Why a Two Hour Party is Not Too Long

Why a Two Hour Party is Not Too Long

One of the biggest challenges I face as a children’s entertainer is convincing parents a two-hour party is not too long. “Won’t they get bored?” they ask. I get it, two hours can seem like a long time, especially with little ones, but let me explain. Firstly, the performance is not two hours; it’s a 45-minute show followed by a break for food (approximately 25 minutes), and then the second half, consisting of party games and balloon modeling (if booked). I acknowledge the concerns parents may have regarding children’s attention spans, but week after week, children consistently remain engaged throughout the entirety of my parties. Allow me to provide further detail to reassure you.

The start of the show is a 45-minute performance. This is a thrilling, hilarious, finely crafted children’s theatrical performance that combines magic, puppets, and laugh-out-loud comedy, all combined with music and sound effects that bring even more from the performance. To say the children get excited would be an understatement. I had to get a barrier made as the children get excited to the point where they constantly rush forwards. Have a look, it’s the image to the left. The notion of children becoming bored could not be further from the truth.

The middle of the show is where the children eat, and I play their favorite songs – naturally, the children are having a great time here (I’ll give credit to the jammie dodgers). So, that’s two-thirds of the 2-hour party covered – fully attentive, happy children. The final part of the show is the party games section. Children love being on their feet, playing games, and are excited at the prospect of winning a prize. No one is ever ‘out’ in the games, so the children are always involved. My games are a lot of fun, and the children have never been bored in this section – never. So that’s 2 hours covered.

I didn’t write this article to promote myself; it’s a genuine reflection of my weekly experiences. After discussing these concerns with yet another parent today, I felt this post was long overdue.

Getting to this level of audience engagement took some time to achieve. In the early years, I experimented with different tricks and performance pieces, and it took me about 50 shows to get the children engaged for the whole performance. Now, after some 500 performances, I seem to have mastered it. Please do check out my Google reviews; my previous customers are echoing everything I have said in this article.

I’m occasionally asked by parents what games I do in my parties and it’s always a bit of a mouth full to explain so I have wrote this for greater clarity. To begin with, none of my games are elimination based which means no one is ever ‘out’. This ensures all the children are engaged throughout and are not going to become bored which is very important to me. On to the games!

Character statues
I tell the children to dance and when the music stops to freeze and impersonate a well known character (superheroes, Disney princesses etc). I’ll pick the most creative one each time ensuring that everyone wins. If there are a lot of children, I’ll pick multiple winners each time so by the end they have all won.
Why it’s good – The children enjoy being on their feet, if they don’t want to pretend to be a character they will usually just  freeze normally so they still feel involved. It’s  easy to understand and we can play it instantly. The children are never bored in this game and are always riveted throughout. It’s been so good over the years.