- They're just like, ha ha ha stupid Ariel.
- Lets just say I was not wearing
the appropriate underwear that day.
- All of a sudden I start hearing sirens outside,
the police are coming.
(upbeat music)
- I'm a princess performer.
I've been doing it for four years now
and I still currently do it.
I get paid to be a kid and it can be really, really fun.
But it can also be very sad.
- I was a princess party performer in New York City,
for four years.
I played a plethora of princesses.
The highs are very high.
It's like the best birthday party, we're having so much fun.
And the lows are very, very low.
- My experience as a performer was really bittersweet.
It was always fun working with kids and dressing up.
However, it was also not nice when the kids
didn't like you and thought you were terrible.
- I was a princess party performer for four years.
I was an actress in New York.
It was really easy side gig at the time.
I love Disney and I love kids and it was actually
a nice way to make money on the side.
- Then one day I had a Snow White party.
It was at a playground and it was for like
a four year old girl, it was going great.
We did a magic show, we sang some songs.
Everyone's really excited and everyone was eating
a lot of junk food, like a lot of Cake.
A lot of cake Pops, a lot of candy.
I thought, Okay, let's do some face painting now.
Let's sit down and hang out with the girls.
I got my little station setup.
I did the birthday girls face paint, she loved it.
And then she sat down next to me.
And then her friend came up and it was her turn.
She sat in front of me so it's me,
little girl in front of me,
birthday girl sitting this way talking to us.
And while she's talking to us,
she's just still going at it eating
as much junk food as she can.
Out of nowhere, she just projectile vomits all over me
and the girl I was face painting.
We were looking into each other's eyes
and I could just see the horror building up in her soul.
We're just like how this very connected moment
of what the (beep).
It went by in slo mo then all of a sudden
it was like quick like, oh man,
I'm just drenched in this,
it smells, it's leaking everywhere.
It's like kind of in my face paint
and the mom was like oh my goodness, oh my goodness.
Oh this is terrible and she grabbed up her kid
and like went to go take care of her.
You know, the grandma came and picked up this kid
and went to go take care of her.
No one came and helped me.
I was just like in this massive bundle of dress
and vomit and I had to like go into the bathroom
and like wipe it off and get it off of me.
The party still had like 40 minutes to go.
So I was still damp and smelled horrible.
And I had this like little outline of like vomit pile
on my dress still and people were still asking
to like take pictures of me like oh Snow White,
can we take a picture I'm like, sure.
I power through that part of it
and then it was the end of the party.
I was like collecting the money at the end
and no tip I call that my boss and I was just like
I got vomited on and it's really hot
and I don't have a tip and she was like, "Oh honey
"that's so sad."
In the end we ended up calling the clients
and getting a tip it was like 20 bucks,
so little dinner at Taco Bell made up for it.
- So this is about my second year doing parties
at this point, it was a full out event.
We had three princesses and one attendant to help us out
and not just like normal princesses all hoop skirted.
We're having Bell, we are having Cinderella
and we're having Sleeping Beauty.
And it was the last one of the day,
we're all kind of ready to get going home.
It starts out really normal.
We come in and everybody's super excited
to see princesses we find out that,
it's not just one birthday girl,
it's two birthday girls.
Two families had come together to do this big event.
We're starting with balloons and face paint.
This event hall that we are in,
is separated down the middle by an aisle
and on either side are the families
for each of the birthday girls.
But I noticed in the back five or six people
on each side are glaring heavily
at each other across the way.
It's a little odd but you know what,
they're at the back of the room,
I'm at the front of the room.
They're not kids will never interact, it'll all be fine.
So grandfather comes up at one point,
and he's chatting with me while his granddaughter
is getting a balloon and he was like,
"Actually, we own this party hall,
"which is so great and why everybody's allowed to come in."
I was like, Oh, that's really cool, awesome.
And he's like, "And don't you worry, little lady.
"We're all police officers here and blah, blah, blah.
"So if anything goes wrong,
everything's gonna be just fine."
I was like, Okay, why would anything go wrong?
We are only in the first like, 20 minutes of this party,
but we're killing it.
We're about to finish up with face paint and balloons.
And then out of nowhere, a yell comes from the back
(yell) of the room and it stops everyone
and everyone looks up as one and we see one of the guys
that I had seen previously glaring at the other side
of the room he has stood up
he's looking directly at someone across the aisle.
Bee lines have formed and punches him straight in the face,
everybody like jumps up starts yelling and is freaking out.
And now all of those men that are in the back
of the room are at each other
just swinging fists going crazy.
It's mass chaos and we have all these children
at the front of the room, right?
So I look over at my other three entertainers.
I'm like, "Grab the kids, we've gotta go."
so we all grab the kids in our hoop skirts
and like go over to the corner
and we're like putting them behind us
and being like, "it's fine.
"Your parents are just having fun,"
cause you're trying to like be cool with these kids
and get them to not freak out.
We're watching this fight as it's going down
and then all of a sudden the lights cut off.
The entire place goes dark, so music gone, lights gone.
All of our like, you know,
cotton candy and machine and stuff all dead.
Whatever part of the family owned it
was trying to defuse the situation.
That did not defuse the situation.
It angered them more because now
no one can see each other and so it's just punches
in the dark.
All of a sudden I start hearing sirens outside,
the police are coming and by this point,
all of the like other families have like pushed
these fighting men outside of the hall,
the lights come back on.
The kids are at the front like all wide eyed and terrified.
And we're like lollipops for everyone,
lollipops for everyone.
You want cotton candy, here you go.
You know, just trying to like,
make these kids feel okay.
The party has decided to end
without anyone deciding it's ended, it's done.
Their parents are coming up
and taking all these kids away
and we're all standing at the front
and we still got like an hour and a half on our contract,
which is crazy myself and Kate,
my attendant went up to talk to this mother
we're like, "Hey, is everything okay?"
Knowing full well, nothing is okay.
And so this mom is just crying
and I'm like, "Is everything okay?"
And she's like, "Yeah, the police are solving it outside.
"They're taking statements."
She's like, "But the party is over.
"I think you guys should probably just go home."
I was like, "We just need you to sign this contract here."
And so she signs the contract
and everything and we don't even ask for a tip
honestly because at that point like,
everything that's bad has happened.
I just feel bad for her genuinely.
The good news of the whole thing is,
we got to go home early rumors are flying around
as like people are leaving the party
and they're telling like what they think is happening.
For some reason the two families just like
really didn't get along and I think they were mad
because one of the little girls
was getting more attention than the other or something.
I feel maybe the best about that,
that we were able to keep the kids
out of the situation for sure.
And that they didn't have to deal with all that.
- I was called to do this birthday party
as Princess Jasmine.
My typical costume would be a little gold crown.
I'd have my hair long flat,
I'd have turquoise Skirt with like gold glitter,
and I'd have a little kinda like bralette
but with with a lot of fabric seeing as
it is a children's party.
So it wasn't too revealing.
I'd been lazy that day and my Skirt
had a couple of buttons that popped.
But I'd got my mom to quickly stitch it up
because I was like whatever it's no big deal.
I arrived at the house.
I soon noticed that it was actually
the brother and sister of this guy
that went to school with me, Uni.
That I had a crush on for a long time
and they have a backyard, they had a cake station
and they had like a candy station.
So everyone kinda crowded outside.
So on this occasion I was performing in front
of the cake when I was gonna be done
they were gonna be ready to light the candles basically.
So here I am performing in front of this beautiful cake
may I say and my crush type fancied
for a few years right there.
I take a step forward to finish my show
I bow and I go look up as as took the step forward.
This kid steps on my skirt the same time.
I go flying into this cake.
But before I'm able to hit the cake,
the Scott just goes (tears)
and literally the whole thing opens.
And let's just say I was not wearing
the appropriate underwear that day.
So I'm standing there also in a thong basically.
The whole party basically stops
and like turns to look at me.
I've ruined this child's cake.
I'm basically half naked.
So you can just imagine the parents looks,
the kids looks it was awful.
I go bright red, like a bright tomato.
My costume was no longer,
you know a costume anymore it was just like a rug
and I was literally covered in cake.
So after that, I was politely told that I could end.
My crush just looked at me
and acted like he didn't know me
and literally just ignored me.
It took me a while to like come back from that
so I took a break from being a Party princess
for a while after that.
- So this is my second day on the job.
We're doing normal four year old birthday party.
She's very excited Elsa is going to be coming.
That's my friend Nikki.
She's also bringing her clown friend
that's my friend Raquel.
And then I'm going to be Olaf.
Raquel goes downstairs and my friend Nikki and I
are upstairs and we're putting Nikki into her Elsa outfit.
So I get Nicki all done up in her corset,
we go down into the elevator banks.
My friend Raquel is coming out of the party venue
and she's just shaking her head.
She looks at us and she says,
"There are more kids than we expected."
Which in party terms means that
this party is going to take twice as long than we expected.
She starts to say, the mom.
Right as she says the mom the doors of the venue
wosh open this middle aged woman
comes walking out of the doors walks over to us is so mad
looks at us and says, "Girls, the Elsa music is playing
"and I am already not happy."
I'm such a people pleaser I'm like oh my goodness, mam.
We are so sorry if anything so far has gone wrong.
You can absolutely come up and talk to us.
We will figure it out.
We're going to make this party the best
for your little girl we are so excited for her.
She looks at me, rolls her eyes huff's
and just walks back into the room.
So we walk into the event, it's going fine so far.
So we start the party with face paint and balloons
and all of a sudden the mother comes bee lining
over to us and starts screaming.
She's like, "The lines, the lines.
"The lines aren't straight."
And she's pointing at the kids.
She wants them to like be imperfect stick straight lines.
So I start moving all the kids into those lines.
I think we're done. I go back over to balloons.
She comes over. She's yelling again.
She says, "This is not working. We need a dance party."
I try to explain the kids are in line.
They're probably not gonna wanna do a dance party.
She won't hear it, she demands a dance party
start doing the cha cha slide.
It's me six nannies, one little boy we managed
to convince to get out of line.
All the other kids were like, come on,
they don't want to join.
The mom insists on holding my iPod
that has all of my music on it.
So the music was connected via Bluetooth
and as she would walk around to yell at other people
during the party, it would keep disconnecting.
So the music kept jumping in and out, slide to the...
slide to the... take it back... well... It was not great.
The one kid we do have does not stay long.
He goes immediately back to the line.
I see this is a bust I go back over to go
and help with balloons Raquel looks at me as I come over
and she's like, "Hey, this is not going well.
"This mom is really not liking this party.
I need to go tell our boss."
I was like, Okay yeah,
go out in the hall, make the call.
I'll continue with balloons.
Now. the birthday girl has brothers
and they are hooligans and they've decided that
if they pop up their balloons,
they can just hop back into the front of the line
and get as many balloons as they want.
So we're here on our fourth time
they come up to me and I'm saying,
hey, guys like this gonna be your last balloon
one of the little brothers looks at me and he says,
"who's in charge here?"
So I kind of looked at him and I say,
"You know what, bud it's like my balloon line,
so I'm gonna have to be in charge of this one.
Then he goes, "Actually, my mom says she's
"the one in charge and she says,
"you're the worst party entertainer she's ever seen."
Raquel comes back in our boss says we can't leave
until the mom says we can leave
because we are contractually obligated to stay.
So then the boys even though I've told them
this is their last bloom they come back in line.
I'm trying to make any kind of connection at this point.
I see he has a cute Avengers shirt on I say,
"Hey, bud I like the Avengers too,
"who's your favorite Avenger?"
And he goes, "You don't know anything about the Avengers
"and I hate you."
And he spits on to my face, I wipe it off.
I look at her.
I say okay, Raquel, this is not a good situation.
We are going to do all these activities
as fast as humanly possible get it done with
and then we are going to leave this place
and we are never going to look back
and we're doing everything at the same time.
We're doing bubbles, we're doing cotton candy.
We are doing a dance party.
We're doing everything all at once.
By the way, birthday girl loving it.
So happy as we're doing this like dancing game
in the middle trying to have fun.
The mom keeps dancing around Raquel and Nicki
and she keeps yelling out loud in a sing song voice
as if she's singing along to the track.
"When am I going to get my check back?"
Just out loud at the venue.
I was like guys I've gotten spit on.
It's been a hard day for me
and I've kind of kept this party together.
I'm just gonna pack everything up.
We just need somebody to get her to sign the contracts.
Now my friend Nikki, is like so strong and amazing.
She goes Oh, I'll get her to sign the contract.
So Nikki hands her the contract says ma'am
you have to sign this.
The mom says oh, I have things to say,
and she snatched away she writes a huge essay
on this whole comment box.
We only have a box like this big and she was like,
"Have you guys done a lot of these parties?"
My friend Nikki has been at the company for so long.
She's been like the veteran.
She's like, we've actually done a lot of parties.
So we think it might be something here
that's the problem, the mom goes, "Well, that's a surprise.
"Because the only place that I think
"you guys can be pretty entertainers is a funeral home."
And she looks at and my friend, Nikki, and she goes,
"I'm a lawyer, by the time this party is done,
"I'm gonna have made money."
She hand the contract back and we go,
we get back to the office,
and we explained everything to my boss.
And she's like, girls, it's nothing against you.
I totally understand.
We're just gonna refund this lady
so we never have to see her again.
So she sends her the refund,
we get an email back the next day.
She says, "That's not enough. I'm going to be suing you
"and taking you to court."
So she ended up suing the company for around 10 times
the price that the actual party was for
something around the lines of emotional damages,
and it ended up being two days in court.
But we ended up winning, so that was pretty good.
- This was a little mermaid party.
So I was Ariel and for Ariel,
we have like a skirt you clip on
this like giant fin tail to the end of it.
And when you have the fin attached to the bottom
of the dress, you can't walk, you can't move.
You're just kinda like,
I get there, I get changed inside.
And what we do for these parties,
is we have a strong man come and basically pick us up
in his arms and do this special entrance.
So they play a part of your world.
And I'm just kind of like laying in this man's arms
with my fin and just like, you know,
singing along to it and looking very pretty.
And they bring in they're like,
16 year old football player son and like,
he looks buff, and I'm like, Okay,
let's practice this though, like pick me up.
Make sure you're comfortable with my weight.
And then like, we can do this.
He's like, "Yeah, no problem."
Picked me up fine, I was like, Okay, awesome.
And music is starting to play outside.
We're about to go out into this like corridor.
It's like a patio corridor on cement
and then at the end of the corridor,
is all the friends and family.
They all have their phones up ready to record
we're out there he's walking I'm singing in slow motion
his chunky Oh Cyrus shoes catch on
like a little piece of like the ground
that's like elevated and he trips forward
and rolls me out of his arms
and like into the air and I'm like taco rolling
through the air with my fin flipping just like. no.
And I land onto the concrete so hard
there's like a smack he falls over.
I like cut my elbow there was like blood
everyone gasps but then they start cracking up
and everyone's got their (beep) phones out too.
So they're like filming me and they're just like,
ha ha ha stupid Ariel and I'm just like on the ground
like incapable of getting up
because of this goddamn fin is stuck to me still.
My arm is all covered in blood.
Finally, I'm like trying to like struggle
to take off my fin and all the kids are like,
she's not a mermaid she has feet
I get up finally hoping that I can have some time
to like maybe go to the bathroom and you know,
wash the blood off my arm.
No, they're like all right Ariel, come on.
We're taking pictures,
get your ass over to the cake table.
I'm just like, okay, the adults were really terrible.
But the saving grace was these kids were so sweet.
And they like came up to me and they're like,
"Ariel, are you okay?" And I'm like "Yeah, I'm okay."
They're like, "Do you need candy? Do you need some water?"
And I'm like, "Yeah,"
They even helped me bring all my stuff out to my car
at the end of the party.
The kids were really, really awesome.
And that's why I do this job because
they give me hope for the world.
(upbeat music)