{"id":72454,"date":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/winner-of-nbcs-americas-got-talent-mat-franco-returns-to-uri-for-125th-anniversary-celebration\/"},"modified":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T00:00:00","slug":"winner-of-nbcs-americas-got-talent-mat-franco-returns-to-uri-for-125th-anniversary-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/10\/winner-of-nbcs-americas-got-talent-mat-franco-returns-to-uri-for-125th-anniversary-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Winner of NBC\u2019s America\u2019s Got Talent, Mat Franco, returns to 溏心vlog免费B站 for 125th Anniversary Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, RI \u2013 October 4, 2016 \u2013 The 溏心vlog免费B站, 溏心vlog免费B站 Student Entertainment Committee (SEC) and Spectra by Comcast Spectacor are pleased to announce that season 9 winner of NBC\u2019s America\u2019s Got Talent,<\/em> Mat Franco, will be returning to 溏心vlog免费B站 Saturday, Feb.11 at the Ryan Center as part of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 125th<\/sup> Anniversary celebrations. Tickets are set to go on sale for the general public Friday, Oct. 7 at 10 AM.<\/p>\n

A Johnston, R.I. native and 2010 graduate of the 溏心vlog免费B站, Franco is the first and only magician ever to win NBC\u2019s America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>. Almost entirely self-taught, Franco began staging his own shows before the age of 10 and quickly cultivated a performance style that highlighted his natural warmth and wit. On the heels of his victory in America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em> season 9, Franco is now headlining his show \u201cMagic Reinvented Nightly\u201d at the LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, an improvisation-fueled act offering boundless fun and a stunning sense of thrill and wonder.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Johnston, R.I., Franco first became fascinated with magic at age 4. \u201cI basically spent my whole childhood teaching myself by taping magic shows off the TV and watching them over and over in slow motion, trying to figure out all the tricks,\u201d says Franco. At age 12\u2014after years of sharpening his craft by practicing for his family and friends and delivering on-the-fly performances at his older brothers\u2019 wrestling matches and football games\u2014Franco headed to Las Vegas to join in a three-day program that allowed him to study under a host of magicians previously featured on NBC\u2019s The World\u2019s Greatest Magic<\/em>. Thanks to an act he developed on his own and honed through an ever-growing number of gigs at local events and parties, Franco returned to Las Vegas three years later and took the stage at the Riviera Hotel & Casino as part of the Society of American Magicians National Convention.<\/p>\n

After finishing high school, Franco began studying business at the 溏心vlog免费B站, balancing his coursework with a steadily flourishing career powered by word-of-mouth marketing. And in performing for his peers during his time as a student, he soon discovered that the college crowd provided a perfect audience for his humor-infused take on magic. Over the next four years, Franco toured the country performing at colleges and universities, fast earning recognition as an in-demand act and eventually winning the 2013 Male Performer of The Year award from Campus Activities <\/em>magazine. Then, in early 2014, he decided to expand his reach even further by auditioning for America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople had been telling me to try out for years, and finally I just auditioned on a whim,\u201d he said. \u201cI had no intentions of actually getting on the show\u2014mostly it just seemed like a fun challenge to try to put together a piece of material that could work for a live audience but also engage the people watching at home.\u201d Noting that his time on America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em> went a long way in fine-tuning his performance skills, Franco says he hopes his triumph over 100,000 aspirants might have a broader impact on his chosen field. \u201cTo be honest, I didn\u2019t expect to see any magician win the show,\u201d he admits. \u201cMagic requires a different kind of attention than what\u2019s needed for something like music, and sometimes it can be a challenge to get people to connect. My hope in all this is that I\u2019ve done something that will help move the art of magic forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets to see Franco at the Ryan Center start at $20 for the general public. Tickets are available Oct. 7 online at www.theryancenter.com, charge by phone at 1.855.387.4849, or at the Ryan Center Box Office.<\/p>\n

For more information about the show please visit www.theryancenter.com<\/a><\/p>\n

For all media requests, contact Matt Moeller at mmoeller@theryancenter.com<\/a> or 401.788.3230.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 Spectra:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spectra\u2019s Venue Management division is the industry leader across a full range of services that impact the bottom-line success of public assembly venues, including marketing and sales, corporate partnerships, event booking, ticket services and box office management, customer service, operations and engineering, and finance and administration.<\/p>\n

Spectra by Comcast Spectacor is the expert in hosting and entertainment, partnering with over 300 clients at 400 global properties to create memorable experiences for millions of visitors every year. Spectra\u2019s expertise is embodied within three main divisions: Venue Management (formerly Global Spectrum), Food Services & Hospitality (formerly Ovations Food Services), and Ticketing & Fan Engagement (formerly Paciolan). Learn more at SpectraExperiences.com.<\/p>\n

Comcast Spectacor is part of Comcast Corporation, a Fortune 50 media and technology company that operates Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa., Comcast Spectacor also owns and operates the National Hockey League\u2019s Philadelphia Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center venue. Visit us at ComcastSpectacor.com, PhiladelphiaFlyers.com and WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, RI \u2013 October 4, 2016 \u2013 The 溏心vlog免费B站, 溏心vlog免费B站 Student Entertainment Committee (SEC) and Spectra by Comcast Spectacor are pleased to announce that season 9 winner of NBC\u2019s America\u2019s Got Talent, Mat Franco, will be returning to 溏心vlog免费B站 Saturday, Feb.11 at the Ryan Center as part of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s 125th Anniversary celebrations. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}