You KNOW the face painter is unhappy when...

Am I the only one who gets the nightmare birthday parties from h-e-doublehockeysticks?! It was a gorgeous day here today and my party was on "the hill"... in Syracuse that translates to the Syracuse University area, which is elevated above the rest of the city.

Nightmare #1 - It was SU graduation today. I was held up incredibly long in traffic just trying to get to the park... luckily, so was everyone else, but it made a mad panic for everyone to get the party set up in time. The only one who was on time was the dang pony for the pony ride.

Nightmare#2 - I was paid to paint for an hour and a half with 30 kids in attendance, which was no problem since the birthday boy's mama wanted him to be the ONLY kid with full face painting. But she also would not allow glitter, glitter gel or gems on the girls. Say What?! She wanted her son to have the best face and didn't want anyone to steal his (HER!) thunder.

Nightmare#3 - There were probably about 50 kids that showed up. My "list" system was antiquated by that time, since they had me set up by the water fountain about 100 miles away from the pony ride and bouncy house and so no one could hear me SCREEEEAAAAM their names from outer space.

Nightmare#4 - NEVER, I repeat, NEVER allow yourself to be set up by a park water fountain where 50 kids (plus all the extra kids not attending the party who are just there to play at the playground) are allowed to run around basically unattended. They will eventually discover that it is more fun than all the planned activities to play with the water fountain and you will be drenched several times.

There were several other bad dreams to deal with... but I've dealt with all of them before: line fights 'cause "ya'll cutted", my entire case of rainbow cakes hit the ground because they got bumped during a line fight.

Me: "Now, I'm not a mean face painter, but for the umpteenth time, please stand BEHIND the chair"

Repeat above sentence umpteen more times.

Bug and other things flying in the wind landing in my paints and water....ewwwwww.

Father making me paint a basketball on his baby's arm, even though said baby would probably have rather bitten me.

Discovering that hair "grease" runs down a sweaty child's face and then smoothie blenders for Starblends are rendered worthless.

Your one and only drink for the event (a plain, unsweetened iced tea) gets knocked over 30 seconds into the party.
It goes on, my friends, but I haven't the strength to...

This mama threw a heck of a party, though... Yo Gabba Gabba and his Robot made an appearance, bouncy house, pony ride, sack races, a duck pond game where the kids all won a goldfish in a bowl.... and, of course, the ever popular "drench the face painter game!"

All I can say is

you are not the only one... I have gotton to the stage where I do not dread an event where I know there should be another painter as...
The birthday party - I've had a couple of really nasty ones recently. thanks for the fountain warning though, and big hugs.

Well, I hope you were hoping for contributions because I had a H*LL event today...and that wasn't even the WORST swear word.

I was already mad this morning because out of a sense of obligation I turned down two events from a fellow face painter because I had signed up for this event in a park. It was a low vendor fee (be wary of low vendor fees) and I had been invited to attend by someone that saw my face painting at another gig (be wary of ego stroking) and I asked to make sure I was the only face painter (be wary of guilt) and so I went. Luckily, hubby was there to share in my misery.

It was event that claimed it was to "unite" people from all religions, races, sexual orientation, etc. and was supposed to be family friendly (hence the face painter, kids games & bouncy houses.) They had local bands coming for entertainment and they would set up on one end of the bowl.

Well, I have never been so ticked in my life. I was already mad, they told us we couldn't drive our vehicle CLEAR ACROSS THE GROUNDS and yet literally everyone else (never ask, just do it) so we trucked two carts full of stuff over to our area. THEN they had the nerve to ask us to move our vehicle from the parking places so the bands had somewhere to park (mind you, many of the original drive-on cars stayed on the grass the WHOLE TIME!)...anyway...they told us we had to set up by 9:00 am by the latest...guess when the first band took the stage...12:30!!!!

Well, back to my ticked off-ness. All the bands but two of them literally SCREAMED the F-word over and over and a host of other swear words. The organizer used G-D in her introduction, the "comedian" mentioned she got photographed giving a guy a "hummer" in the alley (how funny is that )

As someone that tries to treat the kids in my tent as my friend and speak to them respectfully and even tell other kids that this is a no hate zone I was mortified. I'm so angry that there form of tolerance is everyone else has to put up with their lack of respect and dignity. It's a public park, it at least should have been PG-13!

Needless to say, come dinner time hubby said enough and we put the front panel on the tent, cleared out the back and came back and broke down...Oh, I forgot to mention that a little hellion ripped one of my velcro straps off my tent by acting like an hyper-active monkey. I wish Jeff had told me, I would have refused service. He was thinking he should have too.

I'm HOPING that the organizer tries to give me a bad review or sends me a "what's up" email. I'm just frothing at the mouth to chew her out. I probably should just do it but I just hate wasting any more time on that bunch.

Ended up making $10 an hour...and that doesn't count driving, setting up and taking down hours...that's pure painting hours.

I vow never to work an event that I haven't been to before and taken the temperature of the crowd, the location and how the vendors are doing. On top of all the troubles we had with the vendor aspect and the bands, nearly every parent was trying to get our prices down...sigh.

D.

Mentally, I am sharing a drink with you and crying in the bowl of peanuts....

I did an event last year for autism with different bands taking the stage all day long... same thing; little kids everywhere, all being subjected to "songs" (I use the term loosely) with the F bomb.

Please, more contributions!!!!

The second birthday party I ever did professionally, I was placed next to a stinky cat litter box.
The lady had two cats.
They had frequent, foul-smelling, loose stools.
Their kitchen, where they moved me to smelled even worse.
Dad was boiling something in a big pot.
He was doing something with moose entrails from a recent hunting foray.
When I left, I felt I could smell cat diarrhea, burning moose fur and boiled moose fecal matter for days.

Blecccchhhhh!!!!!

Yikes! I can't decide which one is the worst! My hats off to all you ladies as well as my sympathies for enduring the twilight zone.

would some chocolate help

Chocolate always helps.



Unless it is the color of cat poo.

fesspenter wrote:The second birthday party I ever did professionally, I was placed next to a stinky cat litter box.
The lady had two cats.
They had frequent, foul-smelling, loose stools.
Their kitchen, where they moved me to smelled even worse.
Dad was boiling something in a big pot.
He was doing something with moose entrails from a recent hunting foray.
When I left, I felt I could smell cat diarrhea, burning moose fur and boiled moose fecal matter for days.

You made my day, I laughed until I cried.

Fesspenter, with the combination of the cat poo and the moose entrails, I would have been gagging and asking to paint outside or heading for the door to leave. Sounds like a scene out of horror movie with the entrails and fur. Who does that while a party is going on?

Probably somebody who loves moose hunting.
I was only there for an hour.
Kids were happy.
Adults were stiff, not very happy or comfortable.
That was the longest hour of Facepainting I have ever done. It was only my second experience face painting professionally at a birthday party.

Awwwww... I'm so sorry ladies!!!

Denise!! YUCK!! I'm sorry your festival didn't turn out for you! At least you didn't lose money. I HATE it when people try to "talk you down". It's so ridiculous. I had a lot of kids trying to get "free" balloons and face painting at my event yesterday, but I did ok. Was only there for a few hours... then off to those birthday parties. I got called weird a few times... and one kid said I looked "dumb"(Good one kid... the clown is ohhhhh so offended). lol, but other than that, it wasn't aweful.
I tell you what Denise... I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish you had been with me! Never again will I wait till the last minute to make sure I have enough painters!!

Well, that was an emergency situation, I was certainly kicking myself for not just going with you...I'm sure you don't swear THAT much! LOL!

Only in traffic.....

Two years in a row, my husband & I went to a friend's Christmas party @ their house. Both times, Hubby played Santa. He's done this for years for friends & charity.Last year I face painted too. Since we're in FL, the guests are both inside & outside. Last year, Santa sat outside to visit w/the kids. This year he was inside so they asked me to set up outside. I took a few steps outside & the cigarette smoke hit me first, then the unmistakeable aroma of dog poo! I turned right around & told him I was allergic to the smoke. GOOD THING I did. Some of the kids came in a few times with poo on them. My daughter & her friends went out & brought all the kids in. Apparently, no one thought to clean up after their two dogs this year. YUCK!!!

Oi. I guess a party like this is doomed to be in future, now I will be flinching at the start of every gig. lol sorry you had to go through it, but stories like that only get better with each retelling.

Kat's FacesForFun wrote: I got called weird a few times... and one kid said I looked "dumb"(Good one kid... the clown is ohhhhh so offended).

That reminds me of yet another bad memory from yesterday's party.... When I arrived, dressed in a brand new dress and street make-up (I never paint my own face for a private birthday party), looking as good as this ol' broad can possibly look for right now, 3 kids came running up to me and asked me if I was the clown....

My tender ego deflated faster than a bouncy house....

Ronnie... you are absolutely adorable. You just must exude "entertainer"

I am unhappy when I got parties where the birthday kid doesn't want to get painting and everybody is more interesting on the bounce house than me

When I have to look for the kids and beg them to be painted and I leave the party 1 hour later, only 2 or 3 kids painted and the mom doesn't want to pay my full rate.

I think boiled moose entrails wins a prize of some sort.... Especially appauling since my magic shop is called Mystic Moose!

Ewwwwwwwwww

my rate goes by time, not by number of kids I paint. The only exception I ever made was for a nice man, divorced, who would have custody on his child's birthday, who knew only 3 kids would be there. I made the exception and let him book only 1 hour.

yes, I vote for the spooky party with the moose guts and and cat litter.

The moose and cat box story is the worst I've heard so far! It will lend a lot of perspective whenever I'm in a strange situation ... I'll just say to myself, "Now really? Isn't this much better than moose entrails?" And on I'll go! )

wOW!! These are great stories to tell others who plan on fp in your area..keep the compatition WAAYYYY DOWN!!!