A castle and some puppets all made with balloons

During All Saints holidays I took about 3000 balloons and 2 full days to build this new backstage decoration in a popular mall of Auxerre (France).

This is where, every afternoon, I did a show for the children, followed by much balloon twisting.

The show usually includes a few simple magic routines,  the guessing game "Who wants to get a balloon with air?" and ends with a story, acted by some of the children themselves.

However, the dimensions and configuration of the castle was particularly well suited for a little puppet performance.

Making puppets (of course, with balloons) was an idea I had been entertaining for awhile and here was the golden opportunity to materialize it.

The first try was an immediate success, and it was only natural that afterwards the little puppet routine was a daily part of the show.

That made the children very happy!

I have always been amazed at the impact that puppets had on kids and how they are very real people for them.

Of course, like in all good stories, there was a villain (the Black Knight) and a hero (Guillaume, the Kind Hearted Knight).

Without fail, the children were totally immersed in the story, they were inveighing against the Black Knight (who very much deserved it). The were coming to the aid of Guillaume, screaming to inform him of the tricks the Black Knight was preparing, and were doing their utmost to inflect the story that was unfolding under their eyes... a true interactive show!

A real blast!