The Anna Bananas Show

The show that I perform is dramatized story telling where I play the central character, an adventurous princess who just wants to play and have fun and doesn’t want to obey her Mum and who encounters all sorts of characters on her imaginative journey.

This is done physically using clowning with bits of mime, singing, dancing, acrobatics, slapstick and juggling.  The show is further animated visually using a selection of puppets and objects which interact through the story line.

I encourage active participation from my audience throughout the show offering the children opportunities for involvement, through singing making spells and creating sound effects.  At birthday parties there is always a special moment created for the birthday child to shine (if they so wish) whereby the magic wand only works for the birthday child.

The grand finale of the show involves the children getting up to dance to my fast accordion playing and leads to all the children joining my Banana Band where they get to participate musically playing a selection of percussion instruments.

It is an exuberant and cacophonous end to the show.

Where space/weather permits and at public events where the children might not know each other I will sometimes precede the show with some short ice-breaker games with my colourful parachute which delights and draws the audience in.

The show is suitable for children from 2 to 8 years old and can be expanded or contracted according to age.

I usually request that the children are seated on the floor rather than on chairs as it makes the show more intimate and easier for them to get up and dance at the end of the show.

Games at parties

Prior to beginning the games I usually allow some time for the children (particularly the under 5’s) to feel at ease with each other and with me.  This is done by generating an atmosphere of fun and general silliness, i.e. by guessing their names, using songs and rhymes, and the animation of small soft toys to put them at their ease.

I use a wide variety of games, usually starting off the party with some high energy musically based, interactive games with tasks to do within the games to keep them interesting and fun.

Once the initial high energy has been channelled I set up some great traditional children’s games which are wonderful to play in so far as they are exciting and have an element of suspense which keeps the interest of the whole group.

I don’t use any games where there are winners or losers and I don’t recommend using prizes as I have found they can cause friction with some children getting upset when either they don’t win or they don’t win everything!  However I do try to give the birthday child special focus by allowing them to be the ‘first’ or the leader in a game if they so wish.

I like to keep the games flowing and will recognize when to introduce a new game in order to respond to each group’s needs i.e age, energy and concentration levels, whereby creating a balance within the games from the physically based to quieter more imaginative games.

Facepainting at Parties

I am a skilled and creative facepainter and have developed a way of working at birthday parties that doesn’t entail the children standing in a queue.  I ‘choreograph’ the rest of the group to play games while I facepaint one child at a time, thus ensuring the maximum enjoyment of the group with no queuing and no boredom.

I have also moved away from ‘full’ facepainting to a more minimal approach particularly with the younger children (under 4’s) whereby I paint little pictures on their hands that they can look at.  Girls like to have flower fairy princess faces and boys are usually delighted with ‘tattoos’ painted on their arms.

I only use the best professional non-allergic water based facepaints which are easy to wash off with facial wipes or soap and water.  If a child has any type of skin or eye infection I obviously won’t paint their face but will offer to paint something appropriate on their hands instead.

Facepainting at Events

I have years of experience facepainting at corporate and family day events and have a huge range of options within my repertoire. I am very skilled at gauging the needs of the event and can adjust the facepainting accordingly…i.e using less detail when queues build up or by offering small ‘tattoos’ (with facepaint) on hands or arms.  I always arrive dressed in my flamboyant clown costume being unmissable visually.

I can also provide a team of facepainters for the larger events who are equally experienced professionally.

Only the best non-allergic water based facepaints are used.