Did you see Meghan on the Jamie Kern Lima podcast? It was quite a performance from them both. I had to make a parody video.
Here is a previous one I did! 300k views! Wow.
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Why Balloon Modelling Is No Good For Children’s Birthday Parties
I got into working at children’s birthday parties because of balloon modelling. I bought a balloon modelling DVD but couldn’t keep them from untwisting and popping. That week a friend introduced me to the man who changed my life, the very funny magic man, Michael Wo.
Michael would carry a suitcase full of magic tricks and balloons wherever he went and I ended up doing the same for 3 years. He taught me to make balloon animals and we had great fun making them in the pubs for people and it earnt us free drinks, got us a few gigs and I got a wife from it (another story).
Balloon modelling is awesome. It has the wow factor. It has the aw factor. You can produce a teddy bear, a hat, an alien out of a few pieces of rubber in your hand. That for me is magical! Just check out the incredible things that David Crofts makes.
In around 2010, I wanted to become a clown much to the objections of my clown-fearing mother. I bought a unicycle, boxes full of joke props, giant shoes and loads more nonsense including balloon modelling balloons and a pump. This is when I met Michael Wo. I made a few balloon animals and put a few pics up online. My Facebook friends loved them! Their enthusiasm and likes pushed me to make more and more and ended up getting gigs by billing myself as, “The Happy Balloon Man!” It was brilliant because, with half a dozen gigs in the diary, I could finally quit the painful job I had at the time of being a contortionist. See this blog to read about that
I worked at all sorts of events making balloons and it was great fun at times. At others, it was frankly horrid with queues of angry parents furiously demanding the most complicated balloons I could make, “Right mate, I need 3 aliens for these monsters and 4 teddy bears for my other kids that are in the car!“
I ended up making balloons at a few children’s birthday parties. I was usually a side act, while a magician/entertainer was doing a show and games for the children, which is where I first thought of doing that myself. The kids were having a brilliant time. They were totally engaged and were laughing their socks off. I had never seen such an entertainer when I was a child. The shows and games I realised were much more fun than the balloon modelling that I was doing.
When I started doing children’s parties as an entertainer, I put a magic show together and then thought “I’ll make everyone balloons in the second half.” 30 happy laughing children in the first half became less and less so as they waited and started to get frustrated. Even with lots of jokes along the way, after 5 minutes, children get bored watching an entertainer making balloons and start to get frustrated that they haven’t got their balloon, then they may complain about the colour, the one they got, then comes the popping and crying.
Children hate the sound of balloons popping. Some are actually terrified of the sound. I often have requests from parents for ” no balloons!” Because they have had that wow pop cry* experience and it is something very sad for them that lingers.
What I have done for the last two years is stopped making everyone a balloon and tada, my parties are better than ever and my reviews are stronger. With plenty of music, magic shows, dancing, fun games, and a bubble machine, none of these issues arise and everybody is happy. What I still do is make a nice balloon for the birthday child in the calm of the food break. The other children understand that it is a present for the special child.
Balloon modelling I conclude is rubbish for birthday parties. If you are an entertainer reading this, consider dropping it from your party packages. Put fun games in that time instead or do more amazing magic routines.
For bigger events, DO book balloon modellers. But don’t just pick people who make amazing balloon models because I have seen “entertainers” grumpily making balloon in silence. But then I have worked with the fantastic Graham Lee, the awesome David Crofts and the dashing and glorious beast of a balloon superstar Russell Wells. If you are organising a large corporate event, fun day, festival do book a group of balloon modellers. Book 2 or 3 as demand will be high and they will quickly get swamped.
* “Wow, pop, cry” is a phrase that brilliant South Wales based children’s entertainer Simon Sparkles came up with.
Check out Ritchie’s Youtube channel here
Ritchie Rosson is a children’s entertainer & magician based in Sutton, London UK.
Life changing method for ADHD procrastination
The pomodoro method has changed my life. New video on my new ADHD YouTube channel. Subscribe if you like this kind of video.
Bouncy Castles
From my experience from entertaining at over 1000 birthday parties and many other kinds of events, when there is a bouncy castle, there are almost always children in tears and frequent accidents on them and they suck the joy out of the party. This firm of solicitors even has a page on their website just for dealing with bouncy castle injuries.
When I run a party, I have great control of the children and my reviews often comment on how amazed they were at the focus of the children I had. This is something I’ve developed from years of experience. When it comes to bouncy castles, nobody is really in control of the children and things often turn to chaos.
The companies drop them off unmanned and parents never seem to know how to manage the children. They all get on it at once and all the parents are stressed waiting for their little one to get bashed by a bigger child. At the last party where I did a show with a bouncy castle, a child was climbing onto the high sides of it (usually happens when the castle doesn’t have a roof) with a hard floor to the side of it. There were no mats on the side. I told the mum of the party, and she told the mum of the child climbing; to which she just laughed and let her daughter repeatedly climb there.
I want my parties to be brilliant fun and everyone super happy and to leave with big smiles.
If you are having a bouncy castle, the following guidelines are good to follow from this excellent article in The National Library of Medicine “Are inflatable play structures really safe for our children?”:
- ” There should be responsible adult supervision, paying close attention to the children at play at all times during its use.
- The equipment should be set up, operated and supervised by the hire company’s own staff.2
- A rotation system for different age or size groups should be used, together with the observance of an age limit for users. There are special inflatables available for adolescents and adults.
- A safety distance of 1 m to 2 m should be kept around the facility, leaving the entrance and exit points free at all times. At the access to the bouncer, there must be a ramp that covers the entire width of the entrance arch. Likewise, there must be some type of material that cushions possible falls, such as mats or foam. A simple carpet is not enough; also, curbs, benches, trees or other accessories should not be present in that area.
- The number of children using the bouncy castle must be limited to avoid overcrowding. This will allow each child to have safe space to play in.13,14
- It is forbidden to climb and/or hang from the walls of the inflatable.
- Children should not be allowed to use the bouncy castle in adverse weather conditions such as high wind or in wet weather (inflatables can flip over and slippery surfaces may cause injury). It is recommended to deflate the installation when winds exceed 45 km/h.
- All children must be made to remove footwear (always wear socks).
- Removal of hard or sharp objects such as jewelry, buckles, pens and other similar pocket contents.
- The castle must be adequately secured to the ground and sited away from obstacles such as fences or overhead power. They should be regularly inspected while in use.”
Chairs for magic show
It may sound odd, but the way you arrange the room with chairs for a magic/comedy show makes so much difference to the success of the show. There’s a reason that theatre’s have chairs fixed in that way as opposed to scattering them around the room.
Amazing, funny, children’s entertainer and magician; Ritchie Rosson for your children’s birthday party, school, or family event!
For Prices & Availability:
Contact Ritchie Now!
Lazer Lions Holiday Camp
Ritchie is back! Come and see funny magician Ritchie Rosson at the awesome Lazer Lions holiday camp. Ah! I so wish that I was a kid so I could be there all day. They have so many fun activities and the staff are all brilliant. The children are always so happy there. Find out more info and book here
Ritchie will be doing magic shows at Lazer Lions on the following dates:
Tuesday 8th April 10 am – Grovelands Primary School, Terrace Road, Walton-on-Thames KT12 2EB
Tuesday 8th April 1 pm – Cleves School, Oatlands Ave, Weybridge KT13 9TS
Tuesday 15th April 1 pm – Carlisle Infant School, Broad Ln, Hampton TW12 3AJ
Wednesday 16th April 10 am – The Vineyard School, Friars Stile Rd, Richmond TW10 6NE
Wednesday 16th April 1 pm – St Andrew’s and St Mark’s C of E Junior School, Maple Rd, Surbiton KT6 4AL
For Prices And Availability:
Contact Ritchie Now!
Soft Play For Birthday Parties
Soft play can be amazing fun for young children. Check online reviews to check soft play centres that have friendly, helpful staff, parking, and most importantly, great coffee.
I have entertained over the last 12 years at over 1,500 birthday parties and learned a lot along the way.
At a birthday party with an entertainer magician such as Ritchie Rosson (that’s me!) some parents have an idea that “we need something for the toddlers! Let’s hire some soft play.”) It’s a terrible idea. I had two of my birthday parties ruined by soft play being hired and it being thrown around the room and kids slamming each other into it.
Less is more! Because I want the children to have the most fun at my parties and my lovely clients to be super happy; as of Autumn 2023 I am no longer offering my entertainment at birthday parties with soft play.
For Prices And Availability:
Contact Ritchie Now!
Tips and tricks for children’s magicians
I have so much advice to give to magicians and entertainers for making your shows and events the best success and to get the most laughs and the least stress. I have a new YouTube magic channel where I am going to be uploading lots of videos packed full of wisdom/rantings.
Showreel video editing
I had great fun editing this video of the amazing magician David Croucher based in Worthing.
A showreel video will get you so much work! Sad that I see so many entertainers/magicians/circus performers with no showreel video for their clients to see or long videos of their entire acts which in the case of magicians like myself who do 30-60 minutes on stage, clients shopping around for entertainment will not sit through such a video and a live show never comes through with the impact it does live so better to pick out parts that are visual and fun in the video format which I have years of experience working with in my work on YouTube and in tv shows.
If you are interested in getting a fun-filled showreel video made, drop me a message here.
Working as a film extra in London
How do you get work as a film extra? How much money does a film extra make? Can you work full-time as a supporting artist? I did it for 4 years in London. Here’s my story.
Children’s Magician & Party Entertainer – Ritchie Rosson | Surrey, Kent & London 