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How do you deal with a crying kid?

Started by justsomeguytn, March 29, 2010, 11:53:17 AM

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gem

A few years ago, I was standing in line for food with a mom and her clearly completely exhausted toddler. He was shrieking and sobbing, and you could tell he'd just had enough and needed to vent. His mom was letting him, holding him gently by the shoulder, but otherwise ignoring him as she completed her business with the food vendor.  The boy was sobbing uncontrollably, "I wanted to pay! I want to give her a quarter!"  When Mom was finished, she calmly turned to her little boy and handed him a quarter and said, "There you go. Give it to her."

The little boy was so startled he *instantly* fell silent. It was obvious he'd been crying to cry, and really had no idea what to do if he got his wish! LOL

BLAKDUKE

I have found that a gag and a portable kennel works quite well.
Ancient swordsman/royalty
Have Crown/Sword Will Travel

VIII

#17
At a non-faire event, we were at a wedding in an Old West town.  When someone's kid started crying after the wedding, and the parents did NOTHING, I said, "Who brought the wolf?!?" and started howling every time the kid bawled.  "HOWWWWWLLLLL!  There goes that wolf again!  Better corall all the womenfolk and their kids, 'lest they's a-gonna get et by the wolf!"

It eventually worked as I got several of the kids, including the bawler, to run around town howling!

Oh, I guess I can't recommend this for Faire; someone might think it's a mid-day Wolf-run!
Former King Henry VIII
Renaissance Magazine Issue #66 Cover Boy

holierthanthou

I tend not to scare the children, but the adults. (especially those who went to Catholic school).

I get a lot of children who run to me due to my animals and then stand back.  I soften and lower the range of my voice when they seem scared.  Works the same with animals and children.  When I see a wee one cry, I ask them why?  It is usually such a startle for a complete stranger to ask them why they are crying, they stop.  If they are shy they hide their face and I chat with the adult and move on. 

Read the adult.  Sometimes crying has nothing to do with you, but that the child is hungry, tired or heaven forbid bored.  The parent usually knows their own child enough to take care of the child.

Then again there are those parents that totally neglect their child or their child's actions.  I say feed those parents to the dragons!
There is not enough darkness in the world to extinguish a small candle.

GirlChris

Ugh. I found out how NOT to deal with a scared child.

My pirate character is crazy and slightly animalistic. This is a delicate balancing act, because if I act too crazy it's uncomfortable for people, if I'm not crazy enough it's not funny. So I get led around on a leash, but it's tied around my waist and not my neck. I tell people that I bite, but I don't say WHAT I bite.

So I'm being led around on the leash. A parent leads their little girl up to us to get a picture. The girl shies away and hides behind Daddy's legs. So I take off my big hat and kneel down to make myself smaller and less threatening. I speak quietly, lessening the accent and smiling with no teeth. I describe myself like a puppy, telling her that I have to be on leash because I'm not housebroken, that I like to have my ears scratched, asking if she has any treats for me and offering to do tricks, etc.

The little girl starts to come out from behind Daddy. After all, I'm not that scary.

Then the person on the other end of the leash, who hasn't put a lot of thought into the balancing act, calls out to the kid "This is Mad Mary! She bites people!"

The child, convinced by this one sentence that I'm going to eat her, is inconsolable. Exit, stage left.

marirengrl

Quote from: justsomeguytn on March 29, 2010, 11:53:17 AM
Specifically I'm wondering how performers deal with kids that get scared by part of their act and start crying.  Do you stop your act and do something to calm them down, make a joke out of it, or just go on and let the parents deal with it?

The Nottingham Players (whom I perform with occasionally) have created awesome ways to help just about any situation. Talk to them.

With crying kids they have a great trick~ one by one they all start crying too until the entire troupe is in comic sobbing hysterics , by then the audience is howling, and the kid finally laughs too!

Finnian

I'm in a different sort of entertaining role, as a green, furry, horned, hooved mute goat dude....it can be a bit much for some kids, though so far most are just really intrigued. If I ever have a problem with a kid being scared/upset, I just have the ability to play that I'm scared of them as well. Most times this diffuses it, if it doesn't work, there isn't much else I can do since it is an appearance issue, aside from leave or what not.