About Stretch

Wendell Clendennen started twisting tubes of latex into crazy shapes as Stretch the Clown in 1989. Nine years later he dropped the make-up and began specializing in balloon art as Stretch the Balloon Dude. With a slightly twisted view of balloons and life in general, his creations take ordinary balloon art and make it extraordinary. His style is a mixture of wild imagination and close attention to detail. Many of Stretch’s balloon characters are zany and unorthodox creations using a mixture of balloon shapes and sizes, while his animals incorporate various shapes and sizes of balloons to emphasize details and features of their real-life counterparts.

Stretch has been twisting in restaurants since 1995, along with numerous birthday parties, corporate events, church functions, school events, festivals and more. He twisted for the Tyler Wildcatters minor league baseball team for 3 years while living in East Texas, and became the balloon artist for the Dallas Mavericks basketball team in 2002 shortly after moving to the Dallas area. His list of clients includes The Dallas Mavericks, The Dallas Stars, The Dallas Cowboys, The Gaylord Texan, Bank of Texas, American Airlines Center, Motorola, Sprint and The City of Dallas just to name a few.

Stretch has taught at the following conventions:
Summer Balloon Camp 2005 in Las Vegas, NV
Twist & Shout 2006 in St. Louis, MO
T Jam on the Road 2006 which toured 18 cities across the Midwest and western US
The Texas Clown Convention 2006 in Irving, TX
An Evening with a Twist , January 24, 2007, Vandalia, OH
Detroit Twisters Group, January 25, 2007, Livonia, MI
Twist & Shout 2007, Nashville, TN

He is scheduled to teach at the following:
Clownstock Clown Convention, July 25-28, 2007, Northampton, CT
Summer Balloon Camp 2007, Las Vegas, NV

Stretch and his wife Leila, a.k.a. Mrs. Stretch, are the founders of G.O.T. Balloons, a monthly balloon jam held in Arlington, Texas. G.O.T. Balloons has been meeting almost every month since April of 2003, and has over 100 twisters on it’s list of attendees. Twisters drive from as far away as 3 hours to attend the informal Gathering Of Twisters to share ideas, fellowship and join in the fun.

More information about Stretch can be found on his web site at:
http://www.stretchc.com

More information about G.O.T. Balloons can be found on the web at:
http://www.gotballoons.org

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