Balloons spinning, fingers flying, and oh crap, I just split a fingernail while popping a balloon. I pop balloons by pinching the balloon between the index fingernail and thumbnail. With a tearing twist, the balloon pops and I am off twisting again. After a while, the nail gets weak and one nail just tears into the other nail. When this happens, I am left with a sharp nail. To many people this is not a big issue, but to me and a couple other balloon entertainers a ragged nail snags balloons and causes self-inflicted scratches.
I was getting ready to entertain at the Chicago Bulls game with fellow entertainer Lori Wheeles and as we are talking, Lori is looking for a place to dull a fingernail that has become a lethal weapon to her balloon animals.
We laughed at different ways we have dulled a dangerous nail. Here are ten things I have used to prune a sharp nails while entertaining.
- Bricks
- Mortar
- Scissor
- Box Cutter
- Sidewalk
- Sandpaper
- Ridges on quarter
- Ridges on bottle top
- Rubber sole of gym shoe
- Ridges on nozzle of the balloon pump
Why don’t we do the obvious thing? Keep a nail clipper in our balloon setup? I once had one, but then I did an event at the airport and TSA found it when I was going through security…