When Complicated Looks Simple

Simply complicated, that’s how I roll.

Kung Fu Panda

The job of a balloon entertainer is to make the completed look simple, but sometimes we make the simple complicated.  Balloon designs that we have made 100’s of times become simple. It does not matter how many balloon twists are involved or the number of balloons. A challenge at a client’s request pokes at our ego and we stray from the norm and simply go for it. We mentally tell ourselves there must be a simpler way of doing it as we tie in our 5th balloon. The final outcome wows the client, but we think . . . never again.

There are other entertainers who deliberately make a routine look difficult with over-the-top antics and over-exaggerated hand movements, but this is well scripted and rehearsed.  We do this for the comedy of entertaining, not because it is complicated.

Kung Fu Panda side view

A balloon pops on an entertainer, instantly the client thinks their request is too complicated and wants to know if they should pick something simple. Egos prevent us from saying “Yes”.  Ironically, I cannot think of another profession that when the project becomes complicated the client will automatically give you an out, a simpler path, something totally different than you agreed upon.  But, we reject the simple and go for the complicated.  It’s not that it is complicated, it is just that the balloon pops.

Kung Fo Panda back view

So if things seem complicated, it is not. If it seems too simple, it’s really complicated.  And if you don’t have to do it, nothing is impossible.

1 thought on “When Complicated Looks Simple”

  1. I’ve often visited https://www.mbd2.com. Having spent the afternoon going through the archived posts, I’m like a child in a sweet shop. I’m looking towards reading your posts, and even making a few of my own.

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