The End of the Line

[Nettie Belle]

I would like to see some ideas of how you end your line of kids. Do you put a sign up, or do you have a special prop, and how do you do so without hurting feelings and creating tears, and still leave at your scheduled quitting time? Just curious ... I haven't made anyone cry ... that I know of.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Just make the last 20 or so kids one of your famous sea 'anemonies'... eventually you won't have a line at all.

[Nettie Belle]

Ver-r-r-ry FUNNY.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I eventually hope go get another box like the one I use for my makeup but use it for my balloons.... It has a lock and key on it. I'd make a big deal out of locking it and "Swallowing" the key (while actually palming it in my glove)...

As PT Barnum is famous for saying... "There's a sucker born every minute"

I've only done line work once and I've had a hard time ending it... I believe somewhere else on the forum people have mentioned about using signs. Scruffy mentioned handing the last kids in your line the balloon and then zip up your bag/close your box whatever... twist the last few balloons ... if any more kids come up say "Sorry... these boys and girls have the last of the balloons"


One boy popped his balloon sword... so I made him another one. He popped it... so I made him a third one.

A while later he came up with it popped again and I told him that I'm sorry that I couldn't make another one for him... that there were other boys and girls that wanted balloons aswell.

His mother came up to me making an angry face saying "And why won't you make him another one"... I mentioned that he had already had 3... I also stressed the fact that I was volunteer at the event and providing the Balloons.... that seemed to shut her up.

Thats also part of the reason why I don't make Balloon Swords anymore. Kids are too destructive with them.

[Nettie Belle]

Ah, the mothers. You've gotta love 'em. Some of them make you wonder how someone got close enough to them to produce a child.

[Wowza]

Fathers are sometimes worse. I had an overzealous dad try to grab balloons from Bubbles and pump them himself while we were working a line. He actually said "Hurry it up, honey."

And this was at a church event where the clown ministry provided FREE entertainment.

We just looked at each other and said "Its all for the kids, its all for the kids..."

[Giggles the Clown]

Hi Nettie. Lookin' good, as usual. Well, here is my thing. I always ask how many children will be attending the event. The number of children and the number of minutes needed for the activity per child(facepainting, balloons) gives me the amount of time this clown will expect to be there (and get paid for).

Ha! In a perfect world! Problem is, as we all know, the person booking the clown doesn't always KNOW exactly how many children will be requesting a balloon or facepainting, etc. The larger problem for me is that I just don't like turning away a child who has been standing in line waiting, waiting, waiting. If only a few remain, no problem. If the line can be never-ending, and I am getting weary, tired, hungry, etc., well what I improvised in such a situation recently was to do this: I placed my hand on my forehead and starting sing-songing, "Oh, my, Miss Giggles, has done a million, thousand, trillion, hundred, balloons, and she is so-o-o-o-o-o-o tired. And, she just has go to go home and feed her giraffe and her monkeys, and, and, all the other animals at her house. She can only make (x number -- total of children already in line) more balloons, so please hold hands and stand in a line so everybody will know Miss Giggles has to go home to feed her animals." Now I had the cooperation of the children who had been waiting in line AND their parents in helping me close up. Best of luck. Giggles

[Willace-the-Clown]

I jsut keep twisteing till everyone there has a balloon