To achieve any kind of success in kids entertainment—and in fact in any industry—knowing how to brand yourself effectively is as essential as creating an applause-worthy show. Learn how to do just that from this week’s podcast guest, Buster Balloon.

With his blend of brilliant balloon creations and signature comedy and magic, Buster Balloon has been bringing smiles and laughter to kids for 25 years now.

In this episode, he offers insights on being a better kids entertainer by tapping into the real you, investing in a team that will market you and free you to concentrate on what you do best, and improving yourself constantly with professional training. He also delves into the beauty of creating and stocking up on goodwill and shares where he’s currently headed.

In this episode we discuss:

- Creating a character and being genuine (thought-provoking insights here)

- Branding (in Buster Balloon’s words, branding is “one giant show”)

- Hiring or creating a support team for your show and your business (a great lesson)

- The importance of professional training

- Paying it forward: fiscal returns vs. “whuffie” or goodwill returns

- Buster Balloon’s new Kickstarter campaign

Whether you’re a seasoned ventriloquist or a kids entertainer considering adding puppets in your act, Mark Wade has a wealth of practical tips for you that you can apply as soon as your next show. 

Named America’s number 1 children’s ventriloquist and awarded the International Ventriloquist of the Year in the past, Mark shares how you can manage kid audiences effortlessly, convinces you to give puppets and ventriloquism a try, and directs you to resources where you can learn the craft.

In this episode we discuss:

- How Mark got into ventriloquism

- How to train kids to be an audience(great insights and tips!)

- How Mark’s dad influenced him

- The honesty of children and your “likability” as an entertainer

- Performance mistakes to avoid

- Mastering one field vs. dabbling at everything

- Mark’s philosophy—“controlled fun”—and how he applies it in his shows (another bunch of practical tips!)

- How to end a show the proper way (What happens when your show is done and you leave?)

- Dealing with challenging kids and situations

- Why add puppets in your act (the quick answer: kids absolutely love them!)

- Tips and tricks for those who want to introduce a puppet in their show

- Where you can learn ventriloquism

Thinking of adding bubbles in your act and need some tips from a seasoned bubble artist?

We got you covered.

In this episode, Caroline Cornelius-Jones, aka CJ the Bubbleologist, shares no-nonsense info on how to work with bubbles and even how to manage a crowd of bubble-bursting kids.

Business is thriving for this inspiring lady who is one of Singapore’s premier bubble artists. In between giving spectacular bubbles shows, playing various characters, and doing workshops, CJ runs two companies—CJ Bubble Productions and Fantasy Parties.

Learn all about her and the brilliant business of bubbles in this podcast.

In this episode we discuss:

- How CJ got the perfect bubble mixture

- How bubbles work in different temperatures

- Why CJ uses different bubble mixtures for different environments

- CJ’s selling points as a bubble artist and performer

- CJ’s love for dress-up and how that is incorporated into what she does

- Managing children during a bubble show

- How CJ puts children inside bubbles

- CJ’s showstopper: the cube-shaped bubble

- What CJ’s week looks like

- What CJ looks for when she hires new entertainers and why

- How to be in control yet still be fun (a very important skill!)

- Subcontractors—CJ’s thoughts on this

- Lessons on growing the business

- CJ’s creativity means many characters to play!

- The future for CJ Bubble Productions and Fantasy Parties

Having world records for juggling and unicycling proved of little value in breaking into the kids entertainment market compared to learning basic comedy, kids psychology and good marketing techniques.

Join the Hanson Family Circus Troupe as they discuss highs and lows, insights and revelations that come from taking on the Library Show market.

In this episode we discuss:

- Who is the Hanson family troupe

- How the family got into juggling, unicycling, and breaking world records

- How understanding the psychology of children helped build their confidence as performers and made their act better

- How they found the right audience in library shows

- What learnings they picked from David Kaye’s Seriously Silly book (e.g., the Look, Don’t See technique) and Julian’s Build Your Magic Show course

- The difference between being a show-off and being an entertainer

- What triggered them to study kid psychology

- How scripting your show can make you more bookable

- How they find gigs and market themselves, particularly to librarians (hint: word-of-mouth works wonderfully)

- How audiences love a family act

- The elements that gets clients clicking through your website and booking you

- How to get client video testimonials that help build massive credibility

Upselling. What’s that? We are using custom magic kits as an example to explore how professional children’s entertainers can do what fast food companies have known for decades: that asking ‘would you like fries with that?’ generates billions of dollars for them.

If we as kids entertainers employ the same strategy - of all the people who buy from you a percentage WILL buy more - over a career this WILL improve your income.

In this episode we discuss:

- Roman shares how custom magic kits can increase your income as kids entertainer without having to do any more performances.

- Having your very own branded magic kit add a level of credibility to your entertainment business that can help you stand out from your competition.

- Roman and the people at Custom magic kits take care of everything for you… All you do is pick the kit you want, supply them with a photograph of yourself and they do the artwork, printing and assembling for you before posting your very own branded magic kits to your door.

- The idea of having customized merchandised can be applied by any children’s entertainer. Roman explores some examples for face painters and jugglers.

- Birthday party entertainers all know the ongoing requests to provide party bags or giveaways at parties… Customized goody bags or custom magic kits take this to a whole new level - both for you and for your booker. Firstly, it is no longer a price war for the ‘cheapest’ option and secondly it provides something that is exclusive for the booker who is competing with a dozen other parties and wanting their child’s party to be special, memorable and different.

- Roman shares other ways of how using custom magic kits can make you more money, including offering magic workshops and having more magic products for sale afterwards.

- There are different ways and places to sell your customized magic kit and Roman offers a few ideas of how you can increase your income as a children’s entertainer.

YouTube is a great free resource for kids entertainers to find tutorials. YouTube is also a great place for children’s and family entertainers to raise their own profile.

Learn these YouTube tips for entertainers from Arizona resident, Cody Williams. Cody is a multi skilled balloon twister, unicyclist and juggler! Cody shares about how ironically he stumbled into the industry and how now he works to help fellow artists increase their skills by making YouTube videos as well as instructional DVDs.  Some helpful stories and handy tips here!

In this episode we discuss:

- Las Vegas – Bling Bling Jam, a jam room as well as a vacation!

- Cody speaks about his YouTube channel - unicaw89

- The ironic way Cody got involved in unicyclying and then balloon twisting

- Why Cody started his YouTube channel - Cody’s difference – teaching for experienced twisters - Extreme Unicycling – taking unicycling to the next level, how riders these days pick up the skills so quickly from online instructional videos. - How to be entertaining as a unicyclist

- Cody explains his reasoning behind his comical clips at the beginning of his YouTube videos

- How Cody comes up with his new designs to put onto YouTube

- Using your smart phone to make notes on the run - Cody’s upcoming plans – a DVD all about flair, not what to make but how to entertain with balloons with your flair.

- Advice from Cody – how to get speed as a balloon twister How to book restaurants - which ones and how

- Why kids entertainers should have a good business card

- How to give away your business card with style

What have age, storytelling techniques, library shows, Indiana Jones and Santa got in common?

They are are all part of the world of Stephen Gillham, who has used his age and his looks to create a new character Montana Jones (Indiana’s big brother) to showcase his storytelling abilities in his new library show.

Stephen first came to our attention when we met him at the Kidabra Kids Entertaining Convention in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

He was part of the Santa Jam, a get together of professional Santas. You can hear that interview here on our sister podcast Magician Business Podcast Ep 34.

We talk to Stephen about Montana Jones.  Montana is Indiana’s brother.  He is an explorer and had many adventures just like Indiana, looking for treasure and artefacts. 

It gets more intriguing …. all of his artefacts have stories and most have magical effects.

In this episode we discuss:

- Playing to your strengths

- Am I too old to be a children’s entertainer?

- What would you say to others who think age is a barrier?

- What is it about storytelling that you like?

- What is about storytelling that the people who book you like?

- What is it about storytelling that kids like?

- How long is a library show?

- What storytelling techniques do you use?

- What is the process you followed to develop the new character,

- Where do the ideas came from?

- What are the steps you follow to create a stage character?

- Which magic tricks work well in library shows?

- How much magic vs. how much storytelling?

- How do you weave storytelling into library shows?

- The importance of good promotional photos to help you get booked for summer reading programs in libraries.

As a kids entertainer, your caricature logo has the power to inform your primary audience (young children who can’t read yet) of who you are and what you are about.

What message does your caricature logo convey to your child audiences?

Matthew shares how his journey from doodling in class, to working as an illustrator and graphic designer and then finally combining his talent for illustrating people has lead him to where he is today: creating engaging, fun and vibrant caricature logos for entertainers.

In this episode we discuss:

- Why is professional logo design for entertainers important and where you can start getting ideas.

- What makes his caricature logos for entertainers different form other entertainer logos.

- How to use your caricature logo to keep entertaining long after you have gone.

- How one caricature logo can convey your message in a way that even children can understand.

- How to ensure that your caricature as a kids entertainers reflects who you are and what you do.

Annelise the Magnificent is a young entertainer and an aspiring 9 year old magician that has found a great joy and therapy in performing with her brother Master Benjamin.

Annelise’s story is a true inspirational tale with a heartwarming lesson for performers, both new beginners and seasoned professionals.

Annelise and her mum, Alison, shares the difficult and emotional journey that has gone before Annelise’s success as a young performing magician.

In this episode we discuss:

- Annelise shares how a young entertainer deals with pre-show nerves and how she approaches her performance.

- Alison (Annelise’s mum) talks of how magic has impacted and continuing to impact on Annelise’s life, having to deal with multiple difficulties, including hearing difficulties and sensory processing disorder.

- Annelise learnt magic from a magic set that she got for her 7th birthday. She blossomed and a thirst for learning magic was born.

- With the help from the internet, people with an interest in magic and other performers Annelise’s show and performance is developing and growing and will hopefully help Annelise to reach her dream of travelling the world doing magic! 

Joanne takes us step by step through the process of getting started and then shares how to optimize your blog to increase website traffic and build your brand.

You will hear just what a blog can do for you and how to get your content in front of potential bookers. Joanne shows how easy it is to stand out from your competitors by establishing yourself as an authority kids entertainer.

Ever stuck for what to post on your Facebook page? Joanne shows how you can repurpose your blog content across your social media platforms and create powerful SEO without even trying.

In this episode we discuss:

Learn how an investment of only 30 minutes a week can take your entertaining business to the next level 

Find out what a blog really is

Discover what a blog can do for you as a kids entertainer

See how to get your blog seen and shared

Get essential FREE tools for your blogging