Smarty Pants has been performing the Big Balloon Show regularly since 2006 – perhaps one-hundred shows a year, multiplied by six years… that’s a lot of shows!

Every year I create an all new edition of the Big Balloon Show for public libraries in Illinois and Wisconsin, where we regularly perform all summer for “summer reading season.”

On Saturday, June 2nd we premiered our newest show at the Northbrook Public Library.  The show titled “the Smarty Pants Big Balloon Diner” was designed to fit this year’s “Reading is Delicious” theme.

Now you’d think after over 600 shows, performing would be a piece of cake (no pun intended) but I still get plenty nervous presenting brand new material in front of a live audience. Those kids can be brutal!    What if they don’t laugh? What if they don’t like the new stuff as much as my “classic” material?  What if no one shows up???

Well, I am guilty of being a bit overanxious, because fortunately our premiere show went splendidly, no doubt due to the great efforts of Northbrook Public Library’s Youth Services department. We had a great crowd of supportive families, including lots of familiar faces (we do a lot of private birthday parties in Northbrook, so that helped!)

Whew!   Now that our first show is over, I can relax a bit… of course there’s plenty of work done to fine tune our show for the rest of the summer but the first one’s always the toughest!

Want to see the Big Balloon Show this summer at a library near you?  Check out our online calendar!