How to build your next show or even a new routine

Welcome to Season 7 chapter 135 of the Kids Entertainer Podcast! Today Zivi and Danny are back to talk about Getting a show together or a new routine. Listen to the episode to learn more on how can you put a show together even from scratch.

Here are some of the important notes from this episode:

• Virtual or Live – Your show and each routine should have a beginning, middle, and end
• Modular show vs a Narrative show? The benefits of each
• Danny’s first show – Lighter Than Air, a balloon show – made up of cabaret acts
• How do you know what order to put routines in?
• Get ideas, try stuff out, get a director/coach, get creative, don’t be a perfectionist
• Pre-sell your idea so it’s funded and you have an aim, you know the demand and have bookings to help with costs of creating a new product.
• Theatre in the UK experience – Danny
• Test your show out with a local school, library, party, etc free or cheap but with feedback/ video/ photos/ testimonials.
• Market and sell your show.
• After each show for the first few – review, record on video if you can, and tweak the bits that aren’t working so well.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Now it’s your turn!
What did you think of this episode? Please share your comments below. Thanks for listening!

Transcript:

Click below to see the full transcript of this episodeOpen transcriptExpand

Welcome to the Kids Entertainer Podcast, the world’s leading podcast for children’s and family entertainers, and here to help you in your journey of spreading smiles and joy, your host, Zivi Kivi.

Zivi:

Hello, and welcome to the kids’ entertainment podcast today here on season seven, season seven of the kids at the end of the podcast on episode five, we have here our very own co-host Danny. Hello, Danny.

Danny:

Hi Zivi. Hi everybody out there. I hope you’re all well, great to be here. Thank you again. Zivi:
It’s a pleasure to be here and we’ll exploding together. Then all sorts of directions in performance led. I mean, he did the payment plan and stuff that can be done even these days in the hardship that we all live for. The performance industry is going through a lot. Right now. We’re recording this in August. It’s pandemic time, baby, and it’s really fascinating and hard and sometimes even tragic. However, we are going to try and get your mind occupied on topic, and that is how do you put together a show or even just a new routine?

Zivi:

How do you build your next show or your new routine, Danny? You have some experience with that for a few years. Isn’t it?

Danny:

I do, yes. I’m very highly experienced. I’ve made four theater shows with a little team helping me and also I, I do kids parties and entertainment as well with my own show in that. And now I also help people by directing and coaching them to make their own routines and shows so they can have a stand out in their market. We will confident and have an amazing show too. So that’s yeah, I have lots of experience

Ziv:

Before we go into how we, how to build a new show or a new routine. Let’s just briefly touch about the, what can you get out of doing something like that? Because there’s a lot of artistic pleasure and also a lot of business benefits and perks when you are doing things that your own and unique and awesome.:

So we kind of touched this before, isn’t it?

Danny:

Yeah, we did.

Ziv:

But yeah, let’s remind people about some of the, so I’m a massive advocate of original material taking a routine and making it completely your own because firstly you’re exercising and stretching your creative muscles, which is important as a performer. That means you’re not reliant on other routines. You can generate your own material. Secondly, you stand out when somebody sees the coloring book, the basic, however, you know, the cheap one and every entertainer, every kid’s entertainer does it, then why would they book you? It’s you’re not different from anybody else. So you need to make sure that you’re different. You stand out, you’re more original. They will not see those routines that you do with somebody else. And also it makes it easier to market yourself. And I know you’re brilliant at expert at marketing, but if you’re unique that gives you your USP.

Danny:

I believe it’s the phrase or unique selling points and you can sell yourself as, this is what I do. You’re not going to say anywhere else.

Ziv:

And sometimes it’s simple and it’s, I want to just emphasize on that and then double down on the marketing side of things, because sometimes it’s hard to understand what these are USP. What’s my USP. And it’s actually just an answer for one question, which is why should I hire you and not anyone else? Why should I hire you and not anyone else? And actually there’s an even better way to look at it. And I call it the monkey jumping through a fiery hoop. Like if you have to choose between two magicians, that will entertain your kids in, in a, in a party. And one of them does the coloring book and all the, like the, the change bag though, it’s red, no it’s yellow.

Ziv:

And one of them has a monkey that literally jumps flew a finally who lands on your kid’s shoulder, gives him high five jumps back, grabs the peanuts and eat it. Like this is just as long as you’re not allergic to peanuts. It’s just a better show to watch. It’s just very impressive. And you never saw it before. You can find your own monkey jumping through a fighting hoop. You should induce should strive there. And we’re going to share with you some ideas right now on how to do that. Isn’t it, Danny?

Danny:

Absolutely. Yes. We’re going to talk about how to build your next show or just even a new routine to put in your existing show because sometimes it’s just good to start with a new routine and then you can put another new routine in and buy in a few months time, you have a whole new show and it’s kind of a safer way of just going, right?

Danny:

I’m going to leave my old show and create a whole new show. Now, maybe not. Maybe you need to do a show next weekend. So you need to just add a new routine in, into the middle.

Zivi:

Sure. Let’s start where they lead the way then.

Danny:

Okay. So your shows either. So that can be virtual. They can be live. It doesn’t matter. The basic principle is the same, your show and each routine should have a beginning, a middle and an end. We all know this. Not many of us remember sometimes. So you have a beginning of your beginning, you have a middle of your beginning, you have an end of your beginning and then you have the middle bit. Then you have a beginning of the middle, middle of the middle of the middle of the end, the end of the middle and so on. Yeah.

Danny:

So it’s really important that you have a strong introduction. That’s I think the gift we’re going to give is entrances, transitions and closes for your kids show with Nathan. I haven’t watched it yet, but I thought it was really good idea to include that in. It was a gift because they’re really important. Yeah. We’ll put that in the show notes guys, including the show, the extended shown as of today.

Zivi:

We’ll include the link to join this lecture and that will be on kids entertainer hub. But what do you mean by like at the beginning of the beginning? At the beginning? In the middle of the beginning and the end of it. So talk us through the process.

Danny:

So in, in Japan, there’s a phrase called Joe Hall queue and it’s it’s all about the beginning, the middle and the end of each moment, each moment in your show has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Danny:

And so when you say hello, how do you say hello? Do you wait til everybody’s quiet? Or do you, do you just carry on? Or how do what’s the beginning of your introduction? What are you trying to say in your introduction? It should be welcoming. It should be interesting. It should be engaging. Then the end had you say, right, we’re going to get on with the show now, how is your end of your introduction? So you can really take the microscope out and look at each moment in your show if you want to. So then you move on to, it’s interesting, isn’t it? So then you can move on to what’s your first routine. How do you decide what’s routine? You’re going to do, if you’re going to do a few routines and a birthday show or a library show or whatever, what are you going to put first now in variety shows the way that they order things.

Danny:

Normally, as you have a great strong opener, because you want to grab people’s attention, you want to make sure that people realize they’ve come to a good show and the kids as well, that they’re going to watch something interesting, different and amazing. So you do your second best routine first. Then you can do what you want in the middle. You can sandwich it in between. You can have your second best routine, and then you can have some new routines perhaps, or some using lots of volunteer routines. And then at the end you have your best routine, your killer monkey through the fiery hoop routine, because that is what people are looking forward for. Zivi:
And in that middle, you can have a lot of things that will create a better buildup for the monkey, jumping through the fire, hope for their finance, actually. So it is important. It’s not just okay, just throw stuff in the middle. That needle needs to be aligned with where you’re going with this.

Danny:

Definitely. And I mean, the question before you even think about which order your routines is, is your show a modular show or is it a story-based narrative show? So if you’re doing library shows, you might want to tell stories. That’s great. That’s what you should be doing in libraries, because it’s all about reading and books and storytelling. And there are fact books as well, but perhaps you want to create one show, which is modular, that you can slide in your birthday routine or Christmas or Halloween or whatever. And the rest of it is roughly the same. You might change props, but the tricks are the same. And I’m a modular show is a great way to start because you can kind of go, oh, well that I’ve got my five routines or whatever it is.

Danny:

10 minutes of routine. That’s 50 minutes. So you have your 10 minute routine and you go, yeah, I’m going to put a new routine in the middle sandwiched in between routines that I know if it doesn’t work after five, 10 times, I’m going to slip that, that routine out and then put something else in. So that’s a really great way of reviving your show, adding something new. And if you want a new show completely, then, then you have to work a little bit harder. But a decision on modular or narrative is really important.

Ziv:

I think that doing a modular show in these days, especially like building it model, it makes sense in the sense that we have to be flexible. Some people will ask you to do a 10 minute show. Some people will ask you to do a virtual show for 20 minutes. Some of them will have 45 minutes.

And if you can offer different shows that way, and it is modular, then it is just, it gives you more flexibility. But of course there is a lot of value in being not flexible if you did a theater show. And yes, now there are a lot of theaters at the moment that are opening, not, not everywhere, unfortunately. So I want to know, is there any need between way as well, for example, in a show that we’ve been working on together, both of us for my show, like it has a plot, there’s an overarching plot, but like the beginning is very clear plot-wise and the end is very clear. And in the middle I can play with the things as though, like I’m looking for a kid that will help me open my, my magic chest and only a magician could do that. And the two magician needs to pass three tests, but if I need to shorten it, then he only needs to pass through test.

Zivi:

If you pass a stool, then I’m done. I like a, he’s a limitation in the, the test does actually open up thanks to his help. So, so it’s modular in that way.

Danny:

And I think if you create a 45 minute show, even with a story, like you said, you can still take out chunks in the middle, but the overarching story narrative works because it’s a very simple storyline. So rather three, three tasks for the kids to do. You only have one or two depending on the time. So I think that’s a really good idea, but once you’ve created 45 minutes, it’s really easy to make it 30 minutes or 20 minutes or 10 minutes. So it’s, it’s really worthwhile spending the time making a long show because you can always cut it back. If you have a short show, if you have a 20 minute show, it’s really hard if somebody says, oh, but we want a 45 minute show to get that extra 25 minutes. There’s a lot of work to put in at the last minute. So if you do the work upfront, when you’re quiet, for example, now if you have the time and energy and head space, make a, make a show.

Zivi:

But I think to like sometimes they have to cut out stuff. For example, in your three biggest show, like you can’t really disappear, you can just keep it piggy. No. So my dose shows I, I have a, I’ve made a four theater shows. They are completely fixed. So I have the three little pigs. I have my Frankenstein for kids show and they are pretty much fixed, but I have used routines out of them for four cabarets. I just take a routine and I use it out of context without all the story, without the introduction, without the buildup. And so it’s really good to have a mix of, I like a mix of things I can do, but my theater shows a specifically created for touring in theaters.

Danny:

Now I have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. I was planning to re tour my three little pigs show. It was my most popular show. Next spring, spring 2021. I have no idea what theaters are planning or if half of them are going to be open or what’s going on. So that’s kind of out the window. I’m now thinking of possibly adapting it for a virtual show and using what I have, because I can do that. Everything I have everything already. So using what you have and adapting it for a situation, making a little video perhaps, or using it for social media stuff. I’m not going to waste it. I have my suitcase full of pigs and wolves ready to go. So I’m just going to have a rethink and a pivot, my three little pigs ideas.

Ziv:

So sometimes you can show them or shows by doing only some of the routines. Sometimes you can. Yeah. So how do you come up with more ideas, except for understand that they have a beginning and an end and the middle.

Danny:

So I think we covered coming up with ideas last podcast last week, but really it’s playing as a huge thing, playing with your ideas. If you have a puppet or a magic trick, really explore, take the time. And with that object play with that concept of the magic trick. What happens if I make it larger or smaller or more? If I’m doing a trick with a magic wand, how many ones can I have before it, when it becomes really ridiculous? Or how big are the ones or how small or what types of ones? There are lots of magic ones on the market. I know. So what can you do with once? What if you don’t want, I’m not a magician.

Danny:

I never used magic ones. So what can I use instead? So I use balloon pumps. I use balloons, but I use lots of different things in place of a magic wand. And I want to bring in a little principle here that I know magicians may have heard of, but if you’re not a magician, you can still adapt this idea. And the concept is magic along the way. I can’t remember who came up with this idea. It’s a very, well-known established magician in America magic along the way is the idea that rather than just picking a magic wand out of your case and doing a magic trick, you make the magic wand appear magically because you’re a magician. So why aren’t you making everything happen? Magically magic along the way. Very simple idea. I’m not a magician. I’m a funny man. I’m an idiot. So I thought, well, how can I adapt magic along?

Danny:

Why not comedy along the way? Laughs along the way. So rather than so when I take out a balloon out of my bag, I pigged myself with it. It’s just, it’s just, something happens along the way on the way to doing my routine, that builds it up. That keeps the lofts going. That is funny. So once you have the puppetry along the way or juggling skills along the way, or what happens if you you’re juggling and you drop and it’s inevitable, you will drop, what can you do to help your juggling routine along the way to making it look skillful? So that idea is a really nice principle to add in to whatever you’re doing, whether you were a magician, a puppeteer, a juggler balloon entertainer, are you?

Ziv:

Because instead of focusing only on, okay, we’ll do this magic thing. And that’s the routine you’re actually adding all sorts of bits and business too, along the way to make it entertaining or funny or ugly or whatever it is that you do.

Danny:

Absolutely. You can do a needle through the balloon trick, a magic trick and three minutes, two minutes maybe. But if you make it interesting, if you accidentally pop the balloon several times, building it different ways each time now you’re making it into a routine. It’s not just doing a trick, you’re doing a routine you’re entertaining. It’s all about entertaining, connecting with your audience. It’s not about the trick. It never is. It never should be. It’s always about connecting with the audience and I do that through magic or puppets or, or everything.

Zivi:

David Kay.It’s about the journey, not the destination. It’s about the journey. Yeah, absolutely.

Danny:

And there are many ways of saying the same thing and it all boils down to you’re an entertainer entertain, be entertaining, engage, be engaging, connect with the audience. That’s what we’re all striving for. What, which vehicle you use. If you go down the magic car or you’re taking a juggling lorry or a bicycle with balloons on it, doesn’t matter how you get there. So yeah, I mean, thanks. So I wanted to tell you a stories of a and listeners. My first show, my first 50 minute show, which was called lighter than air. It’s a balloon show. And I made it up from working on cabaret acts. I did these acts in adult comedy or adult shows, but they were family friendly. I do all my stuff, family friendly because why not? It’s just easy to sell everything everywhere.

Danny:

And so I develop them on the London comedy circuit. Many, many years ago, I started out with an act called Danny and his yellow balloons. And I was Danny and my balloons were colored yellow. I keep things simple. And I developed this act over over a few years and it worked really well. And then I start to add new acts and more acts all with balloons. And then I eventually had a 15 minute show ready to sell for Seattle audiences. And I managed to do that with the help of a tour Booker because I tried to looking at myself, I wasn’t very good at it. I’d probably be very different now. But then I had a tour Booker and she booked for me, lots of gigs around the UK and it was great. I traveled everywhere and I had the same act that I could do the same shows and it was fantastic.

And it was made up of five, 10 minute acts with bits in between, but it was basically a module show made up from acts that I had rehearsed and tried out. And now I use those acts still and I’ve developed some of them. And I use them in my kids’ shows. I use bits of them or ideas from them in my theater shows. And it works really well. And it worked so well that I did it in a theater in London and we invited the Edinburgh festival organizer along one of the venues that might on the main venues. He came along with his family and his twin sons loved this man, this human balloon that I do in my show, farting. That’s what they remembered for days and weeks afterwards. And so he booked me, they booked me and paid for everything to go to the Edinburgh fringe festival one year.

Danny:

I think it was about 10 years ago, 11 years ago. Now I had an amazing time. I’ve got reviews. I got more bookings from it. So you never know where anything will lead on to. It’s really important that you never know who’s in the audience watching you.

Zivi:

And imagine that you would do that show. And it was like I dunno, like coloring books, the cheap coloring book type of show. Not that there’s nothing wrong with the coloring book, but it just like, I don’t think they will send you ad in BOLO. No, no. They wanted something different that people haven’t seen before. Like a farting human balloon. Yeah, exactly. How ridiculous is that? It’s funny. It is funny. Yeah. This is the monkey. The monkey jumping is yeah. I’m the monkey jumping through a hoop of thoughts in my case. So thanks. You’re welcome.

Danny:

So when you get ideas, try them out. Don’t be precious about your ideas. Just it’s not going to be perfect. The first time I suffer from this affliction of wanting my show to be perfect. When it goes in front of an audience, it’s not going to be perfect. Let me tell you into a secret. I discovered it a very difficult way. It’s important that you fail, but it’s important that you learn from your failure. So video your shows, video your new routines, make sure you video everything. If you can, it’s easy on zoom. You just hit record and video yourself so you can watch it back and learn from it. Which bits are they laughing at? Which bits on they laughing at. So it’s really useful to just get out there and try stuff out. The other way of doing it is when we can go back, test your show out with a local school, sorry, a library, perhaps do a party for free or cheap, but the price of free or cheap is that they give you detailed feedback that you can have permission to video or take photos and they will give you a testimonial.

Danny:

So you’re getting, it’s never free. It’s something in return. It’s an opportunity to try something new out in front of a real audience and you get something back from it. Do you agree with that Zivi?

Zivi:

Well, I think that there’s nothing on with me really well. Like people talk badly about because we are in an industry where there’s a lot of with it’s okay to say no to free and it’s okay to choose when and why are you doing something for free? But any business in the world right now has a free party where they do something for free. For example, marketing, they do the marketing in some of the best businesses in the world. The free part is amazing. It makes it easier for them to attract people. So I, that even if you’re working on a new show, I don’t care if you do it fulfill not.

Zivi:

I just care that you get to the point where you have enough experience, that you know, that it works because you know that it’s amazing and that you like, if you can do it for, for money, do it for money by all things. But if you’re going into wheelchair shows and you never did a virtual show, we should probably do one for free. So yeah, of course, it’s good for you. If you get testimonials out, you will get testimonials out of stuff. If you ask for this pneumonia, whether it’s not free, if you ask for them, there’s a chance you’ll get them.

Danny:

But I think it’s important to know why you’re doing it for free. Yes. You want to test your material out because you want to test a virtual show, all the technology. If you’re not so confident with it, you want to make sure that it works well for your potential clients. So you do a free one. Things like this. It’s really important to know why you’re doing it for free and, and, and also put a cap on it. Or maybe you’re just doing a 20 minute show for free just to try it out. But your real show is 45 minutes long. And that’s what you’re selling.

Zivi:

Yes, definitely. And, and defend goes with, with chip, like, so you can create something that’s in the business world is called the athlete while offering or lawfully or self-liquidating golfer like fell the show for five bucks by the 20 minute show and like, which is free, which is like a big Leslie walks in different way because once the customer pays anything that will have be put the old relationship in a different place, it’s not the first date. It’s the second date or the third date in your relationship. If we look into the beta you’ve met before, but what are other ways where except for doing the show for free other ways to actually build it. So another idea that often, well, it’s worked with yeses in the past is that you, pre-sell your idea.

Danny:

You go, I’m going to have a great show about this farting balloon performer. Okay. That’s my monkey. And you sell it in a, you approach, theaters or bookers, or whoever’s going to book you and you say in three months time, I’m going to have the show I’m coming to your area or I’m going to be doing a virtual show. So we’re going to be ready by then. Do you want to get a place now while it’s still some available and you get bookings, you get bookings in advance. So in three months time, you have, you know, you have 20 shows in one month because you’ve sold them. So now you have the money, the deposits or whatever, or the interest to make a new show and you have three months to make a new show and then you’re going to perform it 20 times. And you know that that’s.

Zivi:

So then it’s so smart for so many reasons, not just the business, like to commit to something and to check with the audience with, with your customers to see if they’re interesting, but also it puts a deadline on you. Yes, it does. You really have to get your act together literally in time. And really you want to do a couple of tests shows before that. So you need to be ready before that and have a test audience lined up for free. Of course we just talked about. So then when you have your paying audiences, you’re ready. You’ll get to go. It’s a new show. You’ve tried it out, everything works and boom, you’re set. You have 20 bookings done. And it’s all about, it’s all about marketing and getting to know, is there a demand for this new product before I spend a ton of money on it? You might have to do some graphics. You might have to do some emails and some ringing around chasing, but that’s not the cost of making a whole new show. So it could be worse. Listen, we’re coming to the end of library, season in America, whatever that was in your area, because I know some people have done virtual library shows, which is great. But what about thinking about next year’s library show? What about looking? What is the theme for next year? And starting to come up with a plan? You have a, you have less than a year, really because it’s the end of the season, but you can start selling it in September, November, January, and maybe be late January.

Danny:

I’m not exactly sure, but you can start thinking about it now and prepare for next year. Nobody knows what next is going to be like, but even right, I’m going to do a virtual show for libraries next year, you can start gathering data, gathering information, but also gathering ideas and start putting it out there that you’re going to be doing a library show next year, called whatever it’s going to be called and start creating stuff for that.

Zivi:

Now, you know, it’s a little bit like just keeping your customer is the, like the goal is to it’s something that will be a good topic for them. It’s an entirely different way of choosing what do I tell the team about? What do I just show about starting with the end in mind and knowing, okay, my cousin is going to be interested in math.

Zivi:

The ecology is going to be in hygiene, right? So, absolutely find out what your customer is interested in.

Danny:

So I know there’s a website I have, I heard, I dunno what it is off the top of my head, but I know there’s a website for all the libraries in America. There’s kind of general theme. And then there’s sometimes a local theme, but you can know, you can know in a way ahead in advance what the national theme is. And then it’s your choice if you do that or not. And you can start working on that. If you do library shows, if you do birthday shows, Hey, they’re already around. Isn’t that great? Yup. So even if you have a birthday show and you want to go into the library market, you can take out your, your birthday card routine or your birthday cake routine and add in something else. If your show is modular, which is, which brings us back to how to build your next show, because it’s important that it’s demand led. There’s no point in making a show that nobody buys. So what do people want a birthday show? Right? Do it, what do you think?

Zivi:

Well, I’ve been in two situations like this. One of them, I was suggesting to show if puppet show, but I didn’t provide enough proof that I can do this show. I didn’t even provide enough information of how good is it or what is the actual story? It was very, very obscure and no one bought it ever, even though like people saw a few options, they saw, they had the puppet show option, no one ever bought it. But at the same time, I had decided to for a while, for, for couple of years, I decided to produce a scary show and there’s a lot of bad stuff to talk about.

Like scary shows are very dangerous. They actually are scary. So it’s kids can react badly for scary shows. And I, I don’t think we’ll mandate in general, unless you really passionate about, about that and take all the precautions that possible. And that’s a topic for another discussion. But what I did decide to do to write a show, it was for a scary show. It’s getting magic show and I would start pitching it actively to customers. And once I sold the first one, it was accidentally a form from today to tomorrow. So I had 24 hours to hide the show and the first show probably sucked. The customer was happy and the kids were fade. So I got what I wanted, but, but I did sit down with my daughter. She was the same age as the kids that was celebrating a birthday and we we’ve built it together.

Ziv:

We’ve we’ve looked into, we did some research. We went into Google, we found him sort of scary pictures. We’ve combined the presentation around that. Like in the, in the show I showed him some scary scanning pictures, as well as a fairly scary show, scary story. And the ed at the end of the scary story where you shout and everyone jumping there. So we need that. And the overall experience was I didn’t just choose to check with my customers. I actively pushed the idea of that show with my birthday customers because without actually being active, putting in the thoughts of what is it and so on, it just won’t, that’s my experience. Now I have a very similar experience.

Danny:

I did my first show lighter than that I talked about earlier and it was extremely successful. So then my second show, I thought I’m going to do what I want. And I made a show up called the balloon Gardner where I tried to grow balloons and I’m the Caterpillar’s keep eating them. And then in the end, the caterpillars turn into butterflies, which was, it was a great show. I really loved it, but it didn’t sell as well as lighter to the Nan my first show. So then it was an original story. I made it up and it was great. I really loved doing it. People that saw it, loved it, but the theaters would not book it very widely only if they liked me as a performer from lighter than there, which is great. So then I had some advice from one of the very helpful theaters that I was partnered with, do a known story through something that people will, especially for theaters. You want to get bums on seats, do something that attracts them, but doing it in your own way with your own twist.

Danny:

So then I did three little pigs and it sold ridiculously. I taught it for two years all over. It was amazing, but I did it my way, but just the fact that it’s three little pigs for family audiences got people in theaters. So I learned, I learned, and then my next show, my fourth show is a Frankenstein. So anything with a monster will, will is interesting for people, families, kids. So that’s why that show is fairly popular as well. So you can pick a topic that is popular and completely do it your way.

Ziv:

Do you find more boys enjoy your Stein show in comparison to girls?

Danny:

No, because it’s a family friendly show. I it’s a story about Dr. Frankenstein wanting to create a beautiful dancer from an answer, a dance competition. That’s my take on it. And I play ego. So Dr.Frankenstein is a rat, a scientist rat puppet, and I’m Igor that stupid helper. So I make a mistake building the monster. So it becomes a balloon monster that can’t dance very well and so on. And so it’s not about really about monsters, nothing scary in it. It’s a balloon monster. So it’s a very friendly monster. And there are, it’s very funny, lots of gags. I include the audience a lot. In fact, I start going out into, I start the show by going out in the audience and measuring heads because I need to head for the next project and they love it. Everybody’s involved. Can you measure my head please? Yeah. You know, it’s just ridiculous. So immediately, even before the show, I’m starting to interact and contact the audience. So whether they’re girls or boys who cares nobody, it’s not about that at all. It’s not a, it’s not your scary monster show.

I mean, it’s a friendly monster show, so it’s easy.

Zivi:

Nice. So we are kinda running out of time. Are there any other last advice that you have? I know, I know this is a topic that you can talk for a couple of days on. So just a few last pieces of advice as you can show. Yeah.

Danny:

So I mentioned videoing yourself, but if you’re not very good at analyzing what you’re doing, maybe work with somebody, that’s a friend of yours that you trust. That’s not in competition with you or get a professional in, get a coach and to help you. I’m one of those people that does this as a job, I direct people then direct and I help people. I’ve been helping a few people on KEA and a balloon artist college too making this show really pop, really stand out and be really individual and work much better. Helping you with your stage craft, helping with your original content and helping you with just how it works, making it work better.

Zivi:

What I want to say is that this is really a skill worth. Having like a muscle in your body. You need to work that muscle. Hopefully I think new routines of adapting routines of writing shows if you’re here to play for the long haul, right? Oh man, you wanna perform for years for 10 years for, for whatever. And not just the next three months, which is, I don’t know, maybe impossible, but for a long, long time, you just have to work the muscle. You have to. I mean, I can, I can go down now for 10 pushups for you guys. It won’t make, use all that. You have to practice this muscle if you want to eventually get better at it.

Danny:

Yeah. Thanks to Zivi. I’ve had, I’ve created three lectures, three webinars recently and during the pandemic and it’s reminded me how much I love coming up with new material and gags. So the last one I did was gags with costumes. I’ve done, I’ve done gags with hygiene stuff for the pandemic. And the first one was gags with balloons because that’s my specialty and it’s reminded me. So I’m going to go away. And in the next couple of weeks, I’m going to come up with some new material for myself that I’m going to put out on videos, social media, get it out there because I love creating. I was tidying up. I came up with a couple of gags. I’m going to put in, I put suitcases one in inside each other. I did about five suitcases, which great. There’s more room in my space, but I just thought, oh, maybe I can do a stupid video about that.

Or for a virtual show. It’s just new material that I can generate, throw out there and practice. Yeah.

Zivi:

Speaking of parties, we did do a show on the kids at the vena podcast to talk about how to practice and how you can go back and listen to that. And we are doing this weekly show here in the podcast. If you are enjoying what you’re hearing and if it links you any, any value, then please consider to join us in this free party, which is the Facebook group, the kids entertainer Facebook group, where we share additional ideas. And we, we hang out and we would just each other,

Danny:

We inspire each other.

Ziv:

We connect with other performers that are all in the same situations like you are in. You will find people that are in different levels in different amount of years in this game. And they are all striving to, to, to grow artistically and also to perform it, make money out of it and also to get more people. And we are, we’re all in this Facebook together. And when you’re ready, you can check out the show notes of today’s episode indicates that kidsentertainerhub.com site out of the free video and get the feel of how does it look like to be a member of entertainment academy, where you can get access to Danny’s lectures about those different gags. And you can have a fun with all of our over 26 courses by now that you can go in and learn from just pretty much everything you need to know about kids as a theme. And he’s in there, how to go even and do virtual shelves is in there. So Danny as always, it’s been a pleasure. We can talk about this forever. We’ve proven that about today. We will stop here and now, and guys, we will see you next week on the Kids Entertainer Podcast. Bye-Bye thank you.

Danny:

Bye.

Voice over:

Thanks for listening to the Kids Entertainer Podcast. Get the show notes, links and resources from today’s episode by visiting kidsentertainerhub.com.