Kids Entertainer Podcast

f you work as a professional kids entertainer you will recognise that delivering a good performance is a balance between having good skills to entertain and being able to manage the audience.

Managing kids behaviour can sometimes be a real challenge but this is made doubly difficult when you end up having to manage grownups behaviour as well. How often have you been out there doing something truly special to make the children smile only to have a gaggle of chatting adults spoil the moment?

In this episode of the Kids Entertainer Podcast, children’s entertainer Ken Kelly shares some audience management techniques that get both parents and children eating out of your hand.

In this episode

What can you learn from an award winning kids musician? Lots. Whether you want to break into kids song writing or not, in this episode respected kids entertainer Peter Coombe shares performing tips, how you can write a kids song and about breaking into the kids music market plus a whole lot more.

With over 30 years of writing, recording and performing Peter has lots of valuable information to share, in this episode Peter tells us about his journey of breaking into the industry, how he writes his music, performance hints and tips and what he is up to now!

- Peter's story of breaking into the kid's music industry

- How Peter's music went from handing tapes out to friends and family to touring and selling Aria award winning albums

- What kind of personality as well as ability is important for being successful and why

- Peter's most cherished moments as a kid's musician

- Some hints and tips for keeping children's attention throughout a concert

- Is sense of humour still the same 30 years ago and now?

- Handling what could be bad situations on stage into a positive situation

- Creativity and song writing tips

- Peter's "Big Kid's Night Out" shows for adults who grew up listening to his music

- What it takes to manage your time between your personal and professional life.

- Diversifying your performances to incorporate different techniques and styles of magic and balloon entertaining.

- Just how important it is to build knowledge when starting out as an entertainer.

- Where you can find information on your chosen field of entertainment.

- Techniques on how to reposition and brand yourself as an expert.

- The benefits of marketing yourself as an entertainer and building a positive reputation.

- Avoiding the fear of sharing what you know with others.

- Tips on how to increase the amount of viewers on your YouTube videos

- Using your online catalogue of YouTube videos to get more work.

- Ways to create more opportunities for yourself and avoid competition.

- Some top tips on how to perform well on live TV

- Understanding the difference between a promotional TV appearance and an entertainment TV performance.

- Some great ways to approach media outlets for promotion as a kids entertainer.

- The importance of remembering “What’s in it for me” (WIIFM) when pitching an idea to a potential client.

- What you need to know about the different types of trade shows.

- Ideas on how to create a captivated audience while performing at a trade show.

- The pros and cons of charisma vs. technical skill when performing.

- Focusing on tailoring your work to a niche rather than trying to please everyone. 

In this episode we discuss:

This episode will remind kids entertainers to use your bean, trust your heart and follow your character.

Producer, creator, comedian and voice over artist, Tom Hayes started in sales, then onto a kids entertainer, then onto a life of stand up comedy and keynote speaking then came back to doing a kids radio program that has grown into a series of Audio Stories for kids that have little beans as central characters.

Discover what doctors told Tom when he was 13 years old that would profoundly change his life and let him understand the most of the barriers in life are mental, not physical.

Tom was born into a family of magicians yet ended up in the medical field and took up using magic to entertain after a surprise encounter with a salesman who showed him the power of a simple magic trick.

Tom won the funniest person in Massachusetts

Doug Henning, David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, Penn and Teller created a popular platform of magic appreciation that helped Tom get into the comedy market.

Can you use YOUR story and your ability to speak in public as a launching pad to a speaking career which pays much more than doing entertainment shows?

How do you transfer from comedy magic to creating short stories that appeal to younger audiences?

What does Mick Jagger dreaming the song Satisfaction have to do with writing storylines for kids?

These audio stories for kids run 5-8 minutes. The stories focus on the characters of BeanTown.

Is there an intuitive sense of story telling and writing storylines? can this be as effective as studied story construction.

Do you know how Jim Henson became famous as the creator of the international puppet success ... the Muppets

What happens when your big plans don't play out as you had hoped? Where are the new opportunities? Tom shares how he took to the new world of opportunities provided by the internet and resurrected the marketing of his Beantown stories and characters.

How are you writing the material for you shows? Are you writing for the under 5 audience? Is this limiting the effectiveness  of your material? Should you be writing for the tweens?

The importance of staying flexible enough to adapt to new the new paradigms of social marketing.