Listen it comes down to this...
If you are on the street you are not getting paid by the hour. You are working for tips. This means you have to fire on. BANG! BANG! BANG! If someone want to take an hour twisting a ballon for a couple bucks by all means. Although you could make a kid just as happy with a TEN TWIST DOG! This way it only takes you about 20-30 seconds. Now you can make 10 times as many kids happy.
My earlier post about 3-4 different types of animals was if you were thinking of getting into ballon twisting. I know more than I would ever need 30-40. Another point is if someone was to make an animal with more than one ballon and it pops the kid has to wait even longer... BANG! BANG! BANG! Fire on, keep the people in the line going, not the people watching. You will have to fill the time you are twisting with little sticks like, Do you know what makes a ballon long and skinny? Blow the air in the face of a child. EVERYONE WILL LAUGH!!!
The kid will get the biggest kick out of it. And that is who is important at that moment. Doing the little sticks will keep the crowd watching until you get back to the magic.
I do magic as an true art form, BUT remember this you still have to pay the bills.

My apologies to Tobias, as this was not meant to be an attack on him.

Yes, to start you can get away with a hand full of different twists. I bet Tobias knows more than that.

My point was, do your best to not "just get by" and I guess that goes for balloons, magic, juggling, or any other form of performing.

Oh by the way, they are a great way to hand out cards! Put your card in the paws of a teddy bear or the handle bars of a motorcycle, etc.

Again, sorry if my statments were taken the wrong way, but there are many bad twisters out there, and I guess it hit a sore spot.

Twisting is killer. My magic is great and my twisting not too shabby but try as I might to focus on magic with the kids, it doesn't compete with the twisting. I myself know probably 30-40 things I can twist but when I have a long line I don't offer them all. You can offer a great deal and still keep the line moving with basic animals. Dog, Cat, Sword, Bunny rabbit, garaffe, hat, and mouse can all be done really, really fast. For variety I generally offer a monkey and a squirrel as well. It is, after all, your rep on the line and adults will appreciate how cool those look.

~Spiff

Snails Kids love them, as it's Garry from sponge bob, and the parents say wow it's not a doggie, it only takes one balloon (ok I use two, one for it and one for the eye stalks) and it really takes no longer than a doggie. I try to avoid
"doggie" look-a-likes whenever I can.
The kids love getting "stuff", and that can be anything, but, you get the parents to pay attention with the less cliche' stuff and the parents are the ones paying you.
My show is for the whole party not just the kids, I am not a babysitter or a TV set, when you get the parents asking for a balloon for themselves, you've got them!!

How do you make a snail?
:rotf:
Magicman01462

Leave about a 1" or so uninflated a 6" bubble
2 2" bubbles and twist them together, make a loop about 6 or 8" roll the rest up to make the shell and stick it in the loop.

I use a second balloon with about a 2" bubble in the middle of it, twist that in half and twist it to the head, (a 1" bubble added to the first bubble.) the eye stalks are the selling point, as it makes every thing move as they bounce all over!

And there you have it.

I fixed my earlier post, as the snails name is Gary not Patric, oops me bad.

I would normally not have posted this as there are other sights for balloon stuff, but this one is easy. If more people would like to trade balloon ideas here, I don't mind, (I would love it) but I think we should start a new topic.

If not, balloonhq.com is a cool sight to check out!

Thanks a lot!

Magicman01462

For kids I like a big impossibility. Cut and restored rope. Also I like to have the kids "do a trick". I do reverso, have every kid pick a card, look and return to the deck EVERY kid (except the shy ones, don't press it) They tell me what magic word they know and I have them all adress the deck saying the magic word. Usually "Hocus Pocus" , occasionally "please". Make sure they know they have returned the card correctly and then show how they have done the magic. REMEMBER, small kids don't tip, thier parents do. They just saw thier kids being adorable.

A good idea for kids is to perform the Miser's Dream with those gold-foil covered chocolate coins that you can buy at candy shops. They are the perfect size, and at the end of the trick, you can hand them out to the kids!

I think, with kids that is, the most important thing you need is good patter, either humour, or some patter which will make them truly belive you are something special (if you convince them of this, everything will be alot easier, and smoother). The most difficult, I find, are children 8-11, they are old enough to not fall for basic sleights, watch everything very carefully, and tend to blurt out when they think they know how a trick is done. They also tend to be at the stage when they think any tricks they can figure out are not worth watching, this is only general of course, there are many exceptions.

P.b. jones the problem with doing the linking ring trick with kids is that kids always always always want to ply with the rings (i know from experience)
the best is tricks that reqiure no gimmics unless it is something like the coin bite where there is some sleight of hand so they can investigate the coin

now that I think of it the post (3 or 4 posts back)
the chocolate coin idea is great do some sleight of hand and turn a loonie into one or two chocolate coins