“I’m in love with it,” says Joel Klein. “Most people who do what I do are in love with it.” He’s talking about the art of balloon twisting, which he began in 1971 when he was doing kids’ magic shows.
Now, at the age of 75, the retired electrician only performs magic for his grandkids, but the folks in his Tribeca neighborhood can count on a new balloon sculpture appearing outside his building daily.
“I started doing it about five years ago when the building was covered with scaffolding, to brighten things up,” he recounts.
He was a hit with the neighborhood kids and adults alike, with creations ranging from dinosaurs to aliens to bees to superheroes and beyond, sometimes sporting messages that reflect his worldview, such as “kindness, compassion, honesty.”
He’s been tagged “The Balloon Banksy,” but he doesn’t exactly hide his identity and is always flattered when someone wants a shot of him with his work.
Klein recalls the time that Ryan Reynolds, a fan his creations, stopped to chat. Two girls came by and asked, “Can we get a picture of you with the balloons?” Sure, said Klein, moving out of the way so that they could get a pic of Reynolds.
Photo courtesy of Joel Klein
“No”, said one, pointing to Klein, “I don’t want him, I want a picture of you.”
“Do you know who he is ?” asked Klein, pointing to the movie star. “I know who he is,” she replied. “But I want a picture of you!”
“He was hysterically laughing!” Klein says.
Of course, every party has a pooper, and there’s no exception in this tale. For some reason, a fellow tenant — possibly harboring a Grinch complex — waged a campaign designed to get Klein to stop brightening up people’s days. He went so far as to create a fake cease and desist letter, but happily did not succeed — and Klein went on unabated in his mission.
Eventually, the scaffolding came down, and Klein resumed his daily offerings on the corner lamppost.
He has also livened up countless parties, doing the twist for regular folks as well as celebs such as David Blaine and Martha Stewart.
“I’ve traveled all around the world – some places that aren’t particularly friendly — and it breaks the ice,” he notes. To prove his point, he shows us pics of kids (and adults) holding balloons (and wearing them) in Vietnam, Morocco, India, Hanoi and Cambodia.
Klein started way back when with simple constructions made from just one balloon, but got more ambitious when he went to a convention in Boston in the 1980s.
“For the first time, I saw people making creations with 10, 20 balloons and I was amazed. It completely changed things for me,” he recalls.
He says the balloon world is a “wonderful, generous, kind community where people share their knowledge,” in contrast to the magic world, where you have to pay to learn a new trick.
Which is just as well because, as Klein puts it, “I’m not in it for the money — this is a full-time job with no income.” There is, however, a Venmo QR code out there if anyone feels like dropping him a tip.
One might expect him to take a break now and then, but last year, the folks on the street started to ask his door person about the absence of adornments on the street light. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a voluntary break.
“I was in Colorado biking with my son,” he recalls, “and I fell off a cliff. … I was in the ICU for three days that I don’t really remember and another three or four days in the hospital. I had to stay up there for a month. I broke seven ribs, punctured my lung, dislocated my shoulder and broke my knee. And I had nerve damage -I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do balloons or walk again. But six months later, I’m back to twisting balloons and I’m going to play pickleball later!”
“In retrospect,” he muses, “it was one of the great experiences of my life. It gave me a totally different perspective on being alive.”
As for the balloons, he has no intention of stopping: “I love how it makes me feel when I see someone enjoy it and I love making other people feel good.”
Joel Klein is on Instagram at @bigheadballoons and on Facebook at facebook.com/
