Kidding around: Splash'N Boots big names to small fans
Popular Canadian kid's entertainers and Treehouse TV stars Splash'N Boots are appearing at the Jack Frost Children's Winter Festival in Charlottetown this weekend.
The duo (also known as Nick Adams and Taes Leavitt) got their start back in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, when they were in a children's theatre course.
"Our end-of-class project was to put on a show for families, so we did it at the Kingston Public Library," said Leavitt.
It was more of a musical theatre show, but the singing was more successful than the theatre.
"The kids reacted to the songs the most, and we're like wait a minute," said Adams. "We're like, this is really fun, and then we kind of just took it from there," added Leavitt. "Birthday parties, libraries, really small," said Adams. "We were busking on the corners for 25 cents."
It turns out that one of their first big breaks happened in P.E.I.
"One of our very, very first shows ever, outside of Ontario, or even the Kingston area, was at Old Home Week here in Charlottetown," said Adams. "The booking person at the time, Rayanne, took a chance on us out of university. I think Taes brought her whole family with her. I think we made enough to buy two loaves of bread and Kraft Dinner, but it didn't matter, we did it! We got hired to go outside of Ontario."
Since then, it's been a string of tours, CDs, videos, TV shows, and a couple of Juno nominations.
Of all those shows, a couple stand out for the duo.
Best shows ever
We did the Molson Amphitheatre (in Toronto) with The Wiggles last year, I was the most nervous for that," said Leavitt. "And it was amazing afterwards, we were just forced to take everything up a notch and be on this huge, massive stage with people we've looked up to for a long time."
Then there was the time the pair were hired for a secret but well-paying job far overseas.
"We got flown to the Middle East, into Bahrain, and we end up doing the birthday party for the Royal Family for their two-year-old," said Adams. "We didn't know it was for the Royal Family until we got there, they didn't really tell us that until we had flown in to Dubai. They picked us. The story goes that they let the two-year-old choose over anyone in the world, and the kid bounced to our songs the most."
That's what Splash'N Boots are known for: their high-energy stage act, and songs such as Antelopes Love Cantaloupes.
They are doing two shows at the Jack Frost festival on Saturday, at 10:50 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. at the Eastlink Centre, and two more on Sunday, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Tickets are available at jackfrostfestival.com and at the Eastlink Centre. The duo love meeting fans and will be available after each show.
