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I've always thought balloon twisting was entertaining in itself, and, if you make interesting models, you don't need much else. But a lot of twisters think they have to add on the entertainment, and most of them take the easy route and tell jokes.
Being a comedian is a lot more difficult than twisting balloons. It takes years to develop a good act, and twisting balloons while you tell jokes doesn't make you funnier.
Instead of using jokes from the Balloon HQ website, or any of the books of jokes that you can buy, why not invent a character, one that doesn't tell jokes for preference, which instantly makes you different from ninety-odd per cent of the other balloon modellers in your area.
I've often read in magic or balloon books, about creating a character, but have never found much to aid in creating such a character. They give me the bare bones, but I want more. What do I say? What do I say next? I need examples; lots of them.
For instance; you could play a character who tells tall tales, so that for every balloon model you make you could have a tall story. You don't have to tell a big lie every time you twist; spread them out. Your main entertainment should be your twisting. Make interesting things. The talk should be an added attraction.
Let me give you an example. If you have to make a sword, you can say, when you first started making balloons you didn't realise that they weren't supposed to be sharp and one day you accidentally cut a little boy's finger off. It only takes a moment to tell the story, and by the time you've finished, the sword is made. Now bring out a matchbox.
Inside the matchbox is a layer of cotton wool with a finger laying on it. It's easy to produce by making holes in the bottom of the matchbox and the tray, hiding the hole with the cotton wool. Just before you open the matchbox, you slip your finger through the hole, and it appears to really be a finger in a matchbox. Then you wiggle your finger and everyone faints. Now you can sneak off, ending the line without the usual trouble.
Lies about lions and tigers should be easy. You talk about how you selflessly stepped into the path of a charging lion that had escaped from the circus, and was about to attack and devour a small child. Of course, you expand upon this story, perhaps ending up with the lion eating you. Shame you tasted so bad; he spat you out.
The more complicated the balloon model; the longer the story.
For an elephant, you talk about the time you saved a baby elephant from some danger, which you'll have to make up yourselves, I'm not doing everything for you, and years later, at a circus, it remembered you, trampling over the first four rows of the audience, to reach you, etc..
When you run out of ideas, you can start off a tale and ask the kids in your line what happened next, and let them complete the story.
Additionally, you could tell the kids interesting facts about the animals you are making. The road runner, for instance, dances around in front of a snake; darts in and swallows its head. Then he runs around with the snake hanging out of his beak until it is digested.
A cobra, when he fails to attract a female, might kill her, swallow her, and then spew her up.
Collect a few similar stories and intersperse them with your made-up stories. Often people won't know the truth from the lies.
I hope this will help you develop your own character and, next time you say I'm an entertainer first, perhaps you will be.
