The Tie Dye Balloon Guy here with my latest FAQ blog.   I have been a balloon artist in Greenville, SC for the past fifteen years.  I often get the same questions asked by the people I am entertaining.  When people find out that I have kids they usually ask if my children have me make balloons for them all the time.

Surprisingly the answer is no.  My own kids seldom get balloons from me.  I suppose there are a couple of reasons for this.  First of all my three kids have grown up with parents that are professional entertainers.  It is perfectly normal in their world to be around clown props, face painting supplies, juggling pins, and other materials that Joy Set uses to entertain at birthday parties, school shows, and corporate events all over South Carolina.  So my kids see balloons as just another one of their parents “work tools.”  To put it another way … do teachers kids practice SATs all the time?

Don’t misunderstand me.  My kids know that balloons are fun and creative.  But the second reason that I don’t make balloons for my own kids all the time is that they can make their own.  All of them can make the basic shapes (balloon dog, balloon sword, balloon hats).  And the oldest has accompanied me on a few jobs at school festivals in Anderson and could help when the line got long. 

And finally, I have to come up with something really wild or big to impress my kids.  They have been around when I got back from a world record attempt for the largest balloon sculpture (that is another blog …).   They were there when I twisted balloons for ten straight hours.  They were there when I made the life size ballerina for their dance studio.   In other words, they have been there done that.  The biggest compliment that my kids can give me is “Not bad, Daddy.”  At the end of the day, my kids do think I am cool, if for no other reason than their friends want me to come out and play … and bring balloons too!

The Tie Dye Balloon Guy is part of Joy Set Entertainment, your family friendly company for all your entertainment needs.  Call us today (864) 299 1949

Happy New Year.  We are back to our Frequently Asked Questions series.  For our new readers, when I am twisting balloons in the Upstate of SC (Greenville, Spartanburg, and Anderson) I often get asked some of the same questions.  Today’s question is "Why do you twist balloons?"

The simple answer is because I can. I truly enjoy twisting balloons.  Other people find it fascinating that I am able to take a two inch by sixty inch latex tube and bend and twist it into complex creations.  And I am fascinated as well.  So I am a balloon twister because it is really cool.

Secondly, I find balloon twisting to be thearapeutic.  Like other art expressions, I enjoy releasing my creativity when I am making everything from a simple balloon dog to a dress made from balloons.  And finally being a balloon twister is how I support my family.  It is an interesting trade off.  I am busy most weekends and actually entertaining other families that are together.  But I do get more opportunities during the rehgular week to be with my children.  Thus I can be a chaperone on a field trip on Tuesdays and take a Zumba class with my wife on Wednesdays.  It is cool to be paid to do something I love to do. 

The Tie Dye Balloon Guy is back with another blog on my weight loss journey.   I want to  be the best family friendly entertainer in Greenville, SC and that means keeping myself healthy and fit.   As of this writing …. err typing, I have lost seventy-five pounds.  I have gone from a size 44 waist to a size 32.  Now I will have to start using a real pillow in some of my clown outfits.  I hope some of you are getting a little motivation out of reading these blogs.  Feel free to leave me a comment or a question using the comment form below.  Today I want to talk about one of the easiest ways I have found to lose weight, H2O. 

Yup good ole water! Water has been my constant friend since starting my weight loss and getting in shape.  I went from drinking five sodas a day to drinking  12 glasses of water a day.   I am from the South, proud home of Sweet (Don’t you dare tell me there’s sweetener on the table) Tea.   I say that if you are not going to put sugar in your tea when you are making it, then you are just wasting your time.  REAL sweet tea can be used in place of pancake syrup without noticing hardly any difference in taste.    And I will still indulge in a glass of tea from time to time.  But for weight loss,water is my beverage of choice. 

Why water?

1. It is good for you.  Your body is composed of 60% water.  Blood is around 70% water.  Even my lungs that I use for blowing up balloons is 90% water.  Drinking water helps you breathe, helps your muscles, and helps you eliminate wastes.  Every function of your body is dependant on water.
2. Drinking water prevents water retention.  This one was hard for me to grasp at first.  But it is true.  God designed our bodies to be efficient and to keep us alive.  When our bodies don’t get enough water, they are more likely to keep water stored away.  More water retention equals more weight.  Drink plenty of water and your body will learn that it is not going to be deprived and it will release the stored up water. 
3. Water is cheap!  This is my favorite.  Other than getting on a rant about tea needing to be sweet, I am also passionate about the costs of teas and sodas at restaurants.  Charging $2.79 for a cup of lemonade is NOT one of the seven deadly sins, but it would probably make the top 13 list!  But water at the same restaurant is usually FREE.  Add a little lemon, or even better, a little lime and you have a tasty beverage that has less than 1 calorie a glass.
4. Drinking water will help prevent hunger pangs.  Many times people think they are hungy, when they are really thirsty.  I sip water throughout the day.  In addition before each meal, I drink a glass of water.  As a result I eat much less, and still feel full.

If you want to lose weight or just improve your overall health, give a toast to yourself with a nice tall glass of water and drink it down. 

Back for round two in my blog on my ongoing weight loss journey.    In my previous entry I discussed finding motivation to lose weight, and ultimately change my lifestyle.   My goals to be the best balloon twister in Greenville, SC and the best family friendly entertainer the in Upstate of South Carolina were being compromised by my excess weight.  But to really make a change I had to give myself a paradigm shift.  This meant, no more Mondays.

     What do I mean by no more Mondays?   For a long time, I had made promises to myself on Monday mornings.  This week, I will go to the gym and work out.  This week I won’t eat any junk food.  This week …. on and on.  The problem was that by Tuesday night, I had already broken those promises.  So, in my mind I had to wait until the next Monday.  I was free to be lazy and gluttonous the rest of the week.   The reality is that we all have the same behavior patterns.  We make New Year’s resolutions that last for only a few short days.  I made a concious decision NOT to wait for Monday to change my life.  I purposely did not start my new way of living on January 1st.  Nope, I started on January 4th.

     I go to the gym every weekday.  Some days I lift weights followed by light cardio.  Other days I do a heavy cardio workout.  I drink mostly water, and make sure that I get at least eight glasses every day.  I do not eat after 7 PM, and limit or eliminate carbohydrates with my dinner.  I write down every thing I eat.  Other than that, I don’t follow any special diet.  And it has worked for me.  I have lost 18% of my body weight.  I have more energy, and my heartburn that plagued me for years has dissapeared.

Normally in my line of work, inflation is a good thing.  I am a balloon twister and decorator, so I inflate many balloons on a daily basis.  However for many years my own body had been inflating at an alarming rate.   At my highest weight, I was over 260 pounds.  I really don’t know exactly, because that was about the time that my kids broke the bathroom scale and I stopped weighing myself regularly at all.

I was never in denial about how heavy I had gotten.  I knew I was fat, I just reasoned that someday I would be motivated enough to get rid of it.  But that someday never came.  I have been blessed with good health all of my life.  Even as I got heavier and heavier I never had any of the health problems associated with obesity.

I finally decided that I had to be healthy to be the person I wanted.   If I wanted to be the best children’s entertainer in Greenville, SC I had to get fit.  If I wanted to be the best balloon twister and balloon artist in Mauldin, SC I had to lose weight.  If I wanted to be the best birthday entertainer in Anderson, SC I had to get my body in shape.  Plus I also want to be the best husband and daddy for my family.

As of this writing, I have more than sixty pounds and more than eight inches in my waist.  And I am ready to share with my fans and friends how I did it.  I am not selling anything.   I am going to give free diet tips, free weight loss tips, and free fitness tips over the next several weeks.

I am a little bummed right now.  I write regularly on four different blogs.  Okay I write semi-regularly on four different blogs and one of them recently vanished.  Poof!  My blog (along with over 6000 others using the same website) was gone.  So why would I write on four different blogs? I want to be able to interact with the friends, fans, and family of Joy Set Entertainment.  But I also want to be able to reach out to those who may be searching for what we offer.  The four different blogs were a way to customize the different aspects of being an entertainer and letting people read what interested them and being found by the search engines.  In other words I wanted to be able to write stuff that I like and still have my website show up when people search for "birthday entertainer Greenville" in Yahoo or "South Carolina face painter" in Bing or "best balloon twister" in Google.

The blog you are currently reading (thanks so much) usually focuses on being a balloon twister in Greenville, SC.  I have been doing an ongoing series about the questions that people typically ask me when I am out and about as a balloon artist or a balloon decorator.

I also run another blog about my day to day life as an entertainer.  Most of what I write there is stuff that makes me laugh.  And as a clown and comedy magician it takes a lot to make me laugh.  Except at 2 in the morning.  But that is a whole other story.  Of course my main website www.joyset.com is actually a blog as well.  There I try to write about things that my corporate clients or parents may be interested.  Thus you would see articles about birthday party planning, entertaining in a slow economy, or a blog on dresses made from balloons. 

On the website that crashed I was doing a series of blogs about my weight loss.  I have lost over 62 pounds in a little over three months.  I did it without surgery or pills or any fad diet.  And I did have some followers on that blog.  So if my readers here will bear with me, we are going to continue my weight loss blog here for just a while.  Soon we will return to the Frequently Asked Questions of the Tie Dye Balloon Guy. 

The Tie Dye Balloon Guy here with yet another installment of Frequently Asked Questions.  Today’s frequently asked question is "Do you do this for a living?"  Many people find it hard to believe that someone can actually support themselves and a family by twisting balloons.  Of course I do more than just balloons, I am an all around family friendly entertainer.  I also do comedy magic, face painting, and costume characters.  However I do twist balloons for a living. My job is not a typical "9 to 5" type employment.  However I do get many opportunities.  Take a look at a particularly busy week to see  ways that I earn money from balloon twisting.

Monday: Balloon Twisting in Greenville, SC 

Most monday nights, you will find me at Corona’s Mexican Restaurant at the corner of Faris Road and Augusta Road in Greenville SC.  I meet lots of wonderful families.  I also get to try out new balloon creations.

 

Tuesday: Singing Telegram Delivery in Mauldin, SC

I go to an office building to surprise someone for their 40th birthday.  Today I am dressed as a hotdog and I will make a giant balloon bear.

 

Wednesday: Clown and Balloon Program in Greer, SC

  Today I am performing a comedy show with balloons for a therapy group.  The kids are really into the program and the adults too.

Thursday: School Program in Anderson, SC 

I am doing a presentation for a school to show balloon twisting and balloon decorating as art.  For the younger grades I will do some story telling. 

 

Friday: Balloon Decor in Laurens, SC

  It is not often that I get to drop off  some table centerpieces and do a quick balloon arch all within a couple of miles of each other.  And despite parts of 385 being closed, I can still take some backroads and spend some time with my family.

 

Saturday:  Birthday party entertainment all over the Upstate of SC

  On this very busy Saturday, I am going to be doing four birthday parties.  For the first and last birthday parties, I will be doing entertainment and balloon twisting.  But for the two in the middle, I am only doing balloon twisting.  With my snacks and bottled water in the car, I can keep going till the end of the day.  My wife meanwhile is also doing three birthday parties.

 

 

Sunday: Ministry event in Spartanburg, SC.

  I am training a team in some basic balloon twisting for their upcoming missions trip.  Tonight I will do a presentation at the same church. 

Some weeks are a lot slower than this and often near holidays, the weeks are a lot busier.  But yes, I can make a living twisting balloons.

I am back.  For about a week I was 8 hours away from Greenville, SC at a balloon decor convention.  I was on staff at FLOAT in Cincinatti, OH.  Fortunately there were not only some immensley talented balloon decorators there, but also some great balloon twisters as well.  I even got to host a late night balloon jam complete with karaoke. 

I am still writing about frequently asked questions of the Tie Dye Balloon Guy.  I started this blog months ago to answer many of the questions that I am asked when I am a balloon twister in Greenville, SC and other cities in the upstate of SC.  People are amazed when I make a balloon sculpture before there very eyes.  A common question is "Do you use special balloons?"

I use the same type of balloons that balloon decorators use.  I use both Qualatex and Betallic balloons in order to get the most possible size and color combinations.  I am grateful to both companies for putting out superior products that will not only stand up to the standards for balloon decorators, but also twisters.  So, I guess I do use special balloons. 

If you are interested in seeing some of these amazing balloon creations at your next birthday party, corporate outing, or other special event, visit our main website www.joyset.com or call us (864) 299 1949.

    

Carl, The Tie Dye Balloon Guy here from Greenville, SC with another installment of Frequently Asked Questions for the Balloon Twister.  Today I will tell you how I got the name the "Tie Dye Balloon Guy" 

     When I started pursuing doing balloon twisting and balloon entertainment in Greenville, SC and the surrounding cities, I was looking for a memorable name.  There are thousands of balloon guys out there.  They all have the moniker "Balloon Guy" added to their name.  Thus we have Balloon Guy Mike, Balloon Guy Brad, Balloon Guy …. well you get the idea.  "Balloon Guy Carl" didn’t seem to work.  I wanted a name that was unique and reflected my fun and quirky style of twisting and entertaining with balloons.

     About the same time, I was also trying to come up with a new clown outfit.  I was visiting a tuxedo shop to look through some older tuxedos to see if I could adapt them for my clowning.  This shop also sold some damaged clothes.  I found a stack of tuxedo shirts that had stains on them.  The shop owner said that every now and then their rentals come back with stains that just will not come out.  He offered me a few shirts and suggested that I could dye them in brighter colors.  I told him I thought that the stains might still show up, so he suggested tie dye.    A few days later I had some cool hand tie dyed shirts.

I was hired to do a couple of hours of balloon twisting for a grand opening in Greenville.  I grabbed one of my new tie dye shirts.  I figured it would be fun and colorful to wear while twisting.  I had lots of fun that day, and lots of comments about my tie dye.  "Yes," I said.  "I am the Tie Dye Balloon Guy."  It just rolled of the tongue and the name stuck.  I really liked the name, and still like it.

I also discovered tie dye balloons.  Another talented balloon artist, Scott Tripp had been dying balloons for some time.  He taught a class on the technique and eventually made a book showing how to do it.  So now, I occassionally use tie dye balloons as well.  Feel free to contact Joy Set Entertainment to learn how to get the Tie Dye Balloon Guy at your next event.

Hi. Greenville’s premeire birthday entertainer here, the Tie Dye Balloon Guy, with another in our series of Frequently Asked Questions for the balloon twister.  Today’s question is “How did you learn to twist balloons?”  To answer this, we need to go back a few years. 

My theory is that every person attempts balloon twisting at some point in their life.  I remember my mom buying me some balloons as a young child, and trying to twist a simple dog.  Even in the late 80’s I got hold of a basic balloon video and managed to get a few basic shapes.  But when did I start to do the type of twisting that I do today?

The year 1994 was very much a monumental year for me.  In May, I graduated from college.  In June I married Paula.  In October, I started a small part time clown business that would eventually become Joy Set Entertainment.  One of the perceptions that people have of clowns is that all of them are balloon twisters.  While this idea is not necessarily true, I wanted to at least try to learn a few basic shapes beyond the dog, sword, and squirrel (that looked remarkebly like a dog) that I already knew.  I discovered that my wife was a much quicker learner in this area than I was.  She also could translate Ballooneese into English.  Ballooneese is a special language spoken by balloon twisters and balloon decorators.  We use terms like “pinch twist,” “duplets,” and “frumple twist”.  So for the first year or so, I would get a book by a balloon artist, and have my wife translate it for me.  Usually that meant she would read the instructions, and then show me how to make it five different times.  Eventually, not only did I catch on, but I started coming up with my own designs. 

Today, I am a balloon twister at birthday parties, library shows, school events, and more.  But I truly never would have learned if not for my patient and understanding wife.  How did I learn to twist balloons?  My best friend taught me.