Navarrete and Denys Berincyk

Giovani Santillan (30-0, 17 KOs) will face unbeaten Brian Norman (25-0, 19 KOs) in a 12-round welterweight fight that is the co-feature on the Top Rank boxing card.

Santillan, 32, believes he’s close to a world title shot, and a victory Saturday will provide him
with an opportunity for a championship bout against a top-name foe.

“I’m excited to be fighting again in San Diego,” he said. “I’m excited especially coming off of my
last fight. I think people are really anticipating what I’m going to do next.”

Santillan, who lives in Mira Mesa, was exposed to boxing when his father took him to a gym in
Logan Heights. Although he called it an old-school smelly and dirty gym, he “instantly fell in love with it.” And boxing became a lifelong journey for him.

He has fought in San Diego before but doesn’t look at the upcoming fight as giving him a home-field advantage.

“I look at it as when you step inside the ring, it doesn’t matter where the ring is,” he said. “It
could be in this city, in that city. I have to treat it the same and train just as hard and stay just as focused in every fight.”

Jonny Mansour has been training since he was eight years old and Saturday will be his
professional debut at age 23 in his hometown.

“It’s a blessing,” said Mansour. “Something that I always wanted to do. Starting in my hometown is great.”

Mansour will be facing Anel Dudo in a four-round, lightweight battle. Mansour, who is nicknamed “Magic,” said fans will see his elusive style.

“Being able to hit and not get hit,” he said. “It comes with a lot of speed, a lot of power, a lot of
footwork. A mixture of everything. But at the end of the day, it’s the sweet science. How many
times can you hit someone without getting hit.”

As for making his debut in his hometown, Mansour said: “There’s many emotions that come with it. “I would say nervous is something that keeps me focused. I take everything as a great energy to fill me up in the ring.”

Another emotion he draws energy from is pride in his Iraqi heritage.

“My plan is to be the first Iraqi world champion,” he said. “To me, it’s great to be able to carry on that Middle Eastern heritage.”

A resident of La Mesa, he trains at the Bomber Squad Boxing Academy in El Cajon, which
hosted a public workout last weekend for him and Santillan.

On Saturday, Mansour is expecting to see a strong showing by fans from East County, which has a significant Middle Eastern population.

“My goal is to build that faith in the Middle Eastern heritage,” he said. “To build facilities in the
Middle East. The bigger I get, the bigger I want to grow the Middle East in the sport of boxing.”

Navarrete and Berincyk will fight for the vacant WBO lightweight world championship. The main event, and Santillan’s fight, are scheduled to be broadcast live at 7 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.

Gates open at 3:30 p.m. at Pechanga and tickets remain, starting at $25.

Charles Glaubitz has lived his whole life as a border crosser, growing up in Baja California, Mexico and commuting to San Diego to study and work.

The Tijuana resident has built a career as a comic book artist whose work has been featured in art museums and magazines. Now, Glaubitz is sharing his work with a wider audience at a new exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.

I’m overjoyed and delighted that I get to share my story,” said Glaubitz.

Glaubitz is one of three Mexican artists, along with Alejandra Yépiz Portillo and Urbano Mata, who will be featured in “Border Blitz: Artistas del Comic del Tijuana,” one of three new exhibits opening this month and in June.

The exhibit was brought to the museum with the help of the Mexican Consulate in San Diego and is part of the World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024, a year-long celebration of design in communities in the San Diego-Tijuana border region.

Glaubitz has long been a comic book fan and his work focuses heavily on mythology and draws from psychedelic imagery.

“Comics can be art,” he said.

Several large pieces of Glaubitz’s works adorn the walls of the top floor of the museum, along with key phrases in English and Spanish like “And Despite” and “Then Almost.” As a viewer walks along the panels, the effect is like that of reading an oversized comic book.

“It begins to tell a story,” Glaubitz said. “But you make up that story. The way it’s set up is for the viewer to interpret the story as it’s seen.”

Another exhibit that opened this week is “Collaboration(s)! A Journey with John Jennings.”

The exhibit spotlights the graphic novels and comic art of John Jennings, an artist and a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Jennings is an advocate of Afrofuturism, which seeks to advance the work of artists who are black, indigenous and persons of color and to improve their representation in the industry.

“It’s more of a movement and a mindset,” said Jennings.

The exhibit features recent art and illustrations by Jennings, who has been a New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award winner and who helped create Megascope, a line of graphic novels showcasing science fiction, fantasy and horror works by artists of color.

The exhibit also features a collaboration table where visitors will be able to color samples of Jenning’s work.

“I want people to realize that when you’re making a story and you share it with the world, you’re collaborating with the world, for good or ill” he said. “It’s the stories that make us human. It’s the stories that actually make us relevant to history and to the future. And we make those stories together. We collaborate on the future together.”

The museum will be opening a third new exhibit in June on the cartoon character Betty Boop. “Becoming Betty Boop” will highlight the history and evolution of the comic book character who became the first female animated screen star.

For more information, visit Comic-Con.org/museum.

A new season of touring Broadway shows is coming to San Diego in October. But before then, theater fans will have an opportunity to see talented, local students who one day may be performing in those shows or on the Great White Way.

The Broadway San Diego High School Musical Theatre Awards is scheduled to be held May 26 at the historic Balboa Theatre and will give local high school students an opportunity to showcase their talents and compete in a national competition called The Jimmy Awards.

The San Diego show is the local arm of the Jimmys, as they are called, and is an initiative of Broadway San Diego, the organization that brings touring theater productions to San Diego.

Organizers of the theater awards show call it an exciting opportunity to highlight San Diego students and the local theater community. 

“It’s my favorite initiative that we have here,” said Vanessa Ybarra Davis, vice president of Broadway San Diego and producer of the awards show. “It’s a lot of work but it is so rewarding.”

Students from 26 dozen county high schools have been nominated and will undergo a week-long training program that includes coaching sessions with local theater professionals. 

The training program leads to the awards show, which will feature performances from five of the top musicals. The top performers in categories Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Musical production will be recognized, with the top two performers going on to compete in the national contest in New York this June.

Joey Landwehr, the artistic director for the show, said the awards program has a larger impact than just recognizing local talent.

“Theater changes lives and theater saves lives,” he said.

Landwehr recalls seeing the impact the show has had on students who were facing troubled home lives or other challenges. He recalled a former participant who performed in “Les Miserables” and returned to San Diego to work with students in a class.

“He had changed from this young, little high school boy that I had known into this gentleman of the theater,” he said. “And he gave them such hope for what they were doing. And then, he opened his mouth and he sang. And it was like the heavens opened up. It’s one of the most glorious voices I’ve heard come out of a young person’s mouth.  And it brought just tears to everybody’s eyes.”

Davis credits support from the community for keeping the program going, even during the pandemic when it used a hybrid format. 

San Diego Theatres, which operates the Balboa Theatre, is the venue sponsor. San Diego State University’s theater department offers acceptance into their program for the top two winners. D.Z. Akin’s offers free lunches to students in the workshop.

The local awards program is now in its 11^th year and more than 4,200 local students have participated in the program since its inception. 

Some of them have made it to productions, including Broadway shows.

Several shows that were on Broadway will be part of the 47^th season of Broadway San Diego that starts this fall. The season will include Tony Award winner “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “Some Like It Hot,” “Wicked,” “A Beautiful Noise The Neil Diamond Musical,” “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” and the comedy “Shucked”, directed by San Diego’s Jack O’Brien. 

“Our shows bring you closer to Broadway than ever before,” said Davis.

Information on those plays is available at broadwaysd.com

Information on the student awards program is available on awards.broadwaySD.com.

When the curtain rises Saturday night on a new Alicia Keys-inspired musical on Broadway, there will be a San Diegan in the audience with a huge personal interest in the play.

That San Diegan is Robert Brill, a professor in the UC San Diego’s Department of Theater and Dance who designed the stage settings for the play, “Hell’s Kitchen.”

It’s not the first Broadway play that Brill has worked on. But with the involvement of the 16-time Grammy award winner, it could be one of his most-talked about projects.

“I think it’s going to be a spectacular opening, o​ne that’s been in the making for such a long time,” said Brill. “Alicia and book writer Kristoffer Diaz have been collaborating on this project for more than a decade. The buzz around production is pretty incredible.”

The play has been in previews this month, but Saturday is opening night and Brill will be sitting in the audience at the Shubert Theatre.

It will mark a long and unlikely journey for Brill, who grew up in Salinas, far from the bright lights of Broadway.

As a young boy, he was interested in magic and puppetry, and was supported in his pursuits by his parents. In high school, he began learning graphic design and, later, drafting and architecture. He was introduced to the theater by a friend and soon his interests in magic, theater and architecture “coalesced into stage design” and put him on the path to his new life. 

“Onstage, we’re building a world,” he said.” In the same way that an architect considers design, function and form, we’re creating space for storytelling.”

By the time he arrived at UCSD in 1983, he knew he wanted to major in theater. He began working in the industry, including working on plays at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He also lived in New York City for a while and worked on Off-Broadway plays and several Broadway plays, earning three Tony award nominations. In San Diego, he helped found Sledgehammer Theatre, which put on productions in downtown San Diego and beyond.

In 2015, he went back to UCSD, but this time to teach. He teaches several classes in stage and scenic design and uses his theater work to share with his students real-life experiences about the theater industry.

In the fall of 2022, he received a call from an old friend and UCSD classmate, Michael Greif, who was directing a new play inspired by Alicia Keys’ life growing up in New York City. Although not an autobiography and not featuring Keys herself, the play is inspired by her upbringing in the rough and tumble New York neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, her relationship with her mother and her discovery of music.

Brill took inspiration from Keys’ memories to make the stage environment dark and gritty. For research, he took photos of streets and landmarks when in New York. And he was also helped by the fact that when he lived in New York in the mid-1990s, he lived near Hell’s Kitchen, and raised his daughter there.

“It’s a complicated journey to navigate,” he said. “Depicting New York onstage is always a challenge, especially when it’s footsteps away. I think it’s more about the dynamic and ever-changing experience of the city. It’s very much like a collage, a collection of vibrant fragments, and we hope the audience becomes immersed in that kaleidoscopic experience.”

He emphasizes that he doesn’t do it alone. He calls it a collaboration with the creative team, including the costumers, the lighting and sound people, for the creation of the world of “Hell’s Kitchen.”

“Together, we’re crafting an experience, an event, ​for the audience,” he said.

And, of course, his work is guided by Keys and her music.

“When I began the project, even in advance of having the script, I started by immersing myself in her music,” he said.

At first, he talked with Keys in online meetings. But later, he worked in person with Keys, who owns a home in La Jolla, not far from Brill’s office on UCSD.

“She’s an incredibly gracious and thoughtful collaborator” he said. “Throughout the process, even when we presented her with an overwhelming amount of information, Alicia was consistently on-point, offering both praise and constructive criticism in a way that allowed us to remain inspired and appreciate what was important to her.”

Brill has been working on the play, which began Off-Broadway, for over a year and a half. He was excited when during his last visit to New York he saw banners advertising the play around the Shubert Theatre

Variety said of the play: “Beautiful and heartbreaking. A sparkling story with iconic music and absolute powerhouse vocals. This show feels like watching a glorious tapestry come together.”

Brill’s next project is closer to home. He is working on the stage design for “The Ballad of Johnny and June,” a musical about singers Johnny and June Cash that will have its world premiere in May at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Brill, 60, said of his work: “It’s never gotten old to me, and each day I’m thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to live a creative life. It’s truly a privilege.”

Editor’s Note: Alicia Keys’ play has since been nominated for 11 Tony awards, including for stage design.

When she was a child, San Diegan S.G. Blaise dreamed of far-away lands and fantastical realms.

Nowadays, she gets to create strange lands, magical galaxies and rebellious heroes. Blaise has become a successful, award-winning sci-fi/fantasy author who sometimes gets her inspiration from the beaches of her hometown San Diego.

Blaise was one of the main attractions of the 36th WonderCon pop culture conference held in Anaheim last weekend. 

It was her second appearance at the event, and she took center stage with one of the most elaborate displays in the conference’s exhibit hall.

The display featured a recreation of a crashed spaceship, videos touting her books and a live cosplay performance reenacting a scene from her “The Last Lumenian” series.

The series is a sci-fi fantasy and action adventure about a princess who joins a rebellion to save oppressed refugees and discovers she has magical powers. Romance complicates her life when she meets a powerful general and a handsome rebel pilot.

The series has earned positive reviews. Four books have already been published, and a fifth one is coming out in December.

Considering how she grew up, telling tales of rebellion and fantasy is personal for Blaise.

She was raised in Hungary under oppression by the old Soviet Union. Her father would smuggle in Hollywood movies and even translate and use his own voice to dub the movies. 

“We had movie night every Sunday,” she said.

From there, she developed a love for sci-fi and fantasy films. She recalled wanting to be a writer at a young age after she read a story she wrote in class and got a positive reaction. Her life experiences led her to write “The Last Lumenian.”

“I cannot separate my own background and experiences from being an author,” she said. “When the story came to me, it was natural that she’s going to be a rebel, she’s going to always fight oppression, fight for the freedom of innocents and protect the innocents who can’t protect themselves.”

Later, after her father passed away, she was able to flee Europe and make it to America, first in Boston and then eventually settling with her husband in San Diego, near Rancho Bernardo.

San Diego provides plenty of inspiration for Blaise.

“If I’m stuck, which I tend to be not a lot, I love going to the ocean, to La Jolla, to drive around and do a road trip,” she said. “There’s always something more to discover in San Diego. I still have more to discover.”

Blaise is looking forward to the publication of the fifth book in the “Lumenian” series later this year.

And she’s planning on a new nine-book series and another series featuring seven books.

But that’s to come later. Last weekend, she spent her time at WonderCon autographing books and meeting with her fans.

She is hoping to bring her elaborate spaceship display to Comic-Con in San Diego this summer.

“It’s not just about promotion,” said Blaise. “It’s about sharing the love of sci-fi and fantasy with my readers. It’s the most amazing feeling to see people’s eyes go wide, the biggest smile on their face.”

A retrospective on Betty Boop. A showcase of three Tijuana-based comic artists. An exhibit on an award-winning, Southern California graphic novelist.

Those are the three new exhibitions coming to the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park this year.

Museum officials, including Executive Director Rita Vandergaw, announced the new exhibits Friday at WonderCon, a three-day pop culture event in Anaheim that is organized by the same group that runs the annual San Diego International Comic-Con.

Vandergaw said the new exhibits are part of the museum’s efforts to continue evolving and offer new attractions. Since it opened three years ago, the museum has hosted 20 exhibits.

The new events are:

Becoming Betty Boop

This will highlight the history and evolution of the iconic cartoon character that was first introduced in the early 1930s. The exhibit will feature a mix of never-before-seen artifacts, artwork and animated films. 

Vandergaw is excited about being able to spotlight an historic pop culture icon.

“Some would way she was the first model of feminism,” she said.

The exhibit is scheduled to open in late June.

Border Blitz: Artistas del Cómic de Tijuana

This event is being featured in celebration of the World Design Capital San Diego-Tijuana, a year-long series of events and programs that will showcase the local border region.

The exhibit will feature the art of art of Tijuana artists Charles Glaubitz, Alejandra Yépiz Portillo, and Urbano Mata, showing their diverse stories and perspectives.

“We’re excited to show their art here,” said Vandergaw.

This exhibit is scheduled to open May 9.

 Collaboration(s)! A Journey with John Jennings

This exhibit explores the work of John Jennings, an Eisner Award-winning comic artist and author who is also a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Jennings runs a company that publishes graphic novels focusing on the experiences of people of color. 

This exhibit is also scheduled to open May 9. 

The pop culture fan event WonderCon returns to Anaheim this week and once again it will boast a strong connection to San Diego.

The event will be Friday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center. It is run by the same organization that organizes the much-larger, well-known Comic-Con International, which will be held later this summer in San Diego.

Because it’s a smaller event, WonderCon provides fans and attendees with a friendlier and less-hurried pace than the massive Comic-Con, which sprawls throughout downtown San Diego.

For San Diegans like Chris Garcia, it has become a routine to attend WonderCon before the big summer convention. 

“I love how WonderCon has the old-school Comic-Con feel of the ‘90s with a focus on comics and creators,” said Garcia. “There’s a more intimate feeling when attending WonderCon.”

Garcia, an education technology coordinator for the San Diego County Office of Education, is moderating a Friday evening panel, “Esports and Emotional Intelligence: How Gaming Can Boost Your SEL Skills.”

The panel features Minhtuyen Mai, a program manager with the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence at University of California, San Diego, and Roel Mislan, Esports Coordinator and Technology Manager at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista. They will discuss the connection between esports and social/emotional intelligence, particularly in K–12 schools.

Garcia said the panel will focus on how video gaming goes beyond fun and helps students develop important social and emotional skills. Attendees will learn how gaming experiences can teach empathy, resilience, and better communication.

This will be his third panel presentation at WonderCon. He’s done four at Comic-Con.

“I love being a regular guest,” Garcia said. “It allows me to stay in the current of pop culture and also stay on the cutting edge of what educational practices influence pop culture and science fiction.”

Garcia’s panel is not the only program featuring San Diegans. On Saturday, the founder of the Alpine-based Lions, Tigers & Bears animal sanctuary will talk about Hollywood’s use of live, trained animals for film and video game development. Bobbi Brink, along with filmmakers and animal rights activists, will also explore the dark history of Hollywood’s abuse of animals.

In addition, there will be a presentation on the use of comics in the classroom by various San Diego-area educators. And, officials with the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park will be seeking input on how to make education programs more accessible, more representative, and more responsive to community needs.

Information and tickets for WonderCon are available online at www.comic-con.org.

A lifelong San Diegan, Jon Ukegawa remembered going with his family to see the San Diego Rockets and San Diego Clippers basketball teams back in the 1960s and 1970s.

But when both teams left town, he switched his allegiance to the Los Angeles Lakers.

That is, until last week, when it was announced that a minor league version of San Diego Clippers was coming back to play in San Diego County.

“I was ecstatic, beyond ecstatic,” said Ukegawa. “Even though it’s a G-League team, I’m going to have to turn my loyalty to the Clippers again.”

Ukegawa, who lives in Vista, was one of about 200 fans, community members and others who turned out Monday to hear more about the return of the Clippers.

The team will be playing its games, starting in the 2024-25 season this fall, in the 7,500-seat Frontwave Arena being built in Oceanside.

Arena and team officials were on hand at Tuesday’s event to sell tickets, pump up the community and offer previews of what fans can except.

“We couldn’t be happier to have a big presence here in North County today,” said Josh Elias, CEO of Frontwave Arena.

The G-League is the NBA’s official minor league, and the G-League Clippers are an affiliate of the Los Angeles Clippers. They currently play in San Bernardino County and are known as the Ontario Clippers.

Elias said the plan is to connect the team to the community through appearances and events.

“This team is for the community, and it only works if everybody feels they have ownership in what we’re doing here,” Elias said.

Team games will have a family-friendly atmosphere, with bounce houses for children, giveaways, and theme games like Superhero Night.

“The Clippers are really excited about being in San Diego,” said team President Justin Dunn.

More announcements will be made in upcoming months, but officials have already said the arena will host both the Clippers games and the San Diego Sockers indoor soccer team. The arena is also expected to hold concerts, comedy shows and community events.

For Olden Polynice, who played for the team in LA during his 15-season NBA career, the return of the Clippers to San Diego was long overdue.

“I’ve always felt that the Clippers, the big boys, should’ve been down here years ago,” said Polynice.

As for Ukegawa, he’s already got his center court seats for the upcoming season.

“When this (news) came out, I was like a kid in a candy store,” he joked.

Mixing water and gremlins is not a good idea, according to the popular 1984 movie.

Mixing water and Comic-Con? We’re about to find out.

It’s not the Love Boat. And it’s not a “three-hour tour.” But Comic-Con is hitting the high seas next year when it debuts “Comic-Con: The Cruise,” a themed cruise ship excursion that is offering a different experience for fans of the pop culture event.

The cruise is scheduled to take place Feb. 5-9, 2025. It isn’t replacing the annual event held at the downtown convention center. That will continue separately. Instead, it’s being billed as a unique opportunity for fans to enjoy a more intimate version of the massive convention.

“It’s a fully immersive experience where our guests get to celebrate their love of all things, in this case pop culture,” said Greg Laubach, executive director of Entertainment Cruise Productions, the company organizing the event.

The St. Louis-based company has been around more than 20 years and organizes a variety of themed cruises, including Stark Trek and ‘80s cruises.

“Our cruises are really epic,” said Laubach.

But this is the first time it has worked with Comic-Con International. And it won’t be the last as Laubach said the company has a multi-year agreement to do more cruises.

For the inaugural cruise, fans will board Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas ship in Tampa and then sail to Cozumel, Mexico, before returning to the U.S.

Organizers are promising screenings, panels, photo opportunities, themed cosplay parties, competitive tabletop and video gaming and karaoke. Plus, there will be early and late evening shows. Celebrities scheduled to appear so far include actors Warwick Davis, George Takei, Ernie Hudson, Mary McDonnell, Michael Trucco, Felicia Day and author Robb Pearlman.

Laubach said that fans and celebrities being on the ship will lead to more casual and personal encounters.

“Our celebrities don’t come on just to perform,” he said. “If you’re in the buffet at one of the restaurants, you’ll see them. You’ll sit with them at times. All of our guests are encouraged to walk around and greet and participate. Just the venue itself creates this intimate gathering where you feel you’re one on one.”

Although Comic-Con each year attracts about 135,000 attendees, the cruise will be capped at 2,000 guests. The ship will be solely used for guests of the themed cruise. Tickets start at $990 per person and go higher for balcony rooms and suites. Information is available at comicconthecruise.com.

Laubach, who will be aboard the ship helping to coordinate all the activities, isn’t even calling it a convention.

Instead, he said, “It is the ultimate fan adventure.”