The Amazing Bubbleman

Louis Pearl is The Amazing Bubbleman, and, he tells us, in a very loud and excitable tone, he definitely loves bubbles the most out of anyone else in the room. But he's here to make bubble lovers of everyone.

Pearl never pretends there's anything magical about these bubbles. This is science, and it’s science that can be replicated at home. You just need a solution of soap and water and anything that has a hole in it, demonstrating with a straw, a scrubbing brush, and a watch pulled from the audience.

Of course, not everything can be easily recreated at home. Pearl shows amazing dexterity in his manipulation of the bubbles: cutting them in half, blowing bubbles within bubbles, making them bounce off his hands.

And then there are the times Pearl gets a bit tricky with it all: balloons filled with helium float up into the domed ceiling of the Music Hall; elaborate head gear is constructed on the heads of children; a smoke-filled bubble is popped to create a volcano, and then a rocket.

In this big room, much of the show is lost on the younger children more content to run around than watch a man play with bubbles. And many older children will have been disappointed not to be chosen to get close to the action. The show fluctuates in its engagement of the audience: but when they’re engaged, the room is filled with as many gasps and cheers as bubbles.