We were lucky to catch up with Hillel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hillel, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Since kindergarten, primary school and the first B & W TV screen we ever had at home I was amazed, entertained and mesmerized by the cartoons, artistic performances and shows I watched with the consent of my parents.
As a student in second grade my class was selected to perform a theatrical play in a TV show, I was 6 years old. We were seven “actors”, the TV host presented us with a short introduction about the play. I was the one to start our performance and as I was listening to him I heard the same first lines of the play, word for word which I was supposed to recite… At that moment I made my first “executive decision”, _ to skip those few lines of my monolog the prologue and start at the middle of it, so I did. The following “actor” didn’t start his lines immediately (I guess he was timing it by the minutes) so our teacher had to signal him to do so. He did and the play continued to a successful end with the thunderous applause of the studio audience.
Afterwards, the teacher congratulated us all and privately let me know I had made the right decision.
At 8 years old my younger brother and myself were selected at our rollerskating club to perform a clowning duo act on skates. The director of the club choreographed a routine with us; costumes were designed and made.
A couple of months later, accompanied by our mother on a bus full of other children skaters and their parents, we travelled out of town to perform at a festival.
At the end of our performance I was so excited and thankful that everything went as rehearsed and neither me nor my brother fell on the skating ring. Then I asked my mother if the audience liked it, “Do you hear the applause? those are still for you guys” she said…
At age 9 I was asked to perform in a play at another school, this time at a professional theater production with an all adult cast. We performed three days per week for an entire season. At one of the performances I got stuck on one of my lines, couldn’t get any sound out of my mouth. The actor performing with me immediately reacted saying “You want to tell me …… ” and proceeded reciting the words of my line… we then continued and finished our scene.
That day I learned how important it is to “be in the moment” and how “giving and helpful” an actor can and needs to be on stage, it was an important lesson for me. We ran a successful season and I didn’t get stuck with my lines again.
I knew then that the stage is my home…
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I lived in different countries and continents around the world, studied the art of theater and film with an array of different teachers, some of them direct pupils of Stanislavsky, Grotowski, Lee Strasberg, Marcel Marceau and other great inspirational artists.
Throughout the years participated in different acting workshops and classes. Then I applied and was accepted at a 3 year Theater Academy, we started 28 students and 6 graduated, I was one of them.
At the end of the studies a classmate and myself were invited by our pantomime teacher to perform with him at a summer festival. After that show we created our own performances as ‘Shushu and Papa’ entertaining young and old audiences in theaters, nightclubs, sport arenas and festivals around the country.
I then became a professional clown and mime. I love a quote of Claude Kipnis: “Mime is the art of creating the illusion of reality”.
Later on other opportunities knocked on my door to perform as a clown, an actor, a magician, a mime… so I trademarked my own style as “Clowntomime™”
A few years later I started to perform a specialty act with a giant balloon and I became known as “Mr. Balloon Man™ traveling the world over for the last 30 years…
It is a warm feeling to receive the applause of audiences, young and old , from around the globe. I had the opportunity to perform in film, television, big and small theaters, festivals, sport arenas, for the NBA, NFL, NHL, private events and many other interesting places, spreading laughter and amazement.
Got balloons will travel!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
When performing on stages that allow the possibility, while inflating the balloon there is a projection on it of the Globe, our Planet Earth turning, the nebulas engulfing it, slowly the images change to a baby inside it’s mother’s womb.
“The globe is fragile as a balloon if we don’t take care of it can pop!…”
We can read it in the newspapers and watch it on TV everyday. My message as a performer anywhere in the world is “we are all the same,” let’s be happy together instead of killing each other.
Stopping the “madness” with madness? Maybe…
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2022 I performed at The World Expo in Dubai. I was contacted by a Ukrainian agent to perform my Mr. Balloon Man act on stage.
During the second week performing there the Ukrainian/Russian war started. It was a very tense situation, I asked my agent and her assistant (also Ukrainian) if they would go back to their country and families, both responded “no”.
People from all over the world kept visiting the expo and I felt it was my duty to entertain the world’s audiences, adults and children alike, with amazement, magic and laughter to keep our sanity at a somber and difficult time that repeats itself so easily these days…
It’s hard sometimes but we need to keep keeping on.
As a kid I was told “Laughter is health, doctors recommend laughter”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mrballoonman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balloonmagus/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magicalissimo
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillelsmagic/
- Twitter: @MagiHillel
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5ATYlKrFy9lFdspy4VlyA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hillel-clowntomime-mr-balloon-man-santa-monica
Image Credits
Photography by: Dudley Reed Eric Sander Billy Baque Aldo Mauro Colin Cowlam Audience members and others