Hi everybody,

it's a question that is on my mind for some time:

is it possible in UK for a children entertainer, like balloon twister to support himself/herself full time with this economical climate that we have now?

My "clown" jobs as I call it, come not so often as I wish. Maybe one reason is that I don't advertise myself as much as I would like. So how are you ladies and gentlemen cope with this. I understand that there are some very talented people on this forum, and also some people who do magic with their shows (what I sadly not able to do at the moment. Never trained yet with magic tricks, plus the sets are now out of my pocket).
Now please, do not misunderstand me, I do have returning customers and agencies, yet at the moment it is not enough to put the roof over my head and food on my table.

So how does it work with you guys? How do you cope? how do you get the jobs? and continuity?

any advice?
Mr. Tony

There was this discussion of the month that may have a few answers for you. march-2009-promoting-yourself-recession-t1329.html

Hi there

I am pretty new to this Forum so was not involved in the discussion Graham mentions, But, I have been a full time entertainer for about 15 years now, I do Balloons and magic and I seem to be surviving quite happily during this economic climate.

There are many reasons why I have managed to keep so busy and the main one is a good agent, I know a lot of people don't like working for agents but I have to say getting my agent was the best thing I ever did and I wouldn't be doing this now without them.

Apart from that I distribute my cards at every party and work hard to keep my act to a high standard so that customers want to re book me.

Hi Rob, When you are booked by an agent is he OK that you give out your cards?

Hi Graham

Although I have all my own cards with all my informationon them, the phone number is my agents number, and so I am encouraged to give my cards out.

do you not find that you earn less as you are paying agent fees?

That is not a problem for me as they do all my advertising for me, plus they do all the phone calls and write up all the contacts, its worth paying a small percentage so that I don't have to do any of that.

Personally, I find I earn more working for Agents, and I am glad they do the work I hate, booking an event.

I believe agents deserve every penny they earn.   Booking and being available to do the booking, paperwork, ect
is well worth me not having to use my time that way.