There were two broad categories, "Raw" where folks inflated the balloons they needed, and "Inflated" where folks brought up already inflated balloons. There was a styrofoam head (nailed with great ceremony to a bar stool) that folks could use if they needed to interact with someone, or needed something for a hat. She was named Emelia Airhead. There were 44 entrants in total (needless to say, the competition went on for awhile)
There were 7 sub categories under the broad categories: Most Unique, Favorite Style, Best Bit, Best Action Thing, Best Thing to Carry, Best Hat, Best Non-Hat Wearable.
I didn't get pictures of all of the entrants, but here is what I did get.
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Norm Barnhart doing his giant animal hat bit. (and an example of why it's bad to wear a big balloon top hat in the front rows. Makes it hard for everyone behind you to see) |
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Got it right here, first time, every time. The Giant Man-Eating Tasmanian Devil. Wooda wooda wooda. |
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One of the "Ring Girls" (Denise?) showing who the current act is. |
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The other "Ring Girl" (Mollie) showing the category. |
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I like the bolts on the side of his neck. |
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Yvonne Brogdan, "Yummy" of the WAY-Cool Gang. |
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Arleenie Beenie, of the WAY-Cool gang, demonstrating that yes she does use the incredibly corny jokes in the WAY-Cool books |
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Lauren Surprenant showing an alternate kind of balloon weaving. Winner of best non-hat wearable/raw. |
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Barbara (?) doing her 8 petal flower. |
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detail of the flower. |
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Flamingo hat under construction. |
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Teri Stokes' fancy hat she makes at restaurant gigs. |
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Which double as fancy wings. |
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No, Hans didn't make the hat in 2 minutes. He did a magic act using it. |
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Naboo fighter perhaps? |
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When Debbie Brow came onstage with a huge pile of balloons (which took awhile to arrange), we were wondering what was going on, (and getting a bit antsy). Then she started her routine which would appeal to just about any star-trek fan out there. She brought the house down and got a standing ovation from the crowd (at least those of us who haven't fallen over from laughing so hard). She won Best Bit/inflated and Favorite Style/inflated Here the Captain is starting her log |
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We are 260 of Q of the borg. |
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Keptin', me engins canna take any more of this! |
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May LaForge be with you. |
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That sounds illogical. |
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Elmo on a stick. |
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Baseball hat, easily done within the 2 minute time limit. |
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Connie and her hula skirt, winner of Best non-hat wearable/inflated |
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Another view of the hula skirt. |
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Stacey Schmude, the Balloon HQ Columnist |
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Detail of the light sabre. |
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Bidou's poodle. He won Most Unique/Inflated. |
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which also doubles as a hat. |
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Mike Yannes' VW bug done with 350s Winnder of Best Thing To Carry / inflated. |
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Pasqual, winner of Best Hat / inflated |
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Sheree doing a card routine. |
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The Lord of Latex doing Spiderman. |
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One of the more revolting acts of the evening (yet still hilarious). Here Tim Metiver swallows an inflated balloon. |
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And here he is making a poodle. You can imagine the rest of the routine. Winner of Most Unique/raw |
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Chris Jackson, about to construct his rollercoaster hat. |
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This is Gido who won the large figure competition, as well as getting winning Favorite Style/Raw |
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Dizzy Doc. Winner of Best Thing to Carry/raw. |
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Dizzy's butterfly with the spirals in the wings. |
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Fred Harshberger and his full-body puppet. |
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Pat in the Hat. Pat's the one who did the balloons in Patch Adams. |
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