Larry Moss / Biography

Vincent van Gogh used paint. Auguste Rodin worked in bronze. Larry Moss shapes air with the use of balloons. Moss's unusual art has been displayed in 12 countries on four continents. His achievements have been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records and Ripley's Believe It or Not!Moss's path to the world of balloon art started with his introduction to the performing arts at the age of 5. His kindergarten teacher offered free violin lessons to anyone in the class that wanted them. He jumped at the opportunity. His mother is now very fond of reminding him that she only let him get started because of these free lessons, and that some day she wants to be repaid for the millions of dollars it ended up costing her in music, instruments, and more lessons with other teachers. (Although he never bothered to do the math, Moss thinks she's overestimated the amount a bit.)Larry moved on to magic in 1985 and juggling became an active hobby when his younger, but much larger brother started throwing various objects at at him. Juggling became a form of self defense. These two interests became a profession while living in New York City. He performed on subway platforms and street corners. He learned that the greatest part of entertaining on subways is that from there, he could only move up in the world.Balloon art, or "airigami" as he likes to call it, entered the equation as just a part of the magic and juggling show. This mere interest turned into an obsession and later a full time job. Today, the magic and juggling have moved to a lesser status in his life.Larry's academic background includes degrees in computer science and elementary education from the University of Rochester. Despite his career as an entertainer, he's never lost interest in those other areas, and in fact has combined his love of performing with his teaching and math/science background by doing educational performances for children. In addition, he teaches advanced balloon art classes to professional balloon artists.Today, Larry lives in Rochester, New York with his wife Judy and daughter Morgan.