About Us
Wonderstuff offers a range of services that combine Dave’s abilities with magic & balloon twisting with Janice’s face painting & play leadership skills.
Dave and Janice have appeared at events across Canada including Canada Day in Ottawa. They specifically focus on Central and North Alberta, with most of their events being in the Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Yellowknife communities.
Janice has a very distinctive face painting art style that lends itself well to what she calls “snickerdoodle art”. She enjoys fairy face designs and other designs but her main forte will always be fun cartoons on a hand, arm or leg.
Dave began his interst in magic and balloon twising in 1984. Four years later in 1988 he embarked on a full time career as a family entertainer offering a mix of magic, comedy, juggling and balloon twisting. Today he continues to present fun magic kidshows, twisting for balloon lineups and also participates in “big build” balloon displays for festivals and holidays.
Our Story
Wonderstuff was started in 1988 in Calgary by Dave Wildson. This very successful family entertainment company provided magic shows, balloon animals, face painting and roving characters to the communities of Southern Alberta for 8 years. Dave started out as Willy Nilly the Clown, and eventually evolved into doing street performance as magician “Big D”. Big D remains a legend among street performers for his ability to blow up a hot water bottle by mouth until it exploded! (He no longer does this as part of his performance…)
Dave moved to British Columbia in 1997 and passed the Wonderstuff company on to his friend and fellow street performer, Janice Shoults who was based in Edmonton. Janice feels her main flair has always been in Event Design, Face Painting, Interactive Play and Music. Janice continued Wonderstuff with a new style, exploring play leadership and combining it with face painting, music and hands-on activities for a unique form of family entertainment.
Then, in 2010, the unexpected happened… Janice and Dave surprisingly became more than friends. Finding themselves in the right time and the right place, they chose to blend their lives and each of their unique versions of Wonderstuff into what they now playfully call Wonderstuff 2.0. Janice and Dave officially married in 2018.
The Copperpots,
Lavinia & Cornelius
Besides presenting magic, balloons and face painting as Dave Wildson & Miss Ladybug, Dave and Janice have also appeared for many years as The Copperpots. Cornelius was a magician, inventor and professor of balloonology. Lavinia sang children’s songs or roved presenting family friendly fortunes. Dave still presents Cornelius but only for comedy magic kidshows and Janice still presents Lavinia just for family friendly fortune card readings.
