Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2015 / January 2016 | Page 39

INTERVIEW

The original

24-hour party
people

A husband and wife party organising team
that started on the Isle of Wight just five years
ago, on a meagre budget of under £50, is now
masterminding no-expense-spared children’s
parties for Royals, sports stars and “high net
worth” families. We caught up with Charlotte
Brisco to discover the background to this
spectacular success story.

T

he date December 22, 2010 is
clearly etched in Charlotte Brisco’s
memory as the day that she and
husband Daniel – otherwise known as
party people ‘Dazzle and Fizz’ - staged
their first children’s party.
It was at her sister Christie’s house in
Sandown, for her four year-old niece Evie,
and had been planned for 30 children.
However that date just happened to
coincide with one of the Island’s rare
experiences of snow – which meant that
only three children actually turned up.
“It seemed like a disaster at the time,”
recalls Charlotte.
“We had blown the sum total of our
bank account - £47.50 - on one Fireman
Sam costume, which was all we could
afford.
“We were living in a tiny flat in Shanklin
and had to buy the cheapest, thinnest
paper we could find at Tesco to print off
some flyers for the business”.
But despite the snow having done its
worst, the sheer enthusiasm of acting
professionals Charlotte and Daniel
shone through so brightly that day that
the parents of all three children who
attended their first party went on to book
events of their own – and Dazzle and Fizz

were on their way!
Once the Island’s famous ‘jungle drums’
began sounding, the bright young party
couple gradually found themselves
attracting more bookings via word-ofmouth recommendations. Meanwhile,
Dan – who was classically trained at
Birmingham School of Acting - was also
earning some regular income by working
for the Spotlight company at Shanklin
Theatre.
“We started off thinking that if we could
just get four parties a month, we could
pay the rent with that, and live on the
theatre money,” says Charlotte.
Even more remarkable is that they built
the business while caring for their baby
son, Oliver, who was born in March 2011,
just three months after their launch.
“I remember doing one party nine days
after Ollie was born, and having to go and
breastfeed him in the loo halfway through.
The midwives were very cross with me!”

Birth of a business
In fact it was Oliver who indirectly had
led to Dazzle and Fizz starting up on the
Island in the first place.
As Charlotte explains, they were still

living in London when she became
pregnant, but acute morning sickness
forced her to spend a month in the
Hampstead Royal Free Hospital on
her own, while Dan struggled to keep
working and pay the bills.
They made the decision to move to the
Island so that she could be supported
through the later stages of the pregnancy
by her mum, Rosemary and sister Christie.
“We thought it would be temporary, for
maybe 6-12 months, but we needed to
make money and thought that children’s
entertainment was the obvious thing for
us to do, as we both love it.
“There was nothing on the Isle of Wight
that was in line with the London market,
and it was something we felt we could
offer that would be new.”
A former Sandown High School pupil
who g Ʌ