At my last two birthday parties, there were adults who were bored, hungry, or both. Most of the kids and a few of the adults enjoyed the shows but there were enough adults talking that were a major distraction. What do you guys do when there are adults who aren't "hecklers" but are being a distraction? Keep in mind, the house was crammed with people and it was too chilly for them to go outside. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks! 8)

Hayseed

I haven't personally had the opportunity to run across this situation, but I would treat them just like the children - in a jovial sort of way. With a patronizing, yet stern, yet playful voice, I would exclaim loud enough to get their attention "Now parents, Pay attention or you will have to sit in the corner" or something childish like that. A couple of times of you stopping the show just to get their attention may do the trick. And it serves as an opportunity for the kids to laugh at the adults.

Just my 2¢

Keep smiling!
8)

Next time try getting the "noisey" to be your assistant, even if they decline this will help quite them. I usaully have the adults help just like the kids in a show. I've started having the adults put on animal noses to help the kids sing Old MacDonald and the kids love it and the adults get into to.

Slap them. Back and forth across the face. Just slap them silly. Then put your finger in front of your mouth and have the kids do the same, helping you to say, "SHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Or...you could try being entertaining to them too.

Do you wear a sign around your neck saying "you need to be under 8 to find me entertaining"? If so, take it off and rip it up. Way too many of us wear that sign.

If you are funny, they'll pay attention.

The funniest thing happened at a birthday party a few weeks ago. There was this guy who had a beard and long gray hair, the guy looked really tough. Throughout the entire clown show I did, I tried to make everyone laugh, as usual. This guy never laughed or smiled, but frowned. He was holding a little boy the entire time as though he was protecting him from me. It made me a little nervous but as you know, the show must go on.

At the end when I was handing out stickers to the children, I heard an adult's voice saying "over here." I turned around and it was the guy who was frowning the whole time. I figured he wanted a sticker for the boy he was holding. So after I gave the boy a sticker, the man wanted a sticker for himself. After I gave him a sticker, he grinned ear to ear!

The lesson I learned from this experience: never give up on trying to make someone smile. Making that rough dude smile was the highlight of that party and gave me a memory that will last for years.

Darrell 8)

You know, my dad is one of those. He's really a humorous guy, but ya just don't see him laugh that often - it doesn't mean he isn't enjoying the show, his threashold his just different than most.

You're right, though - never give up! Although you have to learn to pick your battles. Case in point: last weekend at spook train, Wolfman (yours truly) saw someone on a phone so I proceded to mock her by holding my fingers to my head faking like i'm talking on a phone. It went over big, the crowd around and the cell phone user were laughing hard - the cell phone user even held the phone out for me to talk - to which Wolfman gave a good howl. So, later on in the night I spot another cell phone user and try the same thing - she doesn't seem to be as responsive, but the crowd around is enjoying as before. Then the lady with a gruff gritty voice started to cuss at me and told me to leave her alone. WOW. If you're going to be in a bad mood, stay home from the haunted train ride. Wolfman, in classic entertainer style, cocked his head at her with an inquisitive look and moved along. No sense wasting good entertainment on someone who is in a foul mood!

I learned this from MammaClown- She always keeps a whistle with her to get the kids and adults attention and if the parents are out of control and noisy she treats them like "big kids". Never be afraid to tell adults to be good so the little kids can hear everything. :)

I've had adults that were acting just like that on many occasions. For me it always depended on who they were and how much of a distraction they actually were, and in what way are they being distracting. If it's the party host I might react differently than if it's a teenager or a drunk neighbor.

First, though, you should have your material down so cold that if a swarm of bees flies in the room, you just duck and keep on doing whatever you are doing.

If the person being loud appears to be enjoying themselves, and they aren't really hurting your performance, I say live and let live. It's not your job to force your entertainment down anybody's throat. On the other hand, I was hired by a school and one teacher in particular was yacking on a cell phone during my show. Somehow I was able to shame her into being quiet.

One time I was doing a party with about 20+ kids. The adults were socializing in the same room. I quietly told the kids I couldn't hear them very well because the grownups were talking too much. On the count of 3, all the children said, "shhhhhhh," as loudly as they could. When the adults stopped and turned around, I then nicely told them the children and I couldn't hear each other. It helped some.
Clownbuttons

Let the children make as much noise as they can and I can tell you they can make a hell of a noise. Now we have the attention of the adults! Use this moment to let the adults understand in a playfull manner that it is nicer if everybody is a little bit more quiet.

A month ago I did so with a class at a wedding. The children made such a noise that the adults couldn't understand eachother anymore (yeah) and the teacher came to tell the children to be more quiet. Directly after that I explained to the adults that it's the children their party so who should be more quiet? The children or they? You should have seen the faces of those addults.

when performing, i try to always keep in mind who signs the checks and who refers me to their neighbor (whose daughter turns 8 next month). involve them, without making them feel bad for doing what they do. just ask for a helper. pick one of themt hat looks the most fun. bring them up, announcing them with some silly title. the parents will forever remember that, and it will be in good humor.

My b-day show involves adults as well as kids. I make it clear during the booking what is expected of all children and adults and I also make it clear that I am not there to be a baby sitter.

I have only ever had 4 adult trouble makers in the 10 years I have been entertaining and all but one has been self-regulated by the other adults. My show has been designed to work with both kids and adults and I find that everyone watching the show is engaged.

In dealing with the one trouble maker that wasn't regulated by the host or hostess, I started by ignoring him. At one point he started cussing and saying very inappropriate things about me and clowns in general. I asked him politely to stop twice. The third time I put my props away walked up to the hostess requested my check and left.

She was quite apologetic and asked me to stay, I told her that I was sorry but I will not put up with that kind of abuse and that it wasn't fair to the children. I have since gone back the past 2 years and have gotten a lot of business from that group of people.

My feeling is that if you make it clear to them from the beginning that you are not there to baby-sit any of the children (young or old) and stick by what you said anyone at the party where and adult gets out of hand will respect what you did and not fault you for it.

Thats my 2 cents(actually like my 55 cents)

This reminds me of a birthday party I once did. The little girls birthday was the same day as the Super Bowl. Part way through my schtick the father's party guests for the following Super Bowl party were trickling in and getting rather rowdy. All I could think to do was continue, until the father cut me short because he didn't want to miss the pre-game. I was STUNNED!!! Who exactly was more important here, the game or his little girl. Some people...

I have to say I wish I had the advice here. It would have helped a lot.

Pie Them!!
(OK-Just Kidding)

Oh wow! What a heck of a spot to be in. The advice coming in from all of your friends sounds terrific. If I had been an adult at Oki Doki's party I would have looking for a rock to to crawl under.
I have always chosen heroes to help me make decisions during the course of my life so that when a situation arises hopefully I can say to myself, "what would Gleason, Skelton, or Lewis do with a situation like this, or of late, what would the folks at the Clown Forum do with this. Appears that you asked the right folks...
I personally would be very interested in knowing what your soloutions for the future will be...
I would appreciate any advice on how to deal with "hecklers" (God luv'em)

Anyone?

Don't be afraid of them. Hecklers, young and old, are sad people who can't do what you do and therefore must make you look stupid.

I have dealt with them in one of two ways. If they are not really being disruptive and seem to just be entertaining themselves, ignore them. If you react that is what they want.

If they are being very disruptive and ruining the show for others, kindly ask them to please be quiet so other people can enjoy the show.

The third solution, which I only use when out of clown and street performing, is to confront them, bring them up on stage or heckle back. Don't let them ruin the performance, make them a part of it. i would only advise this third solution to be done out of clown and only if you are prepared. Once the battle starts someone has to finish it.

So many different veneus, audiences and different kind of hecklers, so many ways there are to deal with hecklers depending on above mentioned.

I dealt with hecklers by ignoring, by letting them being part of the show (hecklers who just do want to have attention), be giving them a overkill of attention by confronting them with them now being the performer in front of the audience (for the ones who just are wanting to ruin your show, not the attention), by inviting them to do the juggling or balloontwisting, or even by starting a heckling-battle.

Here a few articles about hecklers, I came around over the years:
http://www.blanketfort.com/juggling/heckling.html
http://www.performers.net/library/bw-heckle.html

Here an article with one-liners for streetperformers, sorry some of them are quiet abusive so most of them aren't really handy to use as a clown but handy when you need to start a heckling-battle
http://www.juggling.org/~conway/juggler/MAL.TXT

Here a great example of a well known Amterdam street performer dealing with a heckler by "ignoring":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16yXUHOE-GM