What technique do you use to get a crowd for your shows - as I am sure you know it is getting the first couple of people which is the hardest part.

From,

Sometimes, just sitting at a bus stop you can get a bit of a crowd.
Start by sitting there messing with the cards and doing some fancey flourishes. That starts getting attention.

When you see someone watching, offer to show them a trick. As they watch, others too will watch. The better the 1st few effects, the more people that will watch. When others see that people are looking at something, curiosity will pull them over too.

Same thing applies when in a bar or any other public area.

When performing street magic, start out in one spot. Start out by having the cards in your hands and messing with them a little bit. The bus stop thing was a good idea, but that may keep you performing for the same people too long. With street magic, you can do the same effects over and over again, because they aren't the same people watching the whole time. Walk around and get people interested, but also know when to move on. And don't just pull your cards out and start doing tricks. In fact, don't even start performing right away. Walk around for 5-10 minutes and get familiar with the area - get comfortable. Then perform your effects. It's much easier this way.

And remember, with street magic, you want to attract people, but not for too long. This doesn't mean to get them "not interested", but to tone it down so they will move on as well as you. You don't want the same people to watch you over and over. This gives you the ability to do the same effects over and over again.

This is a lengthy description, but give it a shot.

I have an old deck of red Bicycles set up for this. On most of the deck I have written in bold black magic marker the name of the card. These are my "marked cards". I use other "unmarked" cards set up for other effects.

When streeting, I will wander around with this deck set up for something fast, highly visual, and OBVIOUSLY non-marked-card related (e.g. Blaine's two-card monte transposition effect or Card Warp).

I walk up to people and wave the deck around saying something like "Want to buy a deck of marked cards? Marked cards, ten bucks a pack!" People cannot resist their curiosity and want to see. Show some of the "marked cards". This either gets a laugh or a
"you're smoking something" look. Stay serious and say "But wait, let me show you what else they can do..." and go into your home-run card effect.

I have seen street workers do the same thing with cigars, cigs, etc... anything believable, sellable item that can immediately do magic with. It gives you a reason to approach people.

I also find that people who ignore you are poor street magic audiences anyway, and people who stop to investigate buying a ten-dollar deck of cards are ususally not too tight with their wallets...

Here some ideas

My approach has a few stages which I will explain how I do it but may I suggest if you want to street busker check out this blog and book http://jimmytalksalot.blogspot.co.nz/

First I have a small case on the floor with a sign saying magic. I stand a meter away from the wall and put my bag to the left in front of me. I start to look around and catch pepole eye, smile and stuff. Then I start doing multiplying bananas. All the time I am looking for that first crowd to stop. I look for a family with young kids or 2 or 3 young uni students. All the time talking and scanning. As pepoel walk up to me and ihave there attention and ideally there showing some sign of noticing I am there. I pull them in with the promise of something else. I then call out magic show starting now. I start my sponge ball routine, always scanning and pulling in the crowd. I pause the sponge ball and make a promise of a show with a ending like no other.

tghis sis my approach and it working for me. It needs fine tuning.