Laura has been waiting to do the interview for a while now and has some free time coming up so that she can spend the time answering the questions on the forum. Laura lives in sunny California and specialises in balloon storytelling. So any more questions than the usual ones that are here are always welcome; set-questions-from-forum-members-t977.html

Laura's website; http://www.balloonstoryteller.com/
Portfolio; http://diva.balloonhq.com/

Laura here is the list of set questions for you; set-questions-from-forum-members-t977.html
If anyone has any othe questions to ask Laura then please fire away.

Hi Laura,

thanks for taking the time to answer questions and be on the forum.
I met Don in London and at TMJ, please say hi to him from me.

Some questions for you...

What's your favourite colour of balloon?

What's your favourite size/ shape of balloon and why?

Will you becoming over to TMJ later this year?

thats all for now,

best wishes
Danny

Here's the beginning of the questions. More to come.

1, What road led you into balloon modelling?

I have been performing all my life, mostly opera and musical theater.
Not much money but I’ve had lots of fun with it.

One day, while helping out at my church, I was asked to learn to twist. However, they forgot to tell me it’s addictive, so 11 years later I’m still doing it.

2, when did you get started with balloons?

1998 a couple of weeks before Halloween.

3, What’s your best twisting experience?

It’s hard to pick just one. I really love getting together with other artists and creating something big, like Balloon Manor. I love performing on a stage and pushing the limits of what people think I can do. I also love connecting with a small audience and sometimes just one child, especially a child who isn’t normally comfortable with strangers.

4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?

Oh, the many horror stories. Most of them are difficult at the time but make a great story later, like the time the star volunteer of my
show got overwhelmed and retreated into the fetal position on stage.
The same weekend I also had a volunteer pee her pants on stage.

How about the time a small piece of balloon flew into a 4 year old’s eye and stuck on his eyeball? Good thing his dad was a paramedic.

I think the worst feeling is when I think I haven’t done a good show or the client isn’t happy. At the first school show I did in California, I didn’t realize how militant the school was about the length of the show. I had ten minutes to go in the show (the finale!) and the teachers just filed the kids out of the auditorium.

There was also the time when I actually lost my pants when climbing into a clear six-foot balloon. Thankfully the lighting was horrible on the makeshift back porch stage. I keep telling myself I was the only one who noticed. Right after that I changed my costume, though.

5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?

The kids. They just crack me up.

6, What's your favourite age to entertain?
Large audiences ages 6-12.

Hi everyone. I've been battling some yucky cold virus here and now I'm back to join the living. Graham, thanks so much for inviting me to be on Balloon Chat.

I lived in London for five months a few years ago and I miss England very much. For a week I'll live vicariously through you all on this forum. I'll also get to the rest of the questions ASAP and keep putting answers up all week.

Here are some questions from Danny the Idiot (I'm a big fan!)

What's your favourite colour of balloon?
Rose, Lime Green, Spring Lilac, and Orange, in that order. I have a problem choosing just one. I want all the colors in all the shapes and sizes so I don't have to limit the colors that I use for sculptures because the balloons aren't available (sigh). I may never get what I want.

What's your favourite size/ shape of balloon and why?
My faves change all the time. Right now it's 350s because when I super size even a simple sculpture it makes a huge impact.

Will you becoming over to TMJ later this year?
I'm not sure. I'd really like to. How's that for noncommittal?

That's all for now, but I'll keep coming back to check now and then.

Annie Banannie, Balloon Storyteller
(aka Laura Caldwell)
Because Every Balloon Has a Story . . . .
www.Twitter.com/BalloonStory

So what was it like to get married in a balloon dress?
Did you just wear it for the ceremony or at the reception all night as well?

Hi Laura

I am thinking of doing a childrens writing course, I was wondering if you have been on any you would recommend.

Many thanks

Mike

It was great fun. Of all my family and friends, only my sister didn't think it was a good idea. Since my sister and I are complete opposites, I took this as a confirmation of our plans.

The day before the wedding, there were 6 or 7 twisters in our room making balloon leis for all the guests while Buster was making the dress. The day of the wedding he laced me up in the dress while I was wearing it. The trip from the bride's dressing room to the chapel was hilarious. It was blistering hot in Vegas and we had to cross a hot parking lot, so I had three people holding up the bottom of my dress while I walked. We only lost 4 or 5 balloons.

The dress came out fantastic (see pic below). I was going to change before the ride to the reception, but each of these chapels comes with your own very efficient wedding coordinator, who whisked me immediately to the limousine. After my friends shoved the dress in with me, I traveled about 15 min to the restaurant on my knees with Buster helping me balance and half my family with us in the limo (another long story).

Before I left the chapel, I quickly asked Tawney Bubbles to grab my clothes and bring them to the restaurant. 45 minutes later she finally showed up with some lame excuse about cleaning out the bride's room. So I spent about half the reception meal standing up in the dress and wandering around talking to my guests. Guess I probably would have done that anyway.

Now what Tawney and Todd Neufeld were actually doing was decorating our hotel room with honeymoon themed balloon teddy bears. Those of you who know Todd and Tawney will completely understand why we will always remember that present.

When we went back to the chapel after the reception to get the car, we gave the dress to the bossy wedding coordinator lady, who turned out to be delightful once I got a chance to talk to her. She and the staff took all sorts of pictures with it and they still remembered us six months later when the Twisted: A Balloonamentary people contacted them for footage of the wedding.

p.s. I learned that day that the bride should never be in charge of anything but herself on the wedding day. After so many of us worked on the leis the day before, I completely forgot to give them to the guests. A couple of weeks later one of my guests was telling someone how awful it was that someone had stolen the leis and we couldn't use them! I really hated to set the story straight.

I'm also looking to take some courses, and am planning to take one offered by Ann Whitford Paul. I took a short class from her at a convention and was floored by what I learned. http://www.annwhitfordpaul.net/

I think the best way to learn how to write children's books is to join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators ("SCBWI"). They have conventions, local classes, and lots of local writers and illustrators groups. You can also look at my twitter page www.twitter.com/BalloonStory and follow some of the people on my storytellers-kidswriting list. I'm learning so much from them.

Hope that helps! I'm just a beginner myself in that area.

Ooops forgot the picture.