International BuskFest

The annual International BuskFest is back with more mayhem, as a dozen of the world's most entertaining buskers eat fire, juggle chainsaws and unicycle around Auckland's Viaduct Harbour.



Happening in Auckland at 6 different locations-Feb 1-6th including many international acts

headed also by Nick Nickolas

http://www.nicknickolas.com/STREET.html

Appearances also at the Classic comedy club by the performers for evening shows

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NZ, Aucklands 6th Annual Buskers Festival
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Message from Greg Chapman (NZ)

For the past week I have been imersed in Aucklands 6th Annual Buskers
Festival, not as a performer but as a part of the audience for dozens of
shows and street performances. There were 20 performers from all over the
world performing magic, escapes, juggling, acrobatics, contortion, circus
stunts and comedy. The level of entertainment was fantastic.

I attended the first Comedy Club Showcase at the Classic on Wednesday and it
was a packed house. The energy of the show was through the roof and the acts
were amazing. The next night saw a slightly smaller crowd and different
performers but was also a roaring success.

After a huge Friday night show with about six or seven acts, I spent a lot
of Saturday catching other acts at Ohagens square and came back again for
the evening show. All the evening shows attracted an audience of around a
thousand people. The energy was tremendous and it was great to be a part of
so much fun and festivity.

Congratulations to Nick Nickolas who coordinated all the performers and
shows, and all the acts that made it such a great festival. This is what
entertainment is all about.
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Thanks Greg- Great review

The event was truely world class-Rob Torres from New York was brilliant !

Nick Nickolas showed what a class act he is & how to totally enthrall a crowd & what a star in the making Sam Wills will be internationally

Ive never seen over a thousand people entertained by him totally hysterically laughing using nothing more than a Rat trap & a marshmallow-brilliant!!!

All the International acts were brilliant & again thanks to Nick for organising a great line up

Brent, did you saw the statue Bartel meyer. he's goed friend of mine.

Robert-


Bartel Meyer was listed but I personally did not see him-due to being in many different areas etc

Brent that's a pity. I am going to apply for next year. maybe we see euch other there. how was sam wills, the motley crew, rob torres? met them last year when I did christchurch.

Sam-

Look forward to meeting you if your here!!

Sam Wills was electric in the outdoor venues as well as the nights at the comedy club!!

The night shows were down at the Auckland Viaduct with thousands watching-

Rob Torres was very popular-what an amazing talent & entertained everybody ! Great guy to have a drink with!!

Sam was full on entertaining with many diferent acts-Such a great guy!! he was MC-hes still climbing thru tennis rackets & his rat trap act was hilarious

Mr Spin & Pandora also very popular as was Nick Nickolas-All the acts (20)went down well at 6 different venues to large crowds

Look forward to a catch up next year!!-The festival is growing each year which is good for Auckland

Cheers

Auckland Buskfest 2006 was the best yet. It’s taken 5 strenuous years trying to explain to the public and council suits that buskers aren’t just 5yr old asian violin prodigies collecting money for her sick aunt, or achoholic tattooed overweight box drummers collecting money for their kids.
Finally I think we made a break through, people were on pitches with flyers (that went out weeks before) waiting for shows.
If you are not aware of the layout of this city there is a road (Queen St) running from the top of the hill down to the water , at the water a harbour front hosts a maritime museum, expensive restaurants and an Irish pub (O’Hagans) which is situated aside a large square.

O’hagans Square was the venue for the evening shows , mc’d fantastically by Sam Wills http://www.samwills.com these nights went seriously off, so much so that one night across the water there was a giant outside cinema screen being watched by amongst all people Helen Clark the Prime Minister. The pub got a call that night to ask us to keep the crowd noise down as they couldn’t hear the movie...we didn’t!
I reckon we had 1500 people there on the biggest night. You could cut the air with a knife, tension filled the square, as Mr Spin http://www.mrspin.net set the stage to perform Bobby Mays seven ball juggle, while balancing a ball on his head and spinning a hoop with his leg.
Kid Dynamite http://www.littlered.co.nz at 10 yrs. old was a star juggling knives/fire on a 4 stack roller bolo of skateboards.
Sam Wills grossed ‘em with laughs when he shoved 10 modelling balloons tied together up his nose to pull out of his mouth.
We had a professional DJ, Dunk the Funk on the sounds for the 3 nights, friendly security, even friendlier barstaff with great single malts and generous crowds.

Duo Acrobats http://www.duoacrobats.com have bodies like stone and moves to match, they gained crowds everywhere and collected everything from knickers to Hershey bars in their hats. Blimey they could party, staying up late laughing and drinking, crikey if I’d have known that booze and am visits to the burger caravan gave you bodies like that I’d have started years ago. Dennis apparently beat the Fijian rugby centre at arm wrestling early one morning.

At the top of Queen Street is New Zealand's only full time comedy club The Classic. We had two nights there to open the festival and near enough sold out both nights.
Sam Wills once again mc’d introducing The Motley Two, David Ladderman and Mullet man. These boys are the hottest thing on NZ streets at the moment, attitude, skills and fearlessness, they stripped off to the music exposing fishnet stockings, can’t remember if they juggled or not I was too busy laughing, a perfect act to come on after Duo Acrobats.
Pandora Pink http://www.pandorapink.com came on with a Rock and Roll costume, greasy box (or 3) and an essex attitude, Mr Spin arrived swinging in clad in boxers and a monkey mask.
Rob Torres http://www.funeeestuff.com didn’t say much when he worked but had ‘em cracking up in the aisles this clownman is expert at talking with no words. But like all mimes he didn’t shut up when he was off stage (I tried to get a pacifier/dummy but to no avail).

Samora Squid at 6ft 6in boasts to be the worlds tallest contortionist and only man to learn sword swallowing via the internet. A definite carnesque delivery took the audiences into his side-show world.
Another side-show man we had was Shep Huntly http://www.thehappysideshow.com who not only took the impact of a bowling ball whilst lying on a bed of nails, but freaked ‘em right out with an 8kg nipple lift outside O’Hagans one night.

Ulla Taylor http://www.users.bigpond.com/ullart and Jenny McCracken http://homepage.mac.com/jam2arts two of the finest pavement artists in the word,could be seen decorating Queen St outside the BNZ Tower, 5 days on their knees putting down a futuristic perspective 3d view of Auckland 3006 including a rope you could walk over, incredible stuff that’ll last for months. Luke Hurley http://www.lukehurley.co.nz a guitar songwriting pioneer was located close by providing ambient sounds as the crowds viewed the girls at work.

Across Queen St and up a bit sits a small pedestrian street. Vulcan Lane, probably Auckland's oldest pitch, a great site for magicians. I http://www.nicknickolas.com played there a few times as did Kenneth Lightfoot from U.S.A. combining a likeable dry wit with great magic, finishing with throwing a playing card on the highest building around, a truly unique street magic show.

Further up the road by Aotea Sq you’d see Shamus http://www.shamus.co.nz, a 10 yr. veteran of the NZ streets juggling a chiansaw or swallowing a pool cue, that was while he wasn’t being a roadie for his son Kid Dynamite.
Patrick McCullough, an Irish magician with a load of blarney, yellow lycra suit and a German Sweat Bag of death was presented with laughs and dollars whenever he set up, (he kept the laughs and spent the dollars on burgers and guinness).

We also had Conrad Riverland presenting a true blue Brucie blokey show. One evening entering the night show through the crowd he picked someone up, put them on the ground and proceeded to do Crocodile Hunter parodies on them, some of the biggest laughs I heard especially when he was explaining the only way to tell the sex of these beasts was to stick your finger up ‘there’!
One act that we didn’t have performing in the night shows was Bartell Meyer a German statue. Unbelievable for a bloke who stood still all day we could never find him.

Most nights were partied ‘till the wee hours and some nights turned into days, some days turned into sways.
There were a few hiccups as any festival has but overall a great crew with no flapping or snapping.

Nickolas Feb2006

p.s. Great to hang out with you Brent and Greg, also Jarrod a young up and coming worker came down, pity not more magicians came down to see the action

Nick-

Thanks so much for that fabulous update- Best group of true entertainers Ive seen in years!!

Everyone who watched you & all your fellow entertainers were so impressed-Auckland city was a buzz of activity thanks to you guys!!!

All the best for upcoming travels & festivals

Im still looking for the statue dude!!-Im sure I must have wandered past him a few times-never saw him!!

Sounds great Nick. and Sam did great too. he is a caracter and nice guy.