One spring morning, in the backyard of a home in leafy Inman Park, a small figure made his way slowly across a turf lawn. It was Rowan Cooney’s 3rd birthday, and the little boy was using his tiny walker to navigate the small gathering. Rowan has cerebral palsy, so he wasn’t running and jumping like most children probably would on a day like this.
Robin Booth quickly assessed Rowan’s balance and comfort level before gently removing the walker and leading the child to a small table set up just for him. Booth guided Rowan as he firmly gripped the table with one hand and in the other held a bubble wand, which he dipped into a shallow tray of clear solution before beginning his first attempt at blowing bubbles.
The efforts went the way any toddler’s would, with the soapy liquid spilling over Rowan’s arms and the table, prompting cackles from the smiling, riveted parents and grandparents who surrounded him.
It’s this type of interaction that has become Booth’s calling card over the past two decades. Known as the Georgia Bubbleman, he not only entertains crowds by spinning enormous, iridescent creations, he helps countless children and adults learn to make bubbles.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Bubbleman is born
Booth’s relationship with bubbles began decades ago when a friend handed him a wand at the Yellow Daisy Festival — it was just a basic apparatus users blow through. He was immediately fascinated with the results.
Before long he was attracting swarms of onlookers when he bubbled on the lawn at Stone Mountain during family outings to the laser show. But he wasn’t completely satisfied with the results. He recognized the potential for creating something more spectacular, but to achieve what he had in mind, he’d have to make some adjustments.
For starters, solutions on the market were too thin for what he wanted to do. He needed a thicker solution that would cling to the edge of the wand. Booth experimented for years, searching for a better formula until he finally created the ideal solution, which he calls “bubble juice.”
Spectators often request his formula, but Booth keeps the answers vague.
“Every one of us bubbleologists has their own recipes,” he said. He’ll only reveal that it contains Dawn dish soap and “secret stuff.”
Booth also fiddled with the wand, creating custom versions using fishing poles, coat hangers and rope that he waves through the air to create bigger bubbles. Instead of a tray full of bubble juice, he now uses a bucket.
Before Booth became the Bubbleman, the Covington native worked in quality control at a manufacturer of baking goods in Tucker. He recalls hot work in an unairconditioned setup. After he began bubbling, he’d often stop by Stone Mountain Park and throw out some bubbles after work.
Word of the Bubbleman began to spread, and Booth started booking birthday parties — an early gig earned him $50, and he thought he had it made. Park personnel noticed him, too.
“I was out there bubbling. They kept watching me. I mean, they were hiding behind trees. Nobody would say anything,” Booth recalled. “And then finally, I’m at the train station, and this big guy walks up to me … He said, ‘We like your bubbles. Will you work for us?’”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The creative process
Bubbling is a creative endeavor that also involves science because a variety of factors affect the quality of the product.
“I’m doing a bubble, and the crowd goes wild, but I’m rating it in my mind between a one and a 10, and I think, ‘three.’” Booth said. “Bigger bubbles — the conditions just have to turn right. I’ve had a few that amaze even me.”
The higher the level of moisture in the air, the better the bubble, he said.
“Mist is good. I need high humidity — 50% or better humidity for the best bubbles. And a breeze,” he said. “A mist early in the morning, a fog, even — bubbles are perfect.”
Nighttime bubbles have their own unique qualities.
“Bubbles are prettier at night than they are during the day. Shine a laser light on them, or if you have a streetlight or whatever, it looks like a UFO the way it reflects lights.”
And when the weather freezes, so do the bubbles. Booth said he’s kept performing even after the solution in his bucket turns to slush.
“Bubbles freeze at 25 degrees,” he said. “(They) bounce off of things, and when it does pop, it looks like an eggshell.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
‘A spiritual lifting’
Booth was already thinking about retiring when he had a heart attack at age 62. After his recovery, he took bubbling full time. And always by his side watching the action is his companion, Rhonda Payton, 60.
When the two met, they’d both exited long marriages.
“Neither one of us was looking for a relationship, but someone asked if I wanted to go out with the Bubbleman,” she recalled. “And (I said), ‘No, I don’t even know what you’re talking about but no … I’m not interested — not interested in a man, period, and certainly not a bubble man.”
She eventually relented, and outside an Italian restaurant on their first date, they ran into a small child. Booth whipped out his ever-present bubbles.
“I thought, well, he’s either putting on a good show, or he really does like this stuff.”
The two eventually combined their lives and families, including Booth’s two daughters and son, along with their children and grandchildren, and Payton’s son.
Like any true entertainer, Booth loves to be the center of attention, said Payton. If they’re running errands, Booth will often spin a few bubbles in a parking lot, and people wander over to watch.
“He’s going to stand there and bubble, and heaven forbid somebody comes up talking to him because then, you’re in it,” Payton said with a laugh
“It’s a high for him,” she said. “He really lives to bubble.”
And when Booth performs, onlookers always become participants as he teaches them to make undulating works of their own. There’s an intensity to his speech when he explains his philosophy. “If anyone asks me,” he said, “I will not sit on a stage and expect 3- and 4-year-olds to sit on their hands and watch me bubble.”
Payton likes watching Booth work.
“To get out of the house and ride with him to these parties and see the reactions of the children, the parents, the grandparents, I mean, it’s just like a spiritual lifting,” she said.
“You just instantly become family with these people that you’re working for because the feeling is just next to tears when they see a child doing something that they’ve never done before.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Looking forward
Booth has been performing at Stone Mountain Park for 22 years now. And in his spare time, he entertains hospital patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“He can make a kid smile, whether they’ve just had surgery or they just had a life-changing diagnosis,” said Wendy Threatt, senior program coordinator at Seacrest Studios at CHOA.
But Booth’s age and Payton’s health have them looking toward a future when he might have to scale back on his performances. Meanwhile, they’d like to find a way to market the bubble juice, although they’re still trying to figure out the bottling process.
“I don’t have a bottler, I don’t have a mixer. I’m 73, so I’m not technical,” Booth said.
For now, he plans to continue spinning his shimmering, ephemeral creations and teaching his audience members to do the same, and Payton is grateful for it.
“Life is too short,” she said. “We’ve had friends die who never got to enjoy their retirement. He’s been retired now over 11 years and has enjoyed every moment of it.”
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