Patent Lawyer Drops Practice to Pursue Ballooning Career
Todd Neufeld doesn’t regret putting aside his career as a patent lawyer to become a full-time entertainer who twists balloons into creatures and costumes.
“I hated patent law,” Neufeld, a 36-year-old Brooklyn resident, tells the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “It’s interesting to theorize about, but for me it’s tedious,” Neufeld said. “I wanted to be the creative one, not the one describing someone else’s creativity.”
Now Neufeld runs and owns Todd’s Twisted Balloon Company. He has performed at kids’ parties, corporate events, on David Letterman, and for two U.S. presidents: Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush.
“A lot of my friends got jobs at blue-chip law firms, and now they’re fired,” Neufeld told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “Whereas I have 100 clients. If one of them fires me, I say OK, well, someone else will call me next weekend.”
The Wall Street Journal presented a less rosy employment picture in an article last fall that cited price wars in the ballooning industry. But the story said big-name balloon artists can earn as much as $2,500 an hour, compared to $35 an hour for a typical performer.
The Wall Street Journal interviewed Neufeld, but didn’t publish his hourly rate. He has also written a book that combines his two careers called Sign Here! Contracts for Balloon Entertainers.
