I would like to welcome Brian Wishnefsky to the Party Ideas Blog today!  He has over 20 years of experience being a kids’ party entertainer in the San Francisco area.  He wanted to share some top tips to you when thinking about hiring an entertainer for your next kids’ party.  You can find him on-line at: www.pranks4u.com.  Welcome, Brian!

I’ve been a professional full time children’s entertainer for over 20 years.  I would like to provide some advice on choosing the best entertainer for your event at the most reasonable rate. The old saying “You get what you pay for!” holds true when choosing entertainment for your event. 

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Peppers and Pollywogs is often asked how to find those really popular characters (think Elmo and Dora) for their upcoming kid’s party!  It is often really difficult to find an actual Elmo or Dora, you may instead find Traveling Girl with Backpack or Red Puppet instead.  Consumers often aren’t happy with these knock-off characters and prefer that the licensed character actually attend an entertain the children.

Recently, the WSJ spotlighted this problem, i.e the fact that entertainers are not legally allowed to appear as the actual character due to worries over trademark infringement.  The WSJ Law Blog has an interesting take on the problem and the comments are worth a read too.  It is unfortunate that the homemade character costumes often look odd and don’t really showcase the character that the kids know and love.  The example of the 4-year-old’s party where Dora seemed scary is often a common problem when these entertainers are hired.  It isn’t the entertainers fault, but rather the law.  It is illegal for these entertainers to appear exactly as the character.

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My child has two parties for her two good friends on the same day at the same time. She wants to attend both, but we don’t want to be rude. Is it OK to duck out of one kids’ party thirty minutes early to catch the tail end of the next one? 

Certainly, it is OK.  When you RSVP to the first party, tell the host parent that you and/or your child will have to leave early from the party.  This way the departure time will not be unexpected and the host parent can have the goody bag prepared, etc. in anticipation of your early departure.  The same is true for the second party you are attending.  When you RSVP, contact the host parent and explain the situation, and ask if it would be OK if you came for the second half of the party.  Leave it up to the host to say yes or no to you and be open to either.  If she says no it may be because the party is being held at an outside venue and she doesn’t want to pay the fee for your child who will only attend for the end of the party.  If she says yes, she will plan on you arriving late. 

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So, you have decided the type of entertainer you would like…how do you select one?

Usually, this is the time that you have to do some homework. Look at the directories on the Web and the listings in the parent magazines and draw up a list of the entertainers. Let’s say you have decided to have a clown entertain at your 4 year olds’ party. Here is a handy list of basic questions that I recommend you ask the entertainer on those initial phone calls: Read the rest of this entry »

I hired an entertainer for my kid’s party this year. During the entire routine, the parents who were present were talking so loudly that many of the kids could not hear the entertainer during his performance. How can I avoid this situation during future parties?

During your next party, ask your entertainer to ask everyone (especially the “Big” kids) to keep quiet during the show. The friendly word from the entertainer himself at the start of the show should help this problem.

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How much does an entertainer usually charge for a kid’s party?

Really, the answer depends on where you live, the length of entertainment routine, and what is included in the routine. On average, entertainers charge $150 to $250 for a 45 minute performance. This can be more expensive, but generally this is a good base line. Those entertainers that are especially popular in your community can often command well above the average price however.

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What if you hired an entertainer for your kid’s party, and they were absolutely wonderful…ok, so a good entertainer may cost anywhere from $100 to $500, depending on the length of the routine, what they are doing, etc. Also, some of the costs may be associated with location in the country, etc. On average, a party entertainer will cost around $175. So, the kids had a fabulous time…now other parents who happened to see the show, or at least hear about it from their kids, are asking you “How much did the entertainer cost?”

Do you have to answer this, especially if you feel that the parents are asking to chastise you and say how terribly expensive that is?

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