Today we’d like to introduce you to Christina Brooks
Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started working for a birthday party entertainment company as a performer in 2017 while I was working on my BA in Theatre and Education. After graduating in 2020 from Southwestern University, I began working with five different companies here in Houston as a Princess Performer. After the birth of my son, I decided to take a step back and only work with one company- Fairest of All Parties. My business started when a mom from a party I did in 2021 reached out saying that I had been Cinderella for her daughter and wanted to know if I offered a Taylor Swift character. Normally I refer clients back to the original company that they booked me through, however in this case I knew for a fact that they didn’t offer Taylor Swift nor did they offer custom character requests. At this point, no one in Houston offered Taylor Swift. So I decided that since I had six months before the event and seven years of experience under my belt, I could absolutely take this event on independently. Since then, through word of mouth, I have continued to get bookings for my “Glitter Popstar” character and have created fun activities that take place during the party that are specific to my company. I still work for Fairest of All Parties, so my other characters focus more on storybook characters and themed parties as opposed to Disney Characters. I offer short story time events with characters such as “The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly” and “Rainbow Fish” and am currently working on putting together a few new characters such as: Secret Agent, Ballerina, Artist, Scientist, Unicorn, Mermaid, Garden Fairy, and Princess.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Things have been going pretty smooth! The biggest struggle has been finding costume pieces quickly to accommodate for a quick deadline for custom characters. I had two weeks to prepare my Rainbow Fish character, and found the perfect dress online but it had a very large range of a delivery date which ended a week after the event. I got a backup dress off Amazon just in case the original dress didn’t arrive in time. Of course the morning of the event I get a notification saying the dress is out for delivery, but it arrived four hours after the event ended. I wound up wearing the backup dress to the story time- and when I tried on my “perfect” dress, I hated it. The material felt cheap, I didn’t like the cut of the neckline and I couldn’t even raise my arms in it. So it all ended up being okay, and I returned the original dress and kept my backup!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As an independent performer I do it all. I design my makeup, I style and cut my wigs, I spend countless hours in Goodwill and on Facebook Marketplace looking for the perfect costume pieces and then I have to actually book the gig. This requires posting on social media, writing contracts, and communicating with clients, Finally we get to my favorite part, the performance. For Taylor Swift specifically I practice for at least a week prior to the event. If a song is requested that I don’t know I have to learn the lyrics and then I watch videos of her performing live over and over to get the choreography down. She’s got pretty simple choreography though! It’s mostly just hand motions and the occasional simple footwork. Most parents are surprised to discover that I’m actually singing live at these events. I play the song with vocals and sing over it instead of playing instrumental tracks so that I’m able to talk during the songs and say things like “sing louder”, “let me see you shake it off!” or “everyone follow me!”. While it is a performance, it’s not always a concert. Standing and singing at a small group of girls is not always the most interactive so finding the sweet spot between interactive singing and concert performing is key. The most frequent compliment that I get following a gig is either about how well I managed the kids and took control over the group, or how nice my voice is. Having a background in both theatre and education really gives me the skills needed to do my job well. After working for so many companies in Houston there are similarities and differences to all of their provided activities. One thing I’m particularly proud of is my original songwriting activity idea. Taylor Swift is known for writing all of her own songs, so I took the concept of madlibs and the kids and I get to rewrite some of her popular songs with new verbs, adjectives and nouns. Not only is it funny, but it’s also educational!
Any big plans?
The goal is to keep adding to my character lineup. Eventually the Taylor Swift trend will die down and I don’t want to put all my eggs into one basket. I’m hoping to partner with more mom groups-I just did a partnership with Fit4Mom Cypress, and work with more schools and daycares for story time events.
Pricing:
- $185 for one hour party/event
- $50 for 20 minute storytime
- $25 add on fee for optional craft activity
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @christinas_storybook
- Facebook: Christina’s Storybook
Image Credits
Christina’s Storybook
