Kelly Robinson

[00:00:07.10] - Gordon
Hello, and welcome to FACE: The Podcast, the vidcast and podcast for family and children's entertainers. My name is Gordon, and I am a professional children's entertainer in the south of London. And this is my podcast where I shine a light on all of the children's entertainers and family entertainers throughout the world. Today, I am very pleased to say we have Jelly Kelly or Kelly Robinson. She's better known as Jelly Kelly, and she's one of these people who have way too much energy. I don't know quite where she gets it from. She gets asked this a lot. We actually touch on that during her interview. She is a lovely lady. She's been doing children's entertainment for many, many years now, having seen someone performing and deciding that she can do better than they did. We talk about all sorts of things in her interview. We talk about how she's got some tips for noisy parents and how you get them involved in the show. She talks about noisy venues as well and some ideas about how to reduce all the echo that you get. We also talk about using puppets within her show, and we touch on what she believes is the reason that makes her so manic in her shows. So all of that to come. Let's get straight into it and talk to Jelly Kelly.

[00:01:44.16] - Gordon
So welcome to Kelly Robinson, better known to all of us as Jelly Kelly. Welcome to FACE: The Podcast.

[00:01:54.11] - Kelly
Oh thanks, Gordon. It's an absolute honour to be here with you and see your smiling face on Zoom.

[00:01:59.15] - Gordon
Oh, how lovely. It's lovely to have you. And you've been doing children's, I should say family entertainment, really, because I think you are one of the people in the UK that try and encompass as many people as possible, including all the adults. And you're one of these people who quite like to have the adults watching your show rather than sending them off somewhere. So we'll touch on that very shortly. But let's go right the way back to, was it 2001 when you started?

[00:02:32.05] - Kelly
You've been doing your homework.

[00:02:33.12] - Gordon
I've been doing my homework. Tell us a little bit about how you got into it, because your story is, and I've said this many times on FACE: The Podcast, but it's different to how other people have done it. So lots of people, they get into magic as a kid, and then they continue up, and all of a sudden they're an entertainer. And that's not what happened to you, is it?

[00:02:53.12] - Kelly
No. No.

[00:02:53.18] - Gordon
Do you want to tell us about it?

[00:02:55.09] - Kelly
Yeah. At the time, I was working as an agent for film crew out of Shepperton studios, which is a lovely job. I had lots of fun. I was at the top of where I could be. It was only me and one other woman in the office, and she was the owner. I couldn't move up in the business anymore or even get more of a pay rise. My daughter was three, and I was looking for other work and I was being offered things. Right now, I could be a producer in commercials living in some mansion in Hampstead with an au pair and all that. But those women were not very nice women. I dealt with them on a a daily basis and I didn't want to be one of them. I didn't want an au pair to look after my child. She was born in August, so she was a young kid. So I knew she was going to be going to school soon at this point which I'm about to get to. I was thinking, "I don't want someone else to do her homework with her and pick her up from school. That's my job. I'm the mum." And in the film industry, you've got to sell your soul. If you're in it, you are in the film industry, your family comes second. And it's just the way it really is. And I thought that was not for me. And one day, it was on a Saturday, I took her to a friend's party. She was only three. And they had an entertainer. Don't ask me his name. I can't remember. But he was an old boy. I know that he's probably dead now. He probably is, actually. He was quite old then. And he was doing this show and I sat there thinking, "Oh, God, mate, I could do better than that. Jesus." He wasn't seeing the age of the children. It wasn't been appropriate to their mental age. They were only young. He did a balloon twist. I thought at the time was like, "I'm impressed with that." But looking back on it, that was crap, too. But at the time, I was like, "ooh, you can balloon twist, wow." Anyway, he did his show and left. And the kids, as kids are prone to do, started to run feral in their own, with nothing to do. So I just got them all over to me because I've got a good way with kids. And I started doing musical bumps, Simon Says, just keeping them doing something. And three parents to come up to me and tried to book me thinking I had been the entertainer.

[00:04:57.16] - Gordon
Wow. Okay. That's good.

[00:04:59.07] - Kelly
So I went up to my friend at the end of the party and went, "How much did you pay that guy for that show?" And she told me, £160 for an hour. And this is back in 2001. And I was like, "What? £160 for that?" Oh, my God. I'm going to be a kid an entertainer. That was my instant decision. I went in on a Monday-

[00:05:18.24] - Gordon
It was all about the money. That's what it was.

[00:05:20.13] - Kelly
Literally. It was about the money. But it was also the fact that I could work weekends. My husband, or now ex-husband, my husband at the time, he could look after at weekends, work during the week. I could go and work weekends. We didn't have to pay for childcare, which I was doing all the time with childcare in the film industry. I was forking out so much money for someone else to be there for my child. And I thought, "this is it. I can be a kid's entertainer." And I went in on the Monday morning and gave a month's notice to my boss. Boom. There you go. "I'm going to be a kid's entertainer. I'm out."

[00:05:52.06] - Gordon
Wow.

[00:05:52.16] - Kelly
I hadn't got any training. I hadn't even got anything. I didn't even know how to twist a balloon dog. I gave a month. And then I thought, "right, I better do something about this now. I'll put my money where my mouth is." All my family, they're going, "you're mental. What are you doing? You're throwing away your career in the film industry. You're on the up here, Kelly." I was 25, so I was at that point just about to go boom, and up I go. And they're going, "you're an idiot. What are you doing?" And I went, "no, I'm going to be a kids' entertainer." I just ignored everyone's advice, went and bought a VHS video because this is pre-Google. This was before YouTube. So I went and got a VHS video on "learn how to balloon twist." And I sat there and I learnt to balloon twist. I sat on my doorstep one day trying to perfect the tulip twist. I must have gone through 100 balloons. And anyone who walked past, I'd just give them a balloon because I didn't want them in the house. I said "take a balloon, take a balloon." They looked awful.

[00:06:44.04] - Gordon
The crazy balloon lady.

[00:06:45.24] - Kelly
I'm literally sitting on my doorstep, "I'm just practising." And then, I'm quite a creative and artistic person, so I knew I could face paint. So I bought some face paints and did that. And at first, my first few jobs were doing games, face painting, balloon twisting. And I was getting repeat booking and getting recommended just off that. But I knew I wanted to do a show. I was born to perform. I want to do a show, but where do you buy magic? Again, no Google. There was no internet shops then. It was very new. The internet was... yeah it was 2002.

[00:07:18.17] - Gordon
Yeah. You had to be in the knowledge to know where to go.

[00:07:23.01] - Kelly
You had to know someone. Yeah. And I'd advertise in the yellow pages that used to come. There's one advert a year, and that was, that used to do me and that was it. I didn't have to do social media and all this other stuff.

[00:07:33.24] - Gordon
Which is great as long as you got your telephone number right. I know of an entertainer who put his yellow pages ad in and they changed his number between him signing it off and them printing it. And he had a whole year with no enquiries because-

[00:07:50.10] - Kelly
I bet he'd upset them somehow and they did it on purpose.

[00:07:52.11] - Gordon
Well maybe. Who knows.

[00:07:52.11] - Kelly
How do you do that? That's what I do if I was yellow pages. Eliminate the competition. Anyway, there's this guy in my local area called, he used to be, he's retired now, called Billy Bonkers. And I knew he was a really good entertainer. And I know that his eldest daughter from his first marriage, gone to school, same school as me, was in my sister's year. And so I kind of knew her. So I kept ringing up and leaving messages for Billy Bonkers. "Hi, my name's Jelly Kelly. I'm a new entertainer in the area. Please can you tell me where you get your magic props? I really want to talk to you. I really want to know where you buy your magic props." He ignored me, constantly ignored me. Until one day, I was booked as a face painter, and I turned up at a party, and it was Billy Bonkers there. I was like, "got you." So I all walked to him.

[00:08:38.17] - Gordon
No escape.

[00:08:38.22] - Kelly
Yeah basically. "Alright Billy Bonkers. It's me. I'm Jelly Kelly. I've been the one who's been leaving you messages." And he went, "Aah, I can't get away now, can I?" I went, "No. Where'd you buy your props?" And he went, "I'll tell you what, I'll take you there." And he took me to Juggle Mania, Rick Eagles, back in Surbiton, back in the day. He took me to Juggle Mania. And my daughter then, who's only three, and he took her next door to buy her sweets and left me in the magic shop. I bought a couple of props, which I still use today, like Trigger's Broom. I've replaced them since then, but they're still in the act, a couple of these props still to this day because they're brilliant props. I took them home and I taught myself some magic and I created an act. It just took off so fast for me. It was meant to happen. I was meant to do this.

[00:09:25.22] - Gordon
You are definitely a born entertainer. You're right in that. I mean, you exude entertainment from every pore. Every time I meet you, you're smiley, you're bubbly. I don't think I've ever seen you quiet or sitting in a corner somewhere. You're always part of the action, which is perfect.

[00:09:44.08] - Kelly
I like to be in the thick of it. But that's how I grew up. My dad, you see, my dad should have been a kid's entertainer. And when I did it, when I started doing it, my dad went, "Oh, God, I wish I had thought of that. Why didn't I think of that? I'm too old now. I haven't got the patience, the little..." that's what he said. I went beep the little things. Back in the day would have because a typical afternoon for me, say we're having a family barbecue with some friends over. My dad would be cooking burgers in a full-sized Emu puppet costume and attacking anyone who came near the food. He'd be on there with the emu doll, the puppet. That was just my childhood. That was my childhood.

[00:10:23.08] - Gordon
So you basically got your character from your dad.

[00:10:30.04] - Kelly
I definitely got my ADHD from my dad, yeah.

[00:10:32.22] - Gordon
Yeah, okay. We'll come to ADHD because that's-

[00:10:36.15] - Kelly
That's again, part of it. My dad definitely, even though he's undiagnosed, he definitely has it because that's where I get it from. And you can see how he was when I was growing up. You'd be like, "oh, yeah."

[00:10:45.14] - Gordon
And he's a great supporter of yours as well, I know, because he's part of the business, really, isn't he?

[00:10:52.01] - Kelly
He helps me with the technical computer things. And when I can't get my dad to help me, I ask you, Gordon, don't I?

[00:10:57.19] - Gordon
Yes, you do.

[00:10:59.11] - Kelly
"Gordon help!" But yeah, my dad, and he's part of my sister's business as well and helps her.

[00:11:05.03] - Gordon
That's really nice.

[00:11:06.08] - Kelly
Both my parents are very supportive.

[00:11:08.02] - Gordon
It does make a difference, doesn't it?

[00:11:10.07] - Kelly
Mmm, definitely.

[00:11:11.03] - Gordon
Because you don't feel like you're on your own. You don't feel like you're alone trying to do it yourself. You've got that support behind you.

[00:11:18.00] - Kelly
Yes. In fact, only yesterday, I was trying to work out a new song to change one of my acts that I do. I'm going to make it a bit Halloween-y for this gig that I've got coming up that has seen me like three years in a row. I want to put some new things in there. And I needed music for a girl to get up to, which is normally for adults. It's normally stripper music. I'm like, "I can't do that with a small kid." Those days are gone that you can get away with stuff. We're not in the '70s anymore. So I was like, "oh, what music shall I use?" So I just rang dad. He's my go to. And in lockdown, when we're in lockdown and I was one of the first entertainers in the country to be up and running within 10 days of lockdown with a virtual shows. It's because my mum and my dad would meet me on Zoom and I would get it there, and I'd go through it with them and I'd show it, and they could let me know my angles, what was working, what wasn't, could they hear me? They were just there. If I need them, they're there for me and so supportive, which does, like you say, make it huge difference.

[00:12:08.03] - Gordon
It's a big, big difference. We'll come back to the Zoom shows. But your name, Jelly Kelly, I mean, was that the name that you had on your first show or was that something that evolved? Or was it a name you had before you even started entertaining?

[00:12:23.13] - Kelly
I needed a stage name. [coughs] Sorry, not been well. I needed a stage name and it was going to be maybe... I put out a few, I'm trying to remember the ones now, and I put them out to friends and family saying, "Right, which one do you think's the best?" And one was Kelly's Capers.

[00:12:40.08] - Gordon
Okay.

[00:12:43.10] - Kelly
I can't even remember the other ones now, but Jelly Kelly was in the mix and everyone liked Jelly Kelly. Because back when we were kids growing up, you used to get a party and have jelly and ice cream. That was the party food.

[00:12:53.19] - Gordon
It's hardly ever used these days.

[00:12:55.17] - Kelly
Don't often get it now, but for me, being born in '75, jelly and ice cream was the thing. So Jelly Kelly, it sounded silly, funny. I had a party reference in my head. It's catchy. People remember it. It's a very easy name to remember.

[00:13:11.24] - Gordon
And it rhymes, always good.

[00:13:13.12] - Kelly
"Jelly Kelly, give it some welly," as my magic words then. It's a good name. I like it. It's me. I answer to Jelly now.

[00:13:20.03] - Gordon
Jelly? Okay.

[00:13:21.01] - Kelly
I do. You say Jelly-

[00:13:22.05] - Gordon
In real life?

[00:13:23.01] - Kelly
Yeah. I get called Jelly all the time by people, and I just... I don't even blink. It is me now. I'm just Jelly.

[00:13:29.21] - Gordon
That's brilliant. Was that your first show? You went out doing Jelly Kelly, or did it take a little bit of time to get that character's name?

[00:13:39.22] - Kelly
No, it was all in that one month of me learning to balloon twist.

[00:13:42.14] - Gordon
So you basically handed in your I noticed and went, "right, now I've got a month to get myself up and running as a children's entertainer?"

[00:13:51.01] - Kelly
Yeah.

[00:13:51.14] - Gordon
Gosh.

[00:13:52.21] - Kelly
I gave myself one month. I mean, it didn't take off, obviously, in one month, but within about three months, I think I was getting repeat bookings.

[00:14:00.14] - Gordon
That's amazing. And did it coincide with yellow pages ads? So did you get a yellow pages ad in for that? Or how were you getting bookings at the beginning?

[00:14:08.02] - Kelly
I can't remember. It's so long ago. I must have been able to put myself in yellow pages.

[00:14:15.18] - Gordon
Yeah. Okay.

[00:14:16.09] - Kelly
I must have been able to. I honestly, honestly can't remember that long ago, those details. I know that I was almost having a bit of a break because I've worked non-stop since coming out of college and having a baby. When she was two months old, going straight back to work, and I'd worked, worked, worked. And I wanted a bit of time with her before she went to school. And that was in... My first job was in April, May of 2001, and she started school in September. So I had a bit of time off with her a bit. I was doing things with my daughter. Just having fun.

[00:14:52.11] - Gordon
It was just the right time then, really.

[00:14:53.22] - Kelly
Yeah. And then I really got serious. I can't remember when I got in the yellow pages. But at the time, there was only me, Billy Bonkers and Jolly Dolly in my area, three people. And there's not enough people for all the kids in the area. I could have, back then cloned myself 20 times and still turned away work. It was mental busy. So much work.

[00:15:14.09] - Gordon
It was really busy at that sort of time, wasn't it?

[00:15:17.09] - Kelly
Well, there's less people doing it.

[00:15:18.12] - Gordon
I was the same. Yeah, less people doing it and more people having parties.

[00:15:23.16] - Kelly
I think there's just less options. There was none of the big soft play centres. There was none of the go karting experience. There was all those other things that now people have realised kids' parties are a business and jumped on that. Back in those days, it was just you booked an entertainer or you did it yourself.

[00:15:39.20] - Gordon
We're sounding old when you start saying "back in those days."

[00:15:42.08] - Kelly
How old are we Gordon?

[00:15:45.06] - Gordon
So let's jump ahead a little bit. Let's go to your show as it is now. If we were to book or go and see a Jelly Kelly party, do you do the full party? Do you just do shows? How does it work for you?

[00:16:01.18] - Kelly
Well, hang on. It depends what you're talking about, what gig I'm getting. Is it a birthday party? Is it an event? Is it a school? Is it corporate? Is it cruise ship.

[00:16:09.08] - Gordon
All right, let's stick with a birthday party for the time being.

[00:16:11.15] - Kelly
Stick with birthdays? Yeah. Is it under eights or over eights?

[00:16:14.24] - Gordon
Okay, so that's interesting. You do a different format.

[00:16:18.14] - Kelly
I do three to seven and then eight to 13.

[00:16:21.17] - Gordon
All right, let's go for three to seven, and we'll come back to the eights because that's interesting.

[00:16:26.05] - Kelly
If you were a client ringing me saying, "I've got a four-year-old party. Two-hour party, what can you offer me?" This is what I would say. "I spend the first 15, 20 minutes with music and games, with balloon games, bubbles, getting them coming in. I'll memorise their names, get the shyer ones involved and the more outgoing ones knowing where we're at, just get everyone having fun together." I said, "then we set the room so that everyone joins in and we do a Comedy Magic show. It's a family show. So I do get the parents to watch." I say, "Don't worry, you don't have to get up and look silly, but you'll find it as funny as the kids, you're going to join in. It's good fun. Then the birthday child will be the star of the show and get up and do things with me. But the finale is them making their own magic birthday cake. They put on a chef's hat and an apron and we mix up flour, sugar, egg, eggshell, ketchup, mustard, sprinkly bits. It's disgusting. I then set it on fire to cook it. Don't worry, I'm fully insured. It's never gone wrong, yet. And then I can't blow it out. Sorry. I've lost my thread then. They make a birthday cake with me, which I set on fire, but I can't blow it out. So we shout happy birthday and a sponge cake appears and there's a present underneath. And we end the magic show singing Happy birthday. It's very special. Then we break them for their party food. I pop the music on. I spend five minutes putting away my magic because I discovered a long time ago that if you leave magic out, kids are going to find out magic isn't real and you're going to ruin their childhood. So I put it away. And that for me is also a moment where I'm setting up for my next gig to get onto. But I don't tell the parents that.

[00:18:03.07] - Gordon
Yeah. Resetting everything.

[00:18:04.24] - Kelly
Resetting. Reset for me. Then I go and go to where the party food is and I make the birthday child a really cool balloon twist. And we do the birthday cake that they've got. Mine isn't edible. It's a prop. And then we finish off the party with a big fun action game. Depending on the venue, depending on the kids, depends on how I finish, but it's always on a big fun action game. Quite often using, plug for John, John Kimmons' Race Game. I quite often do that, but I've adapted it to work slightly differently to John, where I've got a massive board and I put people, and they have to run up and move the counter themselves. And it creates a bit of energy with the interactions. And then I finish the party for them. I can also offer party bags and pre-made balloon gifts as extras as well.

[00:18:49.16] - Gordon
So that's really good. So you're packed up by the time you get to your big game at the end.

[00:18:55.17] - Kelly
I'm not packed up. No, I've reset the magic. I've still got at least 20 minutes of packing away, putting away all the speaker, putting away table, putting it all away. So all I've done is reset the magic that I'll need for the next show.

[00:19:09.09] - Gordon
So that's a very different format to where most people go. So quite often they do games before food, magic show after food, or they do the magic show before food, games after. But you're doing games and then magic straight through, then food, and then finishing with something big that involves everyone. That's great. That's a really different-

[00:19:34.04] - Kelly
But you know why? Because I never saw another entertainer before I started doing it, except for that old boy doing the show.

[00:19:38.11] - Gordon
So you figured it out yourself?

[00:19:39.13] - Kelly
I just worked it out myself, what works for me. And I found that the kids, especially if they're at a party maybe where they don't know everyone, they don't want to do games with them at first when they don't know everyone. You see the anxiety or the awkwardness. But after sat there laughing at my show and interacting all together, they're quite happy to play games together. So the games at the beginning aren't a game where you get in or out and you have to know everyone. They're literally me with music going, being a div, singing to my... I always wrong the words to songs a lot, which I quite enjoy doing. And I've got my bubbles for little ones because that draws them in. And I've got rocket balloons. And I'm like, okay, you've got to try and catch the balloon before it touches the floor, you let it go, they run after it, they bring it back, they get a high five. That's the game.

[00:20:24.09] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:20:24.21] - Kelly
They go mental for it. And as they arrive, they can just join in. They don't have to know the rules, they don't have to know who's in, who's out.

[00:20:31.12] - Kelly
It's just something that is just creatng fun that they can come in and join and have fun and be comfortable with me in that moment of fun.

[00:20:39.15] - Gordon
And they're getting to know your personality and what to expect from the party, which is great. That's really good.

[00:20:46.16] - Kelly
And also I'm sussing the kids at the same time. So I'm seeing the ones that might need a bit more handling in a way. "You guys, you need to calm down a little bit." Or the ones that "come, come. It's all right. I'm not scary. Come and join in." So I'm learning who my audience will be in that moment.

[00:21:05.01] - Gordon
And how is that format different for eight plus? What age do you go up?

[00:21:08.22] - Kelly
Well, I can do the same tradition. I call that a traditional party format. And I can do the same traditional party format for eight and above, but I just use more clever magic in the magic show. But the same, really, everything else is the same. I also do a balloon twisting workshop skills party with magic show for over eight, where a little bit of a warm up as they come in. When everyone's there, I teach them all how to make a balloon animal. Then they put their name on it, we keep it and that's for home time, and then they break for food, and I make the birthday child a cool balloon, and then we finish with a magic show. So I do that as well. And I also do Harry Potter inspired parties, which is for older kids because they know who it is. And can I just say something? I put the JK in Rowling.

[00:21:53.19] - Gordon
That's funny. I like it.

[00:21:58.22] - Kelly
I like it. Good.

[00:21:59.17] - Gordon
Jelly Kelly Rowling. She should have used that name.

[00:22:03.15] - Kelly
I know. She so missed a trick there. She would have been a millionaire by now.

[00:22:07.16] - Gordon
I know. Instead of a billionaire.

[00:22:10.08] - Kelly
I know. Yeah.

[00:22:11.24] - Gordon
So what age do you go up to then? What age are you happy performing for?

[00:22:16.20] - Kelly
I'm happy doing up to 13. And then they turn quite urgh. And they don't really want to be doing that sort of a party at 14. They really don't. But then if I do get the older teenagers and adults, I go as Kelly Cadabra, which is my, I step up as Kelly Cadabra and do it more in my adult persona.

[00:22:36.15] - Gordon
Yeah, no, that's very wise. That's what I do. Yeah. So let's talk about venues. So some venues you get to are extremely noisy because they've got high ceilings. I said, let's talk about venues.

[00:22:56.02] - Kelly
I can't hear you. It's too echo-y in here. The acoustics are terrible. Terrible.

[00:23:04.02] - Gordon
That's probably the same size ear as the performer you saw in 2001, because if he was an old guy, their ears keep growing, right?

[00:23:12.15] - Kelly
They do get bigger, don't they? I've heard that ears keep growing. I've heard ears and noses keep growing. I'm like, Are you joking? Where is that fair?

[00:23:21.22] - Gordon
Anyway. We've got big open halls with wooden floors, high ceilings, really echo-y. And they can be really noisy.

[00:23:32.02] - Kelly
And you can't just turn around and walk out.

[00:23:33.07] - Gordon
No. So you've got to do something. What do you do in those situations?

[00:23:37.03] - Kelly
First of all, I tell the client, I say, "you've got really bad acoustics here. We're going to need to manage this party very carefully or it's going to sound horrible and be quite ugly. So, I'm not going to allow any parents to be chatting." Which I don't anyway, but I say that I make sure that's out there. I say, "even if you're in the kitchen there with the hatch open, you can't be talking. The noise will carry through and it rumbles round." So, I let the parent know that there's going to be difficulties with the sound. I said, "20 kids are going to sound like 200. Nothing you can do about it." But what I do for me, because I find, in bad acoustic halls. God, you just want to walk out, don't you? You just want to go in and go, "Oh, no. Oh, no. It's one of them. Let me out of here."

[00:24:21.18] - Gordon
Make a note not to go back to that one again.

[00:24:24.05] - Kelly
Yeah. When you hear your footsteps coming, boom, boom, boom. You're like, "Oh, no." So, what I do is... Because it does really affect your comic timing as well. You can't just be funny because you're waiting for the sound to die enough. So you haven't got the comic timing. It just affects everything. I can't stand them. But what I found does slightly help. Obviously, you are polishing a turd at this point. Remember that. It's not going to make it absolutely fine, but it will make it marginally better. You can do things like turn your speaker into the wall. So it's not into the room. So it's got less bounce and roll. It bounces straight off the wall and then does that instead of across, across, across. And also I turned down the bass completely on all the music, on my microphone, turned the bass right down. Because when you turn the bass down, the bass notes carry further and longer. High notes disappear quicker. Bass notes like a whale song. It can go for miles. So you turn your bass down and that will help with the sound bounce. So I would say for acoustic halls over the years, over the many, many years, Gordon of doing this. I've thought, "okay, I've tried different things and I found that has actually helped." Definitely whack that bass down, put the speaker against the wall, tell the client there's no chatting to Nan at the back or offering tea and biscuits, which I can't, I don't let them do that anyway, but sometimes they do. But I make sure if it's bad acoustics.

[00:25:50.24] - Gordon
Or prosecco.

[00:25:51.14] - Kelly
Yeah, or that. I make sure if it's bad acoustics. And then when I start my show, when I normally do my bit that starts it, when I instruct the parents to get them involved, I will say, "you might be aware, aware, aware. There are bad acoustics ics ics, which means you guys can't talk because you may as well be stood next to me." And I'll say something similar like that and let the audience, the adult audience, know this is bad acoustics. Don't blame me on the noise of the party. "That entertainer was so noisy." No, it was the venue.

[00:26:23.21] - Gordon
That's really interesting. That's great little tips there. Anyone who's listening to this, you've learnt something that you can try out.

[00:26:31.23] - Kelly
I've been doing it a while Gordon.

[00:26:32.05] - Gordon
That's really good. That's excellent. It's the experience of trying these things out that give you that information, isn't it?

[00:26:40.24] - Kelly
It's out of sheer desperation. "How can I make this sound any better? This is atrocious!" Actually, years ago, I heard the speaker turn it into the wall tip on a Kids' Entertainers podcast. About 15 years ago. And I tried it. I went, "Yeah, that works a bit. I'll keep that." So I'm passing on that knowledge, but the bass thing I worked out myself.

[00:27:03.12] - Gordon
That's very good. So sticking with your show, you've got young children. They quite often like puppets. Do you have any puppets in your show?

[00:27:12.02] - Kelly
I do.

[00:27:13.02] - Gordon
Do you? Tell us about your puppets.

[00:27:14.24] - Kelly
I've got them next to me if you want to see.

[00:27:16.14] - Gordon
Have you? Yes.

[00:27:17.21] - Kelly
Let me get my puppets. Hold on.

[00:27:20.21] - Gordon
Oh, my goodness. It's as if she was prepared.

[00:27:26.03] - Kelly
As if by magic.

[00:27:28.22] - Gordon
Are we going to be able to see it with your virtual background now? Is it just going to disappear.

[00:27:33.23] - Kelly
I might have to turn it off. My first puppet I ever got, I think... How long have I been Jelly Kelly for? Maybe a year. It was my first Christmas as Jelly Kelly, and I saw this puppet and loved it. My mum and dad bought it for me for Christmas. Now, I'm going to have to turn my virtual background off. You're not going to see it. Hold on. Oh, God. Have I tidied up behind me?

[00:27:56.21] - Gordon
Okay, magic is about to be ruined, everybody.

[00:27:58.24] - Kelly
Okay, guys, this is the illusion over. I've blurred it.

[00:28:04.10] - Gordon
Oh, okay.

[00:28:06.01] - Kelly
Does it still work with the blur? No, I've blurred the dog.

[00:28:09.16] - Gordon
So you work with blurry puppets.

[00:28:13.22] - Kelly
Here I am. This is Deefa. It's a typical... We all know this dog, don't we? I call him Deefa because Deefa dog, first thing, it's a joke. The kids don't get it. Adults do. It's a good name for a dog, isn't it? It is. Now, dogs don't talk. He's a dog. I tend to not talk with any of my puppets because even though I can do it, it still sounds like me. It still sounds like me, doesn't it? Even though I'm trying to come in a different voice, you can hear it's me.

[00:28:44.07] - Gordon
You have a very distinctive voice, Kelly.

[00:28:46.13] - Kelly
I have a very distinctive voice, and the kids always go, "It sounds like you, Jelly Kelly." So, all my puppets don't speak, and I have a great response with my puppets because they don't speak. Some of the best puppets, if you think about them. Again, Rod Hull and Emu, Spit the dog. My favourite sort of puppets, they don't speak. You don't have to do ventriloquism to get a puppet in your act. I think when you've got small children in your audience, like under age seven, I think it's very important to get a puppet in your act. Really is very strong, really helps your act. To get the right puppet for you. I mean, this is Deefa. I'm a bit low down on this chain, aren't I? Hang on. I'll stand up. So this This is Deefa dog, and he's lovely. Deefa, stop doing that. Stop it. He likes to sniff his bottom, and he does all sorts of things. Deefa is my go-to act for the younger kids. They've never seen me before, or even if they have, they nearly always ask to see Deefa again. He's so popular. He's so lovely, aren't you? You are. That's Deefa dog. He doesn't speak, sniffs his bottom, floats on a balloon, does all this silly things, does a little dance act, blows up a balloon, head hanging to pump up the jam. He's cute.

[00:30:03.16] - Gordon
He's a lovely puppet.

[00:30:05.12] - Kelly
Thank you. He's my baby.

[00:30:07.03] - Gordon
I in fact had... I bought one of those in Canada in 1995.

[00:30:12.21] - Kelly
Did you?

[00:30:13.07] - Gordon
It was before anyone in the UK had even seen this puppet. My one's called Snuffy.

[00:30:21.12] - Kelly
Snuffy?

[00:30:22.07] - Gordon
Yeah. As soon as it came over here, everyone had one. So mine has been relegated to a little basket and he hasn't come out for a while just because everyone has one.

[00:30:32.13] - Kelly
Don't listen Deefa. Don't listen.

[00:30:32.15] - Gordon
Yeah, I know. Don't listen.

[00:30:34.18] - Kelly
The hardest thing was for me with Deefa was when my real dog died, Merlin, a couple of years ago. I'd have to like, you're a good boy, and stuff like that to talking to Deefa like he's a dog. I was like, choking up because I just lost my own real dog. I was like, okay, so I was going to get another dog and then a real dog and call him Deefa. And I thought, no, I can't because I'll never be able to talk to my puppet again. Different name. Always have a different name to your actual dog, people, because it's very painful.

[00:30:59.17] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:31:00.05] - Kelly
This one, I'll save the best to last. This one, this isn't the best. This is Christmas. Chris Cracker. Hey, Chris. Now Chris doesn't do... He does squeak, but I try not to let him squeak too much because it annoys me. But Chris comes out. He doesn't even do parties. He's not even in the show. A couple of times I've used him in the show, depending on what I'm doing.

[00:31:24.20] - Gordon
How can he see? Oh, there we go.

[00:31:29.19] - Kelly
He looks like Rambo now.

[00:31:31.03] - Gordon
It does look just like Rambo.

[00:31:34.05] - Kelly
Something very Rambo. Don't keep that there. I'll sort out the bows later. I just grabbed this about two minutes before I got on Zoom with you. I was like, I'd better get some puppets just in case. So Chris Cracker, what I use with Chris is during the party food break is I will go around with my Axtel Clapometer and on the premise that the joke machine at the North Pole is broken and Christmas is going to be ruined, Christmas is going to be ruined. We need to get the funniest jokes. Chris Cracker needs to take them back to the North Pole and you can save Christmas. And I just go around the table, kids tell me jokes into the microphone. Is it funny? Chris laughs, maybe not. And it's just a bit of a time filler at the table when having party food. It's very Christmassy and the kids love telling absolutely awful jokes. And sometimes you get some really funny jokes off of them, but most of the time they're painful.

[00:32:22.10] - Gordon
They're terrible, yeah.

[00:32:22.24] - Kelly
They're pretty bad. We all know that. But that's Chris for Christmas parties.

[00:32:25.23] - Gordon
Have you got a black... Sorry, on the back of that, have you got a black arm

[00:32:30.18] - Kelly
Yeah.

[00:32:31.19] - Gordon
Oh, that's really interesting. So it hides your hand, hides your arm from potentially being seen. I haven't seen that before. That's very good. Yeah, that's great.

[00:32:44.04] - Kelly
It's used... You know when you get the puppets that go behind on a... What am I thinking of? You know hen you see those Christian puppet shows and they're just on a... A thing and they've just got a black arm, I think they're probably something to do with that.

[00:32:57.09] - Gordon
Yeah, it's great. I've not seen it before. It's great.

[00:33:00.05] - Kelly
Thank you very much. I didn't do it myself.

[00:33:02.22] - Gordon
You're taking credit, though. That's fine.

[00:33:06.01] - Kelly
And the first time I ever went to Blackpool, I bought a puppet, which still is not in my act. I'm ruining the illusion here.

[00:33:17.03] - Gordon
No one look. If you're on the podcast and you're listening, you're getting the best experience for this puppet bit. Don't look. You'll have to watch it on YouTube just to understand.

[00:33:26.04] - Kelly
There's nothing to see behind the curtain.

[00:33:28.03] - Gordon
What she's doing.

[00:33:29.09] - Kelly
I use this on the cruise ships when I do the walkarounds with kids. Oh, God, I got to fix his neck. Just seen that. It's very much, again, this is so much like my dad with the emu.

[00:33:39.23] - Gordon
Right.

[00:33:40.09] - Kelly
This is why this is... Yeah. This is literally I'm channelling my dad right now. So there is Gazza. Now, I'd love to speak with Gazza because he's proper northern. I think he's got a northern accent. But again, the kids hear it's me. Gazza mindreads. He's a mindreading bird. You've got to look into his eyes and he does a mindreading trick. He catches bubbles. He loves catching bubbles because he's got... He's an ADHD bird. He's all over. Give me something to do. Give me something to do. And really, Gazza is just a gorgeous-looking Axtell puppet with the fake arm, which obviously looks very real.

[00:34:14.13] - Gordon
This is That's an Axtell, isn't it?

[00:34:16.03] - Kelly
Yeah.

[00:34:16.17] - Gordon
Yeah, it's beautiful.

[00:34:17.24] - Kelly
He's beautiful. Originally, he was sold as a buzzard. But because I was learning ventriloquism, I called him Bazza the Buzzard. I thought, How hard is that to say?

[00:34:26.09] - Gordon
Yeah, exactly.

[00:34:27.04] - Kelly
That's why he's called Gazzer the Guzzard. He is a guzzard? Gazza the Guzzard. He's a mind-reading bird. So that's Gazza. And I think I don't use him a lot with the little ones because the little ones can freak out with him a bit. Because I'm quite full on with Gazza because he's got that look. He needs to be full on. But I think he's all right when he catches bubbles, the little ones like him. But when I do the mind reading with older kids, they can't stop giggling with the stare, "right look into his eyes."

[00:34:54.22] - Gordon
Yeah, it's the big eyes, isn't it? I think that's probably what it is.

[00:35:00.18] - Kelly
They're my three favourite. I've had other little puppets over the years, but I'm not a massive puppet performer. But Deefa Dog, I use a lot, a lot, a lot.

[00:35:11.10] - Gordon
And does he perform a trick or does he just come and say hello effectively?

[00:35:15.11] - Kelly
He does. At first, he starts off with... He wants to show them his special dance. And then I get the kids, you have to go put this...I'll just do it with you. Here you go. He wants to show his special dance. Deefa's a dog, he's very well trained, which means he does as I tell him. When I point that way, Deepa looks that way. Did you see that? Did you see that? When I point that way, he looks that way. Up, down, left, right, up, down round and round, right? So then what I do is I put on "Who Let The Dogs Out" and the kids have got to point with me. So again, keeping them involved and not just watching, they're getting actually involved. But if he stops dancing, they have to let me know because sometimes he's a bit naughty and he stops dancing. And I do it, and he stops dancing and he's always sniffing his bottom. I'm like, "Deefa, stop sniffing your bottom." He's a dog. Dogs sniff bottoms. It's the thing they do. So he does that. And then because he keeps sniffing his bottom, I do it three times. Like, that's it. No more bottom sniffing.

[00:36:06.18] - Kelly
He goes, what's that? You want to blow up a balloon instead? "Would you like to see Deefa blow up a balloon?" I'm like, "yeah, so would I." So I get a balloon. He can't blow it up because he's a dog. So then I get my big pump and pump it up to pump up the jam music and he head bangs. That always gets a massive laugh off the grown-ups more. The kids enjoy it but the adults really like that, that he's doing it to that. And then I give him the balloon once I put something in my pocket and off he goes and he floats in the air and he floats in the air and then he's gone. Then let's go the balloon. So I get a modelling balloon, but then he gets scared because it's going to pop and then he's feeling sleepy. He just does that and I wake him up. And then I go, "I'll make the balloon" and we put him down for a nap. And then I go into my next part of the act, which is guess what balloon and get kids and adults against each other to try and win that. So that leads into the balloon bit. So he doesn't really do a magic trick. Although actually at Christmas he does, because he finds his Christmas bone with the cards thing, that part. But really, I'd only do that with preschools for a very young audience because it's very basic, boring, I find it a bit boring, and I want to move on to more fun things. So he does dance and a balloon bit that leads me into my favourite part of the act, which is my balloon part with the kids against the adults.

[00:37:23.12] - Gordon
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[00:38:56.14] - Gordon
So you do a lot of balloons. I've regularly seen you at Balloon Jams, and you do some really fantastic models. So is this a big part of your show?

[00:39:08.05] - Kelly
No, not always, but my favourite part. I think I did it at Trix a couple of years ago in my lecture. Did you see that? Did you see the jumping jelly bean slide?

[00:39:17.09] - Gordon
I did.

[00:39:17.22] - Kelly
So that I would go into after Deefa dog, or even in an older show, I'd work it in somehow because it's my favourite thing to do, because it's a balloon that people don't normally see, and they never guess it on their own, that particular You think dog, giraffe, you never think jumping jelly bean slide.

[00:39:34.11] - Gordon
It's got the word jelly in it, which is-

[00:39:36.13] - Kelly
It's got the word jelly in it, and it's a brilliantly interactive balloon.

[00:39:38.24] - Gordon
Keeping the brand alive.

[00:39:41.10] - Kelly
So I like to and I can do that balloon in my show. But if it's an audience who's recently seen me and remembered it, I have to switch up for something else or do a different balloon. But I would say that's my favourite part of the show is making that balloon and getting the kids against the adults. And when an adult wins it, and I nearly always will try and get an adult to win it somehow, just hear them whispering it to someone else like, "I have a winner." Because then we get to boo them and stuff. And that is my favourite bit. I just love it. I'm booing the grown up. They're like, "oh, no." Like "she took your balloon."

[00:40:19.19] - Gordon
You do get the adults involved. You prefer to have the adults watching the show than not watching. Do you actively encourage the adults to stay, or do you find a way to get them to sit down to watch rather than chat at the back? Because that does happen sometimes. How do you work with that?

[00:40:39.15] - Kelly
Not on my watch, it doesn't Gordon. Not on mine.

[00:40:42.18] - Gordon
Good.

[00:40:42.19] - Kelly
Nope! I'm quite strict with that. So at the beginning, before the party, even on the emails, setting up email about, "I'm going to be arriving soon on Saturday, blah, blah, blah. Please make sure the room is set like this." And I put it to them. And I say, we want chairs in a semi-circle looking towards where you want me to perform for the adults to sit on, the children on the floor in front of them. There's no chairs at the back. If I get there and they've got chairs jotted around at the back, I will personally get them and I'll move them over or say to them, "No, we can't have those chairs at the back." And I will set that room how I want it to be so that it will work for me. And then you're waiting for the adults to sit down, trying to start the show and the kids are there. And you do get some where they'll just come and sit down and instantly be really good adults. And some where, "nah we're here to drink and talk and do that." And you do get them. In that point, if I'm finding it hard to get the adults to come over, I turn around to the kids and say, "if you've got your grown up back there, I need you to go and grab them, drag them onto a chair and tell them we're waiting to start the magic show." And I use their kids against them.

[00:41:46.19] - Gordon
Yeah, there's nothing like that. If you've got all the adults talking, I'll quite often get all the kids to go, "Can you see your mum or dad or grown up talking? In which case, turn around and I'm going to give you permission to go, Shh." And it's great to see all the kids turning around and all the adults going, "What was that?" You just get their attention for long enough to explain what's going on.

[00:42:09.01] - Kelly
Yeah, long enough to get them over, get their bums on their seats, and then I'll start my show. Well, after doing my first little copy me thing, which I'm doing it, a) for the kids, but also to catch the adults. I say, "Everyone, I'm looking to see who's going to be a good helper, you've got to copy me." The same thing I showed at the Trix lecture, where Shoulder, shoulder, head, head. How do I do it? Knees, knees, knees. I can't do it without the music.

[00:42:35.20] - Gordon
When you do it out of context, yeah.

[00:42:37.18] - Kelly
Wiggle your ears, honk your nose and lift a cheek. That was it. And in that moment, the adults realise, "oh, I've just done a pretend fart without even realising it." Then they laugh and they think, "okay, this could be amusing." And I've caught them in that moment. And then when I go into the next bit, when I say who I am, I say, let them into a secret. I say, "kids, as long as you sit nicely behind my magic line and only come up when I ask you to, you've got really good help. You've got a really good chance to be a helper in the magic show." I said, "that's the only rule I have." And I look up, "except for the grownups." And I will look at every grownups, I'll make eye contact, get eye contact. I say, "grownups, you wouldn't take your child to a pantomime and chat through it, would you? Oh, no, you wouldn't." Quite often they have to say, "oh, yes, you would." I went "Guys, you would? That's horrible. Grownups, don't ruin little James's birthday party." And they go "aaah", I do.

[00:43:32.18] - Gordon
Just the guilt.

[00:43:33.10] - Kelly
I do. I use it. I use it. And they go, "aah" but they laugh with it. So they know they're guilty of that. They recognise where I'm coming from on that. And I say, the more you join in, I say "I do adult shows, comedy clubs. I won't use that material today, but you can have a laugh." Go over the heads. So I let them know there's going to be stuff for them. And I said, "so grownups, will you join in?" They go, "yeah." And I go, "will you join in with enthusiasm?" And they go, "yeah!" "And I'm going to hold you to that." And I do hold him to that in the show. When I go, "Do you want to meet my dog?" The kids are like, "yeah!" And I go, "Well, you do. But the grownups promised me enthusiasm, and I'm not feeling it. I'll have to ask again." So I'm constantly reminding them, "come on, stay involved, stay involved," and they do. They love the show. They come up to me after and go, "absolutely brilliant, loved it."

[00:44:19.17] - Gordon
And in fact, that's a really good thing because if the adults enjoy it, they're the ones that book, and they're the ones that will know they're going to have a lot of fun. And they quite often will think of other people in their family, for example, that they think will enjoy your party, and they'll book you for their child because they know their family is going to see it.

[00:44:36.20] - Kelly
They recommend you.

[00:44:38.00] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:44:38.08] - Kelly
That's not the reason why I did it. I did it just because I found I couldn't get on with just being funny. And really... Because I love doing... When you get shows that are good, great, and exceptional. When you get those exceptional shows when you're like, everything's smooth, you land every punchline, everyone's there, everyone's engaged, everyone's laughing, and you feel great. I want that show every single time. And I found I couldn't do that if the adults were chatting. The kids can't focus, they can't hear as well. So you haven't got the undivided attention that you need for that sort of funny. So I just found over the years that to shut the adults up. And they're not going to sit there quietly if they're bored. If they're not enjoying your show, they will start chatting because they're not engaging with you. So I have made my show very engaging for adults and kids so that I can keep the room hanging on my every word so I can get on with being funny.

[00:45:34.07] - Gordon
Yeah, no, it's important.

[00:45:35.12] - Kelly
Basically, that's the only reason I did it.

[00:45:36.23] - Gordon
I discovered the same thing, and I think it does make a huge difference to how well your show goes and how people remember it.

[00:45:45.05] - Kelly
If you can control the adults.

[00:45:44.24] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:45:46.03] - Kelly
Yeah. Because, again, you're missing your comedy punchlines if you're having to say it again because they didn't hear it or even stop midway to say, please, guys, can you please keep it down over there? Instantly lost the show. So you don't let it go. You got to get it from the beginning and hold their attention. Sometimes I will come across adults, all the adults are watching, but you just have a couple or a few. I will stop the show sometimes and I'll point to one and say, "She's going to get you in trouble. Don't make me come over there." I'll almost break character a bit. I'll say, "Don't make me use my Comedy Club heckle on you in front of the kids."

[00:46:29.24] - Gordon
My teacher voice.

[00:46:31.06] - Kelly
Or my teacher voice. And I will, and I'll say it, and then they can say it again and again, and you know you're just dealing with some asshole then. And at that point, when I've said it a few times and they're still doing it, I just think, carry on being an asshole. You're ruining the party. You're ruining it for everyone. I can do no more. I'm not going to waste any more of my time on you or my show on you because everyone else is seeing that you're the asshole not me, at that point.

[00:46:54.19] - Gordon
Quite often, I will say, "who knows that lady over there?" And it's really funny when you'll have someone say, "That's George's mum," and you look and you go, "George, how come you didn't tell me that?" Which is really funny because it's like George doesn't want to be embarrassed because it's his mum.

[00:47:15.05] - Kelly
Not my mum! Oh my God.

[00:47:16.03] - Gordon
Exactly. But it's really funny to point them out in that way. And then the parents will hear the word George, and because it's their son's name, "ooh what's going on?" And then you can talk to the children again saying, "oh, they're listening now. Right so shh don't say anything. Don't say anything rude. Okay, they're listening." And you can talk to the children, but you're actually talking to the adult through the children, if you see what I mean, which is great. It's really good fun.

[00:47:44.03] - Kelly
It's another way of doing it. It's all about keeping that control of the audience, keeping them engaged.

[00:47:51.03] - Gordon
The whole audience.

[00:47:52.05] - Kelly
And also letting them know the rules from the beginning. If they don't know, they've got to sit and be quiet and join in.

[00:47:57.05] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:47:58.02] - Kelly
They think it's just a chat.

[00:48:00.03] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:48:00.11] - Kelly
They're there to just chat because a lot of things allow that. And they just like the parents chat and they just deal with the kids in the corner doing something. And that's fine if that's what you want to do. But I'm not going to do my show in that sort of environment.

[00:48:11.08] - Gordon
No, it's not going to go down as well as it could do.

[00:48:13.07] - Kelly
I don't enjoy doing it. I don't enjoy it for myself.

[00:48:16.05] - Gordon
No. And you want to give the best to the parents that have booked you.

[00:48:19.17] - Kelly
Yeah. God yeah.

[00:48:20.04] - Gordon
And for that child to have a memorable birthday party and not because all they could hear was the adults chatting. It's very important. So Covid. Covid hit and you-

[00:48:35.17] - Kelly
It seems like it never happened now.

[00:48:37.10] - Gordon
Well, I know. No one ever talks about it anymore.

[00:48:39.20] - Kelly
It's so weird, the lockdown. It's like, oh, God, that was nearly five years ago.

[00:48:44.22] - Gordon
But you decided within 10 days from what you said earlier that it was going to be something that was going to be ongoing, and you decided...

[00:48:52.17] - Kelly
I was up and running in 10 days. I decided in two days.

[00:48:55.19] - Gordon
Right. So you thought- I get it.

[00:48:57.12] - Kelly
It's my ADHD. Make a decision, do it. Done.

[00:49:00.02] - Gordon
You thought it was going to be a much longer term thing than everyone else did. And you thought, right, I've got to adapt.

[00:49:05.12] - Kelly
I didn't know.

[00:49:05.19] - Gordon
Let's get going.

[00:49:06.13] - Kelly
I didn't know. I didn't know how long it would be. At first, it was a few months. At the time, being self-employed, we didn't know that we'd get any help. So I knew I wasn't going to get any money. I looked at Amazon driving jobs. I thought I could work in Tesco's and I thought, people don't want me serving them in Tesco's. I was born to perform. People need to have fun and be happy. That's my job. My purpose is to bring joy and fun and laughter to people.

[00:49:36.22] - Gordon
People do not expect that when they're getting their Tesco delivery, do they?

[00:49:40.09] - Kelly
I mean, I would have made that day, Gordon. I would have. But it wasn't for me. And I also thought that there's going to be a lot of other people in a similar situation to me who haven't got the skills I've got who would need those jobs more than me. And I thought, you know what? I'll go virtual. I didn't spend that much money on it. I mean, literally, I had a-

[00:50:01.03] - Gordon
Well, that's not what the Trix video says.

[00:50:03.10] - Kelly
Everyone believed that. I never spent all that. That was just a joke.

[00:50:08.05] - Gordon
I think that was really funny, though. For those who don't know what we're talking about, if you get a chance, have a look at, look it up. It was a Trix video that Kelly was part of, which was all about doing Zoom shows at home. Kelly played it so well. It was very funny.

[00:50:24.03] - Kelly
I played it so well that people actually thought I spent thousands and thousands of pounds on equipment, and I hadn't. I really hadn't. I think this was the biggest thing I bought was the ear.

[00:50:33.20] - Gordon
The ear, the biggest thing. Yeah, lovely.

[00:50:36.04] - Kelly
You're on mute, you're on mute, can't hear you. No, I didn't spend much at all. I spent on a green screen, a green sheet on a frame thing, and I got a little slightly better camera. Is that, you got one there?

[00:50:51.19] - Gordon
Yeah, this is real.

[00:50:52.23] - Kelly
Is that real? Is that a wall?

[00:50:55.08] - Gordon
No, it's one of those pop-up.

[00:50:57.10] - Kelly
Oh, is it? Mine's in my loft. I'd I have to get hold of... Actually, only yesterday, I got asked to do a virtual show at Christmas.

[00:51:05.11] - Gordon
Oh, wow. Ok.

[00:51:05.20] - Kelly
I was already booked in the real world. I converted my conservatory into a filming room, and I didn't spend that much. I used my old speaker that I use for going out for my gigs next to my computer to play music.

[00:51:18.22] - Gordon
Okay.

[00:51:19.22] - Kelly
Plugged in my mic, had my same table, adapted some of the magic to work on screen. And within 10 days of lockdown, I was doing my first show. I hadn't made a decision by then. I was actually doing my first show. And I did 150 shows in the lockdown period, virtually.

[00:51:37.17] - Gordon
That's amazing.

[00:51:38.08] - Kelly
And I was really enjoying them by the end. I think they enjoyed it more than me because I didn't get anything back, cos everyone was muted because the sound wouldn't work. So I could see them laughing and engaging and all that, but I could hear nothing. So I had to give 200% out to get nothing back, it felt. But I knew I was making a difference to people because people were letting me know that, they're saying, "thank you. My son on his birthday actually felt like his friends had a birthday party with him. Thank you. You really brought it all together. I can't believe..." And I got a lot, a lot of positive feedback from it. So I knew I was doing the right thing, but it paid peanuts, Gordon. Oh, my God. It was not worth the money, really. But it kept the wolves from the door. And then obviously we got the SEISS fund that came out. So that helped. Thank God. Thank God I pay my taxes for that. Phew. I'm not just cash only. No, no, no. I'm a good girl. So I got the full payout on my tax credits. And so that was just a bit of extra. Also, when I came out of lockdown, I felt I was stronger business-wise than when I went in. I'd been stretched creatively. I'd learn how to market myself differently.

[00:52:49.22] - Gordon
And people still knew about you because you were keeping yourself relevant.

[00:52:54.08] - Kelly
Yeah. People were still talking about me, although up in Birmingham and Scotland, places I can't work. Because virtually you could be anywhere. But I was still definitely... I didn't get forgotten about. And also I didn't lose my confidence. A lot of entertainers when they didn't perform for ages, it's very hard to then get back into it and jump back into it. I didn't lose my confidence of being a performer because I didn't stop performing.

[00:53:22.02] - Gordon
It was a very weird time because I did Zoom shows as well. I wasn't charging for mine. I was doing 10 minute shows for birthday children just so that they had something special on their birthday. We got grandma and grandpa and family around. I didn't charge anyone, but I did ask them to leave me a review. During lockdown, I built up all of my reviews because I knew when we came out of lockdown, they were going to be so important to me because the world has changed. We're now looking at the reviews before we buy anything. We've been trained to go on to Amazon, look at what we want. There's 20 of them. You look at the reviews and you choose the one that's got the best reviews. And I knew that was going to be important. So I got a huge number of reviews out of it. And that was great. And I have actually been to some of the people who I did a Zoom show for in real life and done their birthday party in real life.

[00:54:25.04] - Kelly
So have I, isn't it lovely when you meet them for real?

[00:54:26.04] - Gordon
Which is so lovely. And you go in and you touch them on the shoulder and go, "oh, my goodness, your real." It's just so lovely. But it was such a weird situation, a weird time.

[00:54:40.10] - Kelly
What was weird is was coming out of it and trying to remember my patter for my old show, how do I start my... I couldn't remember the words and I have it all in time to music and what I do with the hands. And for the life of me, I couldn't remember it. I couldn't. I can now. It's come back now. But it took about five shows in the real world for me to start going, "oh, yeah, that's when I normally do that."

[00:55:04.06] - Gordon
And the handling of things as well. I used to do a rubber band trick where I would take a ring. This was for grownups. I take a ring, put it on the rubber band, and it would actually be on one strand of the rubber band. And I remember going into a gig and thinking, "right, I'm going to do that." And I sat there for five minutes going, "I have no idea how I do this," because it had got to the point when it was muscle memory and I just did it. And because I didn't have that muscle memory because I hadn't done it for over a year, it's like, "oh, my goodness." I remember now because I just kept going and it's like, "oh, yes, I remember this now."

[00:55:40.09] - Kelly
It comes back. It does come back.

[00:55:41.12] - Gordon
But it was exactly the same.

[00:55:43.05] - Kelly
Weird that you forget it so quickly.

[00:55:43.08] - Gordon
Coming away from gigs, children's parties, and you go, "oh, I missed that gag."

[00:55:49.22] - Kelly
Yes. You're like, "oh, damn, completely forgot to do that."

[00:55:53.21] - Gordon
Yeah. Or remembering it during the party and having this really surprised look on your face as you're doing it. It's more surprising for me than it is for you. Because I've forgotten I say that.

[00:56:08.07] - Kelly
Yeah, that's so true. I do remember those moments. Lockdown definitely made me feel more of a businesswoman. Because before I just used to, like say, "I just literally get paid for having a laugh with kids." And I didn't really take my business very seriously I don't think. I was very laissez faire about it. I was very just casual. It just came to me. The work came in. I didn't have to do anything for it. Barely did social media, didn't advertise. I just got work. Just before lockdown, I was noticing a change in my diary where things were slowing up and I wasn't getting as booked up as I would have normally been. And I started to think, "hmm what's changing here?" Then lockdown hit and I realised I needed to advertise and do stuff. So I use Smart Performance on Yell now, which I started back in lockdown. It seems to work quite well for me.

[00:56:54.02] - Gordon
Okay.

[00:56:54.21] - Kelly
That's the only thing I do.

[00:56:55.19] - Gordon
Back to Yellow Pages, although on their digital version now.

[00:56:59.04] - Kelly
The Smart Performance is a bit different.

[00:57:01.01] - Gordon
Is it? I don't know about this. Tell us about it.

[00:57:03.15] - Kelly
Smart Performance is where they will advertise. So say you're on Google and you put in Children's Entertainers in Surrey, where I live. I give them so much a month, clicks-wise, so I have this money in the pot. So if somebody searches for that, boom, they show them my advert. But you could be on Facebook asking that and it put it there, or in Instagram, it'll put it there, or Bing, it'll put it there. And then what it does is it tracks you and follows you as well, so then later you could be on some other site and my advert would remind them of me. So it does things like that. So it's not just advertising on Google or on Facebook or on that. I put so much in. It's like one party a month I put towards advertising into the pot, and that's it. That's all I do for it.

[00:57:50.03] - Gordon
So that's remarketing for those who don't know, where if somebody has seen your ad or they've been to your website because you can have tracking links on there, you can then show that ad to that person when they're in other websites, which is really good. So it's remarketing back to them after they've already shown an interest, which is really really useful. And do you find you get lots from advertising? I mean, you obviously track them now and find out how many people have come from-

[00:58:17.16] - Kelly
I'm still useless at actually bothering. I never look at the analytics. I ask people normally when I actually get the booking. So all those who enquire and I'm not available, I have no idea how they found me. But if they do book me, I will ask them, "how did you hear of me?" Quite often it's recommended or seen me before, more often than not recommended. And now and then they would have just done a Google search or sometimes they'll say Facebook, a group has been, I've been recommended on some, Cobham Mummies. Someone's put out they're looking for an entertainer and people recommend me. So nearly always it's recommended. But now and then people will go just found it, just did a Google search and found you.

[00:58:57.12] - Gordon
So you don't know if that's part of the advertising or just your normal Google listing.

[00:59:00.21] - Kelly
I don't know, no. I've gone incognito and put in children's entertainer Surrey incognito. And I still come up on the first page anyway.

[00:59:10.10] - Gordon
That's good.

[00:59:11.01] - Kelly
But I think without the Yell performance, Smart Performance sorry, from Yell. Before lockdown, I did notice my diary was getting a bit scary. I was thinking, "I can't pay all the bills like this. If this carries on, this needs changing." And I can now pay the bills.

[00:59:27.04] - Gordon
And that's made a difference? Okay.

[00:59:28.10] - Kelly
Yeah, I think so.

[00:59:28.21] - Gordon
So we can attribute some of the shows to that then because of the difference? Okay. That's very interesting. Because marketing is very different now. As we said before, it used to be you put your advert in Yell, you make sure that it looks reasonable.

[00:59:45.03] - Kelly
That's it. Yeah.

[00:59:45.08] - Gordon
And that was it. That was it for the year. You didn't do anything else. I remember putting a postcard in the news agent. You used to be able to pay to have a little postcard in the window. I don't think that ever brought anything in, but Yellow Pages used to bring in huge numbers.

[01:00:04.04] - Kelly
Yellow Pages was the only way you could get a lot of people's numbers to call them before they had websites.

[01:00:08.12] - Gordon
And I tracked that religiously. I would have a spreadsheet and it would show how many bookings I had. So whenever the Yellow Pages agent used to come round, because they used to come to see you, they used to come to your house.

[01:00:22.18] - Kelly
They did. Yeah, yeah. They did.

[01:00:23.19] - Gordon
And they would sit there and they would stay until you've basically signed up with them. It was a bit like a double glazing salesman.

[01:00:30.10] - Kelly
It was quite hard to get them to leave.

[01:00:32.20] - Gordon
Yeah. And then they'd be on the phone to their managers and they'd say, "Right, and you're willing to give him that special deal? Right. Okay." It's all the sales tactics.

[01:00:43.05] - Kelly
We know they're on the phone to their mum.

[01:00:44.06] - Gordon
Yeah. I know. Exactly right. But now it's very different. There's so many different places that you can advertise, and so many different ways you can advertise.

[01:00:53.14] - Kelly
And not only that. Social media isn't advertising, but you've still got to keep up on that as well, so that you have a presence, so that when you are advertising, Google sees that you're active and important and is more likely to push you up there to be found. There's so much more to do now behind the scenes than back in the day.

[01:01:09.19] - Gordon
And having a good website as well. That's also really important.

[01:01:13.00] - Kelly
I know a really good website designer.

[01:01:14.24] - Gordon
Do you? Oh, how lovely.

[01:01:16.01] - Kelly
And they host it and they've got this wonderful reviews thing where they pull it in from Google and Yell and they put it all on there. Drayson Design guys, Drayson Design.

[01:01:26.14] - Gordon
A good point to tell you about our sponsor for today. Drayson Design reviews.

[01:01:29.23] - Kelly
Is it you?

[01:01:30.16] - Gordon
Yeah, it's me yeah. I'm not getting paid for this podcast. I'm doing it because I feel it's important and I want to get children and family entertainers out there and there has been nothing for them. So that's why I started all this up. It's not earning me any money. It's a love of-

[01:01:48.20] - Kelly
It's a nice to chat to people in your field and have this sort of chat.

[01:01:52.10] - Gordon
It is. But also to..

[01:01:52.23] - Kelly
I would have liked to have just sat down over a coffee and have this chat with you anyway.

[01:01:55.20] - Gordon
Yeah, but it's nice that other people get to listen to this and learn from your experiences and from my experience and from everyone else that I've been speaking with, because we all have different experiences that got us to where we are now. And it's really good to be able to share that between the community. So that was the reason for setting this up.

[01:02:15.17] - Kelly
One of the things before you do your sponsor...

[01:02:18.10] - Gordon
That would have been ages ago. Okay.

[01:02:21.08] - Kelly
Which I must admit, Gordon, thank you for helping me with my website and running it and doing all that, because I know you're an entertainer, so you care about my website as an entertainer. It's a win-win. Why would I go to anyone else? Because they don't get my industry properly. But you do, you're in it. So therefore... And whenever I have a problem, you're straight away helping me out. Oh, when we finish this conversation, I need to tell you about my outlet problem. I won't do that now. We'll do that afterwards. One of the things years ago I learnt because you were saying about why you do this podcast was, what was it called? "Kids' Entertainers podcast." I think it was literally just called that. Can't even remember who did it. It was so long ago. But I got another valuable, valuable bit of advice on one of the podcasts I listened to. And it was like, your magic words should have your name in it because people will remember your name. Instead of "Wiggly, Wiggly, Woo," sorry, Simon Sparkles. Wiggly, whatever it is, whoever does Wiggly, Wiggly, Woo. I was like, Where's your name in that? People aren't going to remember. They'll remember your magic words. Mine are "Jelly Kelly, Give it some welly." You're going to remember my name because you remember my magic words. All the kids remember my magic words, and the adults do, too, because it rhymes. So I would say if you can...

[01:03:35.06] - Gordon
And give them an action as well.

[01:03:36.15] - Kelly
...Get your name into your magic words.

[01:03:37.14] - Gordon
An action is really good.

[01:03:38.17] - Kelly
Wiggle your fingers!

[01:03:38.17] - Gordon
Yeah, exactly. So my one is... My one is "Gordon's Magic." That's my magic word. And what's really funny is that I do a park show every year for Richard Pinner, and I have been doing it now for over 20 years. I used to do it for his father, Peter Pinner, before Richard took over. And it's a Wednesday and a Friday all the way through August. Yeah, August for the summer holidays. And they have a different entertainer on each one. And I always love being one of the first. And he always puts me on as one of the first. And I also, at the end of my show, I say, "now there's lots of other entertainers that are going to be here completely free. Come along and watch. But remember, if they ask you what the magic word is, you have to tell them it's Gordon's Magic." And my friend Paul, Paul Longhurst, Magic Paul, he did one after and he said, "Right, we need a magic word." And they all went, "Gordon's Magic." He's going, "No, no, no, we need a different one." And they said, "No, that's the only one that works." And they all just... And he phoned me on his way home going, "You utter, utter... The whole show, they were saying, we have to say Gordon's Magic." It was very funny.

[01:05:05.17] - Kelly
The doing good with that is getting your name in your magic words is really...

[01:05:09.09] - Gordon
Was it the podcast that Ken... I can't remember his last name, did.

[01:05:14.24] - Kelly
South African Ken. Ken Scott? No, not Scott.

[01:05:17.21] - Gordon
No, it was Ken. I can't remember his last name. He sold the business to a guy called Zivi.

[01:05:25.04] - Kelly
Zivi.

[01:05:26.00] - Gordon
Yeah. Was that the podcast? Because that was very good. It was for children entertainers. I can't think of any other ones.

[01:05:34.12] - Kelly
It might have been. I think it might have been, actually.

[01:05:36.11] - Gordon
I can't remember Ken's last name. Sorry, Ken, if you're listening or watching, I do apologise.

[01:05:41.07] - Kelly
Are you sure it wasn't Ken Scott?

[01:05:43.11] - Gordon
No, not Ken Scott. He's the American guy.

[01:05:45.12] - Kelly
Something beginning with S.

[01:05:45.12] - Gordon
He's really good. I can't think of his name. This guy was really good as well. He was very good at his marketing as well. But anyway, he put this podcast together and it could have been that because, yeah, some really valuable information on that. It's probably still available. If it is, go looking for it if you're listening or watching because it is very good.

[01:06:04.17] - Kelly
I picked up some nice hints and tips from that that just made me rethink a couple of things that could tweak something in my show and have made a big difference, like the magic words.

[01:06:14.06] - Gordon
Yeah. You mentioned ADHD a while back.

[01:06:17.10] - Kelly
Did I?

[01:06:17.10] - Gordon
Do you find that...

[01:06:23.05] - Kelly
[inaudible 01:06:25]

[01:06:26.01] - Kelly
Carry on.

[01:06:26.21] - Gordon
People who are just listening to this have no idea what's going...

[01:06:30.23] - Kelly
Alright! Oh, no. I've gone wonky. What's happening to me other eye?

[01:06:35.05] - Gordon
Something's gone all funny. You're winking at me.

[01:06:37.23] - Kelly
I've got mirror image. There we go. Hi. Yeah, I have ADHD. Can you tell?

[01:06:43.12] - Gordon
Yeah. So have you been diagnosed with ADHD then?

[01:06:46.09] - Kelly
Yes.

[01:06:47.02] - Gordon
Okay, right. And do you find that's a big part of your show and part of what makes you Jelly Kelly, and successful?

[01:06:55.01] - Kelly
No, but it's less awkward now at the end of the party when parents say to me, "Where do you get your energy from?" And I know they're thinking, "are you on cocaine?" Because I've been asked, "Are you on drugs?"

[01:07:05.11] - Gordon
I used to say, Woolworths, £3.99. Long time ago. That gag, obviously.

[01:07:11.12] - Kelly
Too long ago. But yeah, parents used to always ask me, "Are you... Can you bottle that? Are you on drugs?" I'm like, "no." But I never knew what to say because it made me feel awkward that they're thinking I'm on drugs, which I wasn't. And then now I've been diagnosed, they say, "Where did you get your energy from?" I went, "ADHD. It's a superpower." And And they go, "oh, that makes sense." I'm like, "good. Now they're not thinking I'm on drugs anymore."

[01:07:34.15] - Gordon
Yeah. And it's more common these days, isn't it? People being on the spectrum and either one end or the other, or in the middle or just not diagnosed.

[01:07:43.02] - Kelly
Everyone's on the spectrum. It's like, where do you fall? But I do think there's a lot of people in the entertainment, especially children's entertainment, who have got ADHD and ASD, a lot of magicians who aren't kids magicians, ASD as well.

[01:07:57.03] - Gordon
What does ASD stand for?

[01:07:58.10] - Kelly
Autism.

[01:07:59.14] - Gordon
Oh, that's That's just a short- Autism Spectrum.

[01:08:01.14] - Kelly
Autism, yeah. Okay. So that's what it's called nowadays.

[01:08:04.05] - Gordon
You know what I mean? Got to get down- What's the D stand for then? ASD.

[01:08:07.17] - Kelly
Autism, inspection.

[01:08:09.18] - Gordon
Disorder? No, it can't be disorder.

[01:08:13.01] - Kelly
Should I Google it?

[01:08:14.12] - Gordon
I can't It's not that important. I did know this. I was just curious. I did know this.

[01:08:17.19] - Kelly
I can Google it. No, I put ASD and it comes up with Asda Petrol. I'm not going to bother googling that now. But yeah, so-

[01:08:29.00] - Gordon
Or diesel.

[01:08:30.09] - Kelly
So I do think the ADHD is a super power. It can be a curse, as we all know, it can. But if you've got somewhere to channel it and let out some of that energy. I present a lot like a male with ADHD. A lot of females present very differently with ADHD, they're more inward with anxiety, negative thinking. I'm not. I'm like, I'm out of there. I definitely present more in the male sense. I think I've got quite a lot of testosterone, you know what I mean Gordon - hear this voice. No Adam's apple, though. I'd like to say my pronouns are she and her, and I was born this way. But I do have a lot of maleness in the way that I do things. I can be quite a geezer girl. And my ADHD is definitely a bit more on the man's side.

[01:09:19.09] - Gordon
And do you have OCD as well? Have you got lots of acronyms?

[01:09:22.18] - Kelly
No, but I have got aphantasia.

[01:09:25.01] - Gordon
You've got what? Sorry.

[01:09:26.03] - Kelly
Aphantasia.

[01:09:26.24] - Gordon
Oh. I've never been there.

[01:09:28.02] - Kelly
Not many people know what this is. I only found out about six months ago that this is a thing. And in fact, it's only been coined as Aphantasia seven years ago. So it's quite a new discovery. And only 2-3% of the population have it, apparently. Although I think the more it gets out, there is a word and people know, I think that's going to go up. But I've got no mind's eye. I can't visualise. Apparently, blows my mind that everyone else... Right now, I'm going to do a test on you. Shut your eyes. Think of an apple. What colour's the apple, Gordon?

[01:09:59.01] - Gordon
Red.

[01:09:59.23] - Kelly
I don't see an apple. I see black. I don't see anything. I've never seen any visual image in my life.

[01:10:06.17] - Gordon
In your head?

[01:10:07.18] - Kelly
Never.

[01:10:07.17] - Gordon
You can't.

[01:10:08.10] - Kelly
No.

[01:10:08.24] - Gordon
You can't visualise stuff? You freak.

[01:10:10.05] - Kelly
No. Oh, my God. You hallucinate when you shut your eyes. Are you shitting me? It's so scary. I've never seen anything. If I shut my eyes now and try to remember my dog Merlin, who we all know I love, I can't see him. I can't see what my parents look like if I want to picture them. I can't see any memory in a picture form. I have no mind's eye. Absolutely none. You get people who are hyperphantasia. Hyperphantasia is if you think of a pink elephant, right say you think of a pink elephant, now it's roller-skating and hula-hoping, and they see it moving and doing stuff. That blows my mind. But that's hyperphantasia. Then you get people in the middle who just more normal, it'll be more static. They can see a picture, they can see it. Some people might see it in black and white, some in colour. Then you got me at the end of the spectrum, I get nothing. I get no visuals, I get no smells, and I get no feeling. So imagine you're stood in a field of lavender or in a pine forest, smell the smell of the pine. Nope, I get black, I get nothing. All right. Imagine you're touching a brick wall. You know what it feels like? Nope. I know if I was touching a brick wall, I'd know it was a brick wall, and I could tell you it's going to be bumpy, but I can't feel the texture. I have nothing. I have no mind's eye.

[01:11:28.18] - Gordon
So is this Is this similar to-

[01:11:30.23] - Gordon
Aphantasia.

[01:11:32.00] - Gordon
Is this similar to people who are visual learners and people who are-

[01:11:36.07] - Kelly
No, completely different part of your brain.

[01:11:38.08] - Gordon
Okay.

[01:11:38.17] - Kelly
It's done on your imagination side of your brain. Up until recently, they thought only mathematicians and rocket scientists would have Aphantasia because you're very logical. You don't have to imagine. Yet here I am, creatively putting shows together, making up balloon twists, creatively, but I don't ever visualise it.

[01:11:58.15] - Gordon
So you could be a rocket scientist. Is that what you're telling me?

[01:12:01.03] - Kelly
I did science at college, actually.

[01:12:03.15] - Gordon
Did you? Okay.

[01:12:04.11] - Kelly
I'm not just a silly face. I did do science. Quite brainy, actually.

[01:12:09.16] - Gordon
Does that not make it really difficult to do memory stuff? Because a lot of memory stuff is visualising in your head someone doing this with that, and you're creating an image, a picture, and that's how you remember something.

[01:12:24.23] - Kelly
Not me. I could never do that ever in my life.

[01:12:27.20] - Gordon
Okay.

[01:12:27.16] - Kelly
I would have to just remember it audibly. It's a set of words, and it comes with the verbal words with a sense of knowing. That's how I do it. It's weird, isn't it? But what's weirder...

[01:12:43.11] - Gordon
Do you have a good memory? Have you ever done plays and things where you've had to learn lines?

[01:12:47.03] - Kelly
Yeah, I can memorise stuff. At the beginning of a party, I'll memorise 40 kids' names in one go.

[01:12:51.20] - Gordon
But if you saw them the week after?

[01:12:53.16] - Kelly
No. I'd know their face. I wouldn't know their name.

[01:12:55.14] - Gordon
Very short term memory.

[01:12:56.10] - Kelly
Very short term memory. I have to see them visually there.

[01:12:57.08] - Gordon
I'm the same with names for children. Definitely.

[01:13:01.22] - Kelly
But it blows my mind that everyone else, bar one person in six months, I've asked them to think of an apple, what colour is it? They'll tell me the colour of the apple. They see an apple. Everyone sees things. I feel robbed Gordon, robbed of this skill. So you know when you're reading books, I can read books. I love a storybook. I never get any pictures. I don't get pictures. So when you get the long description of some landscape or the castle looks like that - I just go past that. I'm going to skim past it because I cannot get anything from that.

[01:13:35.21] - Gordon
It makes no difference to you.

[01:13:37.02] - Kelly
It makes no sense to me. I can't.

[01:13:39.03] - Gordon
So as soon as we start getting taxed on our visual images, you're going to be bypassing that tax, aren't you?

[01:13:44.18] - Kelly
I will be passed. None for me.

[01:13:45.10] - Gordon
There'll be no visual TV licence for you.

[01:13:49.05] - Kelly
But it's mad that people can do it. Then they can do it with their eyes open, apparently, and see things and images. I'm like, that would freak me out. And I think that might have something to do with the ADHD, because, again, a lot of people with ADHD and autism have got... Not everyone, but it seems to be there's quite a few with aphantasia can be linked to that. I honestly think if I was getting visuals with all the thoughts my brain was having per minute, I'd be so overwhelmed-

[01:14:17.15] - Gordon
Wouldn't be able to sleep.

[01:14:18.18] - Kelly
- with what was coming in at me. I would have a mental breakdown because I wouldn't be able to think.

[01:14:24.13] - Gordon
Maybe your body's just shut that part down to make sure you don't get to that point. Maybe that's what it is.

[01:14:30.11] - Kelly
Maybe. I don't ever, ever remember having it. They say the only reason they found out Aphantasia was a thing was because some guy had been in a really bad car crash and in a coma. When he woke up, he realised he couldn't visualise anymore. His mental-

[01:14:43.19] - Gordon
So, it changed for him.

[01:14:45.07] - Kelly
So it changed. And then they realised that actually some people are born like that. But I did have a horrific car accident when I was younger, and I'm trying to think, did I actually remember? I don't remember losing anything. I don't remember thinking, where's that gone? So, no, I probably was just born like it.

[01:15:03.23] - Gordon
Wow. Okay.

[01:15:05.24] - Kelly
Aphantasia or Aphantasia, it depends how you want to... If you want to look it up, listeners, A-P-H-A-N-T-A-S-I-A, Aphantasia.

[01:15:15.12] - Gordon
There we go. We'll edit out that little gap.

[01:15:16.23] - Kelly
It's very interesting.

[01:15:18.05] - Gordon
You're thinking.

[01:15:19.15] - Kelly
It's very interesting. If anyone's interested in my take on ADHD, I've got on my YouTube, I've got a poem that I wrote, which is actually lovely. As soon as I had my diagnosis confirmed I went for a walk and downloaded this poem. It came to me and I put it out there to help myself, kids, people.

[01:15:39.09] - Gordon
Yeah, that's really good. Just so people know that they're not on their own. It happens to others.

[01:15:46.24] - Kelly
It's not a bad thing. I mean, without ADHD in the world, we would probably be still sitting in caves. We wouldn't have thought, let's make a wheel with that and make it easier. Without the neurodivergent thinking, we would have stayed very static. We wouldn't have had the risk-takers that ate that Berry to see if you can. We wouldn't have had the people who think A, S, D, G, Z, just A to B, A to B, A to B, doesn't get you out of the box. I think a lot of people who've got neurodivergency will think way outside the box because there is no box. I have no box.

[01:16:26.18] - Gordon
It's really interesting.

[01:16:27.08] - Kelly
You can't put me in a box.

[01:16:28.19] - Gordon
No. Schrödinger did but...

[01:16:32.11] - Kelly
We don't know if the cat's alive or dead still.

[01:16:34.05] - Gordon
We don't. No.

[01:16:35.15] - Kelly
We have no idea.

[01:16:36.20] - Gordon
Every show is a Schrödinger show. You don't know how it's going to go until you actually do it. That's so true. So are you okay for talking just a little bit longer?

[01:16:50.05] - Kelly
I could talk to you all day Gordon.

[01:16:51.00] - Gordon
I'd love to talk to you about competitions. You entered the Blackpool Competition, which I've done and various as other people have done. What made you want to do that for a start? Because it's a hugely scary thing to do.

[01:17:09.22] - Kelly
Again, my ADHD, I thought, "Yeah, I'll do that."

[01:17:13.10] - Gordon
Right.

[01:17:13.18] - Kelly
I have very little fear I'm very... Because obviously, maybe it's because I can't imagine the fear.

[01:17:19.21] - Gordon
Okay. So you don't get a stage fright then?

[01:17:22.07] - Kelly
Very rarely. A little bit now and then. I was a bit when I walked out in Blackpool, when I walked out. Not when I was behind waiting to go on, I was fine. As soon as I walked out, I felt flutterery and a bit jittery, and I was a bit worried about doing the appearing cane because you got to have fast reflexes for that thing. Phew it's gone.

[01:17:40.14] - Gordon
Let me just explain to anyone who doesn't know what it is that we're talking about. This is a Blackpool Magic Convention. It's the Family Entertainer of the Year competition. The performances are on the Opera House theatre stage, which is a four and a half thousand seat theatre.

[01:18:00.00] - Kelly
It's the biggest stage in England.

[01:18:02.01] - Gordon
It's the biggest stage in possibly Europe, in fact. But yeah, it's huge. And you have not only lots of children there, which is great, but you also have all of your peers; all of your other magicians, entertainers, people you don't know who are sitting and judging you, whether you want to think of it that way or not. They are. They're sitting and they're judging you. And you have to go out and effectively do a performance that's going to entertain them and be better than the other performers that are going to be there. It's not easy to figure out what you're going to do. I remember when I was doing it, I decided I was going to look at the venue and the audience and create a show that would work for that situation, because you can't go out, in my opinion, you can't go out and do a show that you would do in someone's front living room and hope that it would go over well in this theatre because it's too small, it's not big enough, it's not involving enough.

[01:19:04.22] - Kelly
That's the mistake I made there.

[01:19:06.01] - Gordon
So, yeah, how did you approach it when you decided you wanted to do it?

[01:19:10.16] - Kelly
Well, again, I was a bit stupid, really, about this. I hadn't been to Blackpool for many years, and we're not going to discuss why. Anyway, back to Blackpool.

[01:19:18.15] - Gordon
See now you've opened the floodgates; people are going to be asking you.

[01:19:20.12] - Kelly
No, we're not going to talk about that.

[01:19:22.08] - Gordon
We're not going to talk about it, but you've opened that floodgate for people to come up to you now.

[01:19:26.22] - Kelly
The people who know, know. But I hadn't been to Blackpool since, and I saw the opportunity for being in the competition. I thought, "that will make me go. That will get me back there." If I put myself to do something like that, and I have to turn up then, and I'll do it, and I'll go back. But I couldn't remember how big the stage was. I hadn't been there for five years or more. And I couldn't really remember any of the details. So I just turned up. And also 10 minutes, can I just say, "Oh, give me half an hour at least." Ten minutes is very hard. And if you go over 10 minutes, you can be disqualified because you're over your time, so therefore you're out of the competition. So I thought, "if I want to try and win it, I've got to stick within 10 minutes." Nothing I do is in 10 minutes, really. Hardly anything, nothing decent anyway. So I decided to do one of the part of my act that normally takes over 15 minutes to do, condense it down to 10 and try and use that, which was the mistake was that, really, basically.

[01:20:28.16] - Kelly
I didn't fill the stage enough, but it was more the fact that I had to cut out loads of my comedy moments because I had to make it into 10 minutes. So I had to lose some of the rhythm, which I established. I've been doing this particular magic trick that I wanted to do. I've been doing that for nearly 24 years. It was one of the first props I bought. I don't do it the same as I did back then, but this is something I use a lot. I'm really comfortable with it. I know it gets a great reaction from the audience. I get kids involved. I thought, "it's got to be that." But making it 10 minutes ruined the act. It ruined the fun. It ruined the rhythm.

[01:21:07.24] - Gordon
Also, you didn't have everybody knowing your character and who you were before, which is what you do at a normal party. You spend time introducing yourself, which you don't have the opportunity to do.

[01:21:19.12] - Kelly
And you can't see or hear the audience.

[01:21:21.06] - Gordon
No. It's completely black out there isn't it?

[01:21:22.24] - Kelly
Which you don't realise. And you get told backstage, "don't worry if you think no one's laughing. They are. You just can't see or hear them." The stage managers say. I'm like "What?!"

[01:21:30.00] - Gordon
That's very true.

[01:21:30.01] - Kelly
You walk out, you can barely see the first row of people, barely. And then you can't really hear anyone. So it's like being on Zoom. It's very flat for you up there. They could be roaring with laughter. You wouldn't even know they were. So that's quite disconcerting really, in the moment.

[01:21:47.12] - Gordon
Yeah, definitely.

[01:21:48.15] - Kelly
The fact that the stage tilts.

[01:21:50.24] - Gordon
Oh, it's got a rake, yeah.

[01:21:51.13] - Kelly
Who's put a stage on a slope. I mean, what? Try not to trip over all the time.

[01:21:58.09] - Gordon
Well, it was built a long a time ago, and the reason for that is obviously so that if anything is upstage, it can still be seen by the people in the stools at the front because they're raised up, you see. But when you're doing magic acts on it with props that have got wheels, that's a huge problem.

[01:22:13.13] - Kelly
Yeah, it's like, whoa, where's it going? Oh, God, is that going to be safe there?

[01:22:16.16] - Gordon
And it does feel like you're going to tip over when you're standing on there.

[01:22:21.14] - Kelly
It really threw me. That really threw me that did.

[01:22:24.03] - Gordon
It's a really shallow rake, but it's not flat. It does have that.

[01:22:29.06] - Kelly
It really threw me. That and the fact that you're on a stage in the competition and you can't see or hear anyone, you're nervous because of that as well, just because it is a competition. If I was just doing my show, I wouldn't have been nervous getting out on that stage because the word 'competition' was attached to it that created a bit of nerves in me and I got a little bit of a stage fright feeling. Not badly, but enough to... My heart rate. I could feel my heart, which you wouldn't normally do.

[01:22:53.18] - Gordon
I think it's good to do these things and challenge yourself because otherwise you're not going to... I was exactly the same. I thought, "what have I let myself in for? I'm basically standing in front of everyone to be judged, and it could go really badly, it could go well, I could be all right." Are you pleased you did it?

[01:23:15.13] - Kelly
I wish I had gone to Blackpool for one year, seen the stage, got it in my head, and then entered the competition.

[01:23:22.05] - Gordon
So you could visualise it?

[01:23:23.17] - Kelly
So I could have visualised it. Because I would have done something different. Walking away from it, I was like, "I know what I should have done. I should have changed that. I should have done that instead of that. And I also would have done a completely different act, and that would have worked much better." But it wasn't until I had been on the stage that I realised my mistake, and it was too late by then. Too late.

[01:23:39.15] - Gordon
Well, I mean, well done for doing it. It's something that very few people have done. You see and hear all these people who go, "Yeah, I could have done better." But you never see them up there doing it.

[01:23:50.08] - Kelly
Have they done it? No.

[01:23:51.12] - Gordon
Exactly. Yeah. So well done. It takes a lot of guts to do that. So congratulations for that. Are you up for a few quick fire questions just to round off our lovely chat.

[01:24:02.11] - Kelly
Do I need my listening ear?

[01:24:04.09] - Gordon
If it helps, yes, definitely.

[01:24:06.09] - Kelly
Probably.

[01:24:07.11] - Gordon
Right. Are you ready?

[01:24:09.10] - Kelly
Ready.

[01:24:10.02] - Gordon
Okay. Do you prefer huge parties or smaller more intimate parties?

[01:24:18.13] - Kelly
Sorry, I was doing a smutty joke in my head then. Can you say that again with the hand signals?

[01:24:22.04] - Gordon
Do you prefer having a really large audience or a really small, intimate audience? Okay. Maybe I should explain how quickfire works.

[01:24:36.22] - Kelly
Oh, God. Both. It depends. It depends really on the crowd.

[01:24:42.04] - Gordon
Okay, fair enough.

[01:24:42.20] - Kelly
If you have an intimate crowd I'll have just as much fun as like 400 people.

[01:24:46.14] - Gordon
Yeah.

[01:24:46.23] - Kelly
So it depends.

[01:24:48.03] - Gordon
So no answer on that one. Okay. Good.

[01:24:49.05] - Kelly
No answer, I can't answer that.

[01:24:50.17] - Gordon
Favourite effect?

[01:24:54.12] - Gordon
Oh. I love doing this. I I love catching people out on this. This makes me laugh.

[01:25:01.18] - Gordon
So your microphone with your lips for the people who are listening.

[01:25:04.24] - Kelly
Yeah.

[01:25:05.15] - Gordon
Okay.

[01:25:05.21] - Kelly
I like this.

[01:25:06.22] - Gordon
That's very good.

[01:25:08.05] - Kelly
I can't seem to... The mirror image is confusing me how to hold it.

[01:25:13.01] - Gordon
Goals and dreams. Where do you want to be in 10 years? What do you want to achieve that you haven't already?

[01:25:20.23] - Kelly
A quick fire. Goals and dreams. Goals and dreams. I get discovered and become a TV presenter and don't have to worry about doing anything and my agent deals with it for me.

[01:25:30.07] - Gordon
Okay. Oh, that's very interesting.

[01:25:32.18] - Kelly
It's not gonna happen.

[01:25:32.24] - Gordon
So basically not being your own boss, handing that over to someone else.

[01:25:40.18] - Kelly
I am my own boss. I get fed up with doing everything.

[01:25:41.24] - Gordon
Yeah, but handing over the control.

[01:25:43.15] - Kelly
I got to do my own admin, my own social media. Urgh! Someone else do all that for me down one house. I'll just turn up and perform.

[01:25:51.05] - Gordon
Okay. All right.

[01:25:53.21] - Kelly
But a lot more money.

[01:25:55.00] - Gordon
Right. Of course, because you'll be on television.

[01:25:57.10] - Kelly
Yeah. A lot more money. Failing that, I'm going to get into healing because I do a lot of healing. That might be because I'm getting older now. I'm thinking, I can't do Jelly Kelly forever. What do I do?

[01:26:07.11] - Gordon
Well, you could be a singer because you sing as well, right?

[01:26:09.11] - Kelly
Oh, yeah, I sing as well. I could, but again, as you get older, your voice goes a bit. I need something that I can age into.

[01:26:16.02] - Gordon
Okay. Favourite moment in a show in the past that you've done? Just something that happened that you thought, "Oh, that's never going to happen again. But that was so cool."

[01:26:31.10] - Kelly
It's when I work with special needs. I love it. I absolutely love it. And this long time ago, so this is not a quick fire question because you got to understand what's happening here.

[01:26:39.19] - Gordon
Yeah, go ahead.

[01:26:40.07] - Kelly
To understand the moment. I was doing a school with special needs. The head was leaving. They had everyone there. We're talking serious special needs. We're talking very, very serious. Kids with a helmets on, bashing their heads on walls. We're talking very serious special needs here. And I was doing - back in the early days of Jelly Kelly, like really early days - I was doing my show, being silly me, slapstick comedy, this and that. Show's ended. It went well. I wasn't bothered about the show. It went particularly well. It wasn't my best show ever. But I went in the staff room to get a drink of water and all the staff were crowded around a laptop just gasping and going, "Oh my God, oh my God." And I was like, What's going on? What's going on? And they went, "Jelly Kelly, see this kid here?" And there's this kid laughing. They've got videos and that of. And then he'd been at school for 10 years and no one had ever seen him smile. He was laughing, actually cracking up laughing. And in 10 years he'd been at school, no one had seen him smile. And he laughed. Oh, I've got goosebumps right now, just telling you that.

[01:27:38.08] - Gordon
Wow. Me too.

[01:27:39.17] - Kelly
And I get that. I get that a lot. When I do special needs stuff, I get a reaction that people are like, "oh, my God, I've never seen that before. They've never done that before." They suddenly wake up and interact in the moment with me. And I don't know how I've done it. I'm just being me. I'm not going out of my way to do it. It's just that they've caught onto the energy, the fun of whatever I'm doing, and they've joined me in that moment. Those are the special moments.

[01:28:03.11] - Gordon
And that's why we do what we do, isn't it? Yeah.

[01:28:06.17] - Kelly
I do a lot of dementia as well. I get a breakthrough sometimes with dementia. A couple of weeks ago, I did it with this guy called Paul. He was miserable and very sad and angry when I walked in. And then I started doing my stuff being silly. And in the end, he was like, "bah ha ha!" I gave him the horn of magic to honk. He was having a great time. He was cracking up, absolutely cracking up. And I made such a difference to that guy's day in his mood. For just the time I was there, I lifted him out of the sadness he was sitting in. That's my purpose. Those moments, they mean something to me.

[01:28:40.02] - Gordon
Well, I mean, that could sum you up for me any day of the week. You lift spirits when you... Whenever I go to an event and I know you're going to be there, I know it's going to be fun.

[01:28:51.05] - Kelly
Oh thank you.

[01:28:51.16] - Gordon
And that's because you are the person you are.

[01:28:54.09] - Kelly
That's my purpose - To bring joy, spread joy is my purpose.

[01:28:57.03] - Gordon
You're special power. Well, thank you so much for spending so long with us.

[01:29:01.24] - Kelly
I've enjoyed it.

[01:29:03.01] - Gordon
It's been lovely to talk to you.

[01:29:05.01] - Kelly
It's not been a chore.

[01:29:07.10] - Gordon
I'm glad you said that. Yeah, it's been lovely talking to you. Thank you so much for giving up your time and giving of your ideas and what you've been doing so generously, that's really kind of you. I'm sure that anyone who's listened to watch this will go away and think.

[01:29:24.08] - Kelly
They're going to steal my act now aren't they? Go away and buy all my puppets, steal my act. Get your own material.

[01:29:30.23] - Gordon
They've got all the information they need now to set up. Maybe someone will be looking going, "well, if Jelly Kelly can do it, I can do better." Just like you did in 2001.

[01:29:40.16] - Kelly
Oh my God. What if I'm that old person that they look at and go, "Oh mate! I can do better than that." Oh, God, I don't want to be that old geezer.

[01:29:48.22] - Gordon
Everything will come full circle. There you go. So, how do people contact you, Jelly, if they want to... I just called you Jelly.

[01:29:57.20] - Kelly
And I just didn't... That's what I mean. I'm so used to it.

[01:30:00.24] - Gordon
I know. How do people contact you if they want to talk to you?

[01:30:04.02] - Kelly
A psychic. I find telepathy is probably...

[01:30:07.07] - Gordon
Okay. So telepathy only. That's the only way

[01:30:09.16] - Kelly
If telepathy isn't working. No, I'm not going to do that, Gordon. No stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Gordon!

[01:30:14.13] - Gordon
I didn't say that.

[01:30:17.21] - Kelly
We're live. Stop it. Stop thinking it. You can Google Jelly Kelly. I'm the only one in the world, basically. Then you get my website, you've got my social media on there, you've got my phone number. You can email me. Just Google Jelly Kelly.

[01:30:33.05] - Gordon
There you go. So if you're looking for any more-

[01:30:35.22] - Kelly
[whispered] The only one in the world.

[01:30:37.09] - Gordon
The only one in the world. Until after this podcast comes out.

[01:30:40.16] - Kelly
No, no, no, no.

[01:30:42.01] - Gordon
There'll be other people who are just going to go, "Oh, my name's Kelly. That will work nicely."

[01:30:45.12] - Kelly
You really make me sad.

[01:30:47.13] - Gordon
No, you're right. I think having a unique persona is really important. So don't copy what Kelly does. Because it won't be right for you.

[01:30:58.12] - Kelly
It's don't do this at home.

[01:30:59.08] - Gordon
Go do what's right for you. Yeah. Thank you, Kelly. It was lovely to speak to you.

[01:31:04.03] - Kelly
Thank you, Gordon. And you.

[01:31:04.07] - Gordon
And I wish you all the best in your future journeys as a children and family entertainer.

[01:31:10.21] - Kelly
And you, too, Gordon. Keep up with the brilliant podcast, doing fantastic websites for people and just being generally a lovely bloke.

[01:31:18.12] - Gordon
Aww. I knew it was the right person to ask to do our podcast.

[01:31:22.01] - Kelly
Shall we?

[01:31:22.17] - Gordon
Thank you. Yeah. There we go. Thank you.

[01:31:27.05] - Gordon
So that was Jelly Kelly. What a force to be reckoned with. She has a lot of really good ideas. She's very, very energetic. Her shows, from what I understand, are very, very manic, and she puts a lot of energy into it, keeping the adults engaged at all times. I particularly liked her ideas about the noisy venues, being able to turn a speaker to the wall and have it bounce off the wall instead of having it in full volume going around the room, is a great idea I'm going to try next time I'm at a noisy venue. I really enjoyed that. I really liked that. I also feel she's incredibly brave to talk about her competition entry because I know she wasn't happy with it and I know that she felt she could have done better. And maybe one day she will. She'll come back and do it again and we can see the full Jelly Kelly experience. ADHD is something I'd never really considered for children's entertainers and family entertainers, but I think she's right. I think a lot of us are on the spectrum in some way and just don't realise it, and that's a big part of what makes us, us. So yeah, that was very interesting as well. Talking about puppets, I sort of have a puppet in my show, and that's... Pardon me. That is my drawing board. The Axtell drawing board is my puppet, and it does talk, but I used to do lots of cuddly, fluffy puppets in my shows, and I haven't done for a long time. So maybe I'll reconsider that and bring that out and start doing that again, having seen Kelly's interactions with her puppets. And last of all, the thing that I wanted to mention is where we went right at the end of her interview when she was talking about dealing with getting feedback from disability shows. And it's very true. I do Pod shows, which is a hospital show, and I regularly get play specialists and nurses coming to me and telling me that they've had a child in the hospital for maybe two, three weeks and they haven't spoken to anyone. And yet within minutes, I had them laughing and giggling. And it's a really, really good skill and great feedback to get as an entertainer. And I think that is exactly why we do it. So, thank you so much to Kelly for her time and experience and knowledge. It's great that she's happy to contribute this to our community. If you prefer to listen to these shows, then you can do so. We have a podcast version of it, and you can listen to that on all of your favourite podcast channels. We have our YouTube channel, of which the link will be in the show notes. But one of the best places to view our episodes is at the website, which is facethepodcast.com. You can go there and see all of our past episodes and make sure you get caught up, because there's some really good ones there. And there's some really good ones to come as well. There's lots of ones that have been recorded that I am now in the process of editing, so they will be with us soon. As always, thank you for joining me. I look forward to you joining me again for future episodes. And thank you to all the children and family entertainers for what you do out there. I feel this is such an important part of our art form, and that's the reason that I do these podcasts. If you want to get in in contact with me, please do so through the website. I'd love to hear from you. And if you've got somebody that you think would be a great guest on this podcast, or you would like to be a guest yourself, you can submit your suggestions on the website, and I look forward to receiving those so that I've got lots of future guests to talk to, and we can keep this going for as long as possible. I will see you in the next podcast and vidcast. Until then, my name is Gordon, and I'd like to thank you for joining me. See you again soon. Bye.