Any Tips And Tricks / Intro

[The.Balloon.Guy]

Hi,
I am a new entertainer to the forum and i was just wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks for me,
I am 14 and i have always loved to make people smile :)
So one day i thought, how about it , ill start a business..
But i thought that i might not get many people asking for my expertise if they knew i was only 14, but its work out fantastic.
So Hi to everyone in the forum...:clap2:

[email protected]

[Corabar Steve]

Yes, my main tip is if you want to get people to respond to your posts, leave the font as the standard forum default & introduce yourself in the Newbie's section.

[Mayhem 1]

Greetings Buddy,

If you want to contact me sometime I will give you any help and advice I can.

Please remember one thing though, entertaining Children is not easy if you want to do it correctly, but saying that once you have developed your own style (you have to be individual) you will have a lot of fun.

And lastly, you must remember you are there to entertain the children and the birthday girl/boy is the star of the day not the entertainer.

Listen to all the advice you get on this forum there is many many years of experience and many many great members.

[DazzyD]

Greetings Buddy,

If you want to contact me sometime I will give you any help and advice I can.

Please remember one thing though, entertaining Children is not easy if you want to do it correctly, but saying that once you have developed your own style (you have to be individual) you will have a lot of fun.

And lastly, you must remember you are there to entertain the children and the birthday girl/boy is the star of the day not the entertainer.

As always, good advice from Garry. Especially the last bit about making the kids the stars of the show.


Listen to all the advice you get on this forum there is many many years of experience and many many great members.

You been watching Police Academy again, Garry? :D

[Mayhem 1]

Lol @ DazzyD :beer1:

[milo]

Hi there,

I know you don’t want to hear it and please don’t take it as negative, but the main obstacle you are going to come across is your age. Purely because of the tax, contracts, insurance etc.

I’m 26 and only started entertaining about a year ago, being young really works in my favour because many of my clients prefer to have someone young and energetic who knows what the latest fad is and can keep up with the kids.

My initial idea was to do a bit of clowning i.e. dress up as a clown and just do walk abouts making people laugh. Then I thought I should really have something to go with it, so I visited Graham Lee and learnt a few basic balloon twists. Graham is the UK supplier of Sempertex balloons and I much prefer these to the commonly used Qualatex. Check out Grahams site www.grahamleesmagic.co.uk. I have managed to build up a good portfolio of balloons that I can bang out with my eyes closed and I’m able to piece together most requests for things I’m never done before. Balloons make up a huge part of what I do and they are really popular with all ages @ 3p/balloon this is a cheap way to get into entertaining.

Whilst on a 1 day balloon twisting course I met a couple of local blokes who have been doing magic for years, it’s more of a hobby than a job to them, but we started meeting up once a week for a pint and I soon found a great range of children’s magic that suited me. I use Practical Magic www.practical-magic.com for most of my props, but you will find the average magic “trick” will be £50-£100. Most of my kid’s parties will want a 15-20 minute magic routine, so I have about two hours worth of magic that I swap round all the time so as each show is different. If you want to do magic, I can recommend a few cheap but effective props and illusions and you could put your first show together for about £150.00.

Party games are a must have and there are loads of threads on here already with recommendations. A good party game will cost nothing to play and will get everyone laughing and joining in.

Your appearance is really important and I would highly recommend getting some polo shirts printed as they are cheap, look smart and advertise your services. I would also recommend getting a “roll on” box to carry all your equipment in, these fold up into tables and can be sign written with your logo etc.

Make sure you are heard, get something like a fender amp can that has an internal battery so you can play ipod music and plug in a mic without a power supply. Regardless of the size of my venue or number of guests I always use a mic to make sure everyone can hear me.

All of the above will set you back at least £400.00, but once you have mastered it there is no reason why you can’t do four bookings per weekend at £90.00, so you’ll soon be quids in and, when condensed into a roll on box, you should be able to get about on public transport (assuming that could be an issue for you).

Once you are a bit older and have a car etc then you can look to add a disco, bouncy castles and all that jazz, but then you need to start spending a bit more money.

Whilst starting up I would suggest doing some free gigs for schools, churches and nursery groups to build your confidence and kick start a client base. If you are any good they will rebook you and pay the next time – if you mess it up, explain you’re just finding your feet and ask if they’ll have you back again without charge until you get it right.

Hope that helps a bit.

Milo.



the birthday girl/boy is the star of the day not the entertainer.


At the same time, don’t forget that the parents of all the other children are potential clients. I try to make sure I call up some of the guests to help first then I get the birthday child up once for one of the most funny tricks. I make a balloon flower for the BDC’s mother and get them to say thank you and take the flower over.

I find if you focus too much on the birthday child the other kids get fed up and feel left out. Try to incorporate plenty of routines that involve everyone or magic tricks that need 6 volunteers or boys v girls etc. Also play to the adults, because they are the paying client and you need repeat work from them.

[garybaldy]

also check out mbd2, theres an unbelievable amount of instructions on there. Its my first port of call everytime.
I dont usually like paying subscriptions but its worth it in this case. The donation amount is your choice. I think i paid £3 the first year and because i was so grateful, i paid £10 the following year.
Also balloonhq has monthly columns (dont forget to check out the archive columns cos theres heaps more)

[Charlie Brown]

Welcome :)

Add me on facebook if you like - Charlie Brown, Nottingham

What do you enjoy doing?

[Shaun]

Charlie, look at the date of the OP.

[yourdj]

check out my youtube thing. Its got lots of intro pieces for the events and popular tracks for different types of events.
Give you an idea of what goes on and all :)

Ignore the one of me singing in the bathroom though!

http://www.youtube.com/user/yourdjuk

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Have I missed something? What has that got to do with this thread?

Not being rude Toby, but I've seen enough of your videos to last a lifetime....:sj:

[yourdj]

Have I missed something? What has that got to do with this thread?

Not being rude Toby, but I've seen enough of your videos to last a lifetime....:sj:

I agree :p but he hasnt.

It does give an account of a gig or two and what happens (ie tips and tricks like mic work) which is what he wanted to know i assume :confused: not exactly top end stuff but a bit better than your average cheesy disco dave etc.

You do not have to look at them. :p I am actually getting fed up with them myself LOL but the customers always love them.

I actually left the camera at home lat Sat.

[RabbittsKaraoke]

This thread is over 18 months old?? :confused:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

It does give an account of a gig or two and what happens (ie tips and tricks like mic work)

Fair enough, but this is the children's forum. ;)

[DJMaxG]

Tobys videos are good .... and well edited, there is even a title at the start :D