Some thoughts & suggestions on/about Twist & Shout.

The hotel venue was very nice although the sign attached to the front of the building stating that this area caused cancer was a slight concern, talk about covering your backs.
The four lecture halls were of a good size with only the Artesia room getting very warm & claustrophobic. The jam room was way too small with possibly the Crystal A room being bigger and perhaps more suited to being the jam room, the large competition balloon sculpture area was also not ideal but trying to find a venue in a different location every year that is ideal for the balloon convention is a thankless task and the Sheraton Hotel, Cerritos seemed to fit most of the criteria that the balloon convention required.

I would also like to see the lectures start later in the day as 8.3o am for the first one is way too early especially if you've been partying the night before, a l0.oo am start would seem a sensible time to me
The problem with using hotels is the high cost for rooms etc as our room cost of $115 dollars a night just for the room made the convention work out to be very expensive.
I'm also not a lover of the $5 charge for each lecture you visit. If you stayed for a minimum of four nights, went to all the lectures possible and paid $229 registration the total cost is $750 or £520 or if you can share a room $519 or £360 for what is a 2.5 day convention. So when you compare this with The Millennium Jam cost of $441 or £306 for a 5 day convention with the added extra of fantastic evening entertainment with the Iron Latex & Fashion Shows and you can help to decorate the venue pre TMJ as well on the Saturday.

So the cost did seem excessive but then the venue was so much more up market than Sunparks, that said I would definitely recommend you to visit and attend twist & shout as I was made to feel most welcome and had a really nice time with everyone being so kind, warm hearted and very friendly. In fact all that we come to expect from all balloon twisters from around the world as this surely is the most amazing bunch of individuals ever, we are all one big happy family with that special bond that one just can't describe but we all know is there.

So having arrived two days late it was straight to the bar for a drink with Ken & Colin after Ken picked me up at the airport & trying to wind down from the two most stressful days of my life travelling to the convention.

The first of the attractions was the slumber/pyjama party which I only observed, some people seemed to have no shame in what they turned up in but it was all in good fun and everyone had a great evening, although I didn't stay to the end as sleep was calling me by then.
Colin woke me early the next day as he still had lots to do on his large competition entry piece that had to be set & finished by 4.oo pm that day. I just had a very leisurely morning meeting & catching up with old friends & making new ones and it was very interesting speaking with Michael Floyd who runs another balloon forum, very interesting indeed. Then it was back to help Colin with a few final touches before I went off to my first lecture of the convention on marketing with Connie Iden-Monds called "Just Say No" There were no planned events on the Thursday morning, the first official lectures not starting till 1.3o pm. The class was discussing & showing ways to promote yourself and your business without paying out thousands in advertising. I found it to be a very interesting couple of hours with some good tips and I would assume everyone gaining from attending the lecture, a tighter 90 min lecture would have been preferred as it was a very quick turn around to the next lecture by Zanie Janie Driscoll called "Balloon Show" Not sure what I was expecting from this class as I'd heard the name a lot over the last few months with postings etc on balloon HQ. If I'm being honest I was not expecting too much but how wrong can you be as the class tuned out to be a joy to attend with Janie being a very enthusiastic and competent & funny lecturer, I thoroughly enjoyed the class and I'm sure it would have been very useful to everyone. Class notes were given out to everyone which was a nice touch and helped you to refresh your memory later on to what the class was about.

Will hunt out my notes to see if I can add to the above with a few more details about the content of both lectures,
TO BE CONTINUED

Found the notes for the classes,

Connie's company is called party animals http://www.partyanimalstn.com/ and things discussed were website design, personalize your email, you tube, facebook, linkedin, craiglist and how to make them all work for you.

Zany Janie, http://www.alwaysclowning.com/ be warned there is some very annoying & irritating music on the site

Janie talked about building up anticipation for your show, making an entrance, how to build a balloon show from a children's story book, act while performing by adding breath control.

While over at twist & shout I added to my DVD collection with,

1, Adjustable hats, Tonya McNeill
2, Class notes, Andrew McDonald
3, Story telling & entertaining with balloons, Gilbert Adams
4, Twisted, a balloonamentary, Naomi Greenfield & Sara Taksler
5, Madhatter, Lincoln Johnson

The Thursday night welcome reception;

A small buffet was provided with fruit, a cheese selection, cookies, soft drinksand coffee. The buffet seemed to be on the small size considering that there were 275 attending the convention so I was pleased that I'd eaten before the event, but the cookies were fantastic and I did have two of them
The evening was just about outlining what was to come over the next few days with the lecturers giving us snippets of their classes, from memory that was the evening. On reflection it should have been more of a razzmatazz extravaganza as it was the opening night of the convention and the organisers needed to get the show on the road with a bang. More needs to be done for this evening presentation & thoughts on it moving to the Wed night should be given as some of the classes had already been & gone with no chance of catching them even if you wanted to. This would then free up the night for yet another night of organised entertainment that all the convention goers could participate in.
The late night lectures run from 11pm with the one that I attended going on for two hours so to try & get up for an 8.3o class is rather a challenge especially if you go to the jam room & have a few beers before getting some shut eye.
I would move all the late night lectures to the Thursday morning so making that a full day and have the welcome reception on the Wednesday night before any of the classes start with the same format of the instructors introducing themselves & explaining their classes and then getting a good small show together, possibly a related art, juggling, magic act and/or possibly asking some of the instructors to do a few minutes on stage as well.

The late night lecture that I attended on the Thursday was by balloonchat member Andrew McDonald, McPump on Mall twisting, an unusual title as only one thing was twisted in the whole two hour session which was on working for the owners of the mall (shopping centre) rather than the shopping centre as they own hundreds of centres rather than just one. Things discussed were how to get contact with the big organisations, how to work the centres, having people stand in for you and doing the bigger events for the venues. Some good tips & advise were given even about the $100 dollar line and Andrew told some nice stories, a worthwhile class that I felt would have benefited from it being tightened up and 30 minutes shorter but this may have been the first class Andrew had given on this subject and he wanted to make sure everyone got value for there $5 entrance fee but sometimes less is more.
TO BE CONTINUED

Hi Graham really enjoying the write up on T & S.

Just wondered did you get to play with any kit pumps etc, if so could you give us your opinion of them.
Did you get a new pump, I know you were thinking about it?

Keep the info on T & S coming, it is really good to read.

Roger

This is the pump I got  Does anyone have some sunglasses :lol:

Graham I thought you were the colour in the show. Dose this mean we will be seeing you decorate your roll on table in pink.  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Great to see the photos and read your reports, Graham. Thanks.

A pink balloon pump - not the first colour that would have come to mind for Graham Lee    Obviously a man full of surprises  

Dave

There was a technical reason for the pink pump    it was the only one Filbert lent to the convention & the only one available for me to buy there, so it was hobsons choice and I could paint the pink black or grey :lol:

WOW!! I'm with Tony on this - save up deffo for next year! Thanks for photos and stuff Graham.
Kev

Friday Morning,

After a lay in after a late night I decided to skip the early 8.3o class and went off to see Beating with at least 50 other people.

Beating held two classes, one on Patterns and the other Round Sculpture. The only notes I made were for the sizing of the balloons as Beating has come up with a fantastic recipe that will help to break down the boundaries between the twisters & stackers. Once you'd seen the principle of the way the design was put together you were away as were most of the class as at least half had left before the end of the first session. This one assumes was because of the slow pace to the class being translated with all the front two rows trying to help out as well with translating and the concept that once you'd seen how one model was put together the rest would follow naturally.
To view some of Beatings work checkout his portfolio page as he is absolutely prolific in the amount of varying sculptures that he produces.
Portfolio; http://beating.balloonhq.com/  Website; http://www.balltoon.com/
The interpreter I thought done a very good job in difficult circumstances as he was as he put it a balloon virgin, the translating may have gone better if they had a basic knowledge of balloons but having said that he done very well & was cracking jokes about the balloons by the end of the second class, I believe they found him from one of the new internet sites, Craig list or linked In etc.
I enjoyed both classes but did spend the whole of the second session trying to upload pictures from my camera onto my laptop while only keeping one eye on Beating & what he was teaching.

Andrew McDonald, Line Twisting,

Thoroughly enjoyed this class, Andrew again told a few stories seemed very comfortable on stage and his friends Magnificent Mike & Big Don kept me company during the session where Andrew taught approx 8/10 good and usable intermediate figures that would make you stand out from the crowd & be reasonable quick when the pressure of 100's of screaming kids were around you, if you did get yourself into that situation. I did spend some money & purchase his CD, when I get a few minutes I'll give a review.
From my notes Andrew showed, Snake, Butterfly, Horse, Giraffe, Monkey, Elephant, Tiger & Tigger. He was hoping to show Superman & a dog but ran out of time.

Debbie Stevens, Balloon Couture.

Debbie had a 90 min class to show the fundamentals of making a balloon dress which was unfortunately never going to be enough time as she raced through the basic weaving techniques & explained how to start the dress and build up around the bust area. I always have trouble with the bust & am hoping that what Debbie showed will help me to overcome this problem in the future so for me the class & this tip were most worthwhile. Debbie was using black balloons to build the dress that really made it very difficult to see the weave coming together, possibly a lighter colour/shade of balloon may have been a better choice. The last 20 mins people got into small groups to start the basic dress weave that Debbie showed. They were also using blow up mannequin's that were available to buy and seemed to be snapped up, the waist was so small & the mannequin's seemed over curvaceous to me and not a very natural shape for a woman, or perhaps I've just led a very sheltered life.
Just looking at my notes & Debbie did  explain a very good tip to keep the front of the dress flat while making the rear curve to the shape of a ladies anatomy. So with two good tips from the class in a very short space of time I was more than happy.

Masterclass;

Debbie was one of the three teachers who ran a master class on the Wednesday before the convention got underway on balloon couture (Dresses), Bidou with his Stage craft & linkoloon's
and Melissa Gjergji with Round up your profits with balloon decor.
I had not planned to go to any of these classes which was lucky for me as due to the flight delays & cancellations I didn't arrive until they were over. The cost to attend the full days class was $149 dollars with lunch & refreshments provided.

Twist & shout also gave me a good chance to talk with everyone from the balloon industry & arrange for people to come over to do some hands on lecture/workshops. We have Don Caldwell coming over in may/June with Patricia Bunnell looking to come over in October. Then next year I have Billy Damon for March time & Ken Stillman planned for October/November time.

Ken & Don will be doing "The David Grist Memorial Lectures".

We also have lined up for the star interviews on the forum,

Robbie Firman
Billy Damon
Tonya McNeill
Edd Chee
Andrew "McPump" McDonald
Jack Mattson, Voted Top Twister Of The Year 2009
Just Marie
Suzanne Haring

Friday Night Stage Show

The Friday night show had a good collection of acts with 13 participants.

1, Rob The balloon Guy,
Reminded me of a young Jack Dee with a dead pan attitude. This act certainly had potential, finished with an escape from eight 260's wrapped around himself while tied to a collapsible? Chair.

2, Dr Balloonatic, Dressed a forest scene on stage with about 8 volunteers for a punch line with Robbie Firman walking through the trees; it was a good punch line.

3, Sean McDaniel, Started out with a ball catcher with members from the audience throwing the ball & Sean catching it, this then turned into the base for a Ken Stillman Princess dress and a very nice beast mask was produced at the end.

4, Manon, A lovely act that I've seen on several occasions as we have worked together in china and Belgium, her mime is excellent and the act is a joy to watch. At a guess the act must take at least 4/5 hours to set with so many balloon props.

5, Willie Munro another act that I've had the pleasure of working with in China, I have seen Willie perform at least four different acts and this is probably my favourite, a parody of the slick magician producing doves from everywhere, a worthy winner of the stage competition. Speaking with Willie after the show and he told me that it was the first time performed and took nearly 6 hours to set the props and his look.

6, I only wrote down J for this Japanese lady who had a very colourful, amusing and nice act all connected to good and bad. The audience joined in when something went wrong, BAD and also when something went well, GOOD.
 A nice feel good factor act with everyone using the catchphrase for the rest of the convention.

7, Kokuf, Another act that I've worked with and I do enjoy his style, all about having fun & enjoying yourself, some mime, balloons and juggling made for a nice act.

8, Another Japanese act which I wrote down as Shee Ho Nogi? The Japanese certainly have another way to entertaining which I enjoyed. The idea was that her birthday was on the day she flew back to Japan and with the time delay she would only have a few hours of her birthday, the finale was she came on wearing a really nice three tier birthday cake with everyone clapping and joining in.

9, Mark Byrne, Mark produced a real apple from a balloon, smoked a balloon pipe mimed playing the piano and finished off wearing a costume mask of I'm guessing a famous American who I think was Jimmy Durante?

10, Smarty Pants, Came on as a robot? Produced Miss Dena from a balloon square that we all saw her step into and then we all put on 3D glasses as they threw out jet propelled balloons.

11,The Atwistocrats, This was a very nice act that played out well known pop songs while dressing up in the appropriate balloon costumes, you could not but like this fast moving and well put together act, my only critique would be that the music for each section needed to play for longer than it did so that we could all appreciate the work put into the costumes and the obvious fun they were having on stage. They were voted the peoples favourite by the audience.

12, Los Globos were another act acting out to music while all the costumes ended up joining together to form a massive monster on stage at the end. I think they lost out and struggled due to the high standard of the similar and very polished act before them.

13, Cricket is a very funny person with some great material which no doubt would have played so much better earlier on in the evening as by the time he got on stage the audience including myself had had a very long day and were very tired, a shame really as he is an excellent, funny performer.

There were late night classes after the show with Billy Damon on Nicolodeon but I had to miss them due to the fact I desperately needed some shut eye. I honestly don't understand classes being scheduled going on until the early hours and then a bright & early 8.3o start.

Saturday

Billy Damon

I got up early on Saturday to catch Billy Damon and his class, High on Balloons. Poor Billy had a late Friday class & early Saturday, so who organised that then?

I'm sure the late class would have been good but sleep was calling me so I had to miss it. I did see a very good and reasonable easy sponge bob from the late class in the jam room the next day credited to Billy.
I enjoyed Billy's style & presentation, talking about the perceived value of your show. If you arrive in a battered up old car or a Porsche, then think of the different attitude your customer would have with you. A very thoughtful class that hopefully next year those in the UK will get the benefit from as Billy will be coming over in March. Explained & showed was an excellent and new to me technique for stretching and moulding a 260 to shape for making his princess design.
Billy also went into detail about his working outfits; he really is a natty dresser.
Explained his box system and how he loads his balloons and accessories for quickness and ease and showed a way to store your pens so that you can take the cap off & re-cap with just one hand. A nice enjoyable class and he was also kind enough to plug balloon chat for us.

Beating

This was the second class where he showed the patterns, the sculptures would be ideal for table top decorations and the principle was the same but with changing the accessories you came up with literally hundreds of various designs as seen on his portfolio. This was the class when I had an eye on the lecture & was pathetically trying to download some pictures from my broken camera. Becky from Wivatwist came to my rescue and lent me a card reader that put the pictures onto my laptop but unfortunately into a different folder that I was unable to resize so I was back to square one again. Still at least I've got them on the site when I returned and it was the thought that counted, so thanks Becky.

Royal Sorell

This was the class that I was probably most dis appointed with, was I expecting more?
I'm not too sure, Royal showed five different head designs that were from the basic to the new president of the USA. With the American humour and perhaps wilting from the late nights this class just didn't do it for me. As someone explained to me after it was as if he'd fallen out of love with our art and was bored. It also may have been that he too was exhausted from organising and helping to keep the convention flowing throughout the event.
I must also point out that someone at the end of the class, I think it was Becky thought the class was absolutely great and they had got so much from it and one of the face/hat designs would be great for them when doing walkabout at the various events that they work. So it is horses for courses as they say and I'm sure some of the classes I enjoyed others would have been disappointed with.


Suzanne Haring

Suzanne's class was called Life/Performance which I honestly did try to get into as this was an all action hands on workshop which involved moving around the class interacting with others, playing out roles and feelings with each other and even rolling around on the floor using breath control. I have never done acting/drama classes, improv, performance skills etc, it was interesting to see the way the structure was put together & everyone in the class joined in and Suzanne was an enthusiastic teacher and I'm sure many of the class benefited from the experience. I have to say and I have spoken with Suzanne about this as she is a good dear friend of mine that I struggled with this class but I'm pleased that I participated all the way, hoping as time went on the penny would drop & I'd say eureka I've got it but it never did for me.
But that's not too say I wont try again as life to me is one long learning curve and when you give up on learning you may as well give up on life. Without all the experiences in life with all the ups and downs, none of us would be where we are today without the journey that we've all taken. That to me is what makes the balloon industry so special with a very important place in my heart for it and everyone else that is part of this extended family.

TO BE CONTINUED

Saturday Night Gala Show

With what I can remember, there were only two acts on so it was hardly a show!
We had nice company on our table and it was a very pleasant evening with the majority of people putting on there glad rags including myself with the old whistle & flute.
The food was just Ok considering they had to cook for over 300 people and was included in your registration cost, it would have been nice for the waiting staff to smile and seem more interested in what they were doing rather just plonking the food down in front of us. Drinks were very expensive at the portable bar that was wheeled in so it was handy that a few had brown paper bags illegally under the table.
The awards were given out for the various competitions during the week which have been posted earlier on this thread with Dave Bartlett coming out and being just Dave Bartlett, on good form and very likeable singing and doing a nice tribute to Linda Bruce which I have posted on another thread but you can also link through from here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRw2oa-q ... annel_page

Manon performed a short spot on the show? Does she never get a few minutes to herself as she is always making the props during the day for her evening performances.
It was very well received and possibly a tighter show than she performed the previous night in the stage competition. She is a joy to watch and a true professional at what she does.

Looking around at all the instructors and balloon artistes in the room with very good acts it was a bit of a mystery why more is not made of the night & really turning it into a gala show, surely the balloon world has enough talent to make the final night go out with a bang.
As soon as the last award was handed out the room deserted & tables and chairs started to be taken down & out of the venue by the staff, no dancing, no atmosphere and not much of a party night which was a shame as I thoroughly enjoyed coming over to twist & shout, meeting the people, putting faces to names, even the challenge of getting there was becoming a distant memory.

But things certainly livened up the following evening at the burlesque show, Balloonalicious...........TO BE CONTINUED

Fantastic Pictures Graham,
Also pleased to hear you took my advice and managed to do a little bit of sightseeing too, Hollywood etc.
coffee