The balloon costumes started when I was back at Arizona State around 1999. I had been working making balloon animals at restaurants and for my mixed media art class decided to make giant costumes and walk around campus. We were photographed for the front page of the student newspaper and the costumes were a hit. For a video class I made movie called Attack of the Balloon Man in the style of a cheesy 50's sci-fi film.
I had so much fun working on the balloon costumes that I started to make them as Halloween costumes every year. I've kept it up nearly every year since then. Eventually they evolved from more generic tentacle monsters to more specific characters. I've also made seeing out of the costume a higher priority. For the first few years I could barely see out of the costumes and needed a guide to avoid running into things.
The costumes can take between 4-10 hours depending on the complexity. A few balloons will pop while making the costumes but generally they are tougher and more robust that people think. Since they are balloons made especially for professional twisting, they can withstand a lot of abuse.
