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MagicalArtist Veteran user Hobart, Indiana 378 Posts |
This may have been answered on here before but I don't seem to be able to find it. How big a city or town do you need to be in to draw a sufficient number of people for busking? I'm sure this varies from one city to the next. You could be in a city with a fairly small population but be near a tourist attraction that draws a lot of foot traffic from other areas. But say the average small city or town. Naturally, in order to Bosque, you need to be able to set up in an area that has a fairly large amount of foot traffic. My guess is the only time I could draw a sufficiently sized crowd in my area would be during some kind of festival, which probablywould not be looked upon kindly by the festival organizers.
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Kevin Mc Lean New user Kevin Mc Lean 57 Posts |
Hi Timothy,
I think it depends on whether you do a doorway or circle show. Also, I think it's about the density (no pun intended) of the population going by and if they've got a little time. I do an educational children's show that takes me to a few towns - so I often busk on the weekends at markets and, if I'm lucky, festivals. Markets especially in most towns are often keen if they meet you and are impressed by your professionalism as your show can add "character". However, I guess I'm what you'd call a sidewalk artist magically and I twist balloons, which are visual - so I don't need a lot of space and I am what the organisers usually think of as a children's drawcard. Re: the festivals, you can often get into them in small towns and they can be quite generous. I've performed at a festival in a town of 2000 where you normally wouldn't busk and done reasonably well: they've wanted me there and invited me back each year. With the bigger places I've never gotten into a festival if I've just been passing through - it's often taken a bit of work over a few years to get in. Hope this helps and I should also point out that where I am (Australia) things may be a little different culturally. Regards, Kevin Mc Lean. |
JohntheMagician Regular user Mechanicsburg, PA 157 Posts |
When I do busking I try and hit the local Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Good crowds and lots of kids. My wife sets up a little ways away with her Balloon Animals and we kind of spend the day swaping crowds.
Its nice & I can't wait for the weather to turn here in PA so I can get back out. We have some street fairs comming up but I have to check on the Permit issue first. Good Luck
“The hard must become habit. The habit must become easy. The easy must become beautiful.” ~ Doug Henning
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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
It's not the size of the town, but the amount of traffic.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
Alan Munro Inner circle Kentwood, Michigan, USA 5952 Posts |
Another thing to look at are the laws in the town. A nearby town, Holland, Michigan, has street performing, but the inexperienced performers complained to the city council because some performers did better than them and now the laws make it impossible for anyone to make decent money. When the laws were better, I was making more than all of the other performers at the farmer's market, combined, for the same amount of time. Now, you can't do what you have to do to draw a crowd. I don't care how good someone is, if he isn't allowed to draw a crowd, he'll lose money.
Here's an article that shows that it doesn't matter how good you are. You have to draw a crowd, like any good busker: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con......721.html |
Pete Biro 1933 - 2018 18558 Posts |
Thanks for the great link. proves you need to find spot where folks aren't in a hurry to get to work. That was the FATAL FLAW the organizer failed to know about.
STAY TOONED... @ www.pete-biro.com
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Skip Way Inner circle 3771 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-03-29 13:19, Alan Munro wrote: That's a real shame. I remember a visit to Holland, MI from my teen years - still have the Dutch Boy & Girl salt & pepper shakers in my keepsake cabinet - and I remember thinking what fun it would be to be one of the period performers there and at Greenfield Village. The city fathers are trying to transform downtown Raleigh from an All-Business-&-Government center that is dead on the evenings and weekends into a thriving evening and weekend residential center with high-priced condos, apartments, parks and restaurants. They've created a well thought out street performer's association and are making great strides. However, we still run into more busy government & business types with no time to stop and enjoy a performance. The hats are small. With a new multi-million dollar sowntown convention center about to open and three new high-rise hotels and residences under construction this may well change soon. Time will tell. Meanwhile, I've had the best luck at small towns with HUGE tourist draws like Gettysburg, and Hershey, PA; Williamsburg, VA; Spencer Shops, NC; the Marketplace in Charleston, SC and so on. Places where people have the time to play and welcome a diversion or two.
How you leave others feeling after an Experience with you becomes your Trademark.
Magic Youth Raleigh - RaleighMagicClub.org |
Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24312 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-03-29 13:19, Alan Munro wrote: This article is old news. It has been hashed and re-hashed on a lot of forums. The point is that as good as Josh Bell is, he is not a busker. He is accustomed to walking into a hall full of people and playing for them. He couldn't draw a crowd with a piece of paper and a pencil. Busking is a very specialized part of the entertainment business. If you don't know how it works, you won't make a cent. When I go to Europe, I check out the spots where buskers congregate. I watch to see how well they do. One of the most effective I have seen in a long time was a marimba player who worked the Stachus in Munich. He played baroque and classical music. But he knew two things that Josh Bell evidently did not and does not know. He knew how to gather a crowd and how to communicate with them, not with just his music, but with his whole being. Not only that, he made it a point to make sure that the huge crowd he drew did not interfere with the pedestrian traffic enough to get the shop owners ticked off at him. Assuming that anyone with a violin can just plop himself out in a mall and make money playing for the passers by is as naive as assuming that anyone who does a really good card to wallet can plop a table out in the same place amd make money.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
ttorres Special user Rock Hill, SC 513 Posts |
Bill,
You make a really good point. One of the fundamental procedures of busking is to educate everyone as to what they can except from you and what you expect from them.
...the magic that creates Memories!
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Paolo Venturini Veteran user Lucca (I.) - New York City 385 Posts |
The town that I live now (Lucca-Tuscany) is small but is pretty touristic all year long, but buskers are starving; an average of 4 hours performing you can earn about 30,00 euro...
I so miss NYC when I was living there working on the streets... I don't want to compare the two cities, but the culture of the respect of the entertainers; here, lay people think that you do that for fun!! Just some tourists make you feel good. What sad! |
Skip Way Inner circle 3771 Posts |
Paolo, when I lived in Italy in the 80's, I used to play along the tourist areas of Rimini on the east coast, Pisa on the west coast and along Lakes Como and Garda. The British and German tourists were quite generous. The Americans moderately so. The French and Italians - not so much. For the French and Italians, I put it down to cultural differences. I tried busking in St. Mark's Square and along some of the side streets of Venice once and quit after drawing large lookee-see, cashless crowds and attracting the less-than-favorable attention of the Urbani. Never argue with an Uzi. Now...I was new to busking (it was more for the fun of it than any serious effort to earn a living) and my Italian at the time was at about a 3rd grade level (which led to its own humor many times over) so this clearly had a serious affect on the hat. Still, they all produced wonderful memories.
How you leave others feeling after an Experience with you becomes your Trademark.
Magic Youth Raleigh - RaleighMagicClub.org |
Alan Munro Inner circle Kentwood, Michigan, USA 5952 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-03-30 18:35, Bill Palmer wrote: True. Unfortunately, in Holland Michigan, the duffer "street performers" wanted the playing field leveled, because they thought that talent was enough. We know that talent isn't enough. Now, no one wins. |
ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-03-29 13:19, Alan Munro wrote: My wife used to be a waitress. She commented that other waitress's in the restaurant she worked in complained because she got the "good sections." (i.e., they weren't getting as much in tips as she was.) So she changed sections with them, they still got crappy tips and she still got good ones.
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Danny Hustle Inner circle Boston, MA USA 2393 Posts |
I like Turtles!
SPAGGETT!! Best, Dan- "MT is one of the reasons we started this board! I’m so sick of posts being deleted without any reason given, and by unknown people at that." - Steve Brooks Sep 7, 2001 8:38pm ©1999-2014 Daniel Denney all rights reserved. |
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