Bubbles and I were hired (at the very last minute) to do the Plano Balloon Festival. They hired us for general walk-around duty, which includes juggling, fun interaction and thumb art. For those that don't know, thumb art is like facepainting "lite". Get yourself a washable ink pad, then use fingerprints for the basis of little drawings. Add details with washable markers or Detailz paints and you're done. (Klutz Press has several books on Thumb Art)
We were doing the walkaround thing most of the day, dragging a plastic wagon filled with our props and juggling stuff. If we ever stopped in a spot, we would do thumb art for kids nearby. Near the end of the night, we started doing thumb art and got overwhelmed. We had a huge crowd of kids and parents, and people were basically throwing money at us. It was very hectic and confused, but we made the best of it. We've been asked back this year, and we definitely plan on doing things differently.
The most important thing is to be comfortable in who you are and what you are doing. Bubbles and I were both very green last year and didn't want to be too domineering or controlling, but that worked against us. We both know more about clowning now, so we'll be able to control the situation in an appropriately clowny way so we can still be in charge, but won't alienate our customers.
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