Balloon Chat
Uncategorized Boards => The "Star" Interview => Topic started by: Graham Lee on April 06, 2008, 10:41:09 PM
As one or two may have noticed I've been very busy recently getting in touch with a few people in the balloon world that I'm very lucky to know.
So pleased to say the Ken has agreed to take part in the Interview as well 19/25th May.
Ken's Superhero DVD is definately one of the best which luckily I pointed out during my little Interview.
More details about Ken can be found at,
http://balloonmaster.com/ (http://balloonmaster.com/)
Graham Lee
Let me be the first one this time to ask a question...
Hi Ken, you are famous for your superheroes DVDs (and many other things to, of course) and I think a lot of question will be about this subject.
I want to ask you about another thing you did, the DVD "Speed Twisting"
I love that one, I use the models (a lot) and they are very successful. In fact, they belong to the top 3 of popular things that I make.
Are there some new designs to this same concept?
Are there pictures of new designs that I can see?
Will there ever be a volume 2?
Hi Ken I love the superhero dvd.
When did you get started with balloons and why?
What advice would you give for someone starting out or wanting to grow their business?
Ken has sent over some pictures for me to post for him,
I will ask him the questions from the list;
http://www.balloonchat.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=197 (http://www.balloonchat.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=197)
but if you have any others please fire away with them.
Hi Ken,
Welcome to Balloon Chat!
We have already seen the upsurge of balloon fashion/clothing and bigger & more complex balloon sculptures. How do you see the future of balloon modelling?
What way would you like it to go?
What do you still want to explore with balloons?
thanks
Danny
Hi Ken...I've read abt u from Balloon Magazine i bought... anyway... where did u get that Shirt..? :lol:
Ken
Here are the first of the compiled questions for you;
1, What road led you into balloon modelling?
2, when did you get started with balloons?
3, What's your best twisting experience?
4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?
5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?
Graham Lee
Hi Wim,
Thank you for your kind words.
I agree with you, next to the Hitch Hiker Hat, I believe that Speed Twisting is one of the greatest concepts that I have discovered to date. I love how quickly you can make large and impressive animals with it.
I am compiling some new ideas for the next DVD.
Thank you Dave,
The Super Hero DVDs have really been popular.
I got started in balloons in the early 90s. I was in construction The state that I lived in was in was in a recession. I took up twisting as a way to offset my income. Looking back I would have kept working at the job I had and put the balloon income toward a savings. It is always better to be working in the black.
Hi Danny
I am excited about the big things that are being done as well as the elegant. The picture of the China girl was my first attempt at a dress.
There was an e-mail with all the balloon dresses from China that went around the world.
Anytime that balloons get the exposure of this magnitude it helps our industry and raises our perceived value.
I do not want the simplicity of the twisted sculptures to be lost to the complexed weaving of the grandiose giants but I believe it is important for both to exist. Had I followed the rules of my time I would never have come up with any of the multiple balloon sculptures that exist today.
I am putting together a web site called Twisters United .com with the hope of uniting twisters all over the globe for the purpose of research and development, so that we can create balloons that would enhance our art form. I have to many ideas to protect all of them, but I believe with the help of twisters united we can get them out quicker and won't have to wait for the manufacturers to decide whether there is enough profit in them or not.
Hi PrinCeSs,
And Greetings to all the twisters in Singapore.
I got the shirt in Orange County in the States.
I had gone to see Don work at Tu Tu Tango and it was at a small store in the mall where he used to work.
1, What road led you into balloon modeling?
California was in a recession. My wife, Julie had started to paint faces to help with some of the bills. She thought that she could paint more faces if I would dress as a clown and attract more kids. I wanted to support her and signed up for a college class on clowning. I never liked balloons but a man came and lectured at one of the clown meetings and said his balloon company had done 300,000.00 worth of business last year. Well you can imagine my ears perked.
2, when did you get started with balloons?
I had started twisting in the early 90s to supplement my income.
I had written several books in order to teach at a clown conventions.
in 1999 I was invited by a good friend, Fred Harshburger to go to a balloon twister convention in in Texas.
by this time I had quit clowning and twisting and had gone back to construction work.
I really didn't want to go but Fred convinced me that we would have fun.
I am so glad I went. It was T Jam 99 and I taught a private class and had no idea of the royalty that would grace it. Among all the famous twisters from Europe, Leo Verlinden of IBS was there. when the class was over he invited me to give lectures all over Europe. I have never met a man so gracious. He gave so much of himself. Julie and I will cherish that time forever. It was at this time I new I had a gift to share.
3, What's your best twisting experience?
That would have to be the balloon lectures.
I cannot say which is the best because they have all been so great.
I am so grateful to Leo who started the whole thing off. I have gotten to see France , Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Holland. Jack and Roberta Lever have taken me to Italy twice. I have had the pleasure to have traveled with David Grist to Belgium, Italy and Japan. I have seen more of the east coast of the US because of Jim and Tom than I have ever seen of the west. Soo Chin from Qualatex has taken me to Singapore.
It was good to see her in China this last November. One of the places I had always wanted to go to from the time I was a child was Australia. Bruce a Rachelle Fraser of Qualatex down under made my dreams come true when they invited me on a lecture tour of Australia. I would not have believed in my wildest dreams that twisting balloons would have taken me around the world.
4, What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you during a ballooning/entertaining session?
I think the worst thing that has happened to me was when I was packing my house I got a call and the voice on the line said , who is this? and I said this is Ken who is this? he said this is Tim, where are you and I said where are you? He said he was at the airport. I realized I was a day off in my rush to move and I had forgotten to fly to Arizona. I told him I was home packing, and he said OK what pillar are you hiding behind? I had to let him know that I had missed the flight that he had paid for.
I had to finish moving my home and then drove all night to arrive the next day to do my lecture.
5, What do you most enjoy about twisting & why?
I have to say that I enjoy the creativity of twisting, although the medium is very transient, much like life.
It is here today and gone tomorrow,
yet it brings much happiness to those who experience it.
It is also a medium that has not been around for ages and ages, so it gives us greater opportunity to look like masters.
Hello Ken
Its the walking disaster Thelma here. Did you ever manage to get a femanine face from the hearts. We had a conversation in which you said you had never managed to get a famanine look with the technique you use and I went home and played and played but had no luck. Did you crack it in the end?
Ken
Do you have a website where people can purchase your DVD's, books etc?
Would you be able to share a story about you & David Grist? I always tell people about the time at TMJ when David & I always went to other peoples BBQ's as we never had any food in the rooms where we stayed, this is a long story so when you see me next I'll elaborate a bit more. It was at one of the BBQ's with Will & Anna that I met Sabina Kellner for the first time.
A few more questions from the compiled list;
6, What's your favourite age to entertain?
7, Do you have the same act but vary the presentation for all ages or do you have set acts for different ages?
8, What's your favourite thing to make at the moment?
9, What is the most asked for model?
10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
Graham Lee
If anyone has any other questions for Ken, please post away.
Graham Lee
Hi Thelma,
I have a new DVD coming out at the end of this month.
The subject is life size princesses using 660s and 16 inch hearts to make the body. There is a picture of one that Graham posted. I will send him a front view. I am pretty happy with the head, but I would still like to see some specialty shape balloons made specifically for feminine heads.
Hi Graham,
I hope to have a link on my web site up by the end of my day where people can purchase my books and DVDs. My site is going through a face lift at the moment and I took the store down momentarily. I am working on a program that has been in my mind for years and I need to just get it out there. I may have some intros finished for everyone to view by tomorrow.
I do have a story about David Grist that I would like to share.
I had arrived in Japan for the JBAN convention and because of jet lag, my eyes would open up at 4:00 am. I could not sleep and I was hungry so I went for a walk to find a restaurant. nothing was open but Denny's ( an American food chain that David hated ) I was sharing my experience with Vanessa Lever at the prep room and she told me she would wake at 4:00 am also. My hotel room was between Vanessa's and and Alberto Falcon's.
when I woke the next day, I thought I would ask Vanessa to go to breakfast. but when I heard a deep voice answer the phone I knew I had awakened Alberto and I also knew I had added a number to my room instead of subtracting. Anyhow when I finally got Vanessa on the line she said, What? are you crazy it is 4:00 am! I laughed and went to breakfast by myself. David arrived later that day and I related the story to him. He told me that I had better not ever call him at 4:00 am. I awoke the next day and looked over at the clock it was 4:00 am again. Just then the phone rang and the voice said, hey Ken you want to go to Denny's. It was David.
That evening Vanessa asked me what was so funny at 4:00 am that I would laugh so loud to wake her.
6, What's your favorite age to entertain?
The ages I like best are between seven and nine.
They are old enough to respond with humor themselves.
7, Do you have the same act but vary the presentation for all ages or do you have set acts for different ages?
Yes I do. It is probably time to change it, but I have come to rely on it, because it is proven to work for the kids as well as the adults.
8, What's your favorite thing to make at the moment?
I think that hats have always been my favorites I have some classics that I do. Fred Harshburgers swan in heart, a mokey on a palm tree, a flamingo.
hitch hiker a skate boarder.
I should do a DVD on Ken's classic hats.
9, What is the most asked for model?
The thing I get asked for most is the alien hitch hiker.
10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
There is a bow and arrow that Andrew McDonald does that is the most awesome balloon weapon ever made, and it is quick and easy.
I usually break this out when kids that know me start asking for complicated stuff. The girls even like it. I just make it in pink.
Ken,
I actually remember David telling me that story, it brought back some happy memories :)
Graham Lee
Full frontal of Ken's princess;
Ken,
A few more compiled questions, dont worry we only go up to 30 :D
10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
11, Who is your market aimed at?
12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc
13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?
14, What irritates you most at a gig?
15, How do you book yourself?
Graham Lee
10, What do you tend to do more of if stuck in the 'balloon production line' model?
In my travels I have noticed a difference in the way one performs in Europe and in the States.
I have had the pleasure to watch Louis Baerts in Holland do a Birthday Party Show with balloons. He chose children from the audience, and had them come up on stage as part of the show. Not all the children from the audience got a balloon. Even when he was finished with the children on stage they did not immediately get their balloon. Instead he wrote their names on the balloons and then decorated the stage with them. After the the show ended, he then invited only the children's who's names were written on the balloons to come up and get their sculpture.
I do not believe this would fly in the states.
The thought here is that every child needs to get a balloon.
Consequently, I do become a 'balloon production line'.
i would really like to emulate what I saw Louis do but I will have to take the time to create a show.
11, Who is your market aimed at?
My market has been the Birthday market
it is the one I have had the most success at.
12, What kind of work do you do mostly - parties? Corporate? Etc
It seems the Birthday parties just come my way.
I would love to do Corporate but I honestly have not made any attempts to land one.
13, What is your favourite/ideal gig to do?
I love the Hispanic parties here. It is the only exception to the rule. There are always hundres of kids and there is no way all of them will get a balloon and they know it. but it is fun to be a part of such a large festivity.
14, What irritates you most at a gig?
I think what irritates me the most is when The parents go to the trouble of having a party for their child and then they are not mentally to attend it. At the conclusion of the balloons that I do, I perform a short magic show in honor of the birthday child. at one occasion when this came time The father and his buddies were drinking and watching a baseball game. I set up next to the TV and then I shut it off letting them know it was time
to give their attention to the birthday child and then started the show.
15, How do you book yourself?
Well to be honest Graham I have been so busy traveling lately I have not had the time to promote myself.
Most of the gigs come by word of mouth and from doing restaurants.
I also work as a electrician from time to time.
Some more of the compiled questions for you Ken.
If anyone else has a question for Ken, please post away;
16, What's the biggest thing you've ever made?
17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?
18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?
19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future
20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?
Graham Lee
Ken has kindly sent over a couple of picture's of when he worked with David in Japan.
The second picture is of David making his racing car which is on his weaving DVD which we do sell;
http://sempertexballoons.co.uk/index.ph ... ent=9&pg=1 (http://sempertexballoons.co.uk/index.php?p=catalog&parent=9&pg=1)
Please note that all money raised from the sale of David's DVD's goes to his family.
Ken,
What exactly did that florescent green goop you ate in China taste like? :o
How are the Master sessions coming along?
Hello ken
Are you thinking about bringing out speed twisting 2 if so what would be on it and have you any pics?
I have speed twisting 1 when i first saw it I have to say it was a bit of a let down as the supper heros was so good BUT now i have looked at it more I use the stuff so much I love the griffe and the rhino people just are so shocked to see what can be made fast and big 2 things i love
If you do speed twisting 2 it would be nice to see some other ideas for them? body, hats, wands, made from other size balloons?
Hi Ken this has been a great interview so far, I love the two pictures of David that you posted,
I really should ask you a question instead of just letting everyone else do the work,
So when are you coming accross to see us all :D :D
16, What's the biggest thing you've ever made?
I helped with the soccer players in Belgium but the actual work that I did was miniscule. The biggest sculpture that I worked on, where I actually did some of the work was in Italy with David Grist. His famous pirate ship. Other than that my ninja turtles are the biggest I think.
17, What has been your proudest achievement in our wonderful world of twisted latex?
That is a tough one, I would like to say the hitch hiker hat, but that was not really my idea. I think it's a toss between the Genie head and the Superhero head. I was so jazzed when I made them for the first time.
18, What advice would you give to someone starting out, or wanting to increase their business?
(1) make sure people know where to find you. Have a good web presence.
Make sure you have a dot com name.
Domain names are cheap and the dot com names are going fast.
Choose an easy name to spell and remember.
godaddy.com is where I buy mine.
Make sure you are in the phone book.
This is only so people can find you.
I would not pay for any adds.
(2) Raise your prices and get comfortable quoting them.
This accomplishes two things.
(One)
Now you have gifts to give away.
Create a gift card worth the amount you have raised your prices.
Hand them out as thank yous to everyone you meet. ( people love getting gifts, and it is better than a business card because of its value they will not throw it away.
(Two)
You have just increased your self worth.
(3) Make sure your presence is known.
Take awesome bouquets into your community and showcase them everywhere, at banks, (not just yours) at restaurants, at hair salons, at photography shops, at the bridal shops, in the pubs, anywhere the public can see them. Present the delivery as a gift to the manager or business owner leaving them with a hand full of business cards and a 25.00 gift card for them. Only give them one gift card. More than one will cheapen the gift and make the gift card look like a coupon. No coupons.
People get excited about their gifts and they will showcase them to the public and will hand out your cards for you.
(4) Create a gift card page on your website that only you can get to.
No matter who calls you after you have quoted them prices, you can now ask: Do you have a gift card? If they do have one they will tell you, if not, you can email them the web page for the gift card.
19, What road in latex do you see yourself taking in the future
I am working on an interactive website where balloon artists can create and color their own creations before making them with real balloons.
I am also working on a video instructional site.
20, What is your personal goal when you set off to work? Is it money or to entertain etc?
I can't honestly say that the thought of money is not there with all the financial pressures in this world, but all in all it is the love of this medium that keeps me in this field. I have heard it said; Do what you love and the money will follow. I will keep you posted.
Hey Mark,
I can't remember eating that florescent green goop but I think it effected my new website. http://balloonclick.com/ (http://balloonclick.com/)
I haven't really pushed the master classes the way I should have.
I have gotten feedback and I need to change a few things.
I have taken the classes off the website for now.
I would still love to do some east, coast west coast classes with you though.
I will let you know when I am ready.
Hi Craig,
That seems to be the consensus. I will have to come up with something
pretty spectacular to out do the Super Heroes.
I have a lot on my plate at the moment. If I do new creations of Speed Twisting they will be available on Learn 2 Twist .com which will be a link from balloonclick.com. So keep your eye on it.
Hi Colin,
I look forwrd to coming to the U.K.
Maybe Graham and I could work on getting a class together.
I would really like that.
Hey Mr Flashy Man!!! I am already down for that if you come to the UK. Graham I want a front seat please or a cushion or a booster seat.
This is the ship Ken was talking about earlier;
Ken
Thanks very much for taking the time to join us on the forum and answering the questions set by the balloon chat members.
Please post your web details for your new DVD when it's released so that we can purchase it from you.
Graham Lee
All I can say is WOW! I just read through this entire thread and it is fantastic. Not only is/was Ken Stillman a great choice to interview but what a great format. Being able to interview someone over the course of a few days really lets everyone get into the act and lets the subject reply in an unhurried manner. Thank you.