Regardez de la femmes! - Mike Doonsbury.

I came across this years ago and in spite of the obvious "L'art mobiles des ballons " , there's a lot of fun stuff going on in the content that has reflected both what I like doing with balloons and spaces, and what can be done. If you haven't already guessed, I'm partial to both arty and unconventional uses for balloon decorating. Although the occasions and the basic mechanics are traditional, I tend to gravitate to customers and spaces that are outside of the relm of the "Qualatex Certified" boobs. No offense, but anyone who forks over thousands of dollars for "certified training" and then passes up a client base as vast as the entertaiment industry for over-focusing on weddings and bar-mitvahs exclusively, is either suffering from a latex allergy, or refuses to have fun with their talents.

In the case of the video, aside from being an eclectic mix of blues and eurovocalism (a extreeme rarity), it treats balloons as more than just a background device but something that frames the scenes as well as something that can be far more interactive than mere lighting. This is pretty much why I got into them as a decorating business in the first place. I don't really give a fig about balloons. I really look forward to altering a space, and seeing how a crowd responds differently from the norm.

Certainly there's a certain voyerism to that logic, but it's really the wanna-be sociologist that didn't get to finish his minor that is really speaking. When you alter a club, an outdoor facility, or a concert with balloons the audience suddenly either knows something special is about to happen, or will begin interacting with your product in some pretty amusing ways. That's why I'm pretty loathe to sign-on for car lots, deliveries to individuals, or small-scale crowds. I want events. Crowds of thousands of people, or at the very least - an intimate space of several hundred packed into a dark room that is filled with air-bags or helium air-bags.

Conversely you don't have to merely do overkill to have fun outside of the usual massive drops or releases. Sometimes just placing one massive 20 foot weather balloon into a stage set creates a nice focal point that compliments a band, or play. Not some cheesey propage like sculpted lightposts or other trailer-park Kansas trash sculptures. Just one, single, MASSIVE object that seems to float and screw with your sense of scale or perspective. At least that's what has been commented on by audiences who have seen weather balloon work that has had lighting combined with video projections. Big fun - no tacky shit.

The best gigs are the ones that don't try to create some "object d'art" but rather an abscract or massive blob that is destined to be destroyed. Call it zen or perhaps lazyness at the end of the evening, but if everything is trashed - that means I don't have to clean up. My kind of gig. That's why you'll see most of my stuff from the end of overkill. I've often overloaded an establishment with product, but I've never regretted it. Neither has the crowd for that matter. But there's still at least one type of gig - that is also defined by the video that I'd like to approach.

The performance artist or music/film industry. I've gravitated to rock concerts on a few occasions, and sure projection balloons are nice, but since interactivity is more interesting to me (as opposed to mere product fixation), having it used within a performance is a nice goal to set. Of course, since I've not seen much in the way of American film or television reflect what was stumbled onto the internet by yours truely, I have no idea how long this concept is going to be wishful thinking before it garners an actual project. This was really effective in a theatre production called Slava's SnowShow where at the end of the production the encore featured bagged weather balloons in parachute wraps. These 20 foot beachballs were hurled into the audience and allowed for onstage and offstage participation with an otherwise stilted crowd. Great stuff, and made for a memorable show for anyone who participated. It was also concepted in Europe which re-enforces my idea that you have to be off the content to really learn how to have a good time.

Still - the video exists in Quicktime 2.0 compatable, and it offers me some fun ideas from time to time (I like the blow-up doll which was featured as a prop/double entendre particularly), so I thought I'd let you take a peek at something that has provided a decorator some ideas, and resides in his notebook as a source of inspiration. Enjoy.
-mgabrys

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