It's been a while since I've visited Balloon Chat, but I decided to drop in and see what's new, so hello all! I think this "How Did You Start Balloon Twisting" section is new since I was last here, so I figure I'll share my story. First, let me say that these days, I perform myself as Magician Matt Matthews and also run a party agency, The Party Troupe, for face painters, balloon twisters, and more.

I've been in to magic my whole life. My father used to buy me magic tricks off an Adams spinner rack from a local hobby shop when I was a kid and I remember watch Penn and Teller TV specials back in the 90s. I loved Pen and Teller because they so often revealed how the trick was done. And for me, that was what I found so exciting - learning how the magic was done.

But magic was always just a hobby. I never really had the guts to perform it for real people. I did a couple of birthday parties - my nieces, done for free, and my mom's co worker that I did for $50 - but never really did it professionally. Then, about seven years ago, I was a new dad and money was tight. My wife and I were both working full time jobs, but we weren't making ends meet. My wife was just at the end of her rope and said she didn't know how we were going to do it financially.

So I said, "well, I guess I can try to start doing magic shows on the weekend." And so I started trying to learn, for real, how you entertain kids. On that journey, the idea of doing balloon twisting cropped up a few times. I had always read on the Magic Cafe that balloons were a great upsell, and I also came across a few balloon routines that could be done during a magic show. So, my ADHD kicked in and, even though I was supposed to be learning how to do magic shows, I started learning the all new hobby of balloon twisting.

What happened was, balloon twisting solved my big "magic show" problem. Remember how I mentioned how I never had the guts to perform magic shows? Well, balloon twisting doesn't really take guts the way magic does. So I quickly transitioned myself to a balloon twister first and foremost. I ended up using a magic show as an upsell on balloon twisting, and with magic being the secondary thing, it took a lot of the pressure off of that. The way I saw it, if I bombed as a magician I would finish with the balloons and I'd kill it. But of course, doing magic so much (it was an easy upsell) led to me getting really good at that, and now I'm back to being a magician first and foremost (there's just better money in that than balloon twisting, unfortunately).

I still do balloon twisting all the time - most parents will add balloon twisting on to their magic show - but I keep it to more simple balloons these days. Still better than dogs and swords, but things like simple aliens, cats using a heart for the face, etc.

And that's my story of how I started.

...turtle power!   (I doubt they say that in the new cartoon, but I was an 80s kid, lol).

I've been trying to work out a line work ninja turtle design and I think I've got it. There are a few on Youtube, but the ones I saw didn't have the yellow belly (which I think is important), and the bigger ones just used too many balloons and take too long. I'm really proud of this. It's four balloon, plus a scrap for the headband. A green balloon for the arms and head, a green for the feet, a brown for the shell and a yellow (I used a scrap, actually) for the belly. Fairly straight forward, even for a newb like me  I don't have it perfect yet, but I'm close.

Hi guys, I'm still new to ballooning, so I was wondering what everyone considers to be their top balloons for line work. For a little thought experiment, assume that you were going out to a fair or a restaurant type setting and your could only make something like 6 balloons. Just six different designs to make all night, please people and make a lot of money in tips. What would those six designs be?

Hi all,

I'm a super new twister, so keep that in mind.

I'm trying to create an easy, one balloon hat base to serve as "legs" for my super hero tops.

Here's one I made for Hulk:

[ You are not allowed to view this attachment ] Hulk Base.jpg[/attachment:3fyxm52e]

It needs that pinch twist on the top so I can hook it in to the body. That's my problem, though... I'm not sure how to measure it so that it ends up in the spot, so instead I've been connecting the hat top to the other side and then experimenting with pinch twists and splits twists on top. But it doesn't really work like that. Here's a Spider-Man I made:

[ You are not allowed to view this attachment ] Spidey Base.jpg[/attachment:3fyxm52e]

You'll see that doing the twist pulled up the sides of the base and it doesn't really fit snug as a hat anymore. I figure there must be a "best" way to do it so that I'm putting in the pinch twist before connecting it... or maybe there's even a better easy, one balloon hat base to use that I just don't know yet.

Would you guys be able to offer any help?

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new to balloon twisting (by way of the magic community) and hoping I can get a little better. I've watched a lot of online videos and have just started practicing with my first batch of balloons. It's funny to watch videos where someone makes a four-balloon mermaid look so easy, but then I can't make two one-balloon dogs come out with the same body shape as each other, lol. Hopefully I'll get there.