GTA Actor Says Disastrous Florida Gaming Convention ‘Put the Con in Comic-Con’

Update 2 8/13/2025: A representative from Celebworx has reached out to issue a statement regarding its role in National Gaming Expo, saying it canceled its appearance following "repeated communication and multiple opportunities for resolution", and that the agency lost faith in Wittenberg's "ability to deliver a professional and viable experience for us". We've added their response in full to the update with Wittenberg's account in the article below.

Update 8/13/2025: Michael Wittenberg has responded to complaints around the National Gaming Expo, saying that the missing actors were entirely the fault of their representative talent agencies, Celebrity Talent Booking and Celebworx, the former of which he says he is preparing to sue for contract violations. He apologized for the missing photographer, acknowledged the lack of vendors and low attendee numbers, and said he will offer refunds for paid photo opportunities and Sunday tickets (the day with the most missing talent) through Eventbrite.

You can read his full, more detailed response to all claims embedded in the article below.

Original story 8/12/2025:

Last weekend, a number of gaming fans traveled to Tampa, Florida to attend the National Gaming Expo. The convention, in its first year, promised encounters with actors such as the casts of Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat, as well as the former voices behind Nintendo's Peach and Bowser, Donkey Kong composer Grant Kirkhope, and a lot more.

Instead, convention attendees were treated to empty halls, missing talent, a no-show photographer, and...camels?

The National Gaming Expo took place from August 8 through 10 at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. The official website claims it expected around 30,000 people in attendance, and promised talent signings, photograph opportunities, vendors, and a cosplay contest. On social media, accounts such as Celebrity Talent Booking and voice actors like Ned Luke (GTA V) and Rob Wiethoff (Red Dead Redemption) promoted their appearances at the convention, including a reunion of the Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 casts at the expo.

However, that reunion was...disorganized, to say the least. The entire convention was disorganized. Despite the National Gaming Expo's lofty promises, fans paid $40 for a single-day ticket, $90 for the weekend, and showed up to a pretty barren event, as revealed in various photos and videos on social media:

So this was my first con and didn’t what to expect but this was definitely not it. Don’t support Mike wittenberg, because I was at the national gaming expo and it was so awkward and unorganized 😬 pic.twitter.com/vgi2D7DWvD

— Plapapus 🫧 (@plapapus) August 11, 2025

The National Gaming Expo was a disaster. The con floor was empty, maybe 10 vendors. The only panel that even happened was such a mess, Ned Luke took the MCs job cause he was doing such a bad job. They screwed over the celebs. And now they’re deleting their social media. @ngeshow pic.twitter.com/3KjP8tBzci

— Dan 🎸✝️ (@Husbeep) August 10, 2025

Accounts on social media lament the dismal number and assortment of vendors and booths, as well as a lack of security. One Reddit comment complained there were health insurance and T-Mobile vendors and barely any to do with gaming. "It was the equivalent of walking into a Best Buy searching for a game, seeing the shelves filled with broccoli, dish soap, and various car parts. Then somewhere in the back of the store there’s an open box VCR for $600," said another commenter.

Inexplicably, one attraction that was present at the expo was...a petting zoo, featuring a camel and a few other farm animals:

The National gaming expo has gotta be the worst convention ever produced all they got is a camel and no games pic.twitter.com/WhOExks6Ha

— funkonoki (@funkonoki) August 9, 2025

The convention didn't just look barren. Apparently, a lot of talent that was supposed to be there either didn't show up at all, or showed up late or sporadically in a way that made it challenging for fans to encounter the actors they wanted to see. Several attendees who claim they went to the show on Friday said that the Red Dead Redemption cast wasn't there at all, and were told there was some mistake made with their agency. Others did report that they got to meet the Red Dead Redemption crew later, but complained that paid photo opportunities with them and other talent were canceled due to the one photographer allegedly hired by the convention not showing up.

As a result, attendees have been making their feelings known to the National Gaming Expo organizers in whatever way they can. The convention's official Instagram page has been deleted and its Facebook event page has been locked, but the Facebook comments on the Florida State Fairgrounds' post for the event are filled with upset attendees. Many posters are issuing warnings about the event's organizer: CEO of NGE Event Production Michael Wittenberg.

Wittenberg, who formerly ran the National Vape Expo before it was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, started the National Gaming Expo this year just months after returning from a year-and-a-half-long stint in a Dominican Republic prison. He was arrested there in 2023 for international narcotics trafficking during a networking event at a resort, after signing to accept a "700-pound pallet filled with promotional items, but Dominican officials sniffed out pills, gummies, and cartridges containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana," according to CBS News. Wittenberg says the items in it were all federally legal in the United States. "Did I know for sure that stuff was in the pallet? No. But i thought it was a possibility. Was I stupid or ignorant? Yeah. I wasn't guilty. There is a difference," Wittenberg said at the time. "I've done major conventions with these products for 10 years in major convention centers across the country."

The warnings shared by convention-goers, however, are less about the THC and more about Wittenberg's history with conventions. According to commenters, Wittenberg has run threadbare, scammy events before, with some people even popping in to allege he's failed to pay workers in the past. While it's difficult to find a useful record online of his past events, these claims are somewhat supported by at least one review of the National Vape Expo still floating around the internet. "During the weekend I had to come up with ways of passing the time such as counting the number of steps between stands and taking regular coffee breaks," reads the review from a staff reporter at Vapouround from 2017. "Never in my life have I made a large flat white latte last so long. Normally I am an espresso kind of guy but the five seconds they take to drink would not just cut it when I am running down the clock at such a vaping non-event as this."

A handful of involved parties have already publicly commented on the situation at National Gaming Expo. In a statement to IGN, GTA 5's Michael De Santa actor Ned Luke said simply, "It was a scam, the guy who ran it was a con artist. He put the con in comic-con."

Michael Wittenberg Responds

Following the publication of this article, I spoke on the phone with Michael Wittenberg and his business partner, Larry Wallach, where the two gave me a detailed account of the convention from their perspective.

Wittenberg claimed that because this was the convention's first year and the gaming industry can be insular, he struggled to get a wide array of vendors on the roster. However, he asserted that people don't attend convention for the vendors, they come for talent, which he did assemble initially.

"I'm new to this industry, I tried my hardest, we didn't get a ton of vendors because I'm new to the industry and because this is a first-time show," he said. "But what we did do is we did try to put the biggest cast of characters gaming has ever seen into one building. And that's what we did...I'm not saying we're perfect, but we did try to fulfill the experience that the fans wanted."

But much of that cast of characters didn't end up showing. Wittenberg put the blame on the missing talent squarely at the feet of the booking agencies involved, Celebworx and Celebrity Talent Booking, both of which we contacted for a response for this piece and did not hear back from. Celebworx was responsible for Kelly, Kirkhope, and James, none of whom showed up. Wittenberg said they canceled on him ahead of the convention, after a dispute in which he said he booked specific flights as requested for their talent, and the agency allegedly demanded he cancel and rebook different ones. In the ensuing disagreement, he said Celebworks canceled. It's worth noting that when I reached out to Kirkhope directly for this article, he pointed me to Celebworx for a response.

As for the Red Dead Redemption and GTA casts, those were booked through Celebrity Talent Booking, which Wittenberg claimed was a much bigger can of worms. He alleged that during the planning process, Celebrity Talent Booking had a "long list of demands, every one of which we met," including security deposits, per diems for the actors, hotel rooms, and flights booked and paid for. Wittenberg went on to claim that on the night before the first day of the National Gaming Expo, they "handed me a bill for $10,000 in per diems and airport transportation," the latter of which he said they had already handled. Because Wittenberg wasn't expecting that bill, he wasn't able to pay it until Friday, which he said was the reason the talent did not arrive until later in the day. The actors were present on Saturday, but skipped Sunday entirely after, according to Wittenberg, because there was "a little hiccup with transportation".

Wallach also claimed that Celebrity Talent Booking "bullied the living shit out of [Wittenberg]...everything they asked for became more and more bizarre." When I asked for an example of the "bizarre" demands, he recounted the "transportation hiccup" mentioned by Wittenberg in more detail:

"There was a morning when they were all waiting out in front, and they were like, 'There's no shuttle bus!' So I said okay, I'll take care of it. I sat down, opened up my phone, and I ordered five Uber XLTs. That's five Cadillac, you know, the big Cadillac trucks. And a couple of the guys got in it. But the team from [Celebrity Talent Booking] told them, don't go."

Wittenberg and Wallach emphasized multiple times that they are not upset with the actors, and that all of them conducted themselves professionally. Their issue is with Celebrity Talent Booking specifically, which Wallach said he will be suing in federal court. "Really, what's about to take place, is I have ordered my legal people in California and New York to decimate them and that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna go for the jugular, and that's what my family does when we get ripped off."

Wittenberg promised that individuals who paid for photo opportunities will be refunded, due to the booked photographer no-showing, something that he acknowledged "was our complete problem." And he said he will also refund Sunday tickets, due to the significant missing talent. He will not refund Friday or Saturday tickets. Wittenberg asked those who want refunds for photos or Sunday tickets to go through Eventbrite, though he said the refunds may not come through right away. He was issuing them for a time, he said, but has halted on advisement from his legal counsel.

In total, Wittenberg went on to say that the event had between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees, ballpark, which is notably far fewer than the 30,000 "expected" advertised on the website and to vendors. When I asked him about it, Wittenberg apologized, and said he didn't realize that 30,000 number was posted on the website. However, he added, "It doesn't matter if there's seven people in the hall or 70,000 other than to the vendors. The attractions, or the people who should have been there, should have been there."

I asked Wittenberg and Wallach if they'll ever run the National Gaming Expo again. Wittenberg answered immediately, "I don't know," but Wallach interrupted: "No. I would love for him to have it again, but I would like for it to be different, where it works, and where people abide by their contracts. I would love to do but, but if we don't do it, it's not the end of the world."

IGN also reached out to Wittenberg's attorney on recommendation from him and Wallace, but did not hear back in time for the publication of this edit.

Update: Following the publication of this edit, Celebworx (which represented Grant Kirkhope, Kenny James, James C. Burns, Samantha Kelly, Jeff Steitzer, Josh Keaton, America Young, Curzon Dobell, and Steve J. Palmer) shared the following statement, which we've reprinted in full here:

We were in active discussions with the event promoter to resolve significant contractual breaches, including critical issues around travel arrangements.

Unfortunately, despite repeated communication and multiple opportunities for resolution, the promoter continued to ignore key obligations under the executed agreements. Due to his refusal in rectifying his contractual obligations for our clients, he forced us by non-action to cancel our appearance at the show after losing faith in his ability to deliver a professional and viable experience for us, and most importantly our clients. He also chose not to advertise any of the cancellations once he made his decision to not remedy any situation, 8 days before the event happened.

Venture Authentics, which had advertised "send-ins" at the expo (letting people send in collectibles to be autographed by talent) has apologized and said it will issue refunds to customers, due to "James Burnes, Michael Antonakos, Grant Kirkhope, and others" not attending. In a Facebook comment, the company clarified: "this one is not the guests fault, it’s 100% on the convention. I’d rather not elaborate publicly, but do not blame the guests. They seem to be just as shocked."

Roger Clark, the voice of Arthur Morgan, similarly acknowledged his absence:

It is with my deepest apologies that I say I wasn’t able to attend the last day of National Gaming Expo today as was announced. My absence was due to circumstances outside of my control. Crazy shit man. Sorry.

— Roger Clark (@rclark98) August 10, 2025

A number of individuals on social media who say they attended the convention are now trying to get refunds. Some are reporting success disputing the card charges for the tickets or getting refunds through Eventbrite, while others say they are unsure how to get a refund at all on photo opportunities that never happened.

IGN has reached out to Celebrity Talent Booking (which seems to have coordinated many of the actors), the Florida State Fairgrounds, Kenny James, Michael Antonakos, Grant Kirkhope, James Burnes, Take-Two and Rockstar (for good measure), and the agencies representing Roger Clark, Rob Wiethoff, and Samantha Kelly for comment.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

This article was amended after publication to remove a claim that a tease from Rob Wiethoff was connected to the National Gaming Expo.