Do any of you do CHARACTER ACTORS (ie: princess, spiderman)

I mean like, book a princess to show up at a party (or a TMNT, or spiderman, etc.). It is becoming a HUGE deal in our tiny area... 2 companies just sprang up last fall, and are booked solid and constantly advertising for local college kids!

Do any of you do this? Do you want to?

I am wondering where to find more information. I don't even know what words to Google, very little comes up under "characters".

Barbie

I know Melly's Business she hires our character entertainers, she would totally be the person 'in the know' on this.

I offer costumes to dress up in while i'm painting, like a generic princess, a fairy, and other things. But I don't do much in the way of activities and games. Just face painting.

Looking to update that and offer more things.

I know what you mean about these types of companies popping up. Several have sprung up in my area in the last few years. And of course EVERYONE wants Frozen characters at their event now.

Some search terms to try are "Costumed Entertainers" and "Princess Parties", usually if they offer princess's they offer others too.

Is there a character who is particularly fluffy and sweet?
I would have to be her.
Maybe the fairy godmother.

When I first started, I worked for a children's entertainment company and went as a character. I've done Belle, Hirby Buckett (a baseball clown), Blinkers (clown), an elf, and Mother Goose. I would generally do face painting, animal balloons, and a couple of magic tricks that would go along with a story appropriate to the character.

I think the clowns should be priced higher since there is more work to get ready and to undo the makeup afterwards. Plus you have to be the clown the whole time, even while driving.

I started making my own "silly outfit", not exactly a clown but more ridiculous attire and makeup than your everyday average person. I decided on this after I went to hand someone a business card and a handful of balloons came out with my holder. I also figured if I got pulled over going to an event with a car full of pre-inflated balloons it would be a little easier to explain if I sort of look like a clown.

I would be wary of copyright infringements...I knew someone who got trolled by Disney lawyers...(Don't they have enough $ already?)

Forest Fairy is correct, I am in the know!

My business, along with two face painters, employes 12 other folks to do princess, superhero, and mascot appearances. There are a couple of VERY key advices I would give, if you're thinking of adding character entertainment to your business:

1. Pay your characters well. You want folks who will be on time, and show up EVERY single time. If parents tell kids that a character is coming, it becomes an absolute ZOO if they aren't there on time. I pay $50.00/hour plus driving money, and supply EVERYTHING (costumes, supplies, insurance, etc!) for my staff.

2. Hire people with acting AND childcare experience! Ex: I hire music teachers, music therapists, camp leaders who are in opera school. These people know their characters, know how to deal with kids, and have answers for ALL the hard questions! Do police checks; the peace of mind is worth it!

3. Invest in professional quality costumes and photography. It it's not 300-500 bucks per costume, chances are the character will come off as inauthentic and cheap. Parents will think "I can get a costume from walmart", and spring up as crappy competitors. Invest in the extra $ for a lace up back, so as to fit more staff members!

4. Watch out for the Mouse. Be respectful of copyright infringement, which means having costumes that are close, but not exact, and creating different names for your characters on your website. I also avoid characteristic descriptions on my website that could be used to describe a "disney" character, and have a legal and copyright disclaimer at the bottom of all my pages.

5. DO NOT PAINT AS A CHARACTER. Your costumes are too expensive to be waving wolfe black around, and if you paint as a character there will be kids crawling ALL over you, shouting in your ear etc. This is one thing I absolutely refuse to do. Having characters at the event simultaneously to a painter, however, is magical because you can send kids to hang with the character, and just them when it's their turn. Offer a bundle rate; you won't regret it!

6. Put some serious thought and effort into your packages. You need to have a standard set of planned activities, that are low-cost for you to supply, and low-mess for parents! Make it clear what's included, so that you don't have any rude surprises, like the time I showed up at an event and the parent asked "when is the craft?" (sorry lady, no craft in that package!)

7. Only do it if you love it. Character entertainment is HIGH stress, and although it can be high reward, you need to really love it to make it work and put the proper time, effort, and imagination into each character! If you always dreamed of!

8. Be prepared to spend FULL TIME hours on your business. Because character entertainment, at my level, can mean 40-50 events per month (as opposed to FP's 8-10 events per month!) it really does become a full-time job booking events, answering questions, chasing deposits, resupplying staff, making schedules etc. If you find yourself frustrated at the "business" portion of your face painting business, be aware that offering characters increases your administrative load tenfold. I usually work in the office 30+ hours per week, when you factor in admin, meetings with staff, shopping for supplies, etc. This is not ideal for folks with another full-time job!

Hope that helps a little bit, but feel free to PM me if you have other questions!! I have a WEALTH of tips and tricks that I'm happy to share with you painty folks!

This is me in costume, for when I act!



These are a few of the lovely ladies in my crew, via last-year's photoshoot!  This year, we'll have 12 people in costume, and are shooting at a castle

Those are really great costumes, Melly, and you make a gorgeous Belle!

I love costumes, but the only complete one I have is a pirate wench, and the pirate sleeves aren't really practical for face painting.

Melly knows all!  lol

Fun pics! I so would love to do character acting like that! I'd be afraid to have costumes even that similar though. Bad mouse.

Better to beg forgiveness then to ask permission .

The mouse doesn't pay as much attention to us Canadians, because we aren't directly competing with parks. Something like this would be MUCH more dangerous in California or Florida!

is sad, can never have these beautiful true to movie princesses around me, live about 25 mins away from disneyland/burbank lol. They can snipe me from that distance if they wanted to