Besides of the fact that I’m still not able to inflate a balloon by mouth :-(, and it’s gross (double-sad-face), today I found a new reason why not to do it. I know, it looks great and your audience goes “wow!” but don’t do it all the time. It’s bad for you health!
Usually when someone says, “You’re cheating,” for using a pump, I tell them about a story I heard from another twister. He was going to meet a guy in a restaurant to go over some balloon stuff. When he showed up he had a HUGE lump under his chin. He explained to him in a very raspy voice that he had done a birthday party the night before for 100 kids and had blown out his throat!!!
Today I read about a twister from Oregon, Chad Rutan. Blowing up balloons by mouth for 20 years almost made him never work as a balloon artist again. He got a hernia and it was caused by mouth inflating balloons for 2 decades. Luckily he’s back in business but now together with his new best friend; the electric pump!
I’ll never say don’t blow up balloons by mouth, but try to keep it for just a few moments per show. It looks great and I still wanna learn it!