Party Happenings

This never happened before! I performed at a birthday party in a park yesterday. It was a great party with lots of kids and parents that participated and enjoyed the magic show. But as I was setting up and the kids were starting to sit in front, the three year old birthday girl came with her mother to sit down. She was a little shy as three year olds can be. I smiled and made bit of eye contact to show I was safe and friendly. She seemed happy to engage at that distance.
So now I bring out my little banner that has my picture with Harvey, unroll it and attach it to the front of my case. (If you are here reading this you have seen the picture in the upper right corner.) Now usually when the kids first see the picture they look, read outloud "Hatty and Harvey" and may comment on it to each other or to me. Some find it funny, some ask who is Hattie, who is Harvey. But this is the first time the birthday child starts to cry and runs off! Actually runs off crying! What the what? At first I didn't make a connection between the banner and the crying. How could my picture cause a problem? When someone mentions she doesn't like clown pictures and such I make some jokes about my picture and face. The mom brings her back settled down and we start the show.
Now I usually bring the birthday child up as the first helper unless they are very young or shy. Since this little girl seemed both I used her older brother and sister first in helping out before asking if she would like to help. By now she saw I was safe and felt comfortable coming up and helping and she had a great time laughing and smiling. Her parent told me later she likes to watch tv characters but does not like pictures of some characters. Interesting. That was a new one on me!