Hey everyone,
This question is in regards to performing a stage show with balloons (not necessarily in clown). The one I perform now is pantomimed, using "blue" balloon sculptures, and audience participation. I am curious if anyone has any suggestions for doing a balloon act that isn't aimed towards children. It doesn't necessarily have to be vulgar either. There are a lot of great acts like the "William Tell" and David Snyder's silent movie incorporating balloons for the props.
Look forward to hearing your ideas.

Some balloon artists build entire shows around creative incorporation of their twisting technique.

Norm Barnhart has alot of great videos! HE does not do the fancy stuff but his shows are great!

It wasn't so long ago that I remember you, Bonkers #361, asking a similar question about balloons for a 21st birthday party. Why not share with Hermee and the rest of us, the benefits of your experience and describe what you did for that and how it went down?
But because you dont even know what a clown is, let alone done any clowning yourself, I am absolutely sure you wont be telling us all what you did.
Of all the endless, masses of posts here on this forum, concerning balloons, they all tend to be of an astonishingly limited nature. Have you got any instructions for a ....? Look what I've just made. What do you say when one pops? Norm Barnhart makes great videos…. Rather sadly, not once did I ever get any sense of performance from reading those posts. Nor any indication that clown humour was ever employed. To my knowledge, on this forum, no clown has ever bothered or attempted to describe how they engage, interact and perform as a clown, while twisting.Despite being so willing to profess your faith and offer it as proof of your decency, I know you are a liar who will happilly bare false witness and with malice try to hurt other people. Why not try divert that energy into writing about your clown activities??
My friend Winky Blinky, busks with balloons and an old gramophone record player on the streets of London. She twists life size puppets of ballerinas and then makes them dance to the music. It is a wonderful performance that incorporates all sorts of funny nonsense from her bizarre clown logic and is a highly entertaining spectacle for people of all ages. Instead of these pathetic one line posts that add nothing new to the forum is it not asking too much that you might put some effort in?
I have just recently been discussing with her, the possibility of creating a thread on this forum to show you all, what she does and how she does it. Unfortunately, Winky Blinky has absolutely no time for this place and questions my motivations about it too. But she is quite happy to allow me to write about her. I have not done so as yet, because I want to show videos and pictures that not only show what she makes but more importantly how she performs and how she interacts and engages with the audience.
The truth is, you have nothing at all to give. You are a spitefull nasty and jelous little man. You epitomise all that is wrong with American clowns.
Hermee, if you possess any true clowning ability and skills, (and I think you do, from our private correspondence) it should not matter what you create out of your little bits of expanded latex. It shouldn’t be that hard to create a whole show that will entertain an entire crowd of all ages, based on a single twisted balloon creation. All you have to do is consider what might be funny. I recommend you stop seeking suggestions of things to make, from people who never seem to do anything funny and certainly display no interest in describing how they might be funny. Rather I think you should look much harder at how you might employ your existing abilities in a more clown like manner.
I do not hold my breath though.

So what Barry has told us is that "Winky Blinky" has great videos.

Yes yes yes, well done Tim hahaha I get it Winky Blinky has good videos.

I merely want to wait until I have good videos of her performing before I write too much more about her. The fact is, she can perform and it is entertaining. Her dancing ballerina puppets are interesting to see, to more than just children. There is no crudity or coarseness in anything that she does and humour that is of a particularly adult nature certainly does not have to be introduced to entertain adults.

That said, Winky Blinky is an adult performer. The basis of her clown character is a coquettish flirt. Her name comes from her huge eyelashes, which flutter coyly and bashfully at all the young men. I think you would like her Tim, especially when she plays the “Penny a Lick” game.

I'm already in love!

I appreciate the advice Tim, Barry, and Bonkers. Bonkers, I would love to know how your performance went for the 21st birthday party if you care to share it.
Barry- I agree that I need to look at my own abilities and go from there. It is the practice and experience that will shape how my performance will evolve. I'm sure the first show that I do will be very coarse compared to the last show of the tour, but that is where the learning will come from and the part I am excited to explore.
Tim- My friend in the Cut Throat Freak Show and I will be passing through Chicago in the summertime. If you know of any good spots for street performing or venues that would be interested in an alternative show please let me know.

Thanks again for spending the time to reply.

She is a very funny, white faced, balloon twisting weirdo from Bulgaria. Everything about her was peculiar and bizarre.

Just my type!

Though I have reservations about becoming Barry's brother-in-law.

(And the thought that Captain Bananas is who you ultimately ended up with as a sort of clowning partner humours me.)

Unfortunately, the environment for street performance in the city is less than ideal as the government tends to frown upon and make things difficult rather than supporting it as a dynamic part of an urban arts environment. But one can always take a stab in certain places (know that you must have a permit and the police will ticket and fine you without one - as well as some restrictions as to place of performance.)

There are, of course, all kinds of stages which host theatrical, circus, and variety events, so that might be your best route if you can partner with someone who will help you get the word out to promote the show. Shoot me an email sometime and we'll exchange ideas on where you might find it worthwhile exploring.

Blue balloon that is one way to go blue during a show.

Hermee, I am very sorry I had not seen your question to me sooner. The party I did I would up basicly making the same balloons I do for kids like princess hats and wands becuse there were kids there. Once they left I went a little out side the confort zone and made stuff I normally would not. It was only after some asked me what I could make and I thought it was funny. From the response from them was how I went. More or less Adults are amazed how you do it. They like to try. I mean every crowd is different.

Barry in your response I am sure your friend makes awesome balloon puppets and I would love to see her in a video but in doing the festival line work that i do that would not be practicle for me. I interact with the crowd but I am also a twisting machine. I stop long enough to rest my hands and cut up with the crowd and then I get back to it.

It shouldn’t be that hard to create a whole show that will entertain an entire crowd of all ages, based on a single twisted balloon creation. All you have to do is consider what might be funny.

“Adult” Balloon routine

Balloon sword swallowing routine – make a balloon sword and leave enough uninflated so that the balloon has approx 5mm of uninflated at the end. Tell your audience that you studied Sword swallowing with the Coal brothers, 3 sisters, 2 horses, 1 elephant and a parakeet Circus. I studied under the great master of sword swallowing Frederich Bater. Master Bater and I stayed up late every evening with him showing me the ropes (we learned with ropes started with wool and worked our way up to heavy hessian ropes). Master Bater showed me not only how to swallow but how to keep my audience entertained whilst doing so – the man had a rapier wit. And so to the sword swallowing - 3, 2, 1 … Another thing I was shown when I was in my training (keep interrupting yourself from performing the trick as lets face it it’s rubbish and building it up will make the ending all the more funny) was how to hold the sword properly believe it or not a lot of people don’t realise you have to hold the blunt end (tap handle with finger) not the sharp end (tap finger with “blade” and drop thumb tip) hold up hands with 1 finger bent down count through 1,2,3,4, and a half, 5,6,7,8,9,10,11 we only have 11 more attempts at this folks *double take* count again notice the 6th finger (plastic extra finger available from all good magic shops and probably some bad ones too) on one hand and discard. Master Bater taught me to always leave the audience wanting more … Thank you and good night – exit stage left – return sheepishly thank you for that sitting ovation. Ladies and gentlemen if I may call you that, The more dangerous a trick is the more the audience will go wild and crazy when it’s successful, there’s a lady here in the first row who must have ben watching another dangerous act as she already look wild and crazy to me. I will attempt to do the trick blindfolded, this is not to make the trick any more dangerous, but I can’t stand the sight of blood and the man in the third row winking at me is putting me off. Turn aside to address man in third row – No sir I know what you’re thinking I’m not one, but I do help them out at weekends when they get busy. Put the blindfold on and proceed with the trick, various bits of business about using a blindfold can be added here - such as pulling down the blindfold and then pulling it off – You’ll have to excuse me I’m scared of the dark, or facing side onto the audience when pulling down the blindfold showing the audience you cannot see and turning to face the other direction and revealing a cut out over the other eye.

Feel free to edit as appropriate add in more build up and know down etc, I’ve never performed this routine. But I wanted to illustrate what Barry said about using something you already know and building up around it.

The blown off for those that don’t know in the balloon sword swallowing routine is you bit the balloon gently as you place it in your mouth so that it leaks ever so slightly you can control how quickly the balloon goes down – quicker by sucking on the Balloon to draw out more air and slower by clamping down on the balloon. The rest is pantomime – I’d generally make it down in 3 motions and mime getting it stuck – then reach around to grab it from my rear. You could also if you wanted with more preparation have an offcut of same colour balloon and a small gas cylinder have it inflate from behind you to imply the sword has passed straight through.

Search youtube for balloon sword swallowing and you’ll see a lot of peoples take on the routine – just funny it up with your own input – build it up and knock it down, make people think one thing is going to happen and then fool them with something different add in a lot of wordplay, puns and if you like blue humour and before you know it a party piece that anyone can do is a fully fledged routine.


Smartii

Whilst writing the above I also thought of a way Tim could use his amazing resemblance to Sally Rand more in his clowning.

Required: a modesty screen and a large fan made of feather or balloons or paper or lead - yknow anything

Come on in full clown costume and introduce you are going to vdo the famous fan dance - step behind screen to get changed and start to throw pieces of clothing ideally matching your clown outfit over the top. add in Brassieres a corset large comedy boxers etc - maybe have a mannequin leg with stocking on that you can poke out the side every so often *standard sound effect of crash bang wallop and a pause from behind the screen then more gets thrown over the top faster and faster till the modesty screen is knocked over to reveal clown still fully dressed beding over to pull clothes out of a suitcase.

Smartii

I perform on the street in Ocean City, MD. I entertain mostly children, but I also get quite a few young adults, and adults as well. Most people find balloon twisting fascinating and they like to watch. When I am doing things for the older crowd, I include a lot more dialogue and make an effort to get them involved somehow. Whether it means them actually helping me make a sculpture, or sometimes I will have them "count" to time me on certain sculptures, to see how fast I can make something. I also take requests and let them challenge me, especially if it is something I have never tried before, it's always fun to see what comes out when you do that.

Probably the most important thing I think for the older crowd is making multi-balloon large sculptures. I have a really nice 8 balloon dragon that I make that comes out relatively large and impressive. I also have a 6 balloon bicycle that really gets them going. They like the bicycle because of that movie Wedding Crashers, with the famous line "make me a bicycle you clown". They always get a good laugh out of that.

You also want to appear confident when you start to get the condescending attitudes. The older people sometimes "talk down" to me, but I always turn that around and make something that they actually find impressive, and if they get real lippy, you hand them a balloon and say "here you go, you try" that always makes it easier when they find out that it is actually a talent and trade that requires years of practice to master.

Anyway just a few tidbits from my experience.

I appreciate all of your input on performing for adult audiences. Been on tour for the last 2 months twisting for adult shows, bars, street corners, and chain restaurants. The bars, adult shows, and even the streets of Vegas I've gotten great responses when making the "blue" balloons.

What really gets the crowd going is that my character is a naive and innocent balloon twister. The sculpture then becomes a bigger shock to them when I do a long hesitation about making their request and then come out with a fully detailed and intricate "blue" balloon.

Just as others have told me, twisting can be a performance whether the sculpture is clean or "blue". So, having a great rapport with the audience and being proud of what you create will surely awe the crowds and hopefully add to fuller hats.