Photos: 'Bubble man' roams San Francisco streets, bringing joy

San Francisco: The massive bubble Kurth Reis conjured last month, rising like a genie from a bucket of soap, startled a small girl visiting San Francisco's Embarcadero, almost enveloping her as she scampered away.

The bubble popped. She then jumped and clapped, and turned to Reis, eager for another show. This city's hard-working bubble man had succeeded once again in bringing a little joy.

In 2020, when COVID-19 emptied the city's streets, 48-year-old California found his calling as a bubble performance artist.

His girlfriend, Kelly Sullivan, deserves much of the credit, or blame, for what she calls his soapy "addiction." She gave him a bubble-making gun for Easter, and after the batteries died, he rewired the toy to turbocharge it and crank out 1,000 bubbles a minute, he said.

Dipping a string that hangs like a "V" from two rods into solution, Reis learned to fashion spheres "the size of a Prius." Reis bid farewell to his food delivery gigs and committed to full-time bubbling. "I went out to dinner yesterday. In my mind I thought, should I bring my bubbles?" he said.

He rides a tricycle across San Francisco to perform his craft in parks and on street corners for hours, making up to $150 in tips a day from tourists who visit Alcatraz.

Money is not what moves him. A woman approached Reis not long ago, on Bush Street, to say his bubbles uplifted her when her dad died. Eyes squint and cheekbones flex when people smile behind their masks. Reis felt like an essential worker who spread joy in the pandemic.

Reis has metamorphosed in this role, like his bubbles that stretch, squiggle and subdivide. "I don't ever look back," Reis said. "I can't save the world. I'm not trying to. Just trying to put a smile on somebody's face by doing some bubbles."

Pedestrians duck after a bubble made by Kurth Reis pops in the air.