Smiggles 7/13th July

Started by Graham Lee, June 15, 2008, 09:57:29 PM

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Graham Lee

#15
Thanks for doing this Ian, a few more;

15, How do you book yourself?

16, What's the biggest thing you've ever made?

17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?

18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?

19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future

20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?

21, What are your balloon goals for the future?
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Smiggle

#16
Quote from: "Graham Lee"Thanks for doing this Ian, a few more;

15, How do you book yourself?

85% of my work now is 'word of mouth' - I have three venues that hand out my card as a 'preferred supplier' and I'm never shy about dishing my card out or putting a card on venue notice boards, I also have a loose arrangement with a couple of other people who do similar stuff to pass on jobs if we can't cover them ourselves. I do have a mentalism show which I do occasionally I don't actively promote it I leave bookings for that to an agent.

16, What's the biggest thing you've ever made?

I haven't made anything really big but I'm working on a Yellow Submarine for a particular event - if I pull it off I'll post pictures

17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?

Actually remembering some of the models I've learnt off CDs etc whilst twisting  'live' - my repertoire isn't huge  :roll:  but it's growing

18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?

Practice, Practice and Practice  - the more you know the mechanics of what you're doing, whether it's magic, twisting or whatever the more you can put into the ENTERTAINMENT factor. Business will only come to you if you chase it in the first place - never be shy about talking to potential bookers - don't put unnecessary limitations on yourself such as type of function, venue etc always be as flexible as you can.


19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future

I really need to work hard over the next few months and get a more consistent standard and grow my repertoire then I'd like to concentrate on twisting and run the disco business down

20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?

Definitely to entertain - if you can do that the money will follow - it is a matter of great pride to me that the venues who give my card out only do mine because I actually work at making the evening special by entertaining the audience (and staff) and not just turning up to play loud music - they tell me that I'm the only disco that gets a big round of applause at the end of the evening (mind you that could be relief that it's all over) I'm not the cheapest show out there - far from it - but I'm one of the busiest

21, What are your balloon goals for the future?

To be the best that I can be - there will always be better twisters than me out there  - so long as I'm happy that I've produced my best work I'll be happy banking the money
C\'mon Let\'s twist again...

Graham Lee

#17
Ian, last of the questions unless anyone else wants to ask you anything?

22, If you could start all over again, would you change anything?

23, How would you like the future of balloon modelling to develop?

24, Who's the most famous person you have made a balloon creation for?

25, How do you keep the enthusiasm going & what still excites you about our great world of latex

26, What inspires or is your thought process in coming up with a new design

27, Who would you like to work with dead or alive?

28, What makes you laugh?
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

Professor T Wist

#18
Who would you most like to make a model for and why? What would you make them ?

Smiggle

#19
Quote from: "Graham Lee"Ian, last of the questions unless anyone else wants to ask you anything?

22, If you could start all over again, would you change anything?

Nothing at  all - I've had as great time entertaining and have learnt a lot and met some great people

23, How would you like the future of balloon modelling to develop?

Like most of us I would love to see it appreciated more as an art rather than a novelty

24, Who's the most famous person you have made a balloon creation for?

Kylie Minogue...  OK it was really a Kylie Minogue tribute act - I made her a little gold and silver bracelet to match the gold hot pants - not easy to do when your hands are shaking  :D

25, How do you keep the enthusiasm going & what still excites you about our great world of latex

It keeps itself going really because you never know what you're going to be asked for - what the punters are going to be like - every time you step into your performing mode it's a buzz

26, What inspires or is your thought process in coming up with a new design

I haven't really come up with new designs but I have started 'tweaking' some of the ones I have in books or on DVD - I suppose designing from scratch is not far off - the yellow submarine I mentioned earlier will be the first

27, Who would you like to work with dead or alive?

Tommy Cooper or Eric Morecombe - neither were balloon artists but both absolute masters at comedy

28, What makes you laugh?

I think from the answer to the last question you can guess - I love silliness, my humour is a bit off beat I suppose joke telling is not me but I do love the ridiculous
C\'mon Let\'s twist again...

Smiggle

#20
Quote from: "Professor T Wist"Who would you most like to make a model for and why? What would you make them ?

Kylie Minogue (the real one this time) - I'd make her an itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini with free fitting  ;)  8-)
C\'mon Let\'s twist again...

Graham Lee

#21
Ian, Thanks for taking time out this week to answer the questions for the forum members. :D
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

PrinCeSs

#22
Hi Smiggles.. did u ever made a little kid cry with your balloons?
I\'m In A Royal Balloon World!
http]

Smiggle

#23
Princess  - no I haven't made any kids cry - not that I'm aware of anyway but one special show I did a few years ago with a colleague from my radio station was very emotional.

Briefly a local paper had a story about a young girl of about five years old who was dying from a brain tumour - she was a big Disney fan and her parents were trying to get her to Disneyland before she died. My colleague brought the story to my attention and asked if we might try and help.

Now this colleague is one of lifes great scroungers - he can get amazing  stuff out of big companies. He phoned Disney in Florida and they said if we can get the family over there they'd giver them a free holiday, he phoned Virgin Airlines and they offered free flights if the family could provide a medical certificate to say the girl was fit to fly - unfortunately her doctor could not give such a certificate. Fletch (my colleague) came to me to break the news - I have no idea why I said it or even how we were going to achieve it but I just said 'OK if she can't go to Disney, we'll bring Disney to her'

At the time Disneyland Paris was almost ready to open so we contacted them they agreed to send over Mickey, Minnie and Goofy for a day - over the next few days Fletch and I called in so many favours - my neighbour provided a stretch limo, we got the Disney characters in the back and a marching band to go the family house pick them up and bring them to Queens Ppark where we had a full fun day with army display, police dog display, hog roast, the Disney characters and two more marching bands and kids rides all rounded off with a firework display and a Blues Brothers tribute act - all of this was put together in ten days and didn't cost a penny- the family were just overwhelmed with peoples generosity - on the day it was just too hectic to really appreciate how much had been achieved, the look of wonder on the little girls face when she opened the door to see Mickey on her doorstep was just wonderful.

Sadly she died two weeks later, the church was absolutely full to bursting with all the people who had contributed - even one of the guys from Disney came back over from Paris to say goodbye. The whole day actually made a lot of money which her parents used to buy equipment which was donated to the children's ward at the hospital where she was treated
C\'mon Let\'s twist again...

Graham Lee

#24
It just goes to show how kind hearted people can be in the world, things are not always doom & gloom.
Smiggle it was a nice read although sad that the little girl lost her life but I'm sure the day will stay in peoples minds & hearts for years to come.
"Lets Improve Our Art"
Balloon Excellence 2012 Award Winner
For Services to the Balloon Community.
https://www.balloonartwholesale.co.uk
http://www.sempertexballoons.co.uk

koolkatkiwi

#25
Oh, Smiggle, that is just wonderful what you and Fletch did! It was just great that the little girl got to experience Disneyland after all. It's a memory that you two will now have for the rest of your lives as well.

Cheers,
Kath 8-)
************************************************
Bill & Kath Worsfold - Kiwi Entertainers!
http://www.billkath.co.nz
************************************************

PrinCeSs

#26
And now u have made another little girl (ME) cry  :oops: ... what a touching story... u know.. I've always have this emotional breakdown.. like 2 weeks ago.. i volunteered with some clowns at children's hospital and this little 18mth old baby was at her bed and we found out that it was her b'day on that day.. and we sang her a b'day song and really made her smile from her bed....and it really made me cry.. i dunno why... :oops:  Thk u and Fletch .. the world will be blessed to have someone as kindhearted as ya all....
I\'m In A Royal Balloon World!
http]