Let's start a discussion on working a pitch with very light foot traffic.

Here is a situation I find myself in, during the week: Get to the pitch, in the shopping district, in a city with a population of about 500,000. However, it is 1:00 on a Wednesday afternoon and foot traffic is way light. How light? About 3 people pass every 4 or 5 minutes. I've checked out other spots in town and it's pretty much the same, so it's time to settle in and work.

How do you build?

When it's like this, I work a trickle (which is different than my regular show). If I manage to pull a larger crowd, then I go into my regular show, otherwise, it remains a trickle.

For the record, I hate doing a trickle, but sometimes it's the only way.

Occasionally, I'll use the trickle and end up with a decent crowd, in which case, I go into my regular show.

So, what do you do in these situations? Do you build a good edge and still work a flush or do you have a different approach?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

I'm just now learning about busking. May I ask what a trickle is

Trickle is when you leave a tip container, another hat or something to collect tips in, out, your entire performance. Different workers do it slightly differently. I only use it when the streets are very slow, usually during the middle of the week. I know that Joe Joe keeps his out at all times and he does well as does Sonny Holiday.

Then do you just perform a long string off effects never doing a hat pitch

You still do hat lines, after every effect

Or not do a hat line. It depends on the day, place, and people. I did not do a hat line once today in 3 hours of performing a trickle. I was performing for family groups pretty much one group at a time. I did say thank you many times as people put money in my tip box. The performing was up close and personal. I also got a lot of hand shakes and thank yous from the parents and grandparents who were glad their children had a good time. On other days and places I use a lot of hat lines. It just depends on the situation.

I agree with D. Yonder, I spent years working a trickle in a park in a small tourist town. (40-50K tourist/annually). However 80% of these people were families on the weekends, so I usually ended up working two or three weekdays too.

I very rarely used any hatlines at all I would work 3-4 hours then go to one of the tourist bars in town and do some bar magic, also my other passion three card monte. Then go back to the park and work for another two-three hours. In all that time I would do one or maybe two hatlines the entire day.

I do think it is all dependent on your crowd and your location.

The answer you seek is in my free video lecture "The Crowd Goes Wild". It contains a simple formula that works every time, no more guesswork - you will know exactly how to build, and when to start the show, and make a few extra dollars along the way.

In short, you do trick-after-trick-after-trick until you have three groups of strangers in front of you and then you turn them into a "crowd" by getting them to cheer - the video contains all the details including example footage of me working a slow pitch and a busy pitch so you can see the difference:

http://magicjoint.com/pages/magic-shop/t......d-promo/

-JoeJoe

Great information. If you haven't done so yet check out Joe Joes it's got a lot of great stuff

Very excited to check out Joe Joes videos when I get a chance thanks for the link