SAN DIEGO, Calif. —Ori Livney of Kiryat Chaim, Israel, is the kind of fellow who bursts his own balloons—and takes an artistic pride in the accomplishment.

Imagine a balloon creation of two doves kissing affixed to a dart board.  Now, imagine a single dart—representing cruel fate, or perhaps the intifada—winging with pinpoint accuracy at the spot where the faces of the two peace doves come together. Kerboom!  One shot and the two heads disappear in an explosion.

What makes this wordless political commentary so unusual is that Livney is both the balloon artist and the dart-thrower, having mastered the intricacies of both disciplines.

As a balloon “twister,” the globe-hopping Livney, 28,  has performed in various venues, but the Kiryon mall in Kiryat Bialik could be considered his home base. There he likes to set up a small, low-to-the-ground stage, perfect for preschoolers, and while he makes them hats, or other balloon creations, engage in an amplified interview with the children.

As parents take photographs and smiling onlookers gather, Livney takes the tots through a routine.  “What is your name?”  “How old are you?”  “Are you married?”  “What is your favorite color?”

Sometimes, of course, parents don’t bring their cameras to shopping malls—in which case Livney often is prepared to help.  An assistant can take a digital photo of the child receiving a balloon prize and put the picture up on Livney’s website, www.balonim.com, for the parent to copy.

Although Livney has an engineering degree, making balloon creations has fascinated him sincethe fifth grade when he watched a magician do it at a birthday party. Later Livney joined a group of entertainers at Caesar's Hotel in Tiberias, where he taught himself balloon twisting.  He used the balloons to welcome groups upon their arrival at the hotel.

Recently, Livney came to San Diego to study with Sandi Masori, who helped popularize balloon-twisting in Israel during  an appearance in 1999 on the Dudu Topaz television talk show. Sandi, who is my daughter,  not only entertains with balloons but also sculpts large balloon creations, and, through her videos, has become widely known in the balloon industry. 

But what about the darts?  During the final part of his hitch in Israel’s Defense Forces, Livney had what he described as a boring desk job, with little to do.  To make the long hours go by faster, he began tossing darts at a target. 

Having been an excellent marksman with a rifle, he found that hitting a target with a dart was somewhat similar.  The more he practiced, the better he became.   He trained his muscles through the repetitive motion of rolling the dart to its desired position in his left hand, then grasping it with his right hand and tossing it at a target about nine feet away. 

He needed to do this almost exactly the same way each time.  To concentrate on the rhythm, Livney literally practiced with his eyes closed, able to tell by the thwack whether his aim had been true.

In the year 2000, Livney won Israel’s "American-style darts" championship, earning him a berth in that event in the German Open competition, held that year in Dortmund, Germany.  He repeated as Israel's champion in 2001, competing later that year in the European open on Spain's Costa Brava.

In both international competitions, he was defeated by competitors who had been throwing darts all their lives, mostly in pubs and bars, the natural habitat of this particular sport.

I asked Livney if it ever happened that just as he was preparing to make a toss, someone startled him—perhaps by sneezing.  “No,” he smiled.  “That’s not something someone would want to do in a room full of dart throwers.”