Damian Jay is a holiday park entertainer who tours the country performing for families and putting smiles on people’s faces.
Damian started performing a comedy and magic show, which he still performs on Britannia Ferries through the summer. But last year he launched a new show themed around bubbles. After years of practice researching how to make perfect bubbles Damian is finally ready to perform the show.
“Like most performers I got started with a magic set for Christmas and I just turned around to my mum and dad and said this is what I want to do,” Damian said.
He continued: “Now the bubble show is a lot of work, but I enjoy it a lot more because the audience seem to get a lot more out of it.
“There’s only a few bubble performers here in the UK, but there are some massive shows in Asia and the Americas that tour all over the world. The dream is to recreate some of these shows here in Britain.”
Performing these shows takes a lot of dedication. As well as evening performances, Damian has to factor in hours and hours of travelling time, hours and hours of practice time and hours and hours of preparation time to make sure everything runs smoothly.
But for him, it’s all worth it.
“I always think what a huge privilege it is to stand in front of an audience and performing your show. They’ve all paid money to see you and you need to treat them like friends,” Damian said.
He continued: “Obviously there are some times when not everything goes well. And no matter what you do when you’re on stage it doesn’t make anyone laugh. That’s when you start questioning why you’re actually doing these shows. But the positive reactions more than make up for those days.
“The one show that really sticks out for me was one that I performed for a terminally ill children’s charity. It was a magic show that I do with puppets, and after the show a mum came and told me that her daughter had a smile on her face for the first time in months. I will never forget that show.”
If you thought that being a bubbleologist (yep that is the right term) was easy, then think again.
It’s not just about dunking and blowing like it was when we were young. Believe it or not, bubble making on this scale takes an understanding of chemistry and physics, as well as a sense of
Damian spent many months coming up with the right bubble formulas to make the different types of bubbles that he needs for different tricks.
He keeps the different formulas in different brightly coloured buckets until show time, when he decants them into different vases on stage. Damian chose H&O Plastics because the bright , colourful buckets make the different liquids easier to recognise and the colours add to the fun of the show.
“I actually hunted the internet for quite some time because I was after some quite specific colours and sizes. Buy Buckets had everything I had for and it was all very reasonably priced,” he said.
©2024 RL Plastics Ltd