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- Spend your time entertaining children at events or at a holiday resort
- You'll need confidence, talent, and the ability to get on well with children
- Hours can be long and salaries are often not that high when you're starting out
Being a children's entertainer can be a rewarding way to use your performance skills if you have a talent for comedy, singing, circus skills, or another form of entertainment. You'll spend time developing your skills, creating your performances, preparing your props and any costumes, marketing your services, travelling to your clients' homes or other venues, and delivering your performances.
Being a children's entertainer can be a great way to build your skills and experience as a performer and learn what audiences respond to. This can be a great grounding for other performance roles such as TV presenting, acting and comedy.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Rehearsing and planning your performances
- Marketing your services or going to auditions
- Maintaining any equipment you use
- Travelling to your performances and putting on your show
- Managing your accounts if you are self employed
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
The hours can be long and you'll normally have to work at weekends.
Some children's entertainers are employed by holiday parks and resorts to provide entertainment for families during their holidays, others work independently for private parties, events or shows, and some will combine their work as an entertainer with other forms of performance like work in shows or pantomimes.
If you work for a resort or holiday park you may be provided with accommodation.
You'll need
To become a professional children's entertainer you'll need to build up your performance skills in one or more areas. These could include comedy, singing, dancing, clowning, juggling, face painting, balloon modelling, puppetry, or magic.
You'll also need confidence, the ability to deal with and engage children of all ages, calmness under pressure, and a dedication to the role.
You could start to build these skills by joining a drama or theatre group or taking a course in performing arts, theatre, drama, circus skills, comedy, or another form of entertainment. Testing your skills and gaining experience by practicing with friends and family or by volunteering with charities or street performance groups will give you a good sense of whether this is a career for you.
You can apply directly to holiday parks and resorts, and you'll normally be expected to have a showreel (a video of yourself performing) and/or to attend an audition.
Most children's entertainers who work in multiple locations will also need to have a driving license and access to a vehicle. You will also need to pass a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to work with children - if you work for an employer they will normally arrange this.
CAREER PROSPECTS
This kind of work is also a good way to build up the skills you need to move into other areas of performance like children's TV presenting or acting.