Cancer survivor finds a twisted path to success

Jaws drop, smiles widen and lines form the moment the first balloon is twisted. That is what first caught the eye of Trussville resident JonDavid Franklin on the Strip in Las Vegas some six years ago, and the reason he performs today as Mister Twister.

As the crowds gather, it never fails to hear someone ask, “How’d you get started?”

Franklin flashes the tattoo of an ace of spades up his right sleeve and begins to tell his story.

“When people talk to me, it’s hard for them to fathom. I’ve been on quite a journey,” he said.

Long before balloons, though, there was cancer.

Diagnosed with leukemia on March 21, 1988, exactly three weeks before his 9th birthday, Franklin was given a 2 percent chance to live. Treatment after treatment, radiation zap after zap, and with a lot of prayer by his music ministry parents, Timothy and Gloria, he beat the odds.

But what wasn’t known at the time was the potential “late effects” such treatments cause in childhood cancer patients.

By the time he reached eighth grade at Smith Middle School in Huffman, Franklin continued to struggle to concentrate and learn. He began to home-school but when ailing grandparents moved in, he ended up going to work for his uncle at Milo’s Hamburgers at 16. His memory remained foggy, and Franklin realized it was more than school he struggled with. He had trouble keeping a job, going through several over the next 15 years. 

“I knew my whole life I had a problem, but I didn’t know I had a problem,” Franklin said.

It wasn’t until three years ago that he learned his mental symptoms are common, often given the name “chemo brain” by cancer patients. It all began to make sense.

Over the years, Franklin said he realized he worked better in jobs where he could perform at his own pace. 

“I just had to figure out in life how I could better myself without somebody breathing over me and not being on the clock,” he said.

That led to a pursuit of country music, professional poker and eventually balloons. When he saw a guy twisting balloons before a poker tournament in Vegas, he was locked in.

“I had always been fascinated with cards, magic and anything weird,” Franklin said. “I was watching the reaction of the crowd. They’re just loving it, and I’m thinking, ‘How cool would it be to do that?’ I had the bug to want to do more.”

In 2011, Franklin was shopping in the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover when the bug bit again. This time it was a young Patrick Williams twisting balloons. Franklin approached him. 

“Come over to my house; I’ll make burgers, and you show me a couple of things,” Franklin said he asked. 

That’s exactly what happened. 

At the time, Franklin said he thought he could just go to Party City, buy some balloons and twist them into a sword, a one-balloon dog or flower. He found out it was much more involved.

“He learned really fast,” Williams said of Franklin. “It takes years to develop this skill, and he’s done it in a matter of a year or two. It’s not something completely easy to do, but it was kind of instinct for him.”

Instinct equates to a lot of reading, YouTube videos and a large Pinterest board, if you ask Franklin.

Later in 2011, while working security at Regions Bank on Lakeshore Drive in Homewood — the same location where he once helped save an associate’s life during a seizure — Franklin decided to make flowers for the cafeteria cashiers. An employee approached him for her son’s birthday party, his first gig, for $100. 

The gig grew into multiple bookings for Franklin and Williams under the name Twisted Air Entertainment. They began working Christmas Village and Cottontails Village in Birmingham and Pinson’s Butter Bean Festival. 

“He’s loud and not afraid. He wasn’t afraid to go out and talk to somebody and get us a gig or yell out in a big crowd to have people come over,” Williams said. “He’s not afraid to step out there and try new things or take risks to take steps to make something of himself, and I know he’s done that in multiple areas of his life.” 

Williams has since left the balloon business and moved to Huntsville for ministry and a new business, but Franklin has expanded to work several festivals, pumpkin patches, business grand openings, birthday parties, wedding receptions, baby showers and even a bachelorette party once. His creations range from the simple to archways and nearly any cartoon character sculpture possible. 

“I had a passion of taking the average rinky-dink sword and turning it into a battle ax or a huge sword. I figured big catches people’s eyes,” Franklin said. “I stand out, and I think between my personality and my background, I’m separating myself from the average twister.”

“He keeps getting better and better,” Williams said. “Everything I’ve seen him doing is incredible stuff, pretty amazing.”

Williams said one thing that stood out the most about his time working with Franklin was his desire to do anything he could for children with cancer. 

“One of our struggles was getting in hospitals, but he consistently wanted to do it,” Williams said. “He really does care about the kids, and that’s the No. 1 thing about being a balloon artist.”

That has helped drive Franklin to overcome his now-known “late effect” he’d been living with.

“I had to make a choice in my life to be a victim and accept disability or do something in my life and do something with it. No matter what your disability is, you can choose to rise above it or face it head on,” Franklin said.

Similar to his willingness to attack balloon gigs without fear, Franklin was relentless in finding help. He went to the American Red Cross, then Children’s of Alabama seeking direction. After doctors confirmed his memory and thinking problems, he got hooked up with several groups, including M-Power Ministries. 

Today, Franklin is using a scholarship through M-Power GED tutoring. He is approaching eight years as a security guard with Security Engineers, now working nights, going to school through M-Power during the day and then picking up his kids in the afternoon. Balloon gigs are coming at least two weekends a month.

“God has spared me for a reason … I know I’ve been on a long, twisted journey, but my journey has given me a lot of answers in life,” Franklin said. “In order to get where I’m going, I need to clean up what I didn’t finish in my past, and one of those is the GED.”

Franklin is unsure what path will be next, whether ministry, counseling, police work or music, but he said he knows he wants it to involve balloons and helping kids. After all, it was balloons which also led him to his now fiancé, Joanna Bevel.

“At the end of the day, what I truly want to do is balloons full time. There’s a market there for it. I love doing it. There’s nothing like doing a balloon and seeing a kid’s — and their parents’ — face light up,” he said. 

For more information about Mister Twister, call 789-9462, email callmistertwister@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/CallMrTwister.