Something New
We have gotten an idea from one of our readers that we found to be somewhat unique. We have that persons permission to share the idea, but they would rather stay anonymous for purposes of this article. (Somewhat unusual since the purpose of the idea was getting “attention”, but we will honor the request.)
Our reader was in his early 40’s when he started out to be a Vent. He loved little kids and wanted to do a lot of birthday parties, but was not sure that he was good enough to get bookings and did not want to disappoint folks by not giving a good enough show. He also realized that in order to get better, he needed exposure time with his target audience. So after much thought he decided to go with this novel new idea.
In his town there was a restaurant that he described as being like a “Chuck E. Cheese” type place. On a Friday night, he took just his wife and a small puppet that would fit in a small bag and went to the restaurant. Once there he and his wife got their food and sat down. As luck (or good planning) would have it, there were several groups of kids who showed up that night for birthday parties.
After each small group would come in and get seated, he waited for his opportunity, figured out who the birthday child was and went to work. First he walked up to the parent and asked permission to have a little good clean fun with their child. Then he walked up to the birthday child and had his puppet start a conversation with the child, wishing them a happy birthday, asking how old they were and so on.
He was initially concerned that the restaurant would throw him out, but the restaurant thought that he was entertainment brought in by the parents, and the parents thought he was entertainment provided by the restaurant. After about 5 minutes with the small group just having fun, he gave the parent his business card and went and sat down. The small group loved what he did and wanted to see more. After two more appearances with that group, he took his seat.
His wife meanwhile had spotted the next “victim” at their party. He pulled the same routine with that group with the same results. After he finished the fourth group and sat down, the restaurant manager came over to him and began asking questions. He explained what he was doing and ended up being hired for two nights a week to come in and do just what he was doing as a guest entertainer of the restaurant.
The manager later told him that if he had not had his wife with him that they would have thrown him out thinking that he was some kind of kid predator, but the presence of his wife gave him “normal” legitimacy. Over several months, he began getting calls in his town from parents wanting him to come and do private bookings for other children and he now has a thriving birthday business.
Pretty cool stuff and it only cost him the price of business cards, and the price of the first meal with his wife. It is just another example of letting your creativity get you going.
He said to remind everyone that it is critical that you get the parents permission before starting in on the child. Since he was not yet working for the restaurant, he could have created real problems for himself if he had not obtained permission from the parent. (Good thinking in this day and age.)
That’s all for now folks,
Steve and JET
What a clever idea!
Another way to get practice is to have your puppet enter into conversation with people during the coffee hour after church.