Does anyone use a volunteer to hold their balloon during the needle thru the balloon?

I bill my routine as “The World’s Most dangerous Magic trick (fir the spectator, not the magician)”. I then describe how I put an 18” needle through somebody’s head. Then I ask fir volunteers. When I first tried this on my kids and neighbors, nobody would volunteer, so I brought our my instant volunteer, the balloon. And would then proceed with the trick. But as I’ve been doing it more, I’m finding I get lots of kids offering to volunteer, even as I show the needle and tell how itll will be inserted thru their head. I guess they guess they feel part of the trick. I say something about lots of therapy in their future and perhaps I should try my instant volunteer. But I find it very unsatisfying, and messes with flow if show. To ask fir a volunteer and then not use one kind of sucks energy out of the crowd.

When browsing through an old magic newsletter I saw old picture of a magician with kid holding balloon on the sides as he pushed needle in. There wasn’t any ID on picture so nobody I could talk to. So got to wondering if anyone here ever did it.

Think it would be fun to do the same but, then if a kid volunteered to bring them up and “find out” they had too big of a brain for trick to work, then use balloon with them holding it. But it sure if they’d squeeze it while needle went it, or move it, and would that mess it up? I could just go out and try it, but thought I’d ask first

Arden James does this with a volunteer, though I believe that he has them close their eyes.

I personally would stay away from it. Especially w/ a kid. Now a days parents can get ****ed if you scare little Johnny to bad. Or a piece of the balloon hits him in the eye upon popping. Or any other incident. I'd stay away from that. $.02

I was thinking of having them hold balloon as I pierced it, then taking the balloon with needle in it...then popping it safely away from them. But givn that the trick is not 100% and could pop prematurely. It could be fun to outfit them with a bunch of safety equipment (googles, hard hat, gloves...) but that's over-complicating the routine.

Plus, while visiting hospital last week, I saw rooms with "Latex Allergy" warning signs. There's that as well...I don't want somebody to find out Little Johnny has latex allergy at a magic show...

Thanks for feedback...great to bounce ideas around with others.

I (me) hold the balloon, well away from the youngster. (Latex allergies, and, if the balloon pops prematurely, it's a lot less likely that a bit of balloon will hit the child. Yup, I had INSURANCE!