Shown here with some of his creations, balloon artist Bruce Carr combines lung power and imagination to create original characters and to replicate others from the worlds of animation, video games and comic books. | Courtesy the artist
When Bruce Carr starts working on a balloon sculpture, his imagination goes wild. Sure, this balloon artist can twist latex and air into swords and dogs for kiddie birthday parties. But that’s not all he can do.
Just wait until you meet his 13-foot-tall Aku, the demonic entity from the animated series Samurai Jack. Or his 37-foot-long Red Dragon, which has been prominently displayed at various pop-culture and comic-book conventions all over the country. Those are balloon sculptures, too.
Carr’s fascination with balloons began as a kid watching his mom, a wedding coordinator, use them as decorations. Years later, as a theater major at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, he attended a presentation by a balloon artist and saw his own career path.
“So many things could be made through balloons,” says Carr. “I found it to be a way to have a future career in entertainment.” As someone on the autism spectrum, he adds, combining theater and balloon weaving helped him overcome communication challenges and connect effortlessly with audiences.
Working from photos, he maneuvers balloons to match what he sees, stretching and inflating with lung power and a hand pump. Some are thin and become eyebrows. Others take only a puff of air to become shoelaces. His work ranges from Mickey Mouse (of course) to video game characters of substantial size and complexity. Aku, for example, required 663 balloons to create.
Although Carr can finish some pieces in two or three hours, he admits to working 27 hours straight on one sculpture and 55 hours over four days on another.
Dressed in his signature top hat, dress shirt, tie and vest, Carr is also an entertainer. He brings the stories of his balloon characters to life through songs and jokes, and often provides voices for his puffy plastic pop-culture puppets.
You might find him working at a children’s party, a cosplay event or an anime convention, where the art is often auctioned off. His balloon creations have also been featured on Cartoon Network, MTV, Fox News and Kotaku.
Carr (who bills himself as “No Ordinary Balloon Man”) can be booked at iamnoordinaryballoonman.com.
