I agree with most of what Beth said in her reply.



Especially the part about most of your time being spent watching people with the animals.



I do a few shows per year and most of my animals are well-acclimated to being held. In fact, most are my classroom pets. I'm a h.s. bio teacher and I make sure that my animals used have been docile since they were babies. My students in my class hold them EVERY DAY! If an animal ever shows an aggressive tendency, even once, I won't ever use that particular reptile again.



One thing I will say, the setup and takedown of an event is a tremendous amount of work. It’s simply exhausting. It sounds like Beth does a lot of events from her comment about getting a lot of good sleep. lol



I try to get student volunteers to help. It looks great on their college applications or simply makes for a great story they can tell their friends. Either way, usually you can get a ton of them to help. Best way to do this is simply to contact a local high school near where you live (or near where the event is) and ask for the teacher in charge of the Science Club or Environmental Club or Health Careers Club and go from there. Always be sure to get parent permission. It may require planning up to 2 weeks in advance. In fact, the parents usually stay even though they planned on simply dropping off/picking up their kids. I find more help equals less work during the event. Plus, you can assign a helper to a particular animal or pair of animals.



I also rotate through animals if it’s a longer event. If it’s a small group, I spend the first 20 minutes or so just going over MY rules for handling the reptiles. Plus, the longer you wait till you bring out the animals…the more suspense there is.lol.



I don’t charge for pics but what I do tell guests….if they take pics…NO FLASH! I did a show for middle school kids once and they ALL had cell phones with cameras….no flashes..which was perfect.



Another concern…some people simply have a downright fear of herps. I always make the disclaimer to anyone like that in the crowd to simply watch from a distance or to move to the back. You don’t want someone having a heart attack b/c a lizard or snake shoots away from someone holding it and makes a mad dash towards the one and only person who has ophidiophobia



I try to give each show a theme….usually conservation or diversity of life, etc. I did a presentation once to a church group and they asked me to not talk about evolution…so I did a ‘snakes of North America theme’. Obviously all themes will kind of mix together but for the average person, my goal is to have them remember 1 thing about reptiles…usually conservation related.



I also bring hand sanitizer and wipes. If at a school, I tell the teacher beforehand that before & after the show, all kids need to wash their hands. I also print out & make copies of a 'junior herpetologist' certificate for younger kids....it's something their parents can put in a scrap book to remember the occassion.



No matter what…everything should be on YOUR terms. Never compromise. Safety should be your priority. Hope I helped.



You might be able to get some more ideas from my website...as I'm sure there are things I forgot to mention.
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Sincerely, Jason

www.NortheastSnakes.com

NortheastSnakes@verizon.net

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