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While there are lots of joke books and joke websites, the best thing to remember is to just do it! Step out of your comfort zone and tell a joke!
You would not believe how many people are uncomfortable with this. There are people that Don Caldwell calls "Shoe-top twisters". That is they stare at the tops of their own shoes the entire time they are making an animal. They are so worried about messing up. YOU ARE GOING TO MESS UP...SO WHAT?!?!?!?! Laugh at yourself...everybody else does!!
I already mentioned in the Forum about making a kid raise his right hand and promise to clean his mother's bathroom and rub his dad's feet. I use that one a lot and have for many years.
In fact many a repeat customer groans when they see me because they suddenly remember they have NEVER done anything for their parents and yet somehow they expect to get another balloon. I mock them about this and then we move on.
Sometime I have the kid stand in front of me and while I am making what they want I give them commands to follow.
Stand on one foot.
Stand on one foot and jump up and down.
Stand on one foot and jump up and down and flap your elbows.
Stand on one foot and jump up and down and flap your elbows and turn around in a circle.
Stand on one foot and jump up and down and flap your elbows and turn around in a circle and shout "Cock-a-doodle-doo!!!"
So they do all this right in the middle of the restaurant and usually I do it along with them WHILE making the balloon!
Great fun.
Sometimes I during line work I will stop twisting and have the kids line up in front of me for a rousing chorus of " A Tootie Taa". This was written by a child pychologist and is the favorite of many a children's librarian. I'm sorry the name of the doctor excapes me at present but your librarian probably has it on a cd.
I tell the kids to say what I say and do what I do. It is a silly song with a series of commands and in the end everyone will have their "thumbs up...elbows in...feet apart...knees together...bottoms up...tongues out...turn around" The kids catch on fast. Everybody laughs and then we return to twisting.(Warning This takes some physical getting used to for old fat adults like me....but well worth it)
I am constantly amazed at how much the kids want to obey whatever you tell them. For the entire year after my summer library shows parents will stop me on the street and comment about how obiedient so many children were at the same time.
I thought we were just having fun.
