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First in a series of tips for working for tips

I got into clowning so that I could do theater on the fly, not to be a balloon machine.

I’d been working at growing a theater troupe out of a church basement, was writing and performing original comedies, finding it more and more difficult to get 20 or 30 volunteer performers and techies scheduled and motivated to getting a program on the stage, when one of my actresses goaded me into putting together a clown sketch for a luncheon.

So I worked up a little pantomime for us to do together and it was like magic. It dawned on me that a clown show would be a great way to put on shows without all the hassle of running a theater company.

Once I started getting into it, I realized that I could actually charge for the shows and since I didn’t have to cut the pie so thin, I could make a little money on the side. I soon found that the better money (or maybe just the easier money) was not in putting on staged productions, but at parties and festivals.

Drumming up work, whether its trying to find venues for shows or clients for parties and festivals, is hard. That’s what makes this a job. But when I put on the nose and get out on the street, I want to make sure that I’m still doing this for the reasons I started doing it. I’m doing it because I have something to say that makes sense being said by a clown. I’m doing it because I want to provide entertainment for people and give them a little bit of distraction from living in a society on the skids.

Okay, okay, I’m doing it because I need the money, but the last thing I want to do is become a balloon factory even though that’s where the money is. So in order to make street and festival work more rewarding for me is to make sure that I’m always and foremost a clown show.

The challenge really is an artistic one. You want to both maximize your tips and your entertainment value. So you have to figure out a way to let the balloons work for you.

The balloon work doesn’t have to be spectacular, just spectacular enough. I usually don’t do anything that requires more than four balloons, just as a rule of thumb, though I always make sure they know that given enough time and enough balloons, I can make just about anything. But I can do a couple of things like stuffing balloons or making spirals that lets them know I’m a genius, and I have worked up enough of a repertoire to fake it when I get the odd requests. You want a cow? Sure, no problem. No one has yet argued over the white dog with black Sharpie spots. It’s just a nickel’s worth of latex, kid. Use a little imagination.

I try to work the balloons as props, not as an end to themselves. The problem is that Americans are so materialistic that you have to close the deal by giving them a product to make them more inclined reach in their wallets for green. However, I operate under the principal that they’re not buying a balloon, but paying for the privilege of having Daluni make a balloon for them. Thank you very much. Or as a souvenir of the performance they’ve just witnessed. Like a concert t-shirt.

Oh, I guess I could leave the balloons at home and go out there telling jokes and singing silly songs and all the other things I do while I’m making the balloons, but the tips just aren’t as good.

A festival is just one long, continuous clown show, as far as I’m concerned. Although I could go on all day without repeating myself, the fact is that you only need about 15 minutes worth of good material to get started if you’re working the right places. The good festivals for making tips are those that have a flow of people, so there’s a lot of turnover, not people hanging out. That also means the kids are sticking close to their parents. It’s essential that parents are nearby. They have the money. I don’t do church and school festivals unless I’m getting my full rate because the tipping opportunities are almost non-existent when families feel safe letting their kids run free. Even if the kid has some money, chances are he doesn’t quite understand the concept of tipping. If you don’t HAVE to pay, he reasons, then it must be FREE.

So I have to give them a good reason to give me their money, and they’ll give more if you get them laughing.

Your pal,
Daluni

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