User:Dinoalpha/sandbox

Alan Andalon (Fighter)

Alan Andalon (Fighter)

Alan Andalon (born December 27, 1978) is an American former Muay Thai fighter, Kickboxer, Martial Artist, classically trained Musician, Actor, Stuntman, Street Racer and businessman from Los Angeles, California. As a Muay Thai Fighter he competed in the Middleweight division. Alan fought competitively for USMTA.

Early Life, Education & Religion

Born in Bellflower, California, Alan was raised in a middleclass Roman Catholic family by his father a utility worker & former martial artist (in Hwa Rang do & Shaolin Kung Fu) and mother a homemaker in South Gate, California. Alan has two brothers Oskar & Alex who are also martial artists. Andalon is of Mexican, Spanish, Italian & French descent. Alan's paternal lineage comes from northern Italian & French immigrants to Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico. During World War II, Alan's paternal grandfather got recruited by the US government under the Bracero program as a migrant worker to work agricultural fields in Minnesota, Wisconsin and California. Growing up in the 1980's, Alan's father Henry rented several action and martial arts VHS movies from local video rental stores. Alan's passion for martial arts came from movies with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Richard Norton, Loren Avedon, Cynthia Rothrock and Jackie Chan. Inspired by his classical music teacher Mr. Walker, he began piano lessons at age 7 while attending Bryson Elementary School. Later he learned the flute, violin, and accordion. He graduated from South Gate High School in 1997 with a vocational degree certified in CAD / CAM Drafting and subsequently attended Cerritos College and Cal State University, Long Beach.

In his maternal side, Alan has 2 uncles that are Catholic Priests, 1 aunt that is a mother superior nun, and a first cousin that is a priest in Ameca, Jalisco Mexico. Alan's maternal grand uncle José Salazar López was Emeritus Senior Cardinal for Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico. Alan's uncle, Father (Padre/Presbítero in Spanish) Ramón Díaz Navarro sadly passed away December 31, 2023.

Dandolo Italian Family

In his paternal side, Alan's great ancestor is Enrico Dandolo, (whom his father was named after) a Venetian nobleman, Duke (Doge in the Venetian language) of the Venetian Republic from 1192 to 1205. The Dandolo family founded the small town of Andalo in Trentino alto adige, Trento, northern Italy, where the Andalo/Andalon/Andaloni family trace their roots.

Martial Arts Career

Alan started training Martial Arts at age 13 learning Shotokan Karate, Tae Kwon Do & Tang Soo Do at a local gymnasium at South Gate Park in South Gate, California.

Kung Fu San Soo

In 1995 during High School, Alan, his brothers Oskar & Alex and their cousins Gil & Adam trained Kung Fu San Soo in Bellflower, California, learning under Master Sifu Bill Hulsey. While training at Master Bill Hulsey's original studio, the Andalon brothers and cousins befriended Aaron Lee and his brothers Toby & Eugene Lee due to their many shared values and hobbies. Master Bill Hulsey was a student of Master Frank Woolsey and then Kung Fu San Soo Grand Master Jimmy H. Woo. Sadly, Master Bill Hulsey passed away November 30, 2023. Plans to open a new Kung Fu San Soo & Martial Arts studio in Orange County, California have started between the Andalon brothers with Master Aaron Lee to be the lead instructor. The launch is planned for 1st quarter in 2024.

Muay Thai

Inspired by Muay Thai fighters on Strikeforce on ESPN 2 such as Ramon Dekkers, Coban Lookchaomaesaitong, Dida Diafat, Jaroenthong Kiatbanchong and martial arts action stars like Jean Claude Van Damme & Mohammed Qissi in the movie Kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter & actor Paulo Tocha ("Paco" of the movie Bloodsport) in 1998, Alan started to train in Muay Thai with former Lumpinee Stadium Champion Saekson Janjira. At Muay Thai Janjira Gym in Downey, California, Alan trained with Muay Thai legends Samart Payakaroon, Coban Lookchaimaesaitong; K-1 fighters Rick Rufus, Maurice Smith, Francisco Fihlo, & Nicholas Pettas; and martial arts actors Ernie Reyes Jr. & Lee Reyes. Alan fought competitively for USMTA under the name Alan Janjira, following Thai fighter traditions and has won several local fighting tournaments. A few years later, Saekson Janjira relocated to Plano, Texas and reopened Muay Thai Janjira gym. Alan moved to Las Colinas, Texas in 2003 and continued training with Saekson Janjira.

In 2004, Alan moved back to Los Angeles, California and trained with Muay Thai Champion Kru Walter Michalowski of Sityodtong USA in Monrovia, California. Throughout the following years, Andalon maintained his Muay Thai and Martial Arts skills through disciplined practice and training at various Muay Thai and Kickboxing gyms in Orange County, Ventura County and Los Angeles.

Capoeira

Alan trained Capoeira with Mestre Batata.

Music

Alan took on music at a very young age learning piano, flute, violin, guitar and accordion.

High School Years

In 1995, Alan co-founded local Ska band Chencha Berrinches with high school friend Javier Oviedo. During his junior and senior year in high school, Alan played local gigs along side bands such as mexican spanish rock band Pastilla. Alan left the band mid-senior year to focus on his own music projects shifting over to House Music, Italo-Disco, and British Pop. Throughout his high school years, Alan befriended fellow student musicians and band members of up incoming local bands such as Joey Medina, Steve Mungarro and Chuck Gil of Silent Grey, inspired by British Rock music from the 80's and 90's. Silent Grey became a staple of the Hollywood music scene in the late 1990's, playing in several Hollywood venues on the Sunset strip, including the Viper Room.

Alan is a talented classically trained pianist and keyboardist taking inspiration from Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode, Neil Tennent & Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, Jan Hammer and Giorgio Moroder. During his senior year in high school, Alan worked for Blockbuster Music and Warehouse Music where his knowledge of music expanded and worked as promotional staff for La Ley, Richard Vission, DJ Ernie, Artie "the one man party", and Bad Boy Bill.

Alan would frequent West Hollywood clubs and niche House music record stores on Melrose in Hollywood, California and eventually met up and started learning House Music and DJ as an apprentice from Miguel Migs, BT and Robert Miles. Some of the DJ gigs Alan worked on was at the Sky Bar, Key Club, Sunset Room and the Ivar in West Hollywood, California. Alan was the resident DJ for the Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic School yearly Los Feliz Fall Festival, during the years his daughter Ally attended school there from 2013 - 2019. At the festival, Alan got to meet many local celebrities including local resident English Musician Gary Numan.

Alan's neighbors growing up in South Gate, California were Dark Angel co-founder Jim Durkin, and Cypress Hill band members B-Real, Sen Dog & Mellow Man Ace. Cypress Hill's drummer Eric Bobo attended Alan's wedding in Santa Barbara, California.

Family in the Music & Entertainment Industry

Through his paternal side, Alan is related to Mexican-American executive music producer & businessman Jorge Reynoso. Jorge is married to Puerto Rican pop singer Noelia and the ex-husband of former member of the Mexican Pop group Garibaldi, singer and actress Pilar Montenegro. Alan is also related to Mexican American regional group lead singer Tony Andalon from Grupo Majestad, who had a rumored relationship with singer Jenny Rivera.

Acting & Stunts

In 1996, Alan attended a casting call for Saban Entertainment's new show Power Rangers Turbo for the role of Carlos Vallerte, the green turbo ranger. Fellow South Gate High School student Roger Velasco got the role. Alan got some uncredited stunt roles in Power Rangers and Kamen Rider.

Alan appeared in music videos for house music DJ and musician Richard Humpty Vission... This is My House/Give Me The Feeling & DJ, Drop That Beat! as a night club dancer.

In 1999, Alan got casted in an independent martial arts movie tentatively titled "Fists of Fatal Scum", written and produced by UBB Productions. Also casted were Alan's martial artist brother Alex, martial artist cousins Gil, & Adam, and family friend and fellow Kung Fu San Soo Black Belt Master, Aaron "Ren" Lee. Filming locations were set in Downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and Cerritos, California. Production got shelved due to lack of funding from the studios. Efforts from the cast and crew to revive the movie project have been going through negotiations for the past couple decades. Alan and the rest of the cast obtained the rights to the film project and are set to go into pre-production in early 2024.

Alan's paternal grandfather, Salvador Andalon, had a small acting role along side Anthony Quinn and Rita Moreno in the 1955 American movie Seven Cities of Gold. Alan is related to Mexican actor René Reynoso Andalón.

Street Racing

During the import racing craze of the mid 1990's, as a car enthusiast, Alan bought his first car a 1987 Acura Integra LS during his senior year in high school while working at Blockbuster Music. Alan made several aftermarket upgrades including an engine swap from the stock Honda engine D16A1 to a JDM Honda DOHC ZC engine. A few years later while working for AAA, Alan bought a 1998 Acura Integra GSR and also made several aftermarket upgrades boosting the bhp. He attended several street races in Ontario, California where he would often run into Fast and the furious star, actor Paul Walker.

MotoRex

In 2004 while working as a corporate copier salesman for Toshiba, Alan and his brother Oskar secured the infamous Nissan Skyline GT-R importer MotoRex as a client. MOTOREX was a registered importer in the US, that worked on bringing the Nissan Skyline GT-R to the US legally.  They existed as a company from 1998 to 2006. Alan's younger brother Alex worked as a auto mechanic for Blast Racing, neighbor and client of MotoRex. Blast Racing worked on MotoRex's Nissan Skyline GT-R's.

Businessman

Social Marketing & Product Distribution

In June of 2001, Alan got introduced and connected to entrepreneurs and self-made multi-millionaires Dennis Wong, Sophia Wong, Cliff Braun, David Braun and Duke Tubtim by high school friend Frank Salazar, for a new start-up e-commerce company, Mall Ventures, Inc. aka 2by2.net. The company was rated by Entrepreneur Magazine's Hot 500 fastest growing companies in 2001. During the span from 2001 - 2004, Alan lead marketing teams was instrumental in expanding the company from California, to Texas, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina. Alan received several high achievement awards and recognition.

In November 2003, Alan worked with Cliff Braun, Dave Braun, and longtime business award winner and industry veteran Ray Grimm in business development and expansion of a ground breaking European EMF wave harmonizing technology company, BioPro Technology based in Carlsbad, California.

In early 2005, Alan partnered with model & lifestyle digital influencer Chriselle Lim and industry legends Tim Herr and Jerry Ballah in a VOIP Telecommunications and utility marketing & distribution company for a business expansion project in Irvine, California. In late 2006, Alan once again teamed up with Cliff & Dave Braun (aka "Braun Brothers"), to work on a new project with an online digital music retailer called Burnlounge. Burnlounge investors included many mainstream recording artists.

Consulting & Mentorship

After years of a successful track record in business, training and leadership, In 2014, Alan started a business consulting & mentorship program training high school graduates, college students & graduates to navigate the changing economic claimant and introduction and skills training into entrepreneurship and business ownership. A common pattern among most of the mentees started to develop into dating coaching into social dynamics. The demand for dating social dynamics began to grow exponentially and became it's own program, called Relentless Alpha. In 2006, Alan attended a coaching program with world renowned dating coach Mystery aka Erik Von Markovik in Santa Monica, California.

Dot Com & Search Marketing

In 2005, Alan transitioned to mainstream corporate companies as a Marketing Director for Overture, Yahoo!'s Search Marketing division, Yellowpages.com, and Google. After suffering from corporate downsizing, streamlining and layoffs, he decided to open his own Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Social Media Optimization (SMO) marketing agency called 3V Marketing Concepts, later renamed and restructured to Evolve Marketing Concepts.

Mortgage

In 2006, Alan entered the mortgage industry working with his brothers Alex & Oskar. Due to the 2008 economic crisis they were forced to close the business.

Insurance & Financial Strategies

In September 2015, Alan launched his insurance practice starting with Aflac, acquiring business accounts. Then in October 2016, Alan joined New York Life in Glendale, California as an agent and added advanced financial services and business financial strategies to his practice. On October 1st 2016, tragedy struck when Alan's friend and fellow insurance agent Michelle Vo fell victim of the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting.

Due to contract limitations, in 2018 Alan transferred his practice to MassMutual and opened an office in Beverly Hills, California. While at MassMutual, Alan teamed up with Film Producer, 2011 NAACP Image Award Winning Author and Actor Ray Charles Robinson Jr, son of singer & musician Ray Charles. In 2019, Alan added Guardian Insurance, expanding his practice further into more advanced planning financial services through Claremont, California based Pacific Advisors, LLC. At the Pacific Advisors office in Newport Beach, California, Alan teamed up with MDRT & Top of the Table insurance industry award earner Kelly Smith, who has industry process patents and a pioneer in Business Exit Strategies, and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs).

Personal Life

Alan is a polyglot, speaking English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. He has basic comprehension of French, Catalan, Romanian and learning Russian. He has one daughter, Alessandra Sophia, born in 2007.