Here you can read what monkey business Steff and I have been up to recently, where to get the best monkey nuts, and top tips for getting banana out of your fur
October 2011
October was a busy month again. Steff and I had several halloween parties to do, including a lovely one at Woodbridge Barracks where everyone had made an amazing effort with their costumes.
Now the phone is starting to ring with playgroups and schools booking up their Christmas parties, so its time to dust off the santa hat and start preparing our new Christmas Show.
September 2011
Well the kids are back to school, but that doesn't mean the fun has to end. September saw the arrival of "Harvest at Jimmy's" - a fantastic festival celebrating music, food and so much more. Steff was there making balloons for all the children (and quite a lot of big kids too!) and the atmosphere was amazing. Lots of very happy people in lots of very large balloon hats!
July 2011
Steff and I are very excited to announce that we won the title of "Childrens' Entertainer of the Year" at the competition at Ipswich Magical Society this week. Its a great honour and we were slightly excited (to say the least)! Obviously Steff has let the fame go straight to her head, but I know that really I'm the brains behind the operation!
June 2011
What a great month we have had! Steff has been all over the place; face painting at the Suffolk Show, stilt walking at a nursery, balloon modelling at a school and lots and lots of magic shows. June weekends were booked solid!
March 2011
March was another busy month, and this month saw lots of repeat bookings for children whose parties we did last year, including Lily, Bethany, Florrie and Sophia's. Its lovely to see how they have all grown up since last year.
Other excitement for this month was being booked again by Easton Farm Park for all their special events coming up between now and the summer. Check out their website for more details.
February 2011
Well, Valentines Day came and went, and while Steff was lucky enough to receive a lovely home-made card, there were no lovely lady monkeys queueing up to take me out for Banoffee Pie. However, we had a lovely month, with a 3 day trip to Blackpool's International Magic Convention being one of the highlights, where we got to see some of the world's greatest magicians perfrom.
January 2011
It was nice to have a bit of time to breathe after our busy Christmas, and we managed to find time to have a photo shoot with the wonderful Anna McCarthy. Steff took her (very patient) children along to use as models, and we were amazed at the results. I think Anna is the real magician around here, making Steff and her little grot-monsters look so good!
December 2010
The Christmas period was absolutely manic, with over 20 bookings to fit in before schools broke up for the holidays on 17th December. We turned away so many parties for the last day of term because that day was already fully booked in September! It was a fantastic time though, and we met lots of lovely children in playgroups, nurseries, schools, youth clubs etc as we helped them celebrate their Christmas parties.
October 2010
We had a lovely party in October for the gorgeous Lydia, daughter of Radio 4 journalist John McCarthy and the supremely talented photographer Anna McCarthy. We were so lucky that Anna was snapping away with her camera throughout the party and she kindly let us have copies of her beautiful shots for our website. Look at the gallery to see some of them.
Saturday 28th August
Steff spent the day facepainting at a family fun day for Camille's Appeal. Loads of brave people were bungee jumping for the charity and made over £6000, but all the bananas in the world wouldnt convince me to jump off that crane!!
August
Summer holidays are here again, and every Monday, Steff and I are appearing at Easton Farm Park for Magic Mondays. We both love it at Easton, and there are loads of baby animals to see at the moment. In fact, Steff and I have been taking along our own baby animal - little Ben, our new puppy. He proved very popular with the crowds - Steff wants to work him into the show somehow but I think he is too wriggly to appear out of a magic hat!
July
Steff got to spend 3 lovely days in July facepainting at the Latitude Festival. She met some amazing people there and worked with some awe-inspiring painters. The highlight of her trip (and if I hear about it one more time, I may have to stick bananas in my ears!) was face-painting Rufus Hound just before he went on stage to perform... as a hound of course! Many thanks to Stuart Hogben Photography for allowing us to reproduce this photo - see larger version.
Thursday 8th July
Steff and I were asked to enter the Magical Society's Children's Entertainer of the Year competition this year - Steff was nervous, as it was the first time she had entered a competition like this, but luckily my monkey antics had everyone amused! The review in the Magical Society newsletter even mentioned me!
"This year Steff was one of the dark horses of the evening. I thought she was absolutely amazing. Although a little nervous at the start (and who wouldn’t be), she quickly developed a rapport with the kids
and had them eating out of her hand.
Nonsense it turns out was a very cheeky little monkey who much to
the amusement of the kids (and embarrassingly enough, very amusing to me too) was constantly trying
to steal a banana. Watching the kids react to this and everything else she did was quite simply a joy.
April
We've finally uploaded a video to Youtube so you can see us in action. I get a little over-enthusiastic taking my curtain calls sometimes...!
Sunday 25th April
Steff and I had the honour of doing a party for a particularly gorgeous little girl today; Camille. You can read her story here: Camille's Appeal. She was a total star of her party - from waving her magic wand to make flowers appear to joining in with all the magic words, dancing to her favourite Abba songs, and most of all, laughing - she really did steal the show!!
Huge kisses for Camille from Nonsense xxxxx
Wednesday 7th & 14th April
What a lovely time we had at Easton Farm Park - we did 3 shows per day for a barn full of children who were very enthusiastic! We love going to the farm and always take time to go and see the baby lambs and goats - they are Steff's favourites!
Sunday 3rd April
It was standing-room only at the Rendlesham Social Club Easter Egg hunt. About 70 children brought their grown-ups along for our magic show and party games, before going on their hunt for yummy eggs (none of them were banana flavoured though - pah!).
Saturday 3rd April
The great Easter Egg Hunt in Woodbridge today - Steff left me at home because she was face-painting in the park and didnt want me covered in face paints (again)! She said it was a lovely day and she painted lots of lovely faces, especially when it started to rain and half of Woodbridge came to shelter under her gazebo!
Sunday 7th March
We had great fun today with the lovely people at Rendlesham Social Club. The kids were great and even the grown-ups joined in, which was lovely to see. We are looking forward to seeing them again on Sunday 4th April for their big Easter Party!
Thursday 18th February
Steff and I did two magic shows at Easton Farm Park today. It was great fun. We were in the new Barmy Barn, so the mums and dads could drink frothy cappuccinos (made by capuchin monkeys??) while the little ones enjoyed our magic show.
Come and see us on Wednesday 7th April and Wednesday 14th April - we will be doing 3 shows per day!
Friday 20th November
We were asked by the lovely people at Grange Farm Shop to get involved with their fund-raising for Children in Need 2009, so Steff went along and painted all their faces. It got such a great reaction from their customers, and they raised 3 times as much as previous years!
A Joke for You
Two chimpanzee friends of mine were getting in the bath. One said "Ooo ooo, aa aa". The other one said "Well if its that hot, put some more cold in!".
