Joy Set Entertainment at Roper Mountain Holiday Lights.

For 17 years Roper Mountain Science Center and the Greenville Rotary Club have been producing the Holiday Lights.  You can drive through thousands and thousands of lights.  Some of my favorites are the tunnel of lights, the 45 foot tall illuminated star, and the snowball fight.   This will be the third year that Joy Set Enterainment will have direct involvement with the Holiday Lights.  Three years ago, the Rotary Club decided to add Winter Wonderland to the experience.  Parents can park their car and walk through some of the lights.  Santa Clause is in his sleigh and ready to visit with the little ones.  Hot cocoa, smores, and other treats are available.  And once again Joy Set Entertainment will be twisting Christmas themed balloons at the Winter Wonderland.  We will be there on select nights (check our schedule at http://www.joyset.com/) with our balloon decor backdrop wearing Christmas clothing.  Look for a balloon twister elf, a Christmas fairy, and even a balloon twisting scrooge.   See you at the Lights.

Triple Guarantee: Part Three

For over fourteen years, Joy Set Entertainment has been providing family friendly entertainment in Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, and other upstate SC cities and towns.  We have long been guided by a triple guarantee.  This blog covers our final guarantee:  The Show Must Go On.   Once you have booked an event with Joy Set Entertainment, you can rest assured that your entertainment will be there. 

I have met other entertainers that would cancel a birthday party at the last minute because a corporate event opened up for them.  And Joy Set Entertainment recently had to fill in as a last minute replacement for a church event because the first company they called "accidentally" triple booked themselves.  We believe in honoring our commitments.  Our calendar is published on the internet.  No personal information is given out, but parent's of birthday kids and corporate event planners alike can confirm at http://www.joyset.com/ that they are booked.  Also, we always contact the client many days before the event to double check details.

Of course we are human and unforseen circumstances can occur.  Sickness, snowstorms, and jury duty have all threatened events in the past.  That is where we get by with a little help from our friends.  Joy Set Entertainment networks with several quality entertainers in the area so that we can make certain that events are covered.  So you may see Jay Dee the Balloon Guy covering a birthday party, or Lee face painting at a company picnic, or Steve doing his magic at a VBS all under the banner of Joy Set Entertainment.  All these individuals have their own succesful companies.  And normally they are our competitors, but they are also happy to work with Joy Set Entertainment to make sure that no birthday child is dissapointed, or a librarian left without a reading program.  And Joy Set is happy to cover their events as well.  Why, because The Show Must Go On.

Call us today to book your own guaranteed program, (864) 299 1949

Our Triple Guarantee: Part Two

Joy Set Entertainment is based on giving you the best entertainment, with a triple guarantee. The second part of this guarantee is good, clean fun.   Actually there are three parts to that guarantee.  So would that be a double triple?

Joy Set Entertainment  is good.  We have spent money on training to improve our skills as balloon twisters, face painters, and clowns.  We are not a jack of all trades company.  However, we do keep in touch with other skilled artists and performers in our area. 

Joy Set Entertainment is clean.   We love to have fun with children and we know that you, as parents, want to make sure that it is appropriate for your child as well. During our programs, we make sure we do not use any questionable language or rude gestures so that all who are there may enjoy the show.  

Joy Set Entertainment is fun.  As entertainers, our first job is to entertain.  We gear our birthday parties to the age of the child, making sure they are having fun.  Of course we do throw in an occasional (clean) joke that mom and dad will enjoy as well.

So, we promise to deliver good, clean fun for your event, whether it is a singing telegram or a large corporate event.

Our Triple Guarantee: Part One

Joy Set Entertainment is celebrating 15 fun filled years of doing birthday party entertainment, restaurant performances, library shows, and corporate picnics all over the SC area.  From the early years, we have been guided by three guarantees 1. No Scare Guarantee  2. Good, clean fun guarantee  3. The show must go on guarantee.  Todays article is going to look at our first guarantee, the no scare guarantee.

Sometimes very young children are easily frightened by performers.  This may be particularly true with costumed characters or clowns.  For that reason, Joy Set offers a guarantee for their shows.  If the birthday child is under the age of six and is frightened by one of our birthday entertainers to the point that the show can not continue, then Joy Set will either refund your money or apply it to a future performance.    We want kids to have a fun time on their birthday, not be frightened. 

Here are a couple of tips for helping deal with fear issues in young children.

1. If you are considering hiring a clown or costumed character for the party, show your child pictures of the performer.  We have pictures on our website at http://www.joyset.com/ and on our character page.  Do not TELL your child that this performer will be at their party, ask them how they would feel about it.
2. Respect a childs natural boundaries.  Allow them to have space between themselves and the birthday performer.  Never force them to get close for the sake of a picture.
3. Sometimes just having mommy or daddy right beside them can make a big difference.
4. Young children may love a purple dinosaur that is 18 inches on their television, but not like the idea of a nearly six foot tall version in their living room.
5.  For young children, Joy Set Entertainment recommends one of our jesters (basically a clown without the makeup) for a fun program for birthdays.  See our birthday page for additional information.  Other ideas may be to use puppets, face painters, or a comedy magician that has experience dealing with young children.

Have a happy birthday.

The beginning of a face painter

     I don't remember the exact day or year, but I do remember it was after dinner at a Greenville restaurant. We had finished eating and were getting ready to leave, when we stopped to talk to a friend who was entertaining there that night. She was doing face painting with cheek art designs. I know I had seen this type of thing before, but it was still a new idea to me, and not necessarily something I saw myself doing. Carl asked for a quick demonstration of how to do a design or two, then tried it himself,  but he was not pleased with the outcome. I picked up her brush and managed to paint something that looked very similar to what was on her poster. Carl's comment was, "I guess we know who the face painter is in this family." I just smiled. It wasn't that I had done anything spectacular. I had copied a design that was sitting before me.
     Then, before I knew it, I was enrolled in a face painting class at a convention that had previously been dedicated to ballooning and magic. It was here that I discovered the art of full face painting.  This is when children (and adults) are transformed into different animals and creations. It was interesting to me to discover that the full face designs really didn't take any more time than the smaller cheek art because you bring the person's own facial features into the design. I enjoy these faces more because of the bigger WOW factor.  Face painting is always popular at birthday parties here in the greater Greenville area and a wonderful addition to the many Fall festivals going on right now.  Maybe you'll see me out there and can get your face painted soon.  You can check out our schedule at http://www.joyset.com/

I love being a birthday party entertainer

I admit it.  I love my job.  I absolutely love it.  I don't have a typical workweek or workday.  Sometimes the events can be sporadic, and sometimes overwhelming.  But I love what I do to earn money for my family.   I have a special offer at the end of this blog to help you lover birthday parties too!   I have met many entertainers in the upstate of SC.  Some started out years ago doing birthday parties, but now they say they have moved on to "bigger and better things."  Not me!  I truly love being a birthday party entertainer.

Like father, like son.

I was meeting another balloon twister from Greenville, SC for a balloon jam.  A balloon jam is when two or more balloon twisters get together to share ideas, stories, and tweak their balloon designs.  Anyway, we had met at a donut shop.  I took my son with me, because being the intelligent parent that I am, I figured I would give my son some sugary donuts washed down with a high caffeinne drink and then let him go to sleep for the night.

Anyway .... my friend and I were about an hour into our jam session.  We had made lots of balloon animals, and come up with some cool balloon hats.  I noticed that my son was quiet, too quiet.  I looked around and finally found him in the corner of the donut shop.  He had taken apart a display of their bags of coffee and had put them all on the floor.  "What are you doing son?" I asked.

"Look," he said, "Ground coffee!" 

I don't know where he gets it. : )
Please check out our website http://www.joyset.com/

My favorite balloon creation

As a balloon twister in Greenville, SC I get asked all the time "What is your favorite balloon to make?" That really is a tough choice for my current balloon creations.  I tend to like the more unique balloons that other twisters don't make, or the interactive balloons, such as the football field goal balloon.  However my favorite balloon creation of all time was actually one of my most simple balloons.

The Kirby Salesman

I never try to torture sales people.  I really don't.  But I have upset a lot of them.  Its just part of the life of being an entertainer.  First of all, it may take several months to see me.  If you have something to offer me that I am interested in, I will make an appointment to see you.  But .... if a customer call me and wants me for the same time, the customer is going to get priority.  Everytime.  And I am always upfront with sales people when they make an appointment  One salesman was particularly offended when I postponed our appointment for the fifteenth time.  He asked what did he have to do to see me.  I told him he could hire me to make balloons for about an hour and I would meet him anytime and anyplace.  He didn't go for it.  One health insurance salesman waited six months to see me.  He persevered and I became a customer.  Kudos to him.

My first penguin.

I was a fairly new balloon twister in September of 1996.  The Tie Dye Balloon Guy had not yet emerged.   I had already been clowning for almost two years, and I was ready to try some new skills.  I got books from the library, and got a basic balloon sculpting video to begin my quest.  I practiced for what seemed like months just to get a basic dog to come out just right.  Sometimes the front legs were bigger than the back and sometimes the dog looked more like a giraffe.  Mostly I just popped the poor pooch. POP!  Lots of pops ... and groans (from me, not the poor doggie).

Ah, but back to the penguin.  This was my first semi public display of balloon twisting.  Joy Set Entertainment was booked for a small community festival.  I took requests, which thankfully for me stayed within the usual parameters for a beginning twister.  "Can I get a sword?"  "Make me a flower."  "Why does my dog look like a giraffe?"  I turned to the youngest of the bunch, a sweet little green eyed, brown haired girl and asked what she would like.  "I want a penguin."