Q&A where all the most daring questions are asked!
A: This gets said to me a lot and then immediately followed up by saying, “Do you know where that is from?” to try and not sound rude to me, but don’t worry, yes, I do know where that is from (Wedding Crashers) and no someone telling me a joke doesn’t offend me.
A: You could say they are special, but I just use a good quality standard twisting balloon that you can buy at any party store. If you are asking this because you have tried twisting balloons you purchased at the dollar store and haven’t been able to build anything with them, I will respond by letting you know you bought them at the dollar store.
A: All of them… Well technically, I can make anything you can dream up, at smaller parties where I have more time to twist balloons for people, I get issued challenges. These challenges are things I’ve never done before and some of which I’ve never seen or heard of before. Sometimes I will be given a picture of something and get asked to build it. These challenges I always try to take a picture of and they go on our Facebook page in the photo album, Balloon of the week.
A: Contrary to popular beliefs, I don’t get asked for dogs, cats, and swords as much as you might think; these only get requested when the children are usually around the age of 3. Most requested from boys are Spiderman and the most requested from girls are Princesses.
A: This usually blends into the last question, but ways to maintain your balloons and keep them lasting long are, keep them out of sunlight, UV rays will tear them apart really fast (Which is a reason to keep balloon twisters in shaded areas at festivals, plus they will appreciate it!). Keep them dust free, if you drop them, the static on the balloons will attract dust to the balloon and if that dust is rubbed on the balloon say by just holding it in your hand, it can rip through the balloon. Dangerous areas such as grass blades, gravel, sand, wood, and trees, best not play with them outside. The worst is children’s sticky fingers, so many times kids come up to me and just say “It popped all by itself!” I look at the balloon and I can see sauce from the beef ribs they were just eating dripping down the side of the balloon… Overall, your best bet is to keep them inside locked away in a sealed off cabinet where light can’t even get in. This will beg the question of Schrödinger’s Balloon, where it’s in a state of popped and not popped until you decide to observe it.
A: Until you pop them… Which is true, but the serious answer is, twisted balloon sculptures can last looking good for about two weeks, then you will start to notice them shrink and shrivel. I’ve had clients that have said they have had my balloons for about 1 to 2 months, but they are just about half the size from when they received them.
A: Again, that goes back to the amount of time I have and how much someone wants to pay for something. But I can make creations as big as you would like them, depending on the size and budget, I might need to bring in the rest of my team to help. The largest single creation I built was a 150’ chandelier, the largest twisted creation was a 15’ long suspension bridge.
A: It always depends on the day and how much time I have, but overall, I really enjoy making sculptures no one has seen before like Yoshi, Fancy hat and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
A: Yes, well technically running an entertainment event company and entertaining is my full time job, Balloon Twisting is just one of the many event services we provide.
If you have more guests then originally planned for, then we can always upgrade your package to accommodate the additional people at your party or increase the length of time needed to perform the service.
If you have fewer guests then originally planned for, then we can downsize the package you booked. However, if this causes any of the entertainers to be removed from the booking, then please refer to our cancelation policy for canceling entertainers.
Yes! All of our balloon twisters are completely mobile and can walk around your event handing out twisted balloons. This works best if everyone is sitting at tables, however, if everyone is walking around there is no doubt that a lineup would happen (this even happens when people are supposed to sit at tables), so we find it’s always best to have an area of about 4′ by 4′ for the balloon twister to stand and have the guests line up.
Face Painting is pretty self-contained, the only thing we need the client to provide is the space, a table for the Painter to place their paints on and two chairs next to each other. The footprint of this service is usually only 4′ by 6′ and then an area for the children to line up.
Rarely! We have Stilt Walked in hundreds of venues around western Canada, most ceilings in public buildings are at least 10′ tall, and the height of our stilt walkers are 9′ tall (unless they are wearing a hat!). However, should you have a venue that has a shorter ceiling, we can adjust our stilt height so we can fit walking around comfortably in venues where there are 8′ ceilings. Some of our characters can have a wide dress on them, or props, best to make sure that where they will be walking there will always be at least 4′ to maneuver.
Another note on this subject, our stilt walkers are very skilled at ducking through standard height doorways, so those won’t be a problem either.
Our entertainers usually arrive around 10-15 minutes prior to the start time for a children’s birthday party. However, they will most likely be waiting outside until the start time, as the show basically start as soon as they ring the doorbell
Our Santa, Impersonators, Princesses and Super Heros will always park around the block so your kids don’t see them stepping out of a car.
Yes, we have a huge range of Stilt Walkers, Living Statues, Strolling Tables, Impersonators, Princesses and Super Heros, and we are getting new characters all the time. That being said, there are still some we haven’t photographed or had a chance to upload to our site. However, if we don’t have the character you’re looking for, we work with an in-house Seamstress to help us create any type of character to match the theme of your event. Custom built characters may have a build fee in addition to them performing at your event.
Yes, not all of our entertainment options are listed on our website. We work with a lot of entertainers and service providers who provide a wide range of options for events, send us a message to let us know your ideas and we will be able to see what it takes to make your vision a reality. We love working with unique requests as it gives us and our entertainers a chance to do something fresh!
Everything! Well, almost… We specialize in providing entertainment services for events such as Corporate Parties, Festivals, Fundraisers, Weddings and Private Parties. The entertainment services we can provide is quite a broad range, so let us know what you are looking for and we will line up the perfect entertainment for your event.
We take payment in the form of Cheque and e-transfers. We can also take payments with major credit cards and PayPal, however, there is a 3.2% transaction fee that will be added on to the transaction. E-transfers is definitely the easiest way to pay for our services!
Yes, to confirm the booking we will need to receive a 50% deposit if the services are over $750 and over a month away. If the entertainment service is within a month away or under $750, we will need to take payment in full.
Different entertainment services require different amounts of space. When booking any of our stage shows, we will send you a Tech Rider for that show. The Tech Rider will explain the staging requirements needed for that particular show. It will also explain other requirements needed to put the show on and let you know what equipment we are bringing so you can help better prepare for the event.
For more details on spacing requirements for a particular service, look at the Q&A below on Entertainment Service Specific Questions.
Each service will be arriving at different times, prior to their start time. For services that are very minimal to set up, such as Roving Magic, Balloon Twisting, Face Painting and Caricature Artists, will arrive at least 15 minutes prior to their start time. Some services that need to have more preparation needed prior to their start time such as Stilt Walking, Living Statue, and Photo Booths, will arrive at least an hour before their start time.
When it comes to large shows such as the Grand Illusion Show and Game Show we will need to start setting up in the space about 4 hours before the event starts so we aren’t testing mics while the event is running.
In all, when planning the event, we take into consideration the preparation that needs doing at the event and we schedule our entertainers and services accordingly. You will also be told upon booking the services what time we will be arriving.
2 hours is our minimum time for booking out of town events. Also, depending on where the entertainers are coming from will determine what is considered to be out of town for them.
Yes and No. For some of our services, we don’t need a green room, for example, if we only have a single entertainer performing balloon twisting for 2 hours, this wouldn’t require a green room.
However, for certain services, such as Stilt Walkers, Living Statue, Roving Tables, Characters and Stage Shows, we will always need a green room to be able to get dressed and into makeup for the service. Also, depending on the length of services, we will need a green room with refreshments provided for the entertainers on break.