"It's easy," Jace Collins tells the two wide-eyed boys walking past his carnival booth at Old Home Week in Charlottetown, waving them over while clutching a handful of darts. "All you have to do is hit one of the pictures and you win a prize."

The boys stop in their tracks and approach the booth. Their father hands over some coins in exchange for the darts, and it takes only a couple of tries and a free do-over before the boys hit the target.

He's right. It is easy. High fives all around.

"Just getting to see little kids' ... faces get happy after you give them a teddy bear is an awesome feeling," Jace said.

But making money is also an awesome feeling and Jace, like the others working the games of chance, is paid a percentage of the cash he brings in.

The workers who run the booths and rides at carnivals like Old Home Week in Charlottetown travel throughout the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario in the summer months. (Ken Linton/CBC)

So like any good salesperson, he's going to upsell. Surely the boys would prefer a larger stuffed animal? It must be their lucky day -- they can keep playing, and paying, for the chance to win bigger, though it gets progressively more difficult.

This time they lose, and Jace, reading the room -- i.e. the father's face as he pats down his pockets -- backs off. Everyone leaves happy.

Jace, who seems to be 13 going on 30, is part of a new generation trying to shed the stigma of the "dirty carnival worker" -- or "carnie," as some people call them.

A family affair

His mother and stepfather also work at the Campbell Amusements carnival, Kayla Harvie at the slushie stand and Steve Arsenault at the balloon game. They live in Charlottetown and travel all over the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario in the summer months with the rest of the crew. Arsenault figures they'll put in 50,000 kilometres this summer alone.

It's a life Arsenault is familiar with. His parents met while working at a carnival.

He said the image of a carnival worker has changed over the years, and he wants it to stay changed. He made sure young Jace put on a new shirt, turned his ballcap brim around to the front, and stood up straight before a CBC News interview this week.

"The days of the old dirty carnival workers, those days are gone," Arsenault said.

"We have uniforms now, we're clean now. It's not like it was in the '60s and '70s. Like, this is a respectable business now, where it's sales-focused and team-driven."

Harvie, who is working the slushie stand at Old Home Week in Charlottetown, said travelling with the carnival has been her favourite job. (Shane Ross/CBC)

Arsenault said he averages about $1,200 a week and is a member of the Canadian chapter of the Showmen's League of America. Being called a carnie doesn't do the job justice, he said.

"I wouldn't say it's like a slander in any way whatsoever -- like it's a carnival. I don't get offended by the word 'carnie' but I prefer to use the word 'showman' because I'm not just a person who works at the carnival... I'm very dramatic, I put on a show. It's almost like an experience to come to my game."

Harvie and Arsenault fell in love while working at the carnival last year. It's the first summer they've worked together as a family, along with Harvie's young son.

Tight living quarters

It's more of a lifestyle than a job, Harvie said, though the money's good and the expenses are low.

"I've worked in health care, I've waitressed, I've done lots of different things, but this is probably my favourite."

On the road, they live in a section of a trailer with two beds and small living space with a mini-fridge and portable oven. Arsenault said it can get tense living in such close quarters with not just his own family, but the other carnival workers as well.

"It does make it kind of hard when you work with the people you live with and you live with the people you work with. But at the end of the day, it's only made our family stronger," he said.

"As far as the fights, they only really happen when it's really hot or really cold. Most people know their place out here and know what they have to do; it's more about just getting them to do it. The more people that work the hardest, the easier it goes."

Comes with perks

He's trying to instill that work ethic in Jace, and teach him a few sales techniques along the way.

This is the first summer job for the boy, who will go into Grade 8 at Queen Charlotte Intermediate School in the fall.

Jace Collins says it's an 'awesome feeling' to see kids happy after winning a prize at his booth. He gets a percentage of his revenues. (Shane Ross/CBC)

He said it's been great so far. And while he's resisting the temptation to live on a diet of corn dogs and cotton candy, the job does come with perks -- like free rides on the midway.

"Now I don't have to pay for them and I get to skip the line, so I go on all the time," he said.

"I just watch people look at me and be like, 'Why does he get to go on the rides and I don't?'"