White pens – I went to Hobby Craft this morning and bought a white pen, I was in there for about half an hour with the assistant trying to figure out which white pen would be best for writing on balloons. I settled on an paint based permanent marker that said it could write on any surface including glass and plastic. I just had a go at making Stewie Griffin (and he was looking good), but when I got to drawing the eyes on with my new white marker the whole thing exploded in my face leaving a white spray paint effect all over the front room!!! Not a happy bunny!

Can anyone tell me what kind of pen I need (if only Sharpie made a white pen) and where I can get one.

I also bought some glue dots so I'm going to try playing around with them, but another thing I'm struggling to find is blush colourer round balloons... Can anyone give ma a cheap UK supplier of rounds, shaped balloons and balloon décor equipment that aren't available on the Sempertex/Qualatex site?

My story began three years ago when I watched a TV documentary called Clowns, the program followed the lives of a few children's entertainers and I just remember seeing a middle aged man who clearly hated children standing outside of a London pub smoking a fag and drinking a pint in his clown outfit!!! I remember thinking I could do it much better (entertaining not drinking and smoking)! I had always worked in insurance and I hated my job with a passion, so with the support of my wife I decided to try entertaining children.

Year 1.

I had a clown outfit made, ordered some big shoes, noses and accessories and Milo the Clown was born... in the early days I had no entertaining skills, just the willingness to laugh at myself and keep smiling. It soon became apparent that playing traditional games and dressing up was not enough, so I visited Graham at his home and he taught me to make some basic animals and swords etc.

My second encounter with Graham was at a care and share day where I met a couple of magicians who live close to me and they showed me a few magic basics like the die box and stratosphere etc.

Next came the mobile disco and light show and my two hour party package was born...

Year 2.

My second year was a big gamble! I opened a family bar and party venue, which took up all of my time and money. Unfortunately my landlord trebled my rent and I had to close after about 9 months! But, it helped to establish me and Milo became a household name. I put together a corporate pack with copies of insurance, CRBs, PAT certificates and a bit of background information and hit all of my local businesses, council, children's centres and schools with bunches of balloon flowers for the receptionists to make sure the pack didn't sit in any post trays.

Year 3.

Now the bar's gone so I have no real overheads. I do about 8 bookings a week with four residencies at children's play centres and I do loads of work with children's centres and the council etc. Balloons have played a huge part in my success, but I still don't consider myself to be gifted at twisting as almost all the designs I use are found on Google, youtube and, of course, right here on this forum.

Plans for Year 4.

This year I am planning on launching "AirHeadz by Milo" which is a range of 6ft character greeters for weddings, birthdays and corporate events. I have to give credit to Huff & Puff for the inspiration as I love their design and there's a couple of other designs I've found on the internet that I want to incorporate too. I'm also launching "Super Milo Kart" which will be great kart building and racing parties using the Berg Moov kits. I'm upping my game with the mobile disco by getting projector screens and up lighters and story time with Milo will be coming early 2011 (once I'm better with the guitar).

I now work half the time I used to for double the money and I truly love my work. My son gets to come with me and I can fit work around my family life rather than trying to squeeze family in around work. Anyone reading this who's thinking about taking up a career as an entertainer should defiantly book themselves a session with Graham and go along to some care & share days.

A friend of mine works at a golf club in the midlands somewhere and she sent me some pictures of a balloon creation that I love! I have seen loads of Bride and Groom sculptures, but I really like this one. I'm going to have a crack at it this week, but was wondering a) who did this one b) where the printed heads are from and c) how much do artists charge for these kind of sculptures?

Hi Guys.

I've been twisting very basic balloons at children's parties for a couple of years now and I'm only just starting to play around with bigger multi balloon creations. I'm afraid I'm not that good at coming up with original sculptures yet, but I'm sure it'll come.

This is really just a quick post to say a big thank you to everyone who has replied to my cries for help and to show you what I've managed to twist with a little push in the right direction from you.

Thanks everyone and enjoy...

I have been asked to pre make 150 Australian themed balloons for a local school event. I just did a similar thing for their Antarctic project and made the three balloon penguins, but I'm struggling to find any quick, easy Australian balloons – I'm looking for koala bears, kangaroos or any other Ausie animals. Max 3 - 4 balloons with as few fiddly bits as possible.

Can anyone help?

Milo x

It's a sad day.... I have spent thousands of pounds on my mobile disco, loads of magic, props, tables and all sorts of fantastic entertaining equipment, but the best thing I have invested in, by far, is my Filbert Pump.

At the weekend I was doing a party with my foot on the base of Filbert when some little "angel" gave it a tug and snapped the base!!!

Now I'm looking at ordering a new one, but do I get another Filbert and ask him to send loads of spare parts or do I get a Mac (I hear they're good) or..... Can anyone tell me if there is somewhere in the UK that does a good floor pump?

I had to wait 3 months for Filbert to make it to the UK last time.

Quick, quick!!!

I need some easy quick twist balloons for a baby shower I'm hosting tomorrow night. Anyone got a good dummy balloon (using non specialist balloons) or any other baby type things?
 

How much do you charge?

I'm getting a steady flow of bookings for balloon modelling now, but I don't know what I should expect to get for my masterpieces?

I'm doing the hats, flowers, swords, bugs, snakes, bears, butterflies and all the usual stuff as well as a couple of display men I sell off at the end.

Up until now I have been charging 50p / balloon and the men have been going for anything between £5 - £10 each! People ask me how much the man is all through the day and I say that there has been a lot of interest but I don't have time to make anymore on the spot so I will be taking offers when I'm packing up.

How much do you all charge? £1.00, £1.50 or more?

Computer genius/Web designer I am not, but I started playing around with MS Frontpage a few years back and found it very simple and easy to use (if you get stuck just click the help button). I built my site in about a day, I'm still not finished and I'm constantly adding to it, but aren't we all? Take a look and tell me what you think http://www.milotheclown.co.uk

I bought my hosting through uk-cheapest.co.uk and have found their package to be very user friendly, I pay £29.00/year and this is what's included: https://www.uk-cheapest.co.uk/hosting.php

I can change anything I like whenever I like, I can set up my mailto:milo@milotheclown.co.uk">milo@milotheclown.co.uk emails to be received in MS Outlook, I can have sub domains to keep twisting, clowning, DJing etc separate, I can have several different email addresses, php forums, photo gallaries, live chat ....... The list goes on.

If you have MS Frontpage on your PC I would suggest having a little play – I'm more than happy to help out if you get stuck.

Regards

Milo.

Hi guys,

A challenge for you.....Last weekend I was asked for a couple of things I couldn't do!

Pokemon – There are hundreds of them, but I recon I could have got away with Pikachu  
Spiderman – Any ideas for a two balloon (red and blue) spider person?

Oh, I also have a booking to do a save the rainforest gig – Any simple jungle animals (the snake from Graham's DVD is great) would be appreciated.

Graham, how did you do that frog you showed me, the balloon's gone down now and I can't remember how we did it, I think the body was similar to the bear but with one centre balloon rather than two? I want to try and adapt it to have big while eyes and a red tongue like the snake.

Thanks.

Hi, just a quick post to let you know how my first job went....... Before Thursday the most I had twisted was a basic sausage dog a few years ago. Following my session with Graham on Thursday I felt confident enough to do my sons school fair today (Saturday).

I was the main attraction and had a queue of children for the full two hours I was there, I told the school in the morning that I would just charge 50p per balloon and give everything to the school fund.

I made £30.00, so I sold a total of 60 models! I used about 80 balloons in total, which includes the swords that children popped and I replaced for free and the few flowers that went bang. So I was doing £14.00ish / hour! Not bad ehh?

I got three potential bookings for a wedding and two parties in the summer and I am now the schools official children's entertainer/balloon man! This is great because the schools tend to share and I should get some good referrals from it!

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know how it went and, once again, recommend Grahams tuition and DVD!

Will post some pictures soon too!

Hi Everybody,

I've offered to do some stilt walking and balloon modelling for the below charity event. I'm not charging, just a donations bucket with all proceeds going to Action Duchenne.

If anyone else fancies it perhaps we could meet up?

Paul.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: info@facepaint-uk.com
Subject: Facepainting for a charity on 15th June
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 11:57:34 +0100


I'm forwarding this to you as students of The London School of Facepainting on behalf of Mark who has approached us. Please get in touch with him directly if you are interested.

 

Thanks,

 

Bibi

 

Hi there,

I am organising a charity football match on Sunday 15th June to raise funds for Action Duchenne, the principal UK charity for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The match is taking place in Edgware, NW London and is against an Arsenal ex-pro/celebrity XI.

I am looking at having various activities for kids on the day and wanted to know whether you might be available for face painting on a low fee or pay per face basis. If so could you indicate the likely fee or charge per face. If you want some exposure to at least several hundred people and are able to offer your services at no charge, that would be even better! We would probably want you to be there from around 2pm - 4.30pm.

Please email me at mailto:mark@goldenboot.org.uk">mark@goldenboot.org.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

regards,
Mark Silverman
Director, Action Duchenne
Father of Thomas, aged 3, with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

What types of twists are there and how do you do them?

Pinch
Tulip/Apple
Etc Etc....

What types of Balloons are there and what are they used for?

160s
260s
Hearts
Etc Etc...

How do you twist a knot together with a section of balloon?

Why do my balloons feel so .....Full? I'm letting a bit of air out and leaving a bit at the end but the balloons feel sooooooo full. I can do a six petal flower with 160s, but 260s just don't feel right, they're over inflated and seem to pop quite often?

Is there anything else that seems really obvious to you now that maybe wasn't so obvious when you were starting out?

Perhaps we could have a section for newbie questions like these?

Hi guys and galls,

Thought I'd stop by and formally introduce myself - I'm Paul AKA Milo the Clown. I'm new to the world of children's entertaining so please forgive me if some of my posts are a little basic.

I had some twisting tuition with Graham Lee today and I must say he is a very helpful, patient and friendly guy, so if there are any other newbies out there I would recommend booking a session or at least buying his DVD! (That's got to be worth 10% off my next order Mr Lee).

Having flicked through some of the previous posts on here and checked out a few of your websites I can see this site is going to be a great little resource. Hopefully I can contribute something, even if it's just giving you all a bit of a laugh at my first attempt models!

Would love to hear from Billy Wiz as we seem to have the same Axtell products and a similar routine (apart from the fact that I'm a new clown and you're an experienced magician).

Hope to see you all at one of the upcoming events.

Milo xoxo