Kids Entertainer Podcast (Zivi Kivi)

As entertainers, we usually worry if we are funny enough. And it’s understandable. Laughter is a good indication (though it is by no means the only indication) that our audience is indeed being entertained.

If comedy is something you wish you’re better at, or if you simply want more tips and inspiration on how to be funny, David DeVito, who has been voted “Best Stand-Up” in the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, shares a good number of solid tips in this interview. (We’ve listed them all in the extended notes, so be sure to get a copy.)

In this episode we discuss:

• David’s average performing week and his shows
• Why David says “If there are adults in the audience, you’re not doing a children’s show.”
• An easy way to engage the kids and make the adults laugh: Take cue from Art Linkletter’s Kids Say the Darndest Things
• Do you need to be funny or can you learn to be funny
• Tips for funnier and better shows so you can charge higher and score more bookings
• The anatomy of a joke
• The comedy technique that you can learn from Everybody Loves Raymond
• The importance of being willing to fail and putting yourself out there
• The experimental segment in David’s shows
• Bigger laughter = More money

Welcome to episode 112 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast. Today we have Annie Banannie as the co host. In this episode and we talked about the book Seriously Silly and the Repeat After Me principle. We wrapped this episode with an important discussion about the ecological nature of latex balloons. All of these exciting topics in episode 112. Listen now!

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice:

What are the differences between Seriously Silly the book, Seriously Silly the DVD, and the new book Super Sized Silly?  By Robert Clarke

“Hey, good morning Zivi! It’s Robert Clarke here, I just have a question mate. David Kaye’s book Seriously Silly, I’ve come across Serious Silly that come with a DVD, but there’s also one Seriously More Seriously Silly but doesn’t come with a DVD is this the same book or is it two title different books? Love to know, thanks mate! And the website is http://escapadesentertainmentandpromotions.com.au/”

The new book book contains 150 routines from 104 different magicians. It shows the routines done by different magicians.

The first book shows what tricks work for specific age level and teaches what makes kids laugh and interact.

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault:

The Repeat After Me tactic -  as shown in David DeVitto’s lecture Bring in the Laughs to Bring in More Bookings

Zivi personally uses this principle in all of his shows, he teaches one magic trick in his show, either one with his magic bracelet or anything okay to share and he asks to do the magicians oath to never share the secret.

Example:

I, Zivi Kivi, promise, to never reveal, the secret, and, I will do, anything that, my mom tells me to do, and also, my dad, AMEN

Annie tends to use it for a safety pledge if she’s gonna do something that looks dangerous. It’s building the excitement but also reminds them about safety.

Hot Topic:

Can we help spread the word that balloons are eco friendly?

With the raising concerns about Balloons and the Environment… how do we spread the word about the misinformation (like people who say balloons are made of plastic) and get the real info out while still being amusing?

Annie thinks there’s a lot of misinformation about balloons, she shared that it started in the 80’s that it was reported that it’s dangerous like plastic.

A latex balloon is made from materials from a rubber tree (each tree can last up to 40 years and keep producing materials).

Balloons are made from biodegradable materials.

What can we do in order to help this environment cause?

Part of our job is to educate people about balloons and we have so many tools we can use to share it with people. You can ask people to do a pledge about helping the balloon and environment cause.

Share with us if you do anything in your show about spreading awareness about balloons. Do that in our Facebook group, please!

Legal gibberish turns off many of us, and that may be why you’ve put off having your own contract in place. Drafting one also seems like a painstakingly meticulous business as you need to cover a lot of bases.

But in this podcast episode, Michelle Uulf shows that making your own contract does not need to complicated. Here she shares how you can create this legal document simply but effectively, and even how you can automate the process of having it signed.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why are contracts important and how do they benefit you as an entertainer and/or employer (if you have staff)?
• Should you DIY contracts or should you employ the services of a lawyer?
• Can you just copy and paste contracts you see online?
• Can you change your contract over time?
• 5 steps to making your own contract
• Do people really read contracts?
• How can you automate the signing of a contract?
• What do you do when disputes happen?

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 120 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Louise Wells a veteran kids entertainer for 25 years is our guest in this spectacular show. Louise is part of the KM Challenge and today we talked about how her career evolve and how she got where she is right now.

• Louise started as a casual entertainer for adult parties for the first 5 years of her career
• She found kids entertainment and fell in love with it
• Started with Kids Entertainer Academy via Ken Kelly helping her start
• Louise started doing parties for free, just for pictures and feedback
• She does her make up for 2 minutes because and doesn’t want to arrive in the venue with the make up on
• Louise loves to do things on a bigger scale like big parties and shows
• Louise went through the Kivi Media Challenge and it gave her clarity and focus, and to achieve things quickly and effectively
• “It’s not about being the biggest business in the world, it’s about being the best” - Louise

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 134 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today is the 4th episode of this new season and co-hosts Danny and Zivi talked about How to create original routines for your kids show in today's episode. Listen Now!

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Why be original?
• Principle of the trick, idea for routine
• Inspiration, research, looking outside your field.
• Adapting ideas -Let’s take a look at the Colouring book trick; standard, other versions, make your own
• Make your own props - cardboard 1st to test, then make a better version 2, eg three little pigs story
• Combining ideas (Danny’s Three Little Pigs show concept)
• Pushing limits - What do you do now? Which bits do you like? How can you improve it? The look? The skill level? The originality? Upsizing? Miniaturizing?
• Character Development: eg Regina Martinez - Silly Sparkles - Danny Directs
• How crazy can you get?
• What is the end feeling you want for your audience that they go home with?
• https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cabaret+du+monde

Welcome to the new season of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! We’re thrilled to be back and we hope you are, too.

With our return, we introduce BIG changes aimed to bring you continued inspiration, valuable knowledge and actionable tips that will help your children’s entertainment career to flourish.

Ready to find out what we have in store for you this season? Go on and hit play.

In this episode we discuss:

• Julian’s farewell to KEH and his next adventure
• Introducing our new presenter – Find out who!
• Our new show format

In Your Voice: Starting your own kids entertainment business

I have been daydreaming about starting my own children's party entertainment business. I'm currently a children's dance/drama teaching artist and I have been face painting for years. I want to do characters like a ballerina that teaches a mini class and does fun games, or like a fairy (I love fairies!) that does some magic and face painting. Thoughts? I figure it will just stay a dream if I never talk about it... I know princesses are super popular at girls’ parties, but we are kind of a feminist/girl power family so I was thinking female superheroes might be fun too! - Thera Knapp

Tips from the Vault: Breaking into the preschool market

• Why entering the preschool market is a smart business move
• Tips for getting started and creating your own preschool show
• A great resource you can download for free

Hot Topic: Entertaining younger children

• Making yourself seem smaller
• Misnaming the stuff they know
• Repeating what you say

Among the tried and tested ways to make any show outstanding is to add backing tracks. Music and sound effects do make performances livelier, funnier, and more professional, and they even allow you to insert a voice character in your program and prompt your audience to react.

Listen to this interview and get a heap of tips from Mark Beckwith and Obediah Thomas on how to use—and create—your own backing tracks.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why use backing tracks
• How to create or get backing tracks for your show
• What are MIDI tracks and how do they work
• How to work sound into your show
• Using backing tracks to make extra characters in solo shows
• A simple but very effective way of controlling your sound tracks with PowerPoint, a laptop, and a clicker
• Pre-show music and the value it adds to your show
• How music can prompt your audience to applaud and react
• Why it’s best to use your own sound equipment
• How to simplify your sound check and listen for any problems
• Dealing with natural or room reverb in large halls and gymnasiums
• Back-up systems and dealing with equipment problems
• Some things to be careful of when using backing tracks
• Tips on buying equipment
• How to start when first using backing tracks in your show

In this week’s Kids Entertainer Podcast episode, Guinness World Record holder and all-around entertainer Carisa Hendrix graces us with an interview that is positively brimming with insights and advice on how to create empowering children’s shows.

Talking in detail about where to draw inspiration, to how to manage different characters and brands, to what is social currency and how to give this to our audience in both our kids and adult shows, Carisa gives us a piece of her brilliant mind in this interview.

In this episode we discuss:

• Carisa’s background

• Meaning, significance, and entertainment: How to create and balance these in our kids shows

• Carisa as a fire-eater, glass walker, and kids entertainer: How to effectively manage and market different characters and brands

• Focusing on one niche vs. offering diverse entertainment services

• Where to find inspiration: “Study broadly”

• Carisa’s S.C.R.A.T.C.H. system on how to create new children’s shows

• Social currency and the value of this to a child

• Forms of social currency

• How to create what Carisa terms as “honest tension” in your show

• Communicating a message of significance in your show without being preachy

Zivi Kivi is back on the Kids Entertainer Podcast and in this episode he offers smart, easy-to-do marketing strategies that will help you get better—and more—shows while keeping the kids quiet and cooperative. Zivi has road-tested these techniques in his own shows, so you know they truly and effectively work.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why it is important to remember names
• How Zivi helps his customers remind the guests to attend the event: 4 different ways
• A great tip on how to get your brand in front of more people: The Gift Box Tactic
• Thank you note from the birthday kid to the guests: not only a marketing tool that gets your name in front of more people, but also a tool for managing and empowering the kids
• The Pre-Approved Time Method: How Zivi handles requests of “Can you stay longer” and earns in the process
• How to get text and video testimonials: 2 doable and effective tips
• Zivi’s courses

In this episode we discuss:

The importance of showmanship over props and how John realized this

A common mistake John often sees starting magicians and children’s entertainers commit

How often he gets “bad” shows

How he gets honest criticism or feedback on his shows

How long he expects to keep on entertaining and what future he sees for kids entertaining

Performing for technology-savvy children

Effective techniques he uses to build rapport with his audience

How he deals with chatty adults during his shows

His racing game

His weakness: strolling magic

The age groups he loves performing for

Why he specializes in children’s and family entertaining

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 131 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! In this new season, Danny Schlesinger is coming back as a co-host with Zivi Kivi. Today we talked about how to perform in the midst of this pandemic.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• How entertainers adjust to the pandemic situation
• What adjustments are necessary for doing a performance
• Live Performance vs. Virtuals Shows
• Important things to consider in live performances during this pandemic
• Why it is important that you know what you are doing when performing outside
• The precautions you have to consider if you perform outside
• Why this is the best time to reinvent your routine 
• The best things to do to improve yourself while you don't have a performance lined up
• Why learning a new skill is a great opportunity during this time
• How KEA helps entertainers by having all available skills ready to be utilized to learn and improve
• How keeping the ideas flowing helps big time

In this episode, Rob Ruthart shares not only the road that led him to where he is today, but also the lessons he learned along the way—from how to manage staff and the business side of kids entertainment, to how best to engage children, to how to be the greatest children’s entertainer you can be.

In this episode we discuss:

• What Rob’s science and reptile shows are like and how he injects entertainment with education in these shows
• The road that led Rob to building Safari Science
• How word of mouth worked for him
• The challenges he faced about finding and managing staff and the learning he picked along the way that has shaped his approach in business
• Why kids entertainment—and good kids entertainers—are important
• How Rob works with children (You have to hear this.) 
• How he puts fun in educational shows
• How he entertains mixed-age groups
• His approach in educational shows: Fun first!
• How he created his science shows
• Tips and advice for kids entertainers

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 118 of the Kids Entertainer Hub! Gemma Parker from Sussex, United Kingdom is our guest in this spectacular show. Today we talked about her journey to becoming a full time entertainer from being a teacher.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Gemma is not only an entertainer but also runs an entertainment agency
• Gemma was a kids entertainer and then became a teacher because of her love for children
• After a life changing moment of having a baby she decided to go full time on being a kids entertainer
• She also started her own agency with a few entertainers
• She started Crazy Beans which is an entertainment team that she leads
• Her costumes are awesome which some are her designs
• When she took the risk of going full time, she was ready to go all in
• Having the baby was the boost she was waiting to take the risk
• Gemma does a lot of networking and is part of at least 5 network groups, this is part of her marketing strategy
• In looking for an entertainer to be part of her team, she particularly looks for energy
• Kids Entertainer Academy helped her a lot since she became a member for over a year now
• “Other things can be taught but energy is key” - Gemma

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 141 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Silly Jilly is our guest in this episode today. Today we talked about adaptation and innovation as an entertainer.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Jilly shared how her pandemic season went and what happened to the bookings

• What Jilly did to help her business during the pandemic

• How it is like working with a director like Dave Brenn and how it helped

• Jilly recommendations on what to do during the challenges

• Many more inside this episode so listen now.

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 142 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Our guest for today is Ms. Annie Banannie, the Balloon Storyteller. Today we talked about keeping herself healthy during the pandemic and 

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• July 2018 is when she started taking care of herself and lose weight
• Annie talked about how it's going during the pandemic
• Annie shared how she continues the journey of helping people
• How she keeps herself motivated during this time
• What's gonna be the best practices before performing for a kids audience next
• When is her plan to do the next show
• Many more from Annie on this episode, listen now.

In this episode, we discuss an often-debated topic among kids and family entertainers: how long should a magic show be? We consider kids’ psychology today and share insights from our own experiences.

Furthermore, we share two magic tricks that you can give away to your audience—tricks that are easy and perfect for children to do.

It’s another succinct episode packed with resources, actionable tips, and valuable information to chew on, so go press Play now.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: What is the Best Part of Your Magic Show?

If I were to ask the 5-year-olds in your audience what their favorite part of your magic show is, what would they say? - Silly Jilly

• Your favorite routine vs. the routine that stands out in your audience’s eyes
• Doing market research: Asking your audience what the best part of your show is for them

Tips from the Vault: Magic Trick Templates for Giveaways

• Choosing magic tricks fit for children
• Magic workshops and magic kit party giveaways
• Free magic trick templates that you can use

Hot Topic: How Long Should Your Magic Show Be

• Ideal length of show for different ages, groups and events
• The psychology of children today and how this could inform your show

Eric Knaus, aka the Great Zucchini, is one of those people who have an intuitive marketing sense. Instead of spending dollars to promote his brand, he relies on something that’s low-cost but astoundingly effective: relationship marketing.

Listen to our interview with him and learn how he does this type of marketing, as well as how to gain easy name recall, maintain controlled chaos, and build rapport with your clients from the first phone call.

In this episode we discuss:

• Eric’s market and typical show
• His marketing style: relationship marketer and performer
• How he handles children and unruly behavior: controlled chaos
• How he stays faithful to his brand and makes himself relatable to his clients
• How Eric turns his show into an entertaining infomercial
• How he gains name recall
• How to get ‘defenders’ to back you up against trolls
• How he humanizes himself to clients during phone conversations

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 135 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today Zivi and Danny are back to talk about Getting a show together or a new routine - How to build your next show or even a new routine. Listen to the episode to learn more.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Virtual or Live - Your show and each routine should have a beginning, middle, and end.
• Is it a modular show or a narrative show? The benefits of each.
• Danny’s first show - Lighter Than Air, a balloon show - made up of cabaret acts
• How do you know what order to put routines in?
• Get ideas, try stuff out, get a director/coach, get creative, don’t be a perfectionist
• Pre-sell your idea so it's funded and you have an aim, you know the demand and have bookings to help with costs of creating a new product.
• Theatre in the UK experience - Danny
• Test your show out with a local school, library, party, etc free or cheap but with feedback/ video/ photos/ testimonials.
• Market and sell your show.
• After each show for the first few - review, record on video if you can, and tweak the bits that aren’t working so well.

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 128 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Jelly Otis is our guest in this episode. Today we talked about her unique business and reptile show.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• They are planning to change their business name from Blazing Balloons to Jellyfish Entertainment
• Jelly started when she was 19 as a part timer
• Jelly went to Hawaii and brought her balloons their but did not get in touch with the balloon community
• Jelly transferred to Utah and found a mentor Jeremy
• Face painting was kind of a challenge for her because of her creativity
• Jelly never does balloons and face painting at the same time in one show
• Jelly's husband is an Entomologist and that's where the reptile show came into the scene
• The reptile is going on for about a year now and has become aligned to kids entertainment
• Their company's work ethic is what they are proud of (always on time, always a great show)
• More exciting and informative things when you listen to the episode..

Out from our Vault of Wisdom this week is a conversation filled to the brim with tips on how to entertain different audiences and how to grow from failure.

In this episode, we talk with well-known family and corporate entertainer and lecturer for magicians Joe Monti. Joe generously shares the things he has learned from his vast experience of performing for clients in 40 different countries for over 25 years. Learn from one of the bests by listening to this interview.

Hello! Welcome to episode 113 Season 5. Today we have Danny Schlesinger to brainstorm with Zivi in our exciting topics. We are starting with tackling a question about starting the show later when a customer request so suddenly at the event. We are sure you already experienced this so listen up to some ideas on how to avoid and deal with this. We also talked about goals and the 3 steps to follow to make sure you reach them. Lastly the hot topic that is going to affect 120% of kids entertainer that is worth the debate so tune in and listen to learn more.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice:

Customer wants me to start later AFTER reaching the gig - Question from Christine.

“Good morning. This is Christine McKnoxville Party Magic in Tennessee. What really bothers me is after I’ve made every arrangement possible for a booker, I know what time I’ll be there, how long my show is gonna last, everything is confirmed and then you get there and they realized that there’s nobody there, they want you to wait, and they tried to make you feel bad because you’re there and their guest aren’t and you’ve got something else going on right after you cannot stay. I tried to be very kind to the people that have booked me but you know many times I’ve only received the deposit I have not received the full payment and I’m afraid that if I don’t wait for their entire guest to be there that I am not get paid. So what’s the best way to deal with something like this? Thank you very much I appreciate your response.”

This situation has happened to Danny and it felt terrible. For him if you’re a balloon artist you can use the waiting time to do you balloons but if your a magician you cannot do your magic or games. Zivi on the other hand experienced this situation in a surprise birthday show where the birthday boy was not there and got stuck in traffic. Ouch.

So what can you do to avoid this situation?

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault:

3 Steps to Reach Your Goals - Goal Setting from the Getting Started Course.

Here’s the very methodical approach by Ken Kelly broken down by Zivi Kivi.

1. Know what your goals are.
2. Have a step by step plan on how to reach your goals
3. Implement the learning that will empower the momentum to 

This video is a must watch if you want to start reaching your goals.

Hot Topic:

Using the coloring book - is it still OK to use it?

This coloring book is a self working magic trick and an entry level magic trick. Nowadays everybody is using it and everybody sees it but the principle is fantastic. There are already many other versions of the coloring book, you can even make your own version of it for your show.

If you’re happy with the coloring book then go ahead and continue to use it, there’s no problem in that as long as you make you audience happy but if you wanna be original there’s a lot of options for you to choose from.

What can you add to the coloring book routine? How can you expand and make it more interesting? These are the questions that Danny wants to ask from you. And for him it’s absolutely okay to use the coloring book routine.

Let us know what are you doing to improve the coloring book routine? Do you think it’s okay to perform the same trick or you have a clever way of doing it. Share us your thoughts in our Facebook group!

Welcome to the 110th episode of Season 5. Our co-host for this episode is Danny Schlesinger. We open the episode with a debate about Balloon Workshops. Particularly, when is the best time to inflate the balloons prior to the workshop. We also shared our thoughts about two mistakes in puppetry plus the hot topic of should you do charity work and how to get paid in doing it. Stick around and listen to the episode if these topics seems valuable.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Balloon workshops - when to inflate - a question by Devin (a.k.a the Dev)

“Hi everyone, this is Devin. My question for the podcast has to do with the balloon twisting workshop and curious to learn how long in advance can blow or pump up the balloons? Thanks!”

Balloon Workshop Blueprint

Danny has done balloon workshops before, both before and after he took the Balloon Workshop Blueprint. Both Zivi and Danny had changed the way they do workshops after they took the course. It gave them a system and script to follow.

Things to consider in the workshop

1. Venue arrival time
2. Size of your vehicle
3. Number of kids at the workshop
4. Method of Inflation
5. Make sure you have a separate room to inflate the balloons if you’re gonna do that in the location.

Things to consider when in the event:

1. Hydrate
2. Headphones & Music
3. Cleanliness of inflation room
4. Getting help with inflating from volunteers at the venue or at home with teenagers

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault: The two biggest mistakes people do with puppets

Based on the webinar we did with Colin Dymond (which is available in the KEA Learning Circle, under lectures)

1. The Levitating puppet (puppet is held in mid air)
   
   
2. Talking with both thumb and rest of the hand moving (should move only the thumb down) 

Also from the course “how to add a puppet to your show”

Making it believable by creating the illusion of another character on stage.

The Add a Puppet to Your Show is available for KEA members.

Hot Topic: Charity work for free? Is that a good idea or not?

Important things about doing charity works

• Where are you in your career?
• What other benefits can you gain from a free charity gig?
• Can you cancel? 
• You may want to draw your own line in terms of the number of free charity gigs per year. 
• If you do some charity work it will feel great and research shows that in fact it will make you healthier.
• What kind of people are going to the charity? 
• What your heart is telling you is really important, it’s all up to you. Listen to THE VOICE.

Roger Blakiston’s career in professional entertainment spans over 50 years, and it also spans both sides of the Atlantic. Theatrically trained and having run his own children’s entertainment agency in the UK before moving to the US—where he is still an active kids comedy magician—Roger is filled with stories and insights about all these fun and games we call work.

Listen to our interview with him and see a life in children’s entertainment through his eyes.

In this episode we discuss:

• Roger’s comedy influences
• Difference between UK and US audiences
• Difference of children and adult audiences over the decades
• For how long can you be a children’s entertainer
• Roger’s story about how he started in magic and became a kids entertainer
• Why it’s a smart move to do kids entertainment over adult entertainment
• Theatre training and success in children’s entertaining
• Why Roger offers a different preschool show every month
• How Roger came up with his practical costume

It’s best to be prepared in life as well as business. And to arm you for the future, we discuss the technology trends in business that are likely going to affect kids entertainers.

And since this is our 100th episode, we have a fantastic present for all of you, our listeners. What is it? Go on and click play to find out.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: The Future of Kids Entertainment

What developments are on the horizon that can affect the future of children’s entertainment? - NJ Holtz

• Trends to be aware of: eLearning, eCourses and automation systems
• The uses of chatbots

Tips from the Vault: Free Access to the Entire Vault!

Get your Free Access to the KEA Tips Vault: Go to https://kidsentertainerhub.com/vault/

For KEA members, check out a new course by Colin Dymond: Adding a Puppet to Your Show

Hot Topic: Mentors

• The danger of not having a mentor
• Ideas for getting some mentorship

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 132 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Danny is back again as co-host on this episode today. Today we talked about how to shine while performing so that even the adults will love you.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• How to practice = Skills. How to rehearse = Routines
• Tools like Mirror X, Camera/video, Director/Outside eye
• Confidence = preparation; Smiling with eyes, being genuine, practice & play
• Eyes are windows to the soul
• Keep your windows clean & fresh technique
• Eyes wide open, healthy body too
• Including the adults - Perform for everyone in the room principle
• Connect with the kids AND adults by asking them to help
• Interact with kids improvise on their answers to enchant the adults.
• Be Brilliant at what you do - be spectacular and be different!

In this episode, we tackle a question that many kids and family entertainers are keen to find the answer to: how do we know if our business is indeed doing well? How can we say objectively that we’re flourishing, or at least performing better than the last months or the previous years? What things do we need to look at to be able to say that we’re on an upward trajectory or that we need more fine-tuning?

It’s an important question as the answer will allow us to run our business in a more informed way. And we give you the best answer we know, based from our own experiences, in this episode.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: How to Know if Your Business is Growing

What should we measure to know if our business is growing? – Steve Wickenton

• The importance of measuring and keeping track
• Tools and tips you can apply right now to measure the performance of your business

Tips from the Vault: Answer Phone Message

• Why you need a good answering machine/voicemail message
• The anatomy of a great answer phone message

Hot Topic: Who is the Boss—the Booker or the Audience?

• What you can do to please both the booker and the birthday child

Featured in this week’s podcast episode is the incredibly funny and award-winning entertainer John Kimmons. Here he shares how to win an audience’s attention, what his philosophy on entertaining is, and how he turned a race game into a brilliant routine that wins everybody over.

Go click on that play button now and enjoy another awesome interview.

In this episode we discuss:

• The story behind the successful kids entertainer convention Trix in the Stix
• John’s philosophy on kids entertaining
• How to ‘get your foot in the door’ and win the attention of an audience
• How John got into kids entertaining
• How he developed his super engaging race game/routine and made it an awesome show finale material

Ever thought of adding puppets to your kids show? This episode just might give you the nudge you need to give it a try.

In this podcast interview, professional magician and ventriloquist Tom Crowl shares the difference that puppets can make to your show, as well as fantastic tips and resources you can use to be a good puppet manipulator. Listen to the conversation and pick up the information you need to add more colour, depth, and value to your act.

• How Tom got started in ventriloquism

• Why it is a good idea to add a puppet to your act

• Top tips on how to be a good ventriloquist

• How Tom created his online ventriloquist course

• How his group’s forum provides support and help to members

• Where you can get five free lessons on ventriloquism fundamentals from Tom (breathing, puppet manipulation, character development, etc.)

With this Make Marketing Fun episode, we start our From the Experts series with a bang.

And for this series’ first interview, we have marketing master Silly Scott to share with you how to market yourself and your kids entertainment business in a fun, engaging, and memorable way so you can get more bookings and be miles ahead of your competitors.

We advise you to hit that play button right now.

In this episode we discuss:

Subliminal marketing and its difference from traditional marketing

Branding and rebranding

Tips on how to gain name recall and how to sell you and your shows

Loyalty cards and magic trick business cards (Genius!)

How to upsell your shows

As entertainers, we want our audience to have their eyes glued to us, hanging on our every word and applauding with delight. And more often than not, the key to achieving this lies not so much on the tricks or routines we have prepared (although of course they are an integral part of how to get that reaction), but on our presence.

In this interview, comedy genius Robert Baxt talks all about improving our presence and he gives anecdotes and specific examples along the way to illustrate his points. He also shares a lot more in this episode, so we recommend hitting the Play button right now.

In this episode we discuss:

• Robert’s background in law
• How to read the mood of an audience and get them to respond
• What do clients pay you for and the audience applaud you for, your magic or your presence?
• Is it a good idea to simplify your show/performing setup?
• Getting the audience emotionally involved
• Robert’s one major tip for professional entertainers
• Outsourcing what you’re not good at: Robert’s comedy writing services
• Improv and theatre training: are they recommended for kids entertainers?
• The importance of being present and aware

Want to increase your rate but you’re not sure how you can attract clients and land bookings with a higher fee?

In this interview, Andrew Smith shares his business insights to help fellow kids entertainers learn how they can finally charge what they are worth and build a better business. It’s an episode you don’t want to miss.

In this episode we discuss:

• The wrong approach to determining your fees when starting out
• The better way to compete with other entertainers, get bookings, and earn more
• How Andrew is able to charge more compared to other entertainers
• Serving a niche market vs. catering to all

Take the fun to the next level by adding these super-simple props-free kids games to your show.

In this episode, we got civil engineer AND expert games leader Clayton Poland to share not just his go-to games but also the techniques he uses to run children’s games smoothly. Here you’ll learn that a great game is a controlled game as Clayton discusses how you can lead the kids to have an absolutely amazing time playing games without being out of control.

So go hit that play button to hear the terrific games and audience management tips that you can add to your kids entertaining arsenal.[su_spacer]

In this episode we discuss:[su_spacer]

• How Clayton got started being a kids game expert

• Genius tips on how to manage and engage groups of children—even groups as big as 5000—during games

• Kids games that use simple props

• Tips on how to run children’s games

• All-inclusive, props-free, and fun games for kids

• A great tip on awarding points[su_spacer]

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 137 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! In today's episode, Zivi and Danny shared about Performance Techniques #2 - How to shine on Zoom and win in the virtual parties game. Listen to this episode to get more.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Virtual Vs. Live! You can win at both if you know the secrets! Techniques and tips
• What are the benefits of performing Virtual shows?
• Do you need to spend lots of money on new equipment?
• What if I’m not very good at technology?
• What material should I perform?
• How do I market a virtual show?
• Techniques - Look into the camera - windows to the soul.
• Using the medium to max advantage, smiling and looking at the camera
  self zoom, hiding props out of sight, get to know Zoom as best you can
  set up your space in a corner where you can leave it.
• Involve the kids
• Virtual backgrounds
• Back ups!
• You can win at both by having a new product - A virtual show, a new online market and also having your normal live kids shows.

It’s the 108th episode and Regina Martinez aka Silly Sparkles is back! Really exciting topics were discussed in this episode and life saver tips.

Do you work with agents or do you have an agent? If you are or if you’re thinking of trying finding one, then you have to listen to this one. We also talked about a prop free game from one of the courses in the Kids Entertainer Academy that you can use in your show or play with your family. Last but not least, the hot topic of dealing with young hecklers. Lets begin:

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Working with Agents

Yochi asked:

“Hey Zivi, I want to ask you guys a quick question about working with agents, did you cover that in any of you previous things, will you cover that? Question is working with agents.”

Working with agents can really fill up your calendar especially when you are working with good agencies that can help you get more bookings and gigs.

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault: The “What are you doing” game

Was taken from the course called the Comedy Masterclass - from an award winning street performer Uri Vice

This game works very well with school ages, for younger age you need to give a lot of examples and then they get it too.

You can get up to 10 mins of playing time through this game with two kids standing on stage. The first kid is miming drinking tea, and the second kid will just ask the question “what are you doing?”. The first kid can say anything except for the actual thing that he’s doing.

Watch the video in the episode bonus to learn the full rules of the game.

Hot Topic:

What do you do with kids hecklers that try and call you out through the show

All entertainers must have experienced this situation and we all agree that it’s very distracting. More of what Zivi and Silly Sparkles shared about their experience with hecklers in the episode.

Welcome to our 111th episode of Season 5. Our co-host for this episode is Regina Martinez a.k.a Silly Sparkles. Today we talk about how to land you first gig and tips on how to continue to improve after your first show. We also shared our thoughts on how to market yourself during your show. Plus, we also shared the Jingle Bell Monte magic trick for this coming holiday season. Stick around and listen to the episode.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: NJ asked how to land the first ever gig

“Hi Zivi, In the topic that someone gets talked about.. I am a new kids entertainer, you know that’s not true, but I’d like to know how do I get my first gig without having to use an agent, and will I get the gig without previous experience? Thank You!“

Regina shared how she started her career, she did not have an agent but she had some friends who are kids entertainer and referred some clients to her.

How can a children’s entertainer get their FIRST EVER gig? Without using an agency?

Assuming you’ve already had a few practice gigs at family and friends parties and you’re ready to test your skills at a complete stranger’s party... how do you score that first gig? Here are some tips for you..

1. Showcase YOURSELF and your work
2. Network with entertainers
   SIDENOTE: Be generous and lend those newbies a hand!
3. Sign up for Thumbtack/Gig Salad/Gigmasters
4. Be prepared to receive that first inquiry.

Zivi doesn’t recommend you call another kids entertainer and pretend to be a customer. Regina shared her experience when she tried to call one of the entertainers when she was starting out.

Both Zivi and Regina agrees that anybody can land a first gig, The most important thing is not to think about the first gig, the first gig will come, it’s all about where do you wanna be 10 gigs later, 20 gigs later or 100 gigs later. You wanna be good, that good that people will want to talk about you. Know that it’s 80% efforts on your skills and 20% on the business at the beginning. Work on your skills most of the time and don’t worry much about other things.

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault:The Jingle Bell Monte Magic Trick

Here are some of the one liners from the video:

• Where does Santa go to learn how to get down chimneys? = A chimnasium
• What did one snowman say to another snowman = Can you smell carrots?
• “It was so cold on Christmas Eve that Santa had to jump-start three of his reindeer!”
• “One of Santa’s little helpers was so sad… he had low elf-esteem.”
• What do you call a chicken at the North Pole? = Lost!
• What do you call a polar bear with ear muffs? = Nothing, he can’t hear you

Hot Topic: Is it OK to MARKET your business DURING YOUR show?

Absolutely, YES! Says Regina.

It’s a lot easier to market yourself right after you just wowed them with a face paint, balloon, etc. If you’re trying to market after a show, She finds it awkward if you just approach them with your card without them asking for it.

Regina doesn’t like to do over marketing at the end of the party package because she’s already been promoting herself the entire show. She repeats her name a lot during her show. She has silly tactics while face painting a kid - She tells them they can get sparkles but only if they remember her name. Here are some marketing tactics the regina use:

1. WORK YOUR NAME INTO YOUR PATTER
2. ZUCCHINI TIP 
3. MIC NAME TEST
4. TALKING TO PARENTS AFTER SHOW

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 130 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Julia Huffaker is our guest in this episode today. Today we talked about how she started Facepainting and how she evolved as an entertainer.

[su_spacer]Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Julia has been entertaining kids for 7 years now
• Julia started Facepainting way back in her college days
• Julia stopped for a while after she got married
• Julia went back to Facepainting after having her daughter
• She wanted to be with her daughter all the time and that's what pushed her to go back
• Julia attended a convention and found some people that does Facepainting with balloons
• After a few months she attended a twisting event
• Julia already doubled her rate since she started entertaining
• Julia started practicing magic in her 4th year as an entertainer

From the vault of wisdom series this week is a guy I really respect.

Robert Baxt is from California where he has been performing family comedy and magic for decades. He is a consummate performer and a very critical thinker about that performing.

I love my discussions with Robert because he opens my mind.

In todays episode we talk about

paths into entertaining

family shows

taking bookings

what you wear

bonding with your audience

we started off talking about getting into entertaining and setting goals to achieve this …

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 136 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Zivi and Danny are back for this new episode. Today the topic is about Games, listen to the episode to know more.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Why games? As people come into a party.
• Get the energy out or up.
• Introduce yourself as the leader & expert - they need to listen to you for clear instructions. You get to know the kids before a show/ or after your show.
• Party games
• Non contact games
• GMD
• Zoom Games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMCTUAd5b3c&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2zClK-r1jT5rCg68DFcE7oJ3-2OQYZCmNDurtUIF5VcKJdg_X6fxlO35s
• Adapting games to online or socially distance.Musical whatever online and socially distanced.
• Kids games
• Gameshow
• Auction
• New games

Want more ideas on how to get your audience laughing and respond to on-the-spot situations in a winning, witty manner? Comic magician Alan Rich talks about this, as well as jokes, gags and more, in this interview. Hit play and get ready to learn.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Alan made a career out of being funny
• The benefits of being funny in your kids entertainment career and in life
• Who can be funny
• Lessons from professional comedians
• The construction and delivery of a joke
• How to deal with hecklers positively
• Tip on capturing ideas
• Mistakes people make when trying to be funny
• How to be ‘quick-witted’ and deal with hecklers positively
• Where Alan looks for material
• Difference between a joke and a gag

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 129 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Colin Dymon from UK is our guest in this episode. Today we talked about ventriloquism, puppetry and magic.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Colin is a veteran for 24 years and performed all around the world
• It all started for him when his gave his eldest son a magic set
• Colin started to go to magic shows and learned from it
• Colin joined the magic circle and became an associate for 12 months only
• Colin went into some kind of a meet and found a puppet parrot
• Colin then started to learn ventriloquism 
• From one puppet he has several puppets along the way
• Colin developed a full show starring all his puppets
• In the next 5 years he would work on his schedule management 

This podcast episode is all about building strong routines and creating kids shows that thrive on audience interaction and keep the kids bursting with laughter.

And who better to talk about comedy, entertainment, and captivating audiences than the wacky and creative Christopher T. Magician?

Hit play and pick up techniques and insights that would help you come up with shows that are hilarious and highly engaging.

In this episode we discuss:

• Christopher’s market and the camaraderie of magicians in his area
• How his background in acting and theatre benefitted his entertainment career
• Tips for creating and improving kids shows and finding inspiration
• His style that’s distinct from other magicians and also from his shows that he did in New York
• What influences and inspires his shows
• Terry Seabrooke and treating the audience as the ultimate authority in building shows and routines
• Kid control tips
• Organic vs. inorganic interactions and how they work in a kids show

It’s episode 106 and Annie Bannanie is back to co host for this episode. If you are an artist or an entertainer, you do a lot of tricks and performances and sometimes you can’t avoid having an injury so Zivi and Annie discussed what it’s like to have an injury that affects your business and what you can do while you are healing. They also talked about sound systems and lightings plus the influence you can have to your customer on the food they serve and when to serve it.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: What would you do during a month of healing?

Dale Gideon asked:

“Hi, I’m really interested to know what aspect of business a person can focus on if they were unable to work for about a month due to injury, that injury being a sprained hand which is the working which means pretty much out of action. Yeah, just really eager to find out what sorts of things they could do during that time as they heal. Thank You!”

Annie shares her experience during the time she had an injury and these are the factors to consider:

Pain relief medicine.  

Scheduled shows.

Can you perform with someone else?  

And don’t hesitate to ask help..

During downtime, do something productive and self improving stuff

Tips from the Vault: Sound Systems and Lighting Set Up

• The tip is taken from the Games, Magic and Disco Formula (GMD Formula) Lesson 8.1 in Kids Entertainer Academy - My Sound and Lighting Set Up
• Zivi and Annie discusses alternatives that might be better and cheaper and also gave the information on their own set up.
• Things to consider when performing outdoors were also taken into the discussion

Hot Topic:

Should the Entertainer try to affect the customer on what  or when food is served in a birthday?

• For Annie:
  There should be no food during the show - the kids are distracted by the food.
• Zivi tries to influence to have a healthy birthday party, like no sugary food in the first hour of the show. But at the end of the day it will still be the decision of the parents.

Welcome to Episode 109 and today we have Annie Banannie back in our show. In this episode we talked about marketing your stage shows. Annie and Zivi also talked about another lesson from the GMD Formula which explains why moms book you. Plus, the hot topic - when is it a good time to reveal a magic trick. All this and more in th

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Marketing for Stage Shows

Brettso the Great (Brett Bolich from Southern California, USA) asked:

“Hello There, this is Brett Bolich aka Brettso the Great from Southern California. I had a question in regards to stage shows. Now, I’ve been personally reaching out to community theaters to try to put on my very own stage show, with some luck and most of them pretty much telling me that as much as they would love to have me they already have a theater season where they do broadway style plays or broadway style musicals and my question is to you guys, is there other avenues besides community theaters to reach out to, to do stage shows. Also if community theaters are a viable option, what would be a better way to approach them? My final question to this is, is what are some things or some pitfalls to avoid when actually getting your theater show running, you got the theater you’re getting the show, what are the things like contractually that you should look out for to make sure you’re not hurting yourself in the end? Thank you very much, talk to you guys soon and have a great rest of the podcast. Yeheyyy!”

Zivi and Annie shared some important tips and here are some of the points:

Anytime that you have in your market an event or a topic that everybody cares about that’s great. For example, the Read Across America theme, if you work in Libraries.

Look at your market and if your market looks like it can support specific show like that then go for it because it’s gonna push you creatively.

A lot of independently owned theaters exist and you can go to them without fear of the infamous committee.

Local Schools sometimes got fancy theaters.

Zivi and Annie also gave some advise with regard to contracts, the committee and colleagues.

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault: Why Moms Book You

• The tip is taken from the Games, Magic and Disco Formula (GMD Formula) in Kids Entertainer Academy - Module 9 Lesson 2
• Zivi and Annie discussed the reasons why you get booking from bookers and how you can make sure you book them right away.

Hot Topic: When is it ok to share The Secret of a magic trick?

• For Annie, there’s two different sides to this question, sharing with performers and sharing with muggles.
• For Zivi, it troubles him where the boundaries are. There’s a lot of gray area but you have to have a great reason why you are sharing something.

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 119 of the Kids Entertainer Hub! Stacey Ashlet from Australia is our guest in this spectacular show. Today we talked about how her business runs while she's living in a rural area.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Stacey’s dad had an entertainment agent when she was young and her family are all entertainer
• One of the clowns got pregnant and she needed to step up to be a face painter and that's where it all started
• After a couple of years she discovered balloon twisting and started doing it
• Her clowning character is just an exaggerated version of herself according to her
• Hyper Clown is her clown name, because she’s hyper
• Stacey is doing clowning for 7 years now
• Parachute is one of her go to games which is very creative
• Stacey played a huge role on creating the Themed Birthday Parties course in KEA
• Stacey lives remotely, 120 km away from the town
• Stacey drives to the location 120 kms away back and forth everytime she has a gig in the town

Thinking of building your own themed library shows? This episode featuring library show expert and author of multiple magic books Jim Kleefeld covers all the basics you need to know: from how to weave a book into a magic routine, to how to approach a library to offer your show.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why and how Jim got into library shows
• The appeal of themed library programs
• What makes a show particularly suited for libraries
• How Jim weaves a book into a standard magic routine and builds a themed library show
• Considerations before going into the library show market in your area
• Tips on selling and marketing a library show
• Dos and don’ts when performing a library show

Welcome to episode 114 of Season 5 of the Kids Entertainer Hub! Regina Martinez is back to co-host with Zivi in this spectacular show. Today we talked about how to determine whether a trick is ready to be performed or not and how to ask for feedback. We also had a discussion about what to do when you get asked to stay longer and extend the show, plus our thoughts on performing in small apartments. Listen to this episode to learn more!

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice:

How do you know a trick is ready to go into your show and how do you ask for feedback - from Joris

“Hi, this is Joris! How do you know if you are ready to perform a new trick and how do you ask for feedback?”

A big part about that are these questions

How well do you know the trick?

Have you practiced it?

Have you ever recorded yourself?

Have you been able to watch the recording?

Do you look comfortable with it? Does the script flow?

It’s better to look back at these questions before you perform it in your show and if the answer to these questions are YES, it means that you’re ready to perform the trick!

More discussion and tips when you listen to the episode.

Tips from the Vault:

How do you deal with a customer that asks you to stay longer?

Regina experienced this and probably most of you who are listening were already asked to stay longer. Regina shared her experience in one of her birthday parties where she developed a plan where she informs the booker about the upgrade options in case there’s a need to extend the show. Zivi also has his own similar way to inform the customer about pre approved extension agreement by communicating it to the booker in advance.

Hot Topic:

Small apartments - can you actually perform in them?

Regina personally doesn’t want it because there are so many distractions in a small space while Zivi is so used to this and loves the shows in small apartments because it is normal in Israel to have shows inside small homes. There are prerequisites though for Zivi, first is an elevator, he doesn’t want to carry all his stuff to more than two floors, second is as long as there’s no sugar for the kids so that there’s no extra energy for them to run around and be jumpy, if these two are met then it’s a go. Zivi also trains the moms to have the show parent free and adult free.

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 145 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! We are wrapping up a spectacular season with this final episode. Today's guest is Dan Evans, president of Totally Zany, LLC and an established clowning professional. Dan has performed at prominent venues and presented workshops on behalf of noted clients, as well as other satisfied clients from multiple sectors.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Dan is also a teaching artist aside from being a performer
• Dan teaches circus arts class with 75 to 150 kids for 10 weeks
• Dan shared what kind of stuff he does and how it started for him
• Dan doesn't do a lot of magic, he just knows 2 tricks
• Dan didn't want to use makeup because he wanted to show who he really is
• Dan is currently working on a virtual circus class
• Dan shared how his birthday shows is like
• Dan also talked about what KEA has done for him
• www.totallyzany.com

Are you tapping the power of backing tracks and effects to inject energy into your children’s shows? If not, this episode just might nudge you to give them a try, and we give you the resources you need to start.

And if you feel like your magic show, face painting or balloon twisting is growing stale or you need something new to offer, we offer practical tips on how to keep things fresh and in tune with your bookers.

Last but not the least, we give some thought on whether it’s ever all right to miss a show. We wish to hear your thoughts on the matter so we encourage you to join our Kids Entertainers Facebook group. Let’s keep the conversation going.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Keeping Your Act Fresh

How often do you change your Birthday Magic Show? - Stefan Swanepoel

• The definition of a truly commercial act
• Changing your routines gradually
• Keeping your act fresh and up-to-date with new music, props, costumes

Tips from the Vault: Backing Tracks

• Licensing and royalties – being aware of the laws in your country regarding the legal use of copyrighted materials
• Why add backing tracks
• Keeping the music in your shows updated
• Where you can get music and sound effects for your shows

Fiverr

Audio Jungle

Hot Topic: When Is It Okay to Miss a Show?

• Our responsibility to the birthday child
• Valid and invalid reasons for missing a show
• Must the show go on at all costs or would it be better to leave space for flexibility?

It’s episode 102, and we’re excited to share it along with our second co-host for the season, Regina Martinez, also known as Silly Sparkles. Regina loves sharing her knowledge with everyone and will be one of the three co-hosts of season 5! Today, we talk about the essentials of marketing that can be applied to a new show. I am sure you already have ideas about your next show so stick around, listen and brainstorm with us with this new episode on how to market your show.

We also discussed about the Five Word Tip. These five words transforms a group of kids into an audience. It was taken from one of the Kids Entertainer Academy lectures. Last but not the least, the Hot Topic of this week - Gigantic Costumes, are they adorable or SCARY? Let start dive right in!

In this episode we discussed:

In Your Voice:

Essentials on a new show - the question from Yoshi - I put together a show but I did so far no marketing or whatsoever. I want to know, what are the essentials that I have to take, take my show that is sitting now at the boxes at home to somebody’s stage. What are the essential marketing steps that has to get done?

Here are the essential Regina and Zivi brainstormed about:

1. Get Professional Pictures - Make really good promo photos.
2. Next is to Market your show. There is a lot about that in the Pre-School Masterplan course in KEA.
3. We challenge you to do the marketing during the first steps of building the new show, not after your show is ready.

Tips from the vault: The FIVE Words Tip

https://member.kidsentertainerhub.com/topic/episode-102-five-words-to-put-you-in-control/

Ask questions like the samples below.

1. Who wants to see a magic show?
2. You Weren’t Ready were you?
3. I will give you another go

Hot Topic:

Full body gigantic Costumes that the entertainer goes inside - Scary or Adorable?

Wearing HUGE costumes has been around amongst entertainers for many years, mostly for kid’s parties and shows. The question we ask is, is it adorable or will it scare the kids away?

1. We shared Regina’s thoughts on this kind of costume as a mom.
2. Size is powerful.
3. Costume quality is also a big factor.
4. The high end polar bear full body costume that was mentioned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1NHYFHDk4&feature=share

With the brimming—sometimes overwhelming—treasure trove of available information out there, sometimes we lose sight of what’s essential. In this podcast episode, Danny Schlesinger brings us back to the fundamentals of stage craft to help us pack more impact to our shows and make us more effective performers.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Danny got started in entertaining and what training he got
• The importance of theatre training to children’s entertainers
• How he helps kids entertainers with his directing services
• Where entertainers can get training
• The influence of Avner the Eccentric
• The fundamentals of stage craft

Breathing

Use and abuse of volunteers

Tension

The eyes

Focus: doing one thing at a time

• Microphone technique
• The importance of demonstrating control
• The importance of looking professional

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 127 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Chad Jacobs aka Chef Banana from Missouri, USA. Today we talked about his journey and transition from a Restaurant manager to a Magician.

[su_spacer]Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Chad's family used to own a restaurant that ran for 39 years
• Chad ran the restaurant for 12 years with his sister
• Chad always saw magic as his next career if the restaurant closes.
• Chef Banana was a result of a long brainstorming night with his wife
• Chad made sure he has good videos in his website
• The videos are professionally made
• Chad had a back injury that made him stay at the basement for 6 weeks
• He ended of missing 75 shows because of this injury
• Chad took the part of the routine that caused his injury out from his show

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 121 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Kyle Groves who grew up in a family of entertainers shares how his journey began. Today we talked about Kyle's journey as an entertainer, his shop with a museum and how he is growing financially.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Kyle’s dad is a magician for 50 years now
• At 8 years old, Kyle already helped his dad as an assistant on his show
• They travelled all over the states to do the show with his dad
• After college, he came back to magic and won some awards as a close up magician
• Kyle then worked his way to become a stage magician
• Kyle has his own museum that started 7 years ago, from the collection of his dad’s magic souvenirs
• Kyle also owns a shop called The Party People and Theater Mystery
• Kyle continues to tour the states to do his shows
• Kyle took the KM Challenge and made a lot of money as a result
• Kyle invested in KM Challenge and in five weeks got the ‘Return of Investment’ of way over the tuition
• 147 shows in 3 months as a result of joining this coaching program with Zivi Kivi
• “KM Challenge is definitely worth getting involved in” - Kyle

In this podcast episode, we take a fresh look at the main target market for many kids entertainers: modern young mothers who need modern children’s entertainment. Looking at this through the eyes and experience of Regina Martinez, a young mum, a graphic designer, and a fulltime professional children’s entertainer, we gain insight into how to attain a kid-friendly look that appeals to today’s bookers—and just how worthy it is of our time to build and market our brand with the perfect colors, captivating images and a quality website.

In this episode we discuss:

• Regina’s story: how she got into kids entertaining and graphic design
• How her background in design helped her create and market the right image that appeals to her target market: young mums
• What color palette has worked for Regina in building a brand and image that mums and kids love
• Regina’s ingenious transparent business card
• How using quality photos and the right colors made a tremendous difference to Regina’s kids entertaining business
• Common problems of kids entertainer websites
• The importance of having a mobile-responsive website
• How Regina has advanced her career and business while being a young mother
• Her experience on entertaining kids and families while pregnant
• The benefits of joining competitions in kids entertainer conventions
• How the Kids Entertainer Podcast and the Kids Entertainer Academy helped Regina take her career to the next level and expand her business

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 139 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Meet Magical Katrina Kroetch on our episode today. Today we talked about her experiences in doing zoom shows during the pandemic.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Katrina is a performer and an actor
• Started her acting career at the age of 17
• Katrina shares how the pandemic affected her bookings in the beginning
• Katrina told us what she's up to these days
• What she prefers - standing up vs sitting down in a zoom show
• What advice Katrina has for kids entertainers in the time of the Pandemic
• What Katrina loves about performing for family audiences
• What Katrina said about kids vs adults magic in a zoom show
• http://www.katrinakroetch.com/

To earn a good client’s business, sometimes—or oftentimes—it’s not about the fee we charge, but the quality of customer service we provide. And for Matt Fore, this has proven to be true throughout the 25 years he has been in the kids entertainment business.

A full-time comedy magician and a lecturer, Matt offers a load of helpful and actionable tips that you can do straight away to offer your clients a refreshing dose of excellent customer service and make an indelible, fantastic impression in the process.

In this episode we discuss:

• How consistently providing good customer service builds you a good reputation and benefits your business
• A shift in mindset: It’s not about you and what you’re selling; it’s about your customer and how you can solve their problem.
• Empathic listening
• Examples of bad customer service
• The Ritz-Carlton mindset
• Simple things you can do starting right now to stand out and be a customer service rock star

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 133 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today, Zivi and Danny talked about Your Joy in the time of a pandemic - Your true role as a kids entertainer. Listen to the episode to learn more.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• What is joy?
• Where to find joy in difficult times?
• Why are we performers? Let's get back to basics.
• Check the Book - “Joyful” by Ingrid Fetell Lee
• Remembering the ultimate goal - to make people happy, entertain and create memorable events for your customers and their guests.
• Danny on Discovering gardening & creating gags
• Remembering the smiles and laughter - Danny’s 1st twisting gig after 5 months
• Time of sorrow -> Need for joy, fun, distraction, and entertainment.
• Story of Danny's hardest show EVER, but possibly the best, and why.

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 138 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today we talked about Kids with short attention spans. Kids and adults in the audience. Engaging the adults at kids gigs and audience management. Listen to this exciting episode to learn more.

[su_spacer]Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• How do you keep everyone in the audience engaged, both adults and kids?
• How to Be really good!
• How to speed up your routine up by 25%
• Adding surprises
• For Adults - have a skilful mind-blowing trick “Monkey jumping through hoop of fire”
• Be engaging with your show structure, and your patter and questions
• Setting up the chairs in lines
• Different humour levels
• Listening to the kids and react in the moment
• Have prepared tactics for disruptive kids - What are those?
• On booking - ask if there will be special needs kids there that might not like loud noises.
• Different levels of humour for kids & adults.

Struggling to stand out from other kids entertainers and snag the attention—and business—of more clients? For James Munton, the key is in creating a unique, strong, memorable character. But how to do it and where to start?

Hit play and get the answers.

In this episode we discuss:

• James’ market and the edge of those who do kids shows
• How to build and market your image to gain the business of today’s bookers
• How his websites sell his services
• How to create a strong performing character that fits and is unique to you
• How to stand out with what James calls ‘TOTTR’ (The One Thing They Remember)
• His review from former president George Bush featured on his website
• His thoughts on franchised shows

Managing challenging behaviour is one of the top concerns of any kids and family entertainer. In this episode, we give you strategies that have worked brilliantly for us, and might work for you as well.

We also discuss clown doctoring and important guidelines to keep in mind if you’re entertaining at hospitals.

Last but not the least, we look into how prizes can go wrong and what you can do about this.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Hospital Work

Has anyone here done gigs at children's hospitals visiting sick children in the wards? I have been hired by a children’s hospital to do balloons and very simple magic. I just watched Patch Adams last night. Such a gorgeous movie, but I honestly don’t know if I'm that naturally funny or perhaps I am overthinking again (which I always do!). Would love to hear from anyone who has done this type of work. Thanks! - Dale Gideon

• Tips and reminders for entertaining in hospitals
• Tips for ‘being funny’ and clown doctoring

Tips from the Vault: Managing Challenging Behaviour

• Understanding children and the causes of disruptive behavior
• Setting boundaries and contracting with the children
• Using points
• Dealing with a disruptive group
• The power of compliments

Hot Topic: The Dark Side of Prizes

• Shifting the focus – from the prize to the fun
• Awarding points and empowering children with this
• Branding the prizes you give away
• Using prizes to encourage volunteers

Want new warm-up routines to begin your show with a bang? Then this episode is for you.

We also discuss what upgrades you can add to your party offers to provide more value to your bookers and earn more in the process.

Last but not the least, we share our thoughts on an often-debated topic among kids and family entertainers: do you really need backdrops?

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Party Package Upgrades

Which party package upgrades do your clients choose most often? – Regina “Silly Sparkles”

• Defining your core offer
• Brainstorming for upsells that suits your core offer
• The beauty of tiered pricing

Tips from the Vault: Warm-Up Routines

• The importance and purpose of warm-ups
• Ideas and resources for warm-up routines

Hot Topic: Do You Need Backdrops?

• Pros and cons of having backdrops
• Don’ts when designing your backdrops

How is an educational show different from an educationally significant show? Professional kids entertainer and educator Tommy Johns discusses their difference in this podcast and also gives clever, useful tips on creating, offering, and selling magic workshops.

There’s a wealth of information in this interview so be sure to download the extended notes to have a copy of the points Tommy enumerates and talks about in this episode.

In this episode we discuss:

• Tommy’s market
• What is educational significance (according to Julian Franklin) and an educationally significant show
• 10 qualities of an educationally significant program
• Tips for putting together an educationally significant show
• Tips on kid control
• One-hour magic workshops and how they are an integral part of Tommy’s business model
• What does it take to create and offer a basic magic workshop
• Tommy’s 60-second pitch that earns him a lot of bookings

Most of us, if not all of us, have experienced customers asking for a discount. Should we give in or say no? If we say no, how do we communicate that nicely so we don’t lose the client?

We discuss this rather tricky topic here and offer strategies that have worked for us.

We also offer fantastic party game ideas for kids that even the older children will love, as well as steps you can take to move from a non-performing into a performing act.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: How Do You Go into Performing?

How do you transition from line twisting into performing? - Melissa Sherk

• Simple steps you can take to ease yourself into performing
• Resources that can help you

Tips from the Vault: Ideas for Games for Children Ages 8+

• The importance of framing the game to the children
• 3 fantastic non-elimination games you can try

Danger Pass the Parcel

Comedy Musical Chairs

Comedy Musical Statues

Hot Topic: When Customers Ask for Discounts

• The problem with giving discounts
• Tips on how to structure your offer to discourage clients asking for discounts
• What to give in place of discounts

Welcome to the final episode of Season 5! We have Annie Banannie today as a co-host with Zivi for this season finale. Today we talk about transportation, what are the recommended vehicles that kids entertainer use and their benefits. We also talked about balloon workshops and how to do it better using the tips from one of our courses. Last but not the least we discussed the hot topic of when to diversify or add a new service to your mix. All of this and more in this season finale, episode 115. Listen now!

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice:

Show Transportation - question from Brettso the Great

“Hello there! This is Brett Bolich aka Brettso the Great from Southern California. Thanks for answering my questions in regards to stage shows but I had a questions regards to transporting your show from venue to venue. Now I that a lot of you guys have vans, specifically the Nissan NV200 as well as the Ford Transit style vans and it was really popular, I currently have a Rav4 that I love but eventually I would love to upgrade to one of those because I’m getting to the point where I might have to carry more stuff in the near future. And I just want to get your thoughts on those style of vans, what to look out for, what to consider and maybe like a checklist of things that you would use say okay this is worth getting or just keeping your vehicle originally so anyway thanks again and talk to you guys soon!”

Annie currently uses a Toyota Corolla but before that she used to ride a Prius. Before she had an accident she was carrying a lot of stuff in her car and after that she started thinking why she’s carrying too much stuff around. Now her rule is, “if it doesn’t fit the car it doesn’t go in her show”.

Zivi on the other hand uses the Nissan NV200 where he can fit 1200 fully inflated modelling balloons. It’s branded so he can easily identify his car and for people to see it. Branding your vehicle is another form of advertisement for you business that you can take advantage of.

We conducted a survey on Facebook to find out what people use for their business and here are the responses from our community. Check the episode bonus to see full discussion.

Tips from the Vault:

Tips on How To Do Workshops Better

Tips on how to do workshops better:

• Outside vs Inside - we strongly recommend doing it Inside
• The importance of the extra show
• Why two hours is too much
• Two a day with a normal size car
• Square baskets - instead of round baskets to maximize the space
• For Adults - basically just teaching them how to teach balloons to kids

Watch the video to see the tips on how to do better balloon workshops.

Hot Topic:

When to diversify and add a new service to your mix?

For Annie, she just started diversifying with her shows without using balloons, this is because she wants to grow and pushes herself to do any type of show but she will still continue to be serving her customers as the balloon storyteller.

If you’re going to diversify just make sure that you know where you are going to in terms of marketing efforts.

One more decision filter on when is it a good time to diversify, which is related to foundation of anything we do which is our skills.

Doug Scheer, this time with his wife Heidi, is back with an interview on a very relevant topic: working with special needs children during our shows. In this episode, Doug and Heidi share that kids on the spectrum do not need to be in the sidelines. They can be stars of the show with a little encouragement and understanding from us, and there’s no reason for us not to involve them and make others see they’re not much different from anybody else.

Hit play and listen to this enlightening, beautiful interview.

In this episode we discuss:

• Tips for involving and interacting with kids with special needs

• Ways to help special needs children keep calm and comfortable during our performances

• What to do in case a child disrupts the show

• Doug’s Punctuation Pandemonium, a brand-new, non-magic, hilariously entertaining effect that is perfect even for older kids

In this podcast episode, Elliott Smith, co-author of Highway to Success: The Entertainer’s Roadmap to Business, shares practical principles and genius tips that can help you better understand and handle the business side of kids entertainment.

If you’re ready to take your business to new heights, go hit that play button right now.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why it is important to understand the business side of kids entertainment
• What led Elliott to collate his learning into a book
• Creating a database of satisfied clients to get referrals and repeat bookings
• The 3 Ds: Determination, Dedication, and Discipline
• How he deals with clients who had a prior bad experience with unprofessional kids entertainers
• The importance of following up and following through
• The success that Highway to Success is enjoying
• The little marketing trick he inserts in his email signature that earns him a lot of website visitors
• His ‘extended warranty’

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 122 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Gareth White from United Kingdom is our guest in this episode.  Today we talked about how he started with Magic and Kids entertainment

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Gareth has been doing professional magicking full time for 10 months now
• Before he was a magician he was a coffee salesman
• It all started for Gareth when he saw Paul Daniels and was given a magic kit
• After high school he wanted to be an actor and to acting school
• Gareth saw a website banner about KEA and enrolled into it right away
• He took art in school that’s why he has great logos for his shows
• Gareth shared his logical birthday party process which he got the idea from a Netflix Series
• Gareth also has a diagram for people to know his services and makes it easier to book him

For professionals who are into balloon entertainment, this question often comes up: should we concern ourselves more with serving our customers and hence being a commercial act, or should we focus on advancing our art?

It’s a dilemma that not just balloon twisters face, but any artist or performer, and we invite you to explore this topic—and more—with us in this episode.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Balloon Entertainment vs. Balloon Art / Commercial vs. Art

Is it okay to keep being fast and funny, or am I doing myself a disservice by not doing more? - Dan Geers

• The two ends of the spectrum: focusing on your art and focusing on pleasing the customers
• How you can be artistic and entertaining at the same time

Tips from the Vault: Thank You Letters

• The value of thank you letters
• Different forms of thank you that you can send to clients
• Tips and ideas for an amazing thank you letter that will make you unforgettable

Hot Topic: The Dangers of Balloons

• Being aware of the dangers that balloons pose
• Precautions you can take

Hospital entertaining is rewarding—there’s no doubt about it—but it isn’t as simple as it sounds. From the condition of the child and his/her parents, to the almost constant coming and going of medical personnel, to the culture of the different wards, to sanitary precautions and hospital regulations, there’s actually a lot of things to consider before you go in and entertain.

To help you navigate the ins and outs of hospital entertaining, we rummaged through our vault to bring you this insightful talk we’ve had with experienced clown doctor and professional kids entertainer Wayne Van Wyck. Listen in and pick up a wealth of tips that will serve you well next time you go out and perform a show—even if it’s not at a hospital.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Wayne got into kids entertaining

• The magic of connection and audience interaction and how Wayne built his show around this

• Exceedingly useful tips that a kids entertainer has to remember when performing for kids at hospitals (dos and don’ts and many more)

• How hospital entertaining made Wayne a better children’s and family entertainer (Learn about the importance of being aware of your pace, working slowly, and listening to the audience.)

• The difference between being a master showman/kids entertainer vs. being a magician/juggler/ventriloquist/balloon artist and how this can affect how you run your show

• The importance of having variety in your show

• How Wayne deals with audiences (Audiences are not as scary as many kids entertainers think they are.)

How do you turn different tricks and routines into a show that does not feel segmented but instead comes across as whole? The answer, according to long-time performing magician and musician (and dramatist) Nathan Roberts is in the use of openers, transitions, and closers.

Join us in this interview with Nathan and learn not just about these three elements, but also tips from the field of drama that you can apply in your show to make it even more enthralling.

In this episode we discuss:

• What Nathan applied from his drama training to his performances
• Chris Capehart’s style of audience interaction
• Recorded openers/intro voice-overs and how Nathan got started making them for performers
• How to cultivate presence
• His experience that led him to create the lecture Don’t Let Them Breathe
• The importance of transitions
• The uses of music cues
• Nathan’s Uganda story

Out from our Vault of Wisdom this week is a talk with the incredible and hilarious Michael Finney. In our chat, he generously shares a wealth of stories and knowledge on how to listen to audiences, where to find (and why find) mentors, and what routines he does for his kids and family acts.

In this episode we discuss:

The importance of listening to the audience when performing

Michael’s routines for children and family audiences

Engaging children

The importance of having—and being—mentors (and where to find them)

The “shelf life” for magicians

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 144 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today is the second to the last episode of the season. Our guest is a great ventriloquist and performer,  Colin Dymond!

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Colin shared his life before and during the pandemic
• Colin also shared what happened on his shows when COVID19 struck the world
• Colin talked about puppetry and ventriloquism
• Colin's take on why puppets are funny for kids
• How people can learn about puppetry and where starter could go and learn
• Colin also shares his plans for the coming holiday season
• Learn about Colin's talent and life on this special episode, listen now.

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 126 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Virginia Hankins from Los Angeles, California is our guest in this spectacular show. She owns several businesses that cater different themed entertainment.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Virginia owns a company that does mermaids, unicorns and other beautiful themed parties
• Her companies are Sheroes Entertainment, LA Mermaid School and Milo the Magical Unicorn
• Virginia specializes in high end themed entertainment
• Milo the Magical Unicorn is actually a horse that she owns
• Virginia has a team that takes care of Milo and trains him
• Her parties have around 50 kids each and usually hires Milo for 3 hours
• The main foundation of her company are fully immersive educational entertainment packages
• They include songs about the ocean and games related to it
• In her Mermaid School and pool parties, they have lifeguards to make sure the kids are safe
• The lifeguards are included in her package to make sure there will be one
• if it's not safe it's not a good show
• Virginia wrote a book called 'How To Be a Real Life Mermaid' and it was a one year project
• Virginia has a 30 to 50 subcontractors and performers that work for her companies each year
• A TON of Value that you can learn from Virginia and her business in this episode, so please make sure to listen!

We kick off Series 4 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast with no less than educational magic show master, Doug Scheer. In turns insightful and entertaining, this first part of his interview will inspire and encourage you not only to try your hand at school assembly performances and enter a brand-new market, but also to connect with your audiences in a deeper, richer way.

In this episode we discuss:

• How and why Doug got into educational magic shows
• How he made his shows and connected with his audiences better
• Three levels of thinking when planning what tricks to use
• Doug’s recommendations for creating a show and honing your craft
• A more powerful way to engage an audience without gags or jokes

Are you a magician, juggler, or musician who wants to go into the school assembly market? Or perhaps you’re a non-entertainer—maybe a teacher—who wants to try your hand at school show performing? If yes, then this episode is something you don’t want to miss.

Together with Andrew Ready, experienced school show performer Obediah Thomas discusses how you can make and sell your own school assembly programs and shares why offering them might be the best step you take this year for your career.

 In this episode we discuss: 

• What led Obediah from standup comedy to school shows
• How you can use the skills and talents you have, even if they don’t include or involve magic or puppets, in the school show you want to create 
• Obediah’s tips for creating school assembly shows and balancing the education and entertainment
• How to get feedback and reviews that you can use to better and even sell your shows (Take note of these. These tips are gold.)
• How you help the entire school community and make a difference with school assembly shows
• How to communicate the value that your school assembly show brings to potential customers
• How to add more value to what you offer and keep more clients
• Where you can learn all you need to know about school assembly shows: Obediah and Mark’s school show video course (Great for performers and nonperformers alike.)
• Why the school assembly market is an awesome market and the audience the best audience

In this episode in the Vault of Wisdom series, we share lessons that a long-time kids entertainer has learned from years of performing.

Greg McMahan, an all-around professional entertainer who uses magic, comedy, balloon twisting, juggling, and clowning in his shows, has been a featured speaker in a number of children’s entertainer conventions and is the author of the terrific book Kids Think It’s Funny. He is also the magic program director of the Circus Camp. From his wealth of experience, he shares in this episode not just how to handle audiences, parents, and agents, but also how to improve yourself as an entertainer—and many more besides.

In this episode we discuss:

• Greg’s work experience as an “advanced clown”
• His material and approach for different age groups
• How Greg builds rapport before performing
• His one audience control technique
• How he deals with parents and adults during his shows
• How he deals with his “bad shows”
• How he uses music and sound effects in his performances
• Tips on working with agents
• How much new material do his shows have
• Tips for kids entertainers who are afraid to screw up
• Technical skills vs. performing skills
• Tips on how to hone your performing and improvisational skills
• The performers who influenced him
• Lessons he learned along the way
• How he makes his balloon twisting gigs entertaining for his audience
• The importance of being yourself as a performer
• Some of his performance “horror stories”

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 140 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Drew Ripley is our guest in this episode today. Today we talked about how Drew spent his time during the pandemic.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Before the pandemic Drew had big schedule already planned.
• From 200 shows to 0 in 48 hours
• Because of the pandemic, he loves his job more than ever
• Drew talked about the KM Challenge
• Drew realized that all he has during the pandemic was time
• Drew recalls his favorite positive moments of the lockdown
• Drew's experience in doing virtual shows
• Drew's story on how he started from the bottom
• More fascinating stories from Drew in this episode, listen now.

Welcome to Season 6 chapter116 of the Kids Entertainer Hub! Lauren Agnew from Australia is our guest in this spectacular show. Today we talked about how her journey to becoming an entertainer. She shared her 8 year journey and how her style and show evolved.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

- She started kids entertainment 8 years ago
- Lauren was also an entrepreneur since she was a kid
- One day she bought her neighbors business Make Me A Rockstar
- She started as part timer but after a year decided to go full time
- Lauren has started a 7 part series show that she can bring to schools and kids can learn about
- She also runs workshops and a recording studio for kids
- Started with only one story called Yassy, a story of her time at school
- Now she has puppet characters for each week of the series show
- She's planning to take the show to every school in Sydney
- Kids Entertainer Academy was a great part of her career according to her
- Found about the KEA community and learned from the podcast episodes from KEH
- Staying focused on her game and not playing the comparison game makes her continue to be better and be unique on what she does
- Her shows will start soon start in schools and other camps all over Australia
- “Entertaining in general is so powerful” - Lauren Agnew

In this episode we discuss:

• Where Ken and his daughter Kristen got the idea for a magic tricks for kids book
• How they chose the tricks that are included in the book
• Features of the book: interactive - video demonstrations included; perfect not only for children, but for kids entertainers and people curious about magic as well; awesome presentation for each trick included
• How kids entertainers like face painters, balloon twisters, costume characters, and storytellers who haven’t tried magic can use and benefit from the materials in the book (earning from teaching magic, building rapport, creating school holiday programs, etc.)
• How the Abracadabra magic tricks book is the perfect gift for children
• Leave a review for Abracadabra and get quality free training videos that you can use on your website or shows

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 125 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Lucy Spielberg from UK is our guest in this episode. She is a circus workshop teacher, support worker for children with disabilities and kids entertainer.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Lucy came from a difficult situation in her life and needed to find a work to live
• She chose to be in the community circus instead of any other opportunities
• She taught herself to juggle using potatoes during her apprenticeship
• Lucy eats onion in her shows and she juggles it as well
• She became a manager of a charity shop when she tried to build a career outside kids entertainment
• Lucy was offered a good deal to be in the corporate world but she chose to be in the entertainment world
• After two year on her comeback she decided to up her game and take a circus and clown course
• Her grandmother used to call her 'Lucy lock it' and that is where she got 'Lucy Lost It'

Lucy's story is very inspiring and full of value, make sure you listen to this episode and learn from her.

It’s Episode 105 and we had Regina Martinez aka Silly Sparkles as a co-host. In this episode, Zivi and Regina talked about marketing tips that can be implemented after the show. They shared by sharing their own stories and opinions.

Controlling your nerves is another topic that was discussed in this episode and every new entertainer or even a veteran one can still experience it, so listen to this episode because you can definitely relate to this. Lastly, another hot topic and this time about how many balloons should you carry in your stock. So if any of these topics interest you hit the PLAY button now!

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: How to market yourself at the end of the party ceremony

Steven from Appleton Wisconsin USA asked:

“At the end of birthday party shows, any idea you could share on you know, you get invited to stay, have some birthday cake or some food and meet up with the people. I wonder if you have any ideas on how to do that in a professional manner and what might you wanna make sure we include so that would help our business and so on?”

Regina’s thoughts on this:

It’s a great opportunity to market at the end of the show. It’s a really great time to have a photo op, with the birthday kid and other kids too. If you have a puppet it will have a great impact. When taken a picture ask them to use your hashtag when they post it. Offer a referral discount as a bonus for when they tag you.

Zivi’s take:

Most of people these days will agree to get them tagged so if you do the hashtag for them as Regina mentioned in the show, it allows you to take ownership on the process and the details.

Tips from the Vault: Controlling Your Nerves

• The tip is taken from Lesson 7.0 of the Build your Magic Show course of the Kids Entertainer Academy – How Do I Control My Nerves. The main idea is - don’t ever say you will never do that magic trick again
• But at the same time, perform magic you find enjoyable and comfortable with and be realistic with your progress

Regina also shared her story about her experience and Zivi also gave his take. See the extended notes for complete details.

Hot Topic:

How many balloons should you keep in your stock?

• For Regina:
  It depends on the business and market. Restock from a position of power and knowledge. Plus insights and challenge inside the bonus PDF extended notes.
• Zivi’s strong points on stocking balloons:
  Balloons Age. Limit yourself to few colors and spend your money wisely.

For our first episode of series 2, we bring you brilliant audience handling tips from the UK’s award-winning children’s entertainer, Paul Megram.

Holding the attention of kids these days is harder than it used to be. Paul shares how he deals with the challenge of entertaining kids who are constantly exposed to a barrage of stimuli from technology and the media. He also shares how he cleverly manages disruptive adults in his performances.

In this podcast, you’ll also pick up excellent tips on how you can create the best conditions for your show so you will be sure to give an amazing performance every time.

So get your pen and notepad ready because this episode is worth jotting down notes for.

– Paul’s two show formats/formulas

– Why he includes a variety of entertainment in his magic shows

– How he communicates to his bookers what he needs to give the best show (Awesome tips here.)

– How he gets the mums to watch his show with their kids and how this has worked for him wonderfully

– Why he believes in taking control of a party and not just following the lead of the booker

– The importance of setting the right conditions for your show and getting only the kind of gigs you want

– Tips on show setup

– How to respectfully and effectively manage adults who are chatting and disrupting your show

–His must-play, go-to game

• Flossie thinks of her self a ‘jack of all trades’ because she could do anything in kids entertainment
• Flossie started of with a book about balloon twisting about 20 years ago
• Flossie started doing professional gigs for about 13 years now
• She has a show named ‘The Magic and Me’ and will soon be available in YouTube
• She offers a combo entertainment like balloon shows with face painting
• Flossie has been mentoring local artists in her area
• Flossie is a student of Matan Rosenberg in Kids Entertainer Academy’s Close Up Magic Course

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 124 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Paul Cochrell aka Tall Paul is our guest in today's show.  Join us as we talk about his 20 years of journey into kids' entertainment. 

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Paul has been doing kids entertainment for 20 years
• Paul uses the same show for 20 years and just replaces bits
• Recently, after 20 years he decided to create a new show
• Paul owns a lot of puppets for different shows
• Paul uses an ankle switch to control music and be hands free in his performances
• Paul also does a juggling, 3 ball routine in his show
• One day he stopped doing magic (burnout) and then he eventually woke up another day and wanted to go back into doing it
• Paul shared one of his most memorable moments in his performance
• Paul used to do the Chair Suspension trick but recently took it out due to a safety hazard
• Paul works with marketing mentors for his website stuff

In this episode, we give you a treat: character building and show creation tips from one of the world’s best-known children’s entertainer and magic convention lecturer, David Kaye. Here he generously shares practical and effective tips on how to create a character that you can easily play and a show that’s unique in all the world.

In this episode we discuss:

• How David Kaye earns from kids entertainment
• How David runs his one-hour birthday party show and how he creates a more lasting impression on the children and get bookings
• Does Silly Billy get tired of doing the same shows
• How David handles children being fed during the show
• What he makes sure to give the kids to bring home
• David’s 3 tips for all types of kids entertainers, be they face painters, game leaders, balloon twisters, ventriloquists, or magicians, on how they can customize their shows
• Topics covered in David’s KEA lecture

Wondering how it is to run a magic retail business? Former magic shop owner, magic routines creator, and lecturer Sean Taylor shares his inside knowledge and insights into the industry. Listen to the interview and you’ll even pick up several ideas for appearing and disappearing tricks along the way.

In this episode we discuss:

• What sells in magic shops
• How it is to be a magician and a magic retailer at the same time
• Challenges, insights and forecasts regarding brick-and-mortar magic shops
• What has changed about children’s magic
• The two types of routines that consistently sell
• Tapping magic clubs for your professional growth
• How using a single case can shape your magic show for the better
• How appearing and disappearing magic tricks add more impact to your show
• Ideas for appearances and vanishes

It’s our 107th episode and Danny is back to co-host! Are you an entertainer who has some challenges in dealing with different ages in a party? If that’s you then you better listen to this episode, we’ll help you answer your questions.

Zivi and Danny talked about the important things to consider in hosting a show, your preparation is key. And as always, we shared one of the lessons from the KEA membership which is about the parents talking to each other from the GMD Formula. And for the hot topic, this time is about transforming your show from a birthday settings to a library one.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Mixed ages in the same gig, different attention span and strategies in entertaining them.

Marvelous Marc asked:

“What are some strategies for keeping entertainment relevant for an audience of mixed ages so, like you can have children that you are doing the show for but they maybe ages 15 or all the way down to ages 2 or 3 and you have to deal with different attention spans and interesting content and what not, so what are some good strategies to deal with them?”

Zivi and Danny had a discussion about the important things in having a show for a mixed group and here are some of the points:

Having a really good show and skills means you have the ability to entertain everyone, even a mixed group of people from all ages.  

Get the attention of the older kids by giving them tasks to do.

Being original is always the best option  

Bottom line is that older kids need to be impressed.

Tips from the Vault: Parents Talking from GMD Formula Course

• The tip is taken from the Games, Magic and Disco Formula (GMD Formula) in Kids Entertainer Academy - Parent Talking
• Zivi shared the content of this course and Danny contributed on the things you can do in every situation.

Hot Topic:

Can you transform a birthday magic show into a library show?

Both Zivi and Danny agreed that this is a great opportunity for an entertainer and they brainstormed in the things to consider and the adjustments that you have to make in doing a library show.

As entertainers we want to make everyone happy in our show but do we need to always make everyone laugh? With the help of Danny Schlesinger, the co-host for this episode, we discussed how to be a great entertainer without trying hard to make everybody laugh.

We also discussed about one of the lectures from the Vault which talks about some good lines to use and you interactions with adults during the show. And as always, we discussed a hot topic, this it's about how to handle situations when kids starts to cry in your show. Tune in as this episode will give a lot of tips and tricks on how to be a great entertainer.

 In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: The Future of Kids Entertainment

Drew ripley from Canada

“With the show that I have right now I find that there are parts that are really funny and parts that are not and I am wondering if while Im entertaining smaller kids if the goal should be just keep them laughing the whole time, can I actually be just a comedic performer the whole time or is that likely to be exhausting and backfire and I’ll end up with other problems?”

Quick Summary:

• Laughing all the time is exhausting
• When the kids really laugh a lot it’s fun for you to be in the situation because it shows how good you are as an entertainer
• Many things can go wrong if you make things go crazy with laughter
• How many interactions in your routine that involve your audience show be considered as well

Tips from the Vault: You Are So Funny! by Alan Rich

Lines that were taken from the lecture:

Line 1: Why are you knees different from my knees? You have Kidneys

Tip from the show: don’t use a line that doesn’t fit your personality

Line 2: (to a hyper kid) Have you ever considered meditation

Line 3: Are you married… Do you work at 7-11

Danny and Zivi also gave their advise on adult interaction and how important it is that they are also entertained.

Hot Topic:

What do you do when a kids starts to cry (for a balloon or in line for face painting or for a prize)

• For Danny..
  If it’s in a show, encourage the parent to deal with it and give comfort to the kid.
• For Zivi..
  It’s an opportunity for an Awww..  moment. To show that you are human and you care.

Sponge balls are simple, versatile, highly effective magic props that kids entertainers of any discipline can use in their act to bring about smiles and please audiences. And we discuss them in this interview with no less than the sponge magic expert, Barry Mitchell.

Hit play and learn how sponge balls are manufactured; how you can insert them in your act whether you’re a magician, face painter, or vent; and even how you can add a touch of genius to your shows by tapping into your own creativity.

In this episode we discuss: 

• What Barry chose to work with sponge balls
• Barry’s philosophy on entertaining
• Why Barry focuses on yellow sponge balls
• Creating a performance routine: script first or trick?
• How sponge balls are made
• The future of sponge magic
• How can face painters and ventriloquists use sponge magic
• How to spark or improve your creativity

Whatever type of children’s entertainer you are, you’ll find having easy-to-do but extremely fun kids party games in your arsenal useful. They not only help you give the children a delightful time; they also make you stand out in the adults’ eyes as you’re able to show how you can maintain control of excited kids and keep chaos at bay.

And in this podcast episode, Simon Sparkles gives you some go-to games to add to your show. Be sure to download the extended notes to get more details about these games.

In this episode we discuss:

The competitors of kids entertainers: bouncy castles, mascots, etc.

How to stand out from them: your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Games you can play with children at your show:

• Musical Bumps
• “Pre-party” games: Before the party “officially” starts, Simon lets the children do some free play, like with spinning plates, short walking stilts, etc.
• Limbo

Audience control tips

The 21st century affords kids entertainers thousands of opportunities for personal, professional, and financial growth. We just have to know where to look and be willing to commit time on these areas.

If you’re the type who is yearning for change—good change—or just thinking about what to do to improve yourself and get further than where you are, this episode is for you. Here we point you to the direction, resources, and ideas that can help take your business, your finances, and your life to the next level.

Among the top things that can make a huge difference to your children’s shows is a good-quality PA system. But from so many options, how can you tell which system will serve you best? We give you tips and a fantastic free resource in this episode.

And without throwing around off-putting jargons, we also delve into the essentials of SEO, as well as the business of upsells. Hit play and get the tips that can help you serve your customers better—and rank better in Google in the process.

In this episode we discuss:

In Your Voice: Bare-bones SEO for Kids Entertainers

What do we really need for SEO? – Annie Bananie

• What SEO is essentially about
• How Google ranks your site
• Tips to raise your SEO ranking and also serve your customers better
• Some tools you can use

Tips from the Vault: PA Systems

• The importance of a good PA system for children’s entertainers
• Tips for choosing the right PA system
• Kinds of PA systems and things to consider

Hot Topic: Upsells

• What is an upsell
• Advantages of offering upsells to you and your customers
• Ideas for upsells

There’s nothing like a fun kids show to give children the time of their life. And to help you ensure that you run an amazing show that your young audiences will be babbling about even after the party, we offer you tips from a long-standing, successful kids entertainer, author, and trick inventor, John Breeds.

With humour and charm, John delves into the different aspects of a great children’s party—from setup to games and even to marketing. So hit the play button now and listen to this episode. You’ll find it rich in actionable tips that will help you turn your show into something truly memorable.

In this episode we discuss:

– Guidelines on where to set up in big hall party venues and how to get the children’s attention

– How to establish the “comfort zone” to unify your audience

– How John came to create his Visible Magic Painting trick

– How John gets two bookings per show

– His one tip for kids entertainers (DON’T miss this one)[su_spacer]

Lawyer-turned-kids-entertainer Scott Green shares insightful tips on how to project the right image, make stronger routines, handle disruptions during your show, and even write comedy to help you power up your performance.

In this episode we discuss:

• From being a lawyer to a kids entertainer
• Scott’s experience in street performing
• Performing in a suit: “Dress for the job that you want.”
• How he keeps the audience focused and engaged without yelling or too much animation
• Tips from game shows that you can apply in kids and family shows
• Tips when performing on TV
• Why he keeps on innovating and his 6 key questions to help you find the weak spots in your props or routines and improve them
• Comedy writing tips: Working backwards and Chekhov’s gun principle
• Is it a good idea to hire a comedy writer?
• Thoughts on the future of kids entertainment

This episode marks a new beginning. We reached a new milestone having the 100th episode of the podcast. As we enter a new season, we say farewell to Ken Kelly, the founder of this company, who after 3.5 years have decided to move on to other things, and sold his share to Zivi Kivi. Thanks so much for Ken for all that he contributed to the podcast, the company and for his influence and legacy. We wish Ken goodluck in his endeavors and suspect you will hear more of him in the future.

Do you think putting prices in your website is worth it? Then listen to this episode.

We also discussed a game that you can use in your events, that was taken out from the Vault.

Lastly, since the Halloween season is coming, we talked about Halloween shows and characters.

In this episode we discussed:

In Your Voice:

Do you put prices on websites? What are the pros and cons? - Virginia from Los Angeles asked us, and here are some of the Pros and Cons:

• Pros:
• • Acts as a filter. Filter out customers that are just looking for price
  • Shows fairness and It builds your confidence (the trust factor)
  • You can show different packages and it saves you a lot of time with customers

• Cons:
• • New in the area, depends on the location.
  • Prices are not final yet
  • Competition will know your price and they will undercut you (but honestly, they will know your prices one way or another anyway)

Tips from the vault: The game “I Like You Because...”

• Taken from the lecture from our Learning Circle course
• The lecture was about the concept of the 5 love languages for kids
• The game involves two people - each one need to says “I like you because …... “

https://member.kidsentertainerhub.com/topic/episode-101-the-i-like-you-because-game/

Hot Topic:

HALLOWEEN CHARACTER / SHOW - is it really worth it?

• Tips on how to make your Halloween shows
• Discussion with regard to costumes

Planning to start asking for deposits from your bookers, or wondering how you can simplify the process? In this episode, we discuss how you can ask for deposits with no hassle to you or your client.

And because we always strive to give you as much value as we can, we also discuss how to deal with undercutting, and also whether one website or several specialized websites are for you.

In this episode we discuss: 

In Your Voice: Specialized Websites or One Website?

Is it best to have a singular website that promotes all your services, or a singular website for each of your services? – Keith Tusing

• Pros and cons of having one website vs. having several specialized websites
• Things to consider when deciding whether to have a single or multiple websites

Tips from the Vault: How to Ask for Deposits

• Benefits of asking for deposits for your children’s shows
• Hassle-free ways to ask for deposits

Hot Topic: How to Deal with Undercutting

• The right attitude towards the issue of undercutting
• Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and how you can get bookings even if you charge more than your competitors

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 143 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! In today's episode, we have Chad Jacobs aka Chef Bananas. Today he shares with us about cold calling, branding and stuff about marketing plus how you can make use of your basement.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Chad shares what went on when the pandemic started
• Chad talks about how he transitioned to Virtual Shows
• Chad made use of his basement as a virtual studio
• Chad shares his best practices in cold calling
• What Chad thinks about cold calling and why he does it
• Chad also talks about his Foam business
• More on this episode so listen to the full episode

Welcome to Season 6 chapter 117 of the Kids Entertainer Hub! Mark Fuller from Texas is our guest in this spectacular show. Today we talked about Mark's journey and how he transitioned from being a full-time bus driver to a full-time kids entertainer.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

Mark Fuller is a 60 year old kids entertainer, balloon twister from Texas.

- Mark started 25 years ago as a volunteer for his Church ministry to raise money
- He did that for 15 years but it was on and off and then he moved to a different place
- About 10 yrs ago he moved to Texas and decided to go in deeply into balloons
- While he was doing balloons he was also a bus driver
- He loves being around kids and loves teaching them
- In November 2018, his son Sam Fuller told him about the Balloon Artists Podcast and it opened a whole new world to him
- Back in April something happened that made him go full-time on being an entertainer
- He started doing balloon storytelling even in linework
- Now that he’s no longer driving the bus, he’s got time to practice and focus on the things for stuff like marketing
- Since he went full time, he feels healthier, more organized, well rested and lost weight
- Mark is now looking forward to going to his first convention
- “Magic like balloons... if you don’t practice you don’t get it down real quick and smooth” - Mark

Thinking about offering a two-hour kids party package or already running one yourself? Then this podcast episode is for you.

Roger Blakiston, aka Jolly Roger, has been doing two-hour kids shows for over two decades now. In this interview, he goes into details about what goes on during his performances and even how he markets his shows. So come, listen and learn from one of the best and most experienced in the field.

In this episode we discuss:

– How Roger got started offering a two-hour party package

– What makes a kids entertainer effective

– How Roger introduced and marketed his two-hour kids shows in the USA

– How he uses games and music to get mixed-age groups engaged

– His setup for outdoor shows

– How he runs his two-hour parties

– His one tip for kids entertainers

In episode 2 of our From the Experts series, we tackle the school assembly entertainment market with seasoned pro Obediah Thomas.

From the pros of offering school assembly shows, to tips on how to be successful at it, to instructions on how to create backdrops for it (or any show for that matter), we discuss them here.

Go on and click play and enjoy this interview packed with a lot of useful tips that can get you started with your own school assembly show.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why Obediah chose to do school assembly shows
• How to start creating and performing school assembly shows
• Who to approach when selling school assembly shows
• School assembly shows in comparison to other shows
• The pros and cons of being a two-man show
• The ‘seasons’ of school assembly shows
• How Obediah fills his downtime
• Why some school assembly acts don’t make it
• How the school assembly market is doing
• A typical performance day
• How the students are usually set up for a school assembly show
• Teacher and student participation during school assemblies
• How Obediah deals with disruptive audiences
• How to make backdrops for school assembly shows
• How a show can make a difference in a kid’s life