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Hello and welcome to Burlesque Balloons. I set out to discover the history of the X-Rated
balloon as both a way of crediting the early balloon artists and to have a resource available to others
that may be interested in this subject. It's no secret that in the mainstream balloon community adult themed balloons
have a tendency to stir up controversy. A lot of balloon twisters believe that making an X-Rated
balloon is a sin, if thats the case I am a proud sinner in fact I've crossed over to the
dark side of the balloon. I believe this subject should be available to any artist that would like to include adult
themes into their repertoire. The truth is X-Rated is simply overrated when it comes to the art of balloon
twisting. My personal experience with these designs goes back to when I was a kid in the early eighties. At
the time I was working at a place called the House of Humor in Whittier Ca, it was a head shop, sex shop,
costume shop, magic and prank store.This was a teenager's dream job, I always loved gags and magic now I had access
to all of the items I could never afford. Around this time was when I started getting into twisting balloons and
came across a booklet titled Bar Room Balloons by Roger Siegel, it was a twenty four page pamphlet that
had several balloon designs and a magic trick. After researching this subject for several years I
believe that Roger Siegel should be credited for being the first to publish and to entertain with adult themed
balloons. Below I am including an interview I had with Roger Siegel, I asked him to the best of his
knowledge if he was the first to twist X-Rated balloons. His answer was a definative yes nobody was doing it before
me. Roger told me he was twisting naughty balloon animals for Hugh Hefner at the original Playboy Mansion in
Chicago back in the late 60's.
In fact Heff's favorite trick was the peeing dog routine, which is included
in the booklet Bar Room Balloons. Roger also worked on several layouts for Playboy magazine. One pictorial was a spoof on greek
mythology the story of Leda and the Swan and as Roger put it he found it very difficult working with all those naked women.
The story goes Zeus took the form of a swan and seduced Leda on the very night she slept with her husband she went on
to lay two eggs from which her children were hatched. Roger was in charge of making balloon swans in a series of steps which
made it look like the nude model was twisting the design.Roger also designed a balloon space suit to coincide with
the Apollo missions which also appeared in Playboy magazine during that same period.
 Other titles from the era include the X-Rated Balloon book by Eric Persson which is out
of print, I spoke with Eric about his book I wanted to know when he started doing adult themed balloons, and
why I could not find his booklet anywhere. Eric said he came up with the designs that are in the X-Rated balloon book
during the late 70's and early 80's. At that time he was doing a lot of gigs in the adult market and due
to constant requests for "certain designs" he created a series of characters based on
existing shapes. He also came up with some original creations one of his more elaborate being a balloon sculpture titled
Linda Lovelace and John Holmes. Eric went on to tell me that the X-Rated balloon book was sold by T. Myers and was pulled
from their catalog because of gospel balloon twisters who were upset about the subject matter in the book. They complained
to the publisher until T. Myers finally caved in and pulled the book from their catalog. Blue Pencil
Balloons part three of all wind and twists by Doug Brearley is the final booklet from this era that delves into the subject
of naughty balloon animals for adults. Doug Brearley passed away in 1988 however I was able to get in
contact with his collaborator Gerry Luff who sent me a copy of Blue Pencil Balloons and a short bio on
Doug. All of these booklets were originally published in the seventies at the height of the sexual revolution.
 Personally I would like to thank Roger, Eric and Doug for sharing their stories and having
the balloon balls to approach the subject of twisting and entertaining with adult themed balloons. These guys
are true pioneers in the industry.
In 2003 Shenanigans released a book titled Rude Balloons which adds to
the very limited selection of information that you can find on this subject.
 Durex "Get It On" condom campaign is the most recent example of what
I see as the rising popularity of the modern day dirty balloon animal.When first released this commercial took the
Internet by storm with over 600,000 hits in the first 48 hour of its release. "Get It On" has won many
awards including the Cannes Lion award 2009. To date this spot has seen over two million viewers.
I have also included a blog where balloon artists can submit photos of their favorite naughty balloon designs
as well as say a few words about the subject. Im sure most balloon artist have at least one X-Rated design. "Its a dirty
little secret"
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