Berkeley Parents Network: Characters for a Birthday Party

Berkeley Parents Network

Characters for a Birthday Party

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > The Arts, Entertainment, & Media > Characters for a Birthday Party

Character for child's birthday party

Oct 2004

I am looking for a character to entertain at my child's birthday party. Not sure exactly what type I want (princess, clown, etc...?) at this point so am open to ideas. I see past recommendations but some are out of biz and am looking for more current recommendations. Trish

Here's a great idea for a party, check them out at http://www.insectsongs.com. These folks perform regularly at Children's Fairyland in Oakland and are relly a lot of fun! soreya

I saw your post and just wanted to mention a really negative experience I had recently. I hired a princess through the Fun Factory for a party for my 3 year old and was assured the activities would be appropriate for young kids. However, the princess did a short magic show that failed to keep the kids interested which would have been ok had she not seemed so upset by their lack of enthusiasm. She was curt and even rather rude to them. She spent so much time working on making her face paintings perfect on the that the kids lost interest again and my daughter actually asked her to leave! I was very disappointed in the whole thing, especially b/c it was expensive (almost $200) and when she left, my 3 year old said ''Momma, Cinderella isn't very nice''. When I called and wrote to the owner of the company to discuss the problems and ask for some type of refund, he at first acted as if he was concerned but never followed through and finally stopped answering my calls and emails altogether. I would caution you against using this company. Bummed Out

Try The Buddy Club, which puts on fabulous children's entertainment shows in Berkeley, SF and Marin. They also can help book an entertainer for your party and have many types of great performers to recommend. website: http://www.thebuddyclub.com Chris Z.

Theresa Castro at ''For Kids Only and Big Kids Too'' P#510-697-9734. She's great and has various charachters to choose from, she's also great to fit whatever budget you have. She's on the Berkeley Parents sight recommendation list and has done alot of parties from this site. yolandac

I'm not much for clowns in general, but we went to a party for a 4-yr-old where they had Ravioli the Clown, and he was GREAT! The kids loved him, and everyone had a great time. We called him afterwards to try to set him up for our son's party, and he could not have been nicer. In the end we changed plans, and due to location could not have a clown, but I would highly recommend him! Not sure what his # is, but if you can't find it online email me and I'll ask my friend for it. Tracy

We hired Erin Glover to perform at our daughter's 4th birthday party in April. She came as Ariel and the children (20+) had a wonderful time. Erin made the BEST balloons -- every kind of animal you could think of. She was responsive on email, gave me a list of options for activities, and was happy to stick to the schedule I suggested in order for us to get the most out her 1.5 hours at the party. http://www.firepixie.com/parties/
Very satisfied customer!

Older recommendations

May 1999

In response to the person asking about hiring characters for a birthday party. I had a birthday party for my 4-year old daughter Friday evening at Habitot and I hired a Minnie & Mickey duo to do face painting and balloon sculpting. I hired them through Fairy Tale Productions which has an office in SF, 415-296-0412. The performers were extremely professional and stayed in-character the entire time. Minnie was especially a hit with the 4 year old girls. It's expensive. Their 'list' price for one character is $119 for one hour, $175 for 1 1/2 and $225 for 2 hours. I got a price break for having 2 characters. They have a list of over 110 characters that they provide including all the latest popular ones like a Blues Clues dog and the Teletubbies. The costumes are not polished like Disneyland and because of copyright issues do not look like the real thing although the clothes they wear looked very close. I requested that they send me a picture of the characters in advance so I would know what I was getting. They mailed me a color copy of about 10 photos of the characters in action so I knew what to expect (I also wanted my daughter to have the appropriate expectation). After the party I asked her how she liked the fake minnie and mickey and she responded 'Mom, that was the REAL Minnie and Mickey'. One of the 3 year olds at the party was very scared of the characters and wouldn't come into the museum until they hid out of sight. The 4 year olds loved them. -- Kathy

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