We visited at Navy Pier and had a pretty good experience. The person working there was a little…read morehard of hearing, and we ended up with a color piece (equipped with the increased price tag) when we told her multiple times that we wanted black and white. But the piece itself turned out great! She did like to talk about politics, the weather, and some health issues, which made us needing to smile a little awkward. My son did pretty well sitting for about 15min before he lost interest. The whole caricature took about 30min for the three of us, and we were pretty happy with the results!

Great caricature! A treasure for sure! So glad we decided to stop for the picture. Thank you for…read moretaking your time at the end of the day

Commissioned two pieces that turned out perfect. Chuck was very receptive to feedback and turned…read morethem around so quickly.

I hired Chuck and friends for a day at the middle school. The kids LOVED the caricatures. Check is…read moresuper talented. Highly recommend.

Ellen, Thank you…read moreagain for all the drawings they are all amazing! People couldn't stop talking about it on Sunday and even today as we were leaving to head home. You added so much entertainment to our event, again thank you. It was such a pleasure working with you.

We hired Ellen to draw caricatures of our guests for our daughter's first birthday party. Ellen was…read morea total hit! At times we had a line waiting for their drawings, and everyone was talking about and showing off their caricatures the whole time! She was so popular that we needed her to stay an hour longer than we planned. We'd definitely have Ellen again, and we highly recommend her services!

This guy is a DUD. His team and dancers were so boring It was like being at party myself. This…read morekids had more fun with their phones in the lobby than listening to this lame attempt. Strictly Fun.. was not fun and Stickily a bunch of loser!!

From the owner: Strictly Fun specializes in helping you create the greatest event you can imagine. We offer…read moreamazing interactive DJ services that can create the perfect atmosphere for any occasion, as well as custom scenery, props, ambient lighting, and additional sound systems. Strictly Fun also offers help in gathering all of your entertainment needs. We have performers of all shapes and sizes from magicians, clowns and jugglers, to Ventriloquists, face painters, and caricaturists. Any entertainer you need, Strictly Fun can get for you. We also offer custom video montages, and music editing. So as far as what we specialize in... we specialize in anything you need to make your event spectacular and unforgettable.

Smarty Pants is the way to go baby!…read more He came by for our sons 1st birthday party and followed a magician and everyone loved his creations! I believe he was there for an hour or so. As seen by his creations, he was a hit by both adults and kids alike! I hope we may utilize his services again! We can't speak highly enough of SP!!

What a fun performer. I came across him at the Park Ridge Kiwanis annual pancake breakfast, where…read morehe was doing some entertaining mostly for the kids but definitely for the adults as well. It's through him that I heard of the Central Street Busker Festival that took place the next day and his line was loooong! Most recently, we went to his show last week that the Mt. Prospect Public Library held for spring break. That was very very well attended, with a long line of folks waiting to get in (and that's with all of us registered to attend!), but the show was a lot of fun. He did a little magic, a little comedy, and some fun balloon tricks. This guy has been doing this all his adult life--unless that's also a joke and part of his act--but regardless, he's great at his job. I'm looking forward to seeing him again and my little one having the chance to pick her balloon creation on her own.

She did an amazing job on my moms cat I would go back for another picture She didn't even take that…read morelong in the drawing

Really friendly and cute artist . I really recommend this place !!it was quick and amazingread more

We have had the pleasure of having Lisa at our past two National Night Out events for airbrush face…read morepainting, and she is AWESOME! Maureen is a pleasure to work with for booking and gets us what we need quickly and with great service. Excellent customer service and all-around GREAT entertainment!

We hired Around The Town Entertainment for a Santa Meet & Greet in December, and it was truly the…read morebest experience! The booking process was smooth, the pricing was great, and communication was quick, clear, and very friendly. From the moment Santa arrived, he was kind, funny, respectful, and absolutely wonderful with both kids and adults. Everyone had an amazing time, and the joy he brought to our event was unforgettable. We couldn't have asked for a better experience and would highly recommend Around The Town Entertainment to anyone looking to create a magical event. We will definitely be booking again!

I'm sure I've hit a world record for character rentals. I know lots of options when it comes to…read morefind Spiderman, Elsa and other princesses. However, this year my kids challenged me with wanting the following characters at their bday parties: one of the My Little Ponies, Pikachu (Pokemon) and Elmo. While I had to go elsewhere to find the pony (probably the most challenging of the requests), Blazing Birthdays was one of the few character rental companies that had both Pikachu and Elmo. I was most impressed with their communication. Their managing director, Scarlett, was super helpful on the phone and followed up with a very detailed email after our initial phone call. After hearing a bit about my parties we decided on 1 1/2 hours for Pikachu (30 min of Pikachu followed by an hour of balloon twisting) for 25ish five year olds. And then 1 hour of Elmo (30 min of Elmo followed by 30 min of balloon twisting) for 25ish two year olds. I received a call from the characters the night before both parties, which is a first in my many years of character rentals. I could tell by their voicemails alone that they were going to great...and I was right. Colman was Pikachu and ran around our party screeching "pika pika"- the kids absolutely loved playing with him. After 30 min of playing pikachu disappeared and Colman appeared ready to twist a lot of balloons, mostly swords for this crowd of 4 and 5 year old boys. He was also really great w/ the kids and had no problem getting their attention. Catherine was Elmo. She ran into some traffic issues so was a few min late to the party, but texted to let me know and was very apologetic so it was no big deal. I was a little afraid of how such little ones (one and two year olds) would react to Elmo, but she was super sweet with them and they loved her. She (or he) gave a bunch of hugs, posed for pictures and even danced around for them while they ate. And then after Elmo helped my son blow out the candles she reappeared for some balloon twisting. Half the crowd disappeared at this point to make it home for nap time, but the ones who stuck around really enjoyed the balloons...especially my 7 yr old who took advantage and probably had 5 balloons made for just herself. There are a lot of options when it comes to character rentals, but Blazing Birthdays is the first one I would call next time. Professional, reliable and priced fairly as well. Thank you Pikachu and Elmo for making my boys birthdays extra special!

We rented out the Elmo Character for my daughters first Birthday. Prices are not listed on the…read morewebsite but if you call the number (I believe her name is Lynn) is almost always available to answer questions and give information. She's very friendly and nice. The open communication is great. They offer a wide variety of services from characters to magicians, clowns, face paint and balloon artists. Elmo was wonderful. He was on time and not in a rush to leave when his hour was up. He was really great with the kids. We played games like limbo and sang interactive songs. Elmo read books to the kids and posed for pictures. The energy level was great and all the guests left happy.

The BEST artist I have ever encountered in my life. From the moment my husband and I first called…read moreJudith, we received such kindness on the phone and we knew this was a special person who would only positively contribute to our wedding day. When we first met with her, we were even more happy as she was able to offer us great suggestions in designing our custom made ketubah. Judith is incredible! She's talented beyond belief, her ketubahs are true works of art as she puts everything into her art work and that feeling is definitely portrayed through the beauty of her pieces. She created such a beautiful masterpiece for us and we now are proud to display it at our home. I cannot even tell you guys how many compliments I have received on our piece. It is absolutely exceptional and the first time I saw it, I couldn't imagine a more perfect piece symoblizing the relationship between my husband and I. If you want a perfect, unique, exceptional and mostly custom made art work done by a special person, choose Judith Joseph. The colors turned out unbelievable as she uses a special kind of paint in her work made out of egg yolk I believe. From all our wedding "vendors" we could not be happier with the work that Judith did for us that we will have as a lasting memory for the rest of our lives. We actually look forward to working with Judith again in the future for a different type of art work.

From the owner: Ketubahs, hand-painted Huppahs, Hebrew and English calligraphy. I offer envelope addressing, place…read morecards and live event inscribing.