For You, The Fans - Part 1

I noticed a while ago that an extraordinarily large amount of people visit my blog through Google using bizarre keywords and phrases. While the top keywords are usually predictable words like 'jimzip' though, there are some that just plain baffle me. Sure, I may have made passing references to these obscure things in entries past, but it creeps me out just how many people still find me using them, and while I could have just continued laughing, the realisation soon hit me: I hate trawling google and not finding what I'm after. So, I've decided that now I'm going to help these people out by giving some answers to those tough (but essential) questions.

For the next five entries I will present a list - sorted by popularity - of the top five phrases people seem to keep using to land on my blog, no matter how bizarre they may be...

We begin with the classic, the timeless, the ever-poignant:


1) Cirque Du Soleil Themed Party - (247 hits in 2 months)

Ok, so you wanna throw a party, and by the looks of things, you want a Cirque Du Soleil themed party. Goodness knows why that may be, you probably can't bend and twist anywhere near as much as Corteo, but nonetheless, the people have spoken. Here's how you can put on a bang-on shindig for anyone to enjoy, and still impress that partay connoisseur that insists on nitpicking.

Firstly you're gonna have to decorate. Big time. Lucky for you, your local 'Spotlight', 'DeSerres' or 'Michaels' has cheap material, lots of glitter, and friendly staff. Fire jugglers are also cool, but it's difficult to find a place to store them after the event...

First, go get some lengths of coloured fabric, you'll use these to either drape on the walls of your venue, or hang from the roof, bombay restaurant style (search for 'draped fabric ceiling' for some great examples). They 'up' the ambiance and add to that 'chic eclectic' style, if you do it right that is.

You'll also want to buy some harlequin-style masks and either have them on the walls, decoratively placed on tables between food, or for guests to wear, because there's no fun in clowning around if you can't hide your shame.

Decorating is a world unto itself, and you'll want to be creative here. Just remember that those little silver stars you buy in the containers are a hellish nightmare to clean up; you'll be finding them in the carpet for months afterward.

Music! Ah music. Probably the most effective way to add mood. Hit up iTunes and search for 'Cirque Du Soleil' (duh), then trawl through the vast expanse of musical delights. This is your playlist for the evening, so try to choose happy, upbeat tracks (unless you're going for that whole *dark circus* theme, which is another blog post altogether!). For a deeper experience, another great soundtrack to grab is 'Le Fabulous Destine de Amelie Poulin', yes the film soundtrack by Yann Tiersen. Make sure you give all these tracks a full listen before throwing them into the playlist by the way, you'd hate to have a 'my son's Megadeth track found its way onto my dinner-party playlist' moment - not fun.

Finally, food. If you're working on a budget, you don't want catering, but if you have the cash, catering at parties is an awesome way to make the night memorable (and have decent grub going around). Guests love it, and again it adds to the whole experience (if possible, you could also ask the catering company if the waiters/waitresses can wear some of those masks you bought. Oh my!).

If catering isn't an option, don't stress, you have everything you need at your local supermarket. Bowls of berries for the health-inclined (the non-juicy kind if possible, nobody likes blackberry stains on their acrobatic garb), colourful sweets, fruit punch (alcoholic or not) and chips with dips are always good party snacks. It's up to you to set the mood, and lay out eats accordingly.

That's all I can say for now. All in all, as long as you put a little time into the planning, your party will go off without a hitch. It's all about entertaining the guests, so get creative, send out those invites, and try to stop that drunken girl from passing out in your potplant.

Enjoy your Cirque Du Soleil Party!

Part 2 coming soon.

Jimzip