You would think this is common knowledge. It's like looking both ways before you cross the street. I guess some people just need to learn the hard way. I sure after they lose a few hats they will figure it out. Then again who knows...

Have you ever thrown a party and after the first person had to leave it became a trend until it was just you and the weirdoes?

I'm sorry for breaking my word Mr. G. I was silent for almost year and then I got bored. I'll duck and run now that my schedule is full.

Leave it alone Rotten...you cant lead a horse to water but you cant make them do algebra.

Oops, I meant "can lead"

What about put one captain's hat for tips next to a our lady of Fátima's...

So, would you say that your experience is limited as to Horses or Mathematics?

Despite the derogatory yet sometimes entertaining comments; this
is what I gathered....

It's really a matter of personal preference.

I found that the danger of leaving the bag out is turning into
a one trick pony. But that's on my pitch. And maybe you don't
mind doing a trickle type of show. You do a routine they drop
a dollar and move on; you do a routine...its ok.

But hey, if you wanted to do a proper show. You really have to
manage the fact of having a bucket there. Gather your crowd,
announce what you gona do and kick off a show. Leaving the bucket
out can get in the way; as your done one effect they drop a dollar
and try to move on. if you don't manage that; that is. But your pitch
may be different. On mines; it has to be managed.

In the end, every person, every pitch is different; but do not
close your mind; experiment and be free; change is good....

For the record, we don't have a tip bucket out all the time.
There is one pitch we work that we found it beneficial to do that due to the transient nature of the crowd. Most of the crowd stays for the whole show, but some leave and some that leave put in money before they go.
On other pitches, the bucket would just get in our way, so we just hat them at the end.

Just like solrak29 noted, every pitch is different.

It's rare that someone puts something in my bucket during the show. (When they do, they get a quick "thank you" during the trick.) It's usually right after the Shackle escape that those who are going to tip reach into their wallets. Mind you, since I do a sidewalk show on a narrow sidewalk and my usual audience is about 4-8 people per show, my hats are a lot smaller than yours out there.