Meet the compers: Paul Baker-billy

When I asked my Facebook friends and followers which compers they considered to be an inspiration, Paul Baker-Billy was highly recommended for his excellent creative photos and entertaining entries, so I asked him to join me for the ‘Meet the compers’ series of interviews.

I first encountered Paul when we were competing in the same Cadbury voting competition a few years ago. Neither of us won the £5000 prize but I was impressed by his fun video entry, and over the next few months I looked forward to seeing his morphsuits and costumes make an appearance in many more creative competitions!

Paul, along with his partner Clare and their children, have a LOT of fun with their comping. Paul’s passion for creating costumes and scenery results in some seriously unbelievable photos, and he’s even made an appearance in national press with his daughter’s fabulous Lego outfit. You can check out more of his creations on the Marvellous Event-ures Facebook page.

Paul and family love dressing up for competition photos!

Hi Paul, and thanks for joining me here on SuperLucky for a Q&A!

Lots of compers cite you as an inspiration with your wonderful creative entries. How do you get your ideas?
I’m not too sure, but when we were small my parents (mainly my mum!) made sure we used our imagination. We didn’t have a huge amount of money so were always making things out of scrap and building camps in the local fields – so perhaps it’s that. It also helps that I’m a big kid at heart – I do a lot of daydreaming whilst at work, thinking about new ideas and what I would enjoy making.

Clare turns into a 1st class stamp

How and when did you start comping – did you or Clare start first?
Clare signed up to Loquax whilst she was pregnant with Hope, but never really used it – then I was made redundant from my job and whilst at home decided to give it a go. My first win was a Postman Pat toy set and from then we were both hooked. We didn’t really get into the creative comps until later on, apart from the odd one like the Cadbury’s £5000 you mentioned – I was gutted when I didn’t win!

A brilliant World Cup themed entry

I know you’re a big fan of my regular creative round ups and your Halloween photos have been astounding in the past. How much time does it take you to do your pumpkin carving: can you give me any tips?
The spider pumpkin was quite an easy carving to do – it took about two hours. The carrots were a nightmare to attach to the spider’s body (you can’t hot glue carrots to a pumpkin!), so we used chopsticks pushed into the carrot and then into the pumpkin. The setting up of the spider’s lair took longer, we are lucky to have a old WW1 shelter near our house so we spread the cobwebs across and added plastic spiders and insects. A garage inspection lamp covered with green plastic added a lighting effect. My tips are to choose something relevant and current – maybe from a interesting news story, for instance I made the spider pumpkin because of the false widow spider news story last year. Make sure you not only concentrate on the pumpkin but also the background and props. Have fun, and don’t go too scary or gross as family companies don’t like entries that are too bloody or horrific!

Paul’s prizewinning pumpkin creation

The pumpkin in progress

What do your kids think of comping: are they into it or do you have to cajole them into posing for some of the photo comps?
We are very lucky when it comes to the kids. I find creative competitions really good for quality time with them as they love being creative and don’t mind posing for photos or looking silly. I hope that it will encourage them as they grow older to have confidence in themselves and not worry about looking silly and having fun. They don’t tend to do colouring comps that involve them doing it alone, they much prefer to take part in what we are doing. Of course they love the wins which is a big bonus!

Coca-cola heroes

How has comping improved your life?
It’s fantastic – it’s enabled us to do things we would never have been able to afford and give us once-in-a-lifetime experiences like taking Maya to meet The Wanted. The creative comps have brought us closer together as a family and given us some fantastic memories. We’ve also met some wonderful comping friends both online and in real life.

Paul and Hope created a unique type of sand castle

What’s the biggest prize you’ve won, and how did you win it?
Well everyone else in the house has done better than I have! Clare won a lovely holiday in Snowdonia last year along with full walking kit for 6 people that was a Facebook Like & Share draw – we had a wonderful time and it’s the only holiday we have won in 7 years of comping. Hope won a fantastic Pizza Hut competition last Halloween with her pumpkin carving, which included 2 Kurio tablets, an iPad, 12 London dungeon tickets and £300 vouchers – she was delighted! I think my best win was £1000 on the Pepsi promotion and our trip to Alton Towers (with our own driver) with Krave.

Paul & family at Alton Towers

What type of prize promotion do you enjoy most?
Clare does a lot of Twitter competitions simply because its quick and easy. I tend to go for the photo and video entries – Clare finds them for me and then I disappear to the workshop to see what I can come up with!

Hope’s miniroll creation looks delicious!

You appeared in the national press recently with your Lego suit for Hope, and your Iron Man suit is incredible. What costume do you have planned next?
I am currently working on several costumes, still in the early stages, a pirate puppet carrying a large treasure sack and a Transformer type robot on stilts! I would love to do it as a full time job – but we would need to win the lottery or have a nice big ITV cash win.

Paul working on his next project

Which websites, forums, magazines or resources do you use for comping?
I use Loquax, PrizeFinder and Google search to find photo comps and Clare uses Twitter – we have some great friends on Facebook who know what we like and kindly tag us in competitions.

What do you think the future holds for comping?
Oh gosh, I don’t know! For myself I’m hoping there will be lots of interesting and fun photo and video comps with some fantastic prizes which we might hopefully win. I do hope that the companies that run dodgy competitions are weeded out, and of course all our friends win some fantastic prizes!

Paul won £250 with his Post-its dream

What would be your top comping tip or piece of advice?
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself and remember at the end of the day it’s all a bit of fun so enjoy it.

Thanks so much Paul – I hope you bag yourself a biggie soon!

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