Where the Fun Starts!! - The BobbyK BLOG

Black Light Parties

The late 60's and early 70's brought us a psychedelic era that was exemplified by incense, felt posters, and black lights! While the posters may be out of favor, the black lights have never lost their popularity - and in recent years have gotten even more popular!

By being creative with the use of black lights and with the advent of LED black lights, more entertainment options are now available. However, just throwing up a black light does not make a party.

Bobby K Entertainment has found numerous ways to use this new technology to make black lights even more entertaining by integrating their use into traditional games:

• Cosmic Golf is a nine hole miniature golf course with the putters, balls, and every hole UV reactive. By adding 3-D glasses, the balls seem to float in mid-air when trying to putt due to the special surfaces.
• Midnight Volleyball is a darkened room illuminated only with black lights and with the net, ball, and court lines all UV reactive. Players use special makeup and glow necklaces to be seen.
• Glow Racing is the newest rage where four-wheeled, UV reactive pedal racers head down a similarly-lit race course. This creates a special “night time” event.
• Blacklight Dance Parties pull it all together with great music and a full array of black lights. The party is special because each piece of clothing reacts differently and our makeup and glow items allow partiers to stand out.

For more ideas on how to incorporate black lights into your fundraisers, corporate events, parties, weddings, and more, visit www.bobbyk.com today!

Flip Books are all the rage

Remember those days as a kid when you would doodle for hours on sheets of paper creating cartoons that, when stapled together, showed a stick figure moving or a car racing down a street? We called those flip books, a small advancement from the early crank-em movie reels.

Well, they are back in a truly innovative form! Flip books allow guests at any event to have a truly memorable experience that they then take home as a souvenir.  

The process is simple: Grab your friends and some props and maybe some signs (remember flip books don’t have audio). Then, act out your “skit” in six seconds for the video camera. Those six seconds are converted into 72 business-card-sized pages that are stapled into a customized cover so you can take your flip book video home with you immediately.

Now, when you want an “action” video of your last performance at a party, just take a flip book with you. No need to setup the DVD or Video player. These unique party favors are great for bar & bat mitzvahs, weddings, or corporate events. The speed at which they are produced allows every participant to get their own copy.

Fun with Photos

Everyone loves a personalized gift or party favor, and having fun (or phun) with photos is the place to start. Bobby K offers a photo booth rental for weddings, parties, and corporate events - and once your guests have their pictures taken, the possibilities are endless!

Imagine seeing yourself on the cover of a fantasy magazine, or putting together a puzzle that reveals a picture of you and your friends. You can be in the middle of a blizzard when you shake up a personalized snow globe, or click to your favorite website with your picture on the mouse pad. How about key chains, dry erase boards, clocks, and photo cubes with multiple pictures?

Check out the photo fun products you can add to your next event, and your guests will never forget the great time they had!

Gambling on your Wedding

One of the most awkward periods in a Wedding celebration is the time after the ceremony is finished, when the Bridal Party leaves for pictures with the photographer... but it doesn’t have to be that way! Change that down time into fun time with a fantasy casino!

Guests typically spend an uncomfortable hour to 90 minutes at a cocktail hour with low background music and nothing to do but talk about the weather! By adding casino tables, you create an atmosphere of fun right away. Guests grab a drink and some play money and head to their favorite table – blackjack, roulette, poker, or craps. They get to chat with the other guests and form a bond even if they don’t know them. Everyone is in a great mood and, by the time the Bridal party arrives, the party has already started. You can close the tables at that point or continue with the Bride & Groom moving from casino table to table, dealing cards or just chatting with guests.

Find out who has the most money at the end of the casino and award some lottery tickets or bottles of wine to the winners, just to add to the fun. You can even create custom casino chips with pictures of the bride and groom as favors to go along with the theme. These are available at www.bobbykcasinos.com.

Anytime you think outside of the box and add fun to a fun event, the results are always positive.

Don't skimp on casino night

If you're planning on holding a fantasy casino night, either as a fundraiser or social event, there are plenty of cheap ways to "do it right."

1. Put together a mix of popular lounge music to rotate throughout the evening. If you are planning on having a DJ, request some artists like Michael Buble, Norah Jones, and Frank Sinatra.
2. Dim the lights just enough to create the right mood. You don't have to order anything special - although white holiday lights could also go a long way!
3. Ask some volunteers to be your cocktail waiters and waitresses. This could be fun, even if you're only serving pretzels and punch.
4. Decorate the room with flashy, but cheap, accessories. It's easy to find garland, mardi gras beads, plastic masks, and more at your local party store. Tell them what you're doing and what your budget is and they might be able to put together a nice package for the evening.

For more tips and fantasy casino information, visit BobbyK.com/fantasy-casino-index-page.

Planning your next Fantasy Casino

If you've run a Fantasy Casino or casino night party before, you know there are some organizational skills required to keep the event running smoothly. Here are some "prize-winning" ideas (no, really... they're ideas for awarding prizes) to help take some of the thought out of event planning and give you more time for creativity!

Top Winners
Award prizes to the top 3-10 finishers in order of money won. Prizes can be simple and local businesses are often supportive in donating them.

Auctions
Give everyone a chance to walk away with something at the end - allow participants to bid on prizes with the money they have won.
 
Raffle Tickets
Raffle off prizes at the end of the night. Sell raffle tickets to participants for $1,000 to 5,000 each. If someone doesn’t want to participate in the casino, they can still buy tickets with the starting money. If a participant gambles and wins a lot of money, they will obviously get more raffle tickets.

Chinese Auction
Same as above, but participants put their tickets in a different raffle bin in front of each prize. Each winner is then drawn from respective prize bins.
 
Combinations
Perhaps the top three money-winners get the "big prizes," and everyone else is allowed to compete through raffles or auctions.

NOTE – Sometimes it is important to enforce a “win only once” rule to truly give everyone a chance!

For more suggestions and ideas, visit the Fantasy Casino page at BobbyK.com. 

Insurance - Party for Wellness Part 3

At Bobby K, we get many requests from families who want to inflate a bounce house or something similar in their backyard. But those families are often turned off by our prices for those smaller functions.

The reason we may seem expensive for birthday parties and family reunions is because we send our own staff members with the products. For insurance reasons, it's impossible for us to drop off a bounce house and pick it up hours later. The inherent risks are not worth the rewards.

However, our strict insurance and rental policies are just some of the reasons why Bobby K Entertainment is the leader in events like company picnics, college campus parties, and high school post-prom parties in the Northeast. These businesses love that we can bring the most fun and the safety to go with it.

Whether you're a single family or a large corporation, we're always here to answer your questions. Feel free to browse our website and contact us today for more information: www.BobbyK.com. 

Team Building - Party for Wellness Part 2

A company picnic should be an opportunity for employees to strengthen and build relationships with each other. It should be a relaxing break from the day-to-day routine, and should provide healthy competition, creativity, and family-friendly fun.

Inflatable bounce houses or moon walks are great for the kids. Mechanical bulls are fun and challenging for all ages. But Bobby K Entertainment can also provide products that are real team builders. Check out this list of 5 great activities for problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity:

1. Photo Scavenger Hunt
   Employees and their families can go on a realistic "Treasure Hunt" that features your corporation or the landscape where you host the company picnic.
2. Mission Possible Laser Maze
   Watch as your co-workers try to navigate their way through a "laser maze" with blacklights, fog, and a prize at the end. Time them for company bragging rights.
3. Human Foosball
   Five players per team are strapped to poles that allow them to move side-to-side, but NOT forward or backward... just like foosball players. See which team scores the most after a set time limit.
4. Competition Site
   See what happens when professionals compete against each other in childhood favorites like Water Balloon Toss, Potato Sack Race, Tug-of-War, and Limbo.
5. Photo Booth
   Don't hand out the stuff that everyone else hands out. Set up a Bobby K Photo Booth at your next company picnic and let your employees choose what they want (photo key chains, puzzles, clocks, mouse pads, etc.). Customize any of these products with your logo!

Contact us today to find out how your company picnics can be even more fun (and productive)!

Creating Friendships that Last - Party for Wellness Part 1

Graduating, retiring, moving away, starting a new career... all these things give us a bittersweet feeling. But instead of getting all sappy and sad and focusing on the "bitter," why not turn your attention to the "sweet?"

In the last post, I talked about Project Graduation - what a great way for high school students to relax after working so hard for 4 years! It's also a perfect ending to the time spent together. The last thing they'll remember about high school is the fun they had at Project Graduation. It's all about 'leaving on a high note.'

So why not take that philosophy and use it for your other bittersweet parties? Your co-workers would love to say their good-byes over a Fantasy Casino poker table rather than the office vending machine. Your neighbors will want to follow you out of town if your moving away party has an inflatable obstacle course instead of a sprinkler to run through. And imagine if everyone left with a strip of pictures from a Photo Fun picture booth!

The point is you can create friendships that last if you leave a lasting impression. Don't settle for what your school, your business, your organization, or your neighborhood has always done... suggest something different for the next bittersweet party and everyone will forget about that "bitter" part!

 

How to run a fantasy Texas Holdem Tournament

Many times we are asked if there are a set of rules to running a tournament. While there are several variations on tournaments, this method has been our most successful. You can also adapt it for a private tournament. The suggestions are just that, suggestions:

• Every player starts with $2,000 in chips. Red are worth $25, Blue are worth $100, Black are worth $500.
• You have received a playing card to determine your seating position - match that card to one at the table to find your seat. Play begins with the player to the left of the dealer receiving the dealer button.
• Small & Big blinds MUST Ante. If you leave the table for a break of any type, you must leave your chips at the table and the dealer will put in your blinds. If you are back before the bet is to you, you may play, otherwise your hand is folded.
• All bets must be a minimum of the Big Blind.
• You may go all in at any time!
• Side pots will be handled by the dealer.
• You must keep your cards visible at all times and bet in turn. Any bet out of turn may not be drawn back.
• If a table decreases to four players those players will be moved to active tables. They will be seated at open seats and will play that position at the next deal, putting in appropriate blinds if needed.
• If a player is eliminated and they would have been dealer or either of the blinds, their position stays open while the dealer button and blinds pass through with no money put up for that position.
• The final table will be made up of 8 players, dealer will be determined by high card. Only the final 8 win prizes. If there is a tie for any position, chip count going into the hand will determine placement.
• assetsBlinds go up every 30 minutes, chips will be colored up every hour.

BLINDS
$25/$50
$50/$100
$100/$200
$200/$400
$500/$1000
$2000/$4000

At the end of three hours, a final hand will be dealt and chip count will determine winners if more than one player remains. The quick raising of blinds and the jumps at the end PLUS the last hand being dealt at the top of the final hour changes strategies and makes sure the game does not last all night. For more information or to hire professionals for your tournament, go to www.bobbyk.com .