[Patti]

My mom asked me if I would do some pumpkin carving demonstrations for the yearly whoop-ti-do (canal fest) in my little home town in October (she's the mayor).

I plan on having the scooping and the transfers done ahead of time so I can concentrate on putting out a large number of pumpkins. I'll probably also do a few of my own patterns and one or two more intricate ones the night before as well.

Around dusk I plan on lighting up everything I've managed to carve for a nice little display.

I figure I'll have to carve pretty fast or people will be bored with the demo. Kind of like watching concrete dry.

If anyone has any other ideas to make this more interesting let me know.

[Mister_JP]

Maybe you can have lots of set-ups that are in various stages of completion like on a cooking show.

Have an untouched pumpkin and demo how to cut a lid with a notch.

Have another that is scooped out and show how to attach and start the pattern transfer.

Have another that has the pattern 100% transfered, and begin to carve it.

Finally have one already done (or all but the last cut) and bingo, an quick demo that won't lose your audience's attention.

Once the runthrough is complete, go back to the one that you started carving and finish that off while having a Q & A.

Good luck.

[Dans banana Loafcake]

Hey,

You could have a couple of kids from the audience come and try and carve some of the easier designs like Oogie Boogie 2? You could scoop and mark it out for them and just have them use one of those round bladed safety saws cut it out. Audience participation means they're helping you entertain the ohters, although on the flip side you'll have to keep a watchful eye on them..... kids will be kids!!

Dan