As a rule parents hire an entertainer for one of two reasons. The first reason is they want an easy life and don’t want the hassle of entertaining a room full of kids on their own. The secondary reason is because they really want their kids to have an amazing and unique birthday and feel hiring a professional will really help in that regard.
Addressing Entertainers' Common Challenges and How to Enhance Your Child's Party Experience
You might have a totally different reason for hiring an entertainer. But the main reason will always be that you want to make sure your child’s party is brilliant. What you probably don’t realise is that there are common problems that entertainers experience at the majority of their parties which can sometimes affect their performance. Making sure that your entertainer doesn’t experience these problems will ensure that they perform to the best of their ability.
What Kind Of Problems?
Some of these problems you might be aware of, others might be new to you. You are also not obligated to do anything about these issues that entertainers experience. After all, it’s their job to overcome things like this. However, by understanding some of these issues it might help ensure your entertainer delivers a better overall performance and that way, everyone's a winner. Let's go over the common problems and why they are an issue towards entertainers.
Finding The Venue!
Most of the time the party venue is easy to find and there are no issues. Other times finding the venue can be a nightmare. This is especially true if you live somewhere rural or unknown to the rest of society. This can really stress out your entertainer. You need to understand that they will want to do the best possible job that they can do for your child’s party and that involves setting up on time. If they are driving around completely lost and unable to work out where they are going, it doesn’t help their mindset.
The best thing to do is make sure your entertainer has the correct postcode for the venue and the full address. If it is tricky to find, make sure they are aware of what to look out for along the way. Another thing you can do is put balloons or a happy birthday banner outside the venue so it’s easy to spot from a distance. Furthermore, if there are roads nearby that can get very gridlocked, make sure your entertainer is aware in advance. By doing so, the entertainer can allocate more time to the journey.
No Parking Space!
This sounds simple but it has frustrated our entertainers many times. Make sure there is a parking space reserved for your entertainer at the venue they are performing at. If the venue only has a small car park, ensure that one space is reserved for the entertainer. This is vitally important.
Sometime in the past, our Director Craig was booked to perform at a venue that had no spare parking spaces. Our kids party entertainment were forced to unload his equipment and then drive off to find suitable parking. It took 25 minutes to drive off, find a space and walk back. By the time he made it back to the venue, there was only five minutes left to set everything up for the party. If there was a parking space, there would not have been a problem.
The other thing to consider is that most entertainers will have more than one party in a day. If they are in a similar situation, they could end up stressing about arriving at their next party on time because of how long it’s going to take to get their car back to the first venue. This can affect their performance at your party (it shouldn’t but stress can affect people in different ways). Please hold a space for the entertainer and save them unnecessary hassle.
No Easy Access To Load Heavy Equipment Into The Venue!
Most kids entertainers have a lot of equipment to take with them and set up. Here at Non Stop Kids Entertainment, we have to load in a disco light set up, a speaker and PA System. We also need to take a big table for the magic show, a stand for the table and three different sports bags that contain various props. That’s a lot of equipment, not to mention specialist equipment for themed shows.
If it’s a long walk from the car park, it can add on lots of time and can cause your entertainer to stress. Normally it will take three trips from the car to the venue to bring everything in. There was a time once where our entertainers were forced to carry equipment up four flights of stairs, there and back. Safe to say, that wasn't fun. The best thing to do is make sure that the venue you select has a place the entertainer can park and load in quickly and easily.
Bouncy Castles Can Be A Distraction!
The job of an entertainer is to entertain the children at your party. If your entertainer is doing a show, having a bouncy castle at the venue can be a distraction for the kids. You could hire the best entertainer in the world but it will always be more difficult to keep the children’s attention when you are fighting against a bouncy castle. It’s not so much of an issue if your entertainer is playing games or running a dance competition. However, when they need the undivided attention of the children, bouncy castles can be a problem. If your entertainer is constantly trying to tell the kids not to go to the bouncy castle, their show won’t be as good as it could be.
There are two ways around this. The first and easiest approach is to just switch off the bouncy castle when the magic show starts. It can be on the remainder of the party. but during the show switch it off. It only takes a few seconds to switch off a bouncy castle and it can be inflated again in seconds. The other option is to not book a bouncy castle in the first place. If you have hired a great entertainer, there will be so much going on at the party it’s probably overkill anyway and a waste of money.
Balloons Can Also Be A Distraction!
This is similar to the point of bouncy castles. A lot of parents will blow up balloons and leave them all over the floor. This looks great as the kids arrive, but when it comes to grabbing the kids attention for a magic show, it can be problematic. The reason for this is because children are drawn towards balloons - they just want to play with them all the time! That’s great unless you are trying to hold their attention during a magic show in which case it can cause problems. If they start throwing balloons around, your entertainer has to not only entertain the kids but also be crowd control.
The easy option is to not bother blowing them up. However, they do look cool as the kids walk in and children do love balloons. My advice would be to let the entertainer move the balloons to the back of the room before the show starts. That way the children can focus on the show and they can have the balloons back after the show has finished. Perfect solution really!
Unsupervised Toddlers!
Everyone loves magic, especially children. However, younger children aged under three have very short attention spans. They will struggle to sit still for more than ten minutes. Not because they aren’t enjoying themselves but because they get distracted easily. If younger children see something they like in the show frequently, they will get up to try and grab it. It’s not that they are being naughty, they are just being curious.
When a toddler runs up on stage, it can distract the other children if it keeps happening.From a health and safety point of view, it can be dangerous. Your average entertainer carries all manner of strange and wonderful items in their case, and any of these could be dangerous in the hands of a toddler. The problem comes when your entertainer constantly has to stop their show in order to make sure younger children are sitting down. The first couple of times it can be funny and most entertainers can make it part of their show. However, if it keeps happening it can disrupt the flow of the show and distract the other children.
Our advice would be to make sure younger children are sitting with a parent or guardian during the show. This way the adults can make sure these children are sitting still. The other option would be to just keep an eye on any younger children to make sure that they are not running around affecting the show. This way, your entertainer can focus on entertaining the kids and not babysitting the toddlers.
Keep These In Mind And Everyone's A Winner!
In conclusion, you are hiring an entertainer and it is their job to entertain the kids and make sure that everyone has an amazing time. Most experienced entertainers have dealt with issues like this as well as similar problems. However, the purpose of this Blog is to show you ways that you can help your entertainer and as a result, get them to perform to the best of their ability.
If you would like the Non-Stop Kids team to provide entertainment for your child’s party, we would love to send you a quote. For a no obligation quote just select the banner and fill in the form. We will get back to you within the hour. Alternatively, just give us a call on 0333 301 3002. We look forward to hearing from you!
