Reviewed by Kahu Gillespie

The ‘Bubble Man Workshop’ is a heart-warming; interactive experience for children. Although at 19 I don’t exactly fit into the recommended age group, I went to the two workshops today (5^th May 2018) to take pictures for the Fringe Festival, as a part of my professional practice as an NMIT student. Unfortunately, I missed the main performance, however, it didn’t seem to matter, ‘The Highland Joker’ AKA Eran ‘The Bubble Man’ is a classic example of a great children’s performer. He never faltered in keeping the audience involved and was always enthused when talking to them. His outfit was pretty cool and quirky, with a waistcoat and even goggles on top of his hat!

I stayed for both the 20-minute workshops, they started with him introducing himself to everyone and giving them all a plate and a straw. The Bubble Man then showed how best to blow bubbles from it with a quick demonstration, almost everyone managed to get some good bubbles going right away, anyone that had trouble immediately got some help from him or their parents (a couple of parents had some trouble at first as well). Once everyone got the hand of it he told them to spread some of the bubble-soap over their plates and start to make some bigger ‘cake’ bubbles! They stuck to the edge of the plates because of the soap, the next step was to blow some smaller bubbles (cherries) on top and then Eran came around to fill them up with smoke so they could pop them into smoke clouds!

The next activity was a bit crafty, as Eran handed out red cotton string and some bamboo sticks so that they could all make their own big bubble makers! At this point people got up and about to use them and blow all kinds of big bubbles around, some even passed bubbles to each other like a ball, using their bubble maker to catch them. After all this it was time for the finale, anyone that wanted to be inside a giant bubble (yes even adults – these really are big bubbles) would go up to the stage and The Highland Joker would use a big-bubble-ring to make a colossal bubble around them!

I think it’s a brilliant little experience for anyone with a child out there, take them along and watch their face light up watching all the spectacular bubbles!