Keep Off Barney Baloney’s Bubbles

IT’S difficult to champion the cause of a children’s entertainer.

They are inherently creepy. Yet in the case of 47-year-old Tony Turner, even his ‘crazy’ outfits and ‘wacky’ sense of humour can’t discourage us from sympathising with the former DJ.

You see, central to Barney Baloney’s (Turner’s ‘stage name’) act is a common-or-garden bubble machine. It forms the exciting climax of his show.

But no more. When Tony/Barney rang insurance companies for his public liability insurance this year, he was refused cover due to the apparent danger caused by the bubble machine.

A frustrated Tony/Barney tells us: “I rang six insurance companies in all and was turned down by every one. One even said some councils had banned bubble-making machines because they thought the soapy bubbles were lethal.”

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers explained that there may have been accidents in the past involving children slipping on floors and that “insurance companies will look at the risk an activity presents when pricing for insurance premiums, usually by looking at past experiences”.

But Tony/Barney remains unhappy. Says he: “This whole health and safety business has gone too far. Kids eat jelly and ice cream and that gets on the floor and is slippy. Does anyone want to stop them eating that?”

That for later.

For now, the actors’ union Equity did eventually agree to insure Tony/Barney’s act. After taking advice he has decided to ditch the bubbles for good, leaving him with, in his own words, “a gallon of soapy solution”.

Anorak

Posted: 14th, June 2007 | In: Money Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink