Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 13:06:05 -0700
From: "Jay Frasier" <frasierj@lanecc.edu>
To: <balloon@balloonhq.com>
Subject: heart line

Hi all,

I wanted to tell you about a line I made up (at least I can't remember ever hearing someone else use it) to use when giving a child a sculpture with a heart in it.  This was actually an ad-lib which worked really well, so I wanted to share it with you.  Someone else may have thought of this before.

Anyway, I was working in a mall and lots of kids wanted different heart sculptures.  When I would give them the sculpture, I would say, "You can have this if you promise me two things.  One, you must promise me that you will not put your mouth on it."  As I finished saying this, I would nod my head "yes."  I waited for the kid to nod his or her head.  If they did not do so, I kept on nodding my head until they caught on and began nodding (this in itself was quite funny a couple of times).  I also made eye contact with the parent to make sure they also got the message.  It is amazing to me how many 8+ year olds will put the balloons in their mouths (I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that).

Once the kid had nodded, I would say, "And second, you must promise me that you will not leave this is San Francisco."  The kids almost always nodded their heads very seriously.  This usually cracked the parents up.  The kids would just stand there with serious expressions on their faces nodding their heads and their parents and the other adults in the area would be laughing.

So, the whole line is:  "You can have this if you promise me two things.  One, you must promise me that you will not put your mouth on it.  And second, you must promise me that you will not leave this is San Francisco."  Once I had ad-libbed this the first time and caused a whole group of adults to start laughing, I began to experiment with how to deliver it.  I discovered that I got the surest and biggest laughs when I conditioned the kids to nod their heads.  I also often looked at the adults who were laughing the loudest and said "that line's for you!"  This often led to more laughter and lots of smiles on the faces of the adults.

I hope some of you can use this!  If I've rediscovered what someone else has already discovered, please let me know.

Jay Frasier